I really haven't been writing much in my blog this semester...I'm not sure if it's because I don't have enough time to or if I don't really have anything to write about. Either way, my blog has been practically non-existent so I apologize!
This past weekend I went home for my church's annual golf tournament. My team consisted of a 70-year-old man (my step-grandfather), and two other 20-something-year-olds. When we finished our round of golf, our team was sitting at (-4). Basically, we were four strokes better than the average score of that golf course, and I was almost positive we were going win. Well, it ended up that the minister's team "won." He always seems to end up with the best players on his team......coincidence? I think not.
Besides play golf, I also had a chance to watch my little brother win his first football game of the season. For those of you who don't know me, I am always bragging about my brother, Sam. I practically live through him, but he is a really good guy and I love him to death! He is the starting middle linebacker for the school and is a beast on defense. He ended up with like 15 tackles, a forced fumble, and a sack! My parents and I watched the game together, and it was just great to spend time with my family. I love my family!!!
I just finished writing a sermon for my preaching class over a passage in Ephesians. In this passage, the Apostle Paul is talking about our Spiritual family. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." A lot of people get all tangled up on the word predestined, but for this blog posts sake, I won't even begin a discussion on that. But the word that really jumped out at me was the term "adoption." When I was younger, I was never big on the whole adoption idea for a family. I told myself that I would have a family of all boys that had the same DNA as me cause thats how I roll. However, I totally realize how ignorant and stupid that sounds.
In light of Ephesians 1:5, Paul is writing to several churches in Asia Minor. In this area, and especially Ephesus, there was a custom among the people for families who did not want to keep their children. If a child was born to a family that was either unwanted or disabled or defected in someway, the parents could take the children outside of the city gates and leave them there to die. In Ephesus, the people would walk up the mountain right outside of the city and place these "defected" children in a certain spot (can be called the "Circle of Infants") where all these kinds of kids were to be left. The Ephesians knew where this spot was, and very often, people would go up to that spot on the mountain and "adopt" or take one of the children for themselves. Under Roman law, these adults were given full custody of the child. Unfortunately, more times than not, people would go up to pick up a girl to raise up so they could fill the brothels in Ephesus. Other times, infant boys were taken to be raised as slaves. Heck, why not? It was cheaper than paying for a slave. But there were those times, when a Godly person would choose a little kid who had been left and abandoned. These kids were "adopted" into their new loving family.
This is the exact same kind of adoption we find in Ephesians 1:5, "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." In the previous verse, Paul says that God, "chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless." The Greek word for "blameless" means to be without defect. God has chosen us who were defected to become blameless and holy! God has redeemed us from the so-called "circle of infants." Redemption is ours. We are God's adopted family. Because in the middle of redemption, you will find adoption.
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