Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection for Friday, 25 July 2014 "God's sons and daughters"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection for Friday, 25 July 2014 "God's sons and daughters"
Daily Scripture:  Romans 8:12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
Reflection Questions:
Earlier in Romans, Paul drew images from criminal law, from the realm of accounting, and even from the laws governing death and inheritance. In these verses, he turned to the realm of the family to capture the essence of the community of grace God is creating. We are sons and daughters of God, adopted into God's family. We are heirs, right along with Christ. As such, we are brothers and sisters to one another—"family" in the best sense of the word.
Members of a military unit who've been through a lot together may refer to themselves as a "band of brothers." What do those words signal about their bond with each other? As you claim your identity as a new person in Christ, and view others through a Spirit-enhanced "lens," how is that transforming your relationships at home, at work, in your community and at church?
In verse 15, Paul contrasted "a spirit of slavery to lead you back again into fear" with God's loving adoption of us as sons and daughters. What factors have shaped your view of God as either a person we serve out of fear, or as a loving parent who wants what is best for us? If your life experience filled the word "father" with negative overtones, what images and relationships help you accept that God is love?
Today's Prayer:
God, I'm filled with awe that you really want me as a member of your family, as one of your beloved "kids." Help me to live in love and gratitude as a loyal family member. Amen.
Insight from Chris Folmsbee
Chris Folmsbee is Resurrection’s Director of Discipleship Ministries.  He is the author of several books, with an extensive background in applying principles of spiritual growth to real life. He, his wife Gina and their family have been attending Resurrection since 2008.
Late in my high school years I developed a friendship with a classmate who had recently moved into our community and began attending our school. He had moved around a lot, living in and out of New York City and splitting his time in what were called “Fresh-air Farms.” Fresh-air farms were farms in upstate NY where families would choose to receive a teenager or two from the inner city of NY. Sometimes the teens were placed in homes as a last resort due to juvenile mischief and even criminal activity. These families received other teens due to the state run foster care program, and still others due to tragic events such as the death or incarceration of parents.
I remember as a teen having mixed feelings about the fresh-air program. While our family never hosted a teen in the program we knew families in our church that did. I was never quite sure if the program worked until one day when this new friend of mine and I were in a conversation and I asked him, “So what is it like being a “fresh-air” kid?” “Are you kidding me?” my friend responded. “I absolutely love it. It’s like I get to start all over again. I’ve been accepted by a new family.” I don’t recall all of his exact words, but it went something like this, “They clothe me. They feed me. They give me work to do. They give me a safe place to live and they even take me on vacation with them! And the greatest part of all of it is they chose me to live with them even when they didn’t have to.”
This is what it is like to be adopted as sons and daughters of God. God has chosen, out of God’s very nature of permanent love, to receive us just as we are. Our reading from Romans 8:12-17 today makes it very clear that God has received us to be a part of God’s family. In this acceptance of us God gives us a new family narrative to live. In God’s expression of love we are redeemed out of the broken human family of oppression and waywardness, and received into a family of grace marked by freedom and righteousness. Through joining together with Christ we are received and given the responsibility and privilege to live faithfully and fruitfully into this new family, waiting the day when God’s blessing reaches its fullness.
If you were asked, in what ways would you describe your thankfulness for being adopted into God’s family as a son or daughter? In what ways are you presently living into your life changing adoption as a child of God? What three words would you use to describe your daily interactions with your Christian “brothers and sisters”?
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