From orphans to children

It’s probably hard for us to imagine what it must be like to be homeless without a mother or a father to care for us, and struggling to find enough food just to live.  That has been the plight of many of the children coming to Pastor Raja and Jebasheela at the Rabboni Mercy Orphange.  But now they have a home and they have someone to care for them and sufficient food and clothes and much more besides. How wonderful is that!

 

The Bible explains that we too are like orphans and have forfeited our home and find ourselves far away from our Father who created us.  Our spiritual condition is that we are lost and without hope in the world and no longer certain of a home in heaven.  How can this be?  The Bible explains it is because of our selfish attitudes and our ignorance of God; what it calls sin.  Our sin has made us strangers and foreigners to God and there is nothing we can do to change that.  But God has stepped in and done something for us. He sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ to live amongst us a perfect life that we never could, and then he gave that perfect life up in death, death on a cross as a punishment for our sin.  Jesus rose from the dead and this has made the way open for us to come to God our Father. 

 

There is a amazing story in the Bible that Jesus told about the prodigal son.* He had run away from home and squandered all the money his Father gave him.  Coming to his senses in a pig sty he decided to go home to his Father to say sorry, and ask for a job as a servant.  “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him...” The son began to say sorry, the father wanted to celebrate. “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

 

This is the story of the gospel which we believe.  God so loved us that he gave his beloved son to die for us so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  All God requires of us is to come to him and be truly sorry for our sin, believe in his Son Jesus and commit our lives to following him.  Then instead of being orphans far from God we become his children adopted into his family, no longer lost but found; now we have hope, we know his love and we have a home in heaven. How wonderful is that!

 

 

If you want to know more of what it means to know God and follow Jesus...go to www.lookingforgod.com

 

 

 

*Luke 15:11-24