Donald Wickham’s Blog

In case you didn’t know it, God really wants you to be part of his family.   He has made an offer to each of us to be adopted into his family.  There are some things we need to understand:

• God is God and we are not and he gets to make the rules.  So the offer and any conditions in that offer are entirely up to him.  Since it is his family, whether someone can be adopted into his family is, again, up to him.
• Although we are not God, who is eternal, we are created in his image so that we, too, will exist forever.
• God is perfect, totally complete, lacking nothing.   He is so full of love that he is continually looking for ways to share that love with us.
• God’s standard and requirement for being adopted into his family is perfection.
• It is sad but true that we are rarely at our best.  And even at our very best, we are imperfect, incomplete and we continually mess things up.  We are selfish, prideful, hurtful people.  We have been wounded and we wound others.  We violate the laws God gave mankind continually.  We live as if we are god.  It is a pandemic sickness infecting every person.
• Justice requires an accounting for all this bad attitude and behavior.
• Ultimately, unless something was done, every one of us would stay separated from God (remember, perfection and imperfection can’t mix.)   And that would be forever.
• All good things are gifts from God: friends, beauty, music etc.  They are part of his invitation to join his family.
• When we die, the invitation to join his family ceases along with all the gifts that accompany that offer.  If we haven’t accepted the offer, on God’s terms, we will exist forever without him or his gifts.
• In fact, this is really what justice demands.  We continually choose to violate the law so the law demands punishment.
• This presents a problem for God.  Given the requirement of perfection and that not one of us is perfect, God would have no one to adopt, no one to love.
• How can God deal with the demands of justice and this sickness of heart affecting every one of us?
• In an unbelievable demonstration of his love, God choose to become a man, Jesus Christ, a man without the sickness of heart.  Jesus took upon himself the demand for justice and died on a cross in our place.  Then, in a display of power, he rose from the dead and provides an antidote for our sickness of heart.
• So God has provided a way for us, who are full of imperfection, to be forgiven and healed of our sickness of heart.  And then to be adopted into his family.
• But he doesn’t force anyone.  He invites.  Our part is to accept what he offers and what he has done on our behalf.  And to live, with his help, according to his family’s way of life.
• So how do you become part of God’s Family?  Talk to him (yes, he can hear you wherever you are and however you speak to him.)
  • Admit that God is God and you are not.
  • Admit that even at your very best, you fall short of perfection and that you deserve punishment for the wrong you have done.
  • Accept that Jesus died in your place taking on your punishment and that he rose from the dead for you.
  • Accept God’s offer of forgiveness, his antidote for your sickness of heart and adoption into his family.
  • Be willing to turn from your hurtful way of life and live the life God wants his family to live.
  • According to God’s written offer (The Bible) that is all.
• If you have spoken to God about this and would like further help or information, please let me know.