Purpose Driven Life: Day 15

FORMED FOR GOD'S FAMILY



POINT TO PONDER:

I was formed for God's family.


VERSE TO REMEMBER:

"He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will." [Eph 1:5]


RICK WARREN'S THOUGHTS:

You were formed for God's family.
God wants a family, and he created you to be part of it. This is God's second purpose for your life, which he planned before you were born. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love him, honor him, and reign with him forever. "He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will (Eph 1:5)."

When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we become his children, other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church becomes our spiritual family. The family of God includes all believers in the past, the present, and the future.

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." [Eph 1:18-19a]

What exactly does that inheritance include?

* First, we will get to be with God forever.
* Second, we will be completely changed to be like Christ.
* Third, we will be freed from all pain, death, and suffering.
* Fourth, we will be rewarded and reassigned positions of service.
* Fifth, we will get to share in Christ's glory.

We signify our participation in God's family through baptism.

Why is baptism so important? Because it symbolizes God's second purpose for your life: participating in the fellowship of God's eternal family.

"For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body--whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." [1 Cor 12:13]

Baptism doesn't make you a member of God's family; only faith in Christ does that. Baptism shows you are a part of God's family.


D-MONK'S THOUGHTS:

Rick Warren now introduces us to the second of five purposes for our life: To be a part of God's family.

From an ontological point of view, we, as believers, have been conferred a new status--we are God's adopted children, inheritors of all God has to give.

From a praxis point of view, being a member of God's family calls us to participation in a community of believers--the Church.

As an introvert and a heavy thinker, I often find myself attracted more to orthodoxy than to orthopraxis; I am more concerned with right belief than right works. But if my belief includes an understanding of myself as part of a family--part of the body of Christ--then I cannot ignore the practical implications. God has called me to be a part of his family of believers; I need to learn to worship and serve God with and along side of other Christians. I cannot simply go it alone, however attractive that may be.

So the next few studies in The Purpose Driven Life will be a challenge for me. I need to learn how to be a part of a family of believers.