Have you ever been on the “outside” of things?  Remember when certain ones were chosen last to be on teams in their childhood?  It was usually the same person all the time.  We all want to belong, sometimes desperately.  How sad it is for those who want to be on the “inside” and are held on the “outside”.  Wouldn’t it be grand if there were a place where who you were didn’t make a bit of difference to those who were there, and there you would be accepted, loved and even adored?  There is!

It’s the family of God, a community of believers, who because of what was done for them, would do anything for you.  People want to be valued – to know they were here for a reason – that is what fellowship is all about – to bestow honor upon those who expect it the least – a community where one is treated and treats others better than any place on earth.

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” I John 4:11 (NIV).

A Child of the King

By Lou David Allen

I stumbled and fell right down,
Silly me, I hate to be a clown.
I was hurt, I knew, really bad,
They all laughed and I was sad.
Mocking, “ You can stand if you try!”
But, all I could do was sit and cry.
So completely embarrassed by it all,
Why did I have to go and fall?
I hung my head in shame,
And thought, “It’s all me to blame.”
Then I heard someone sweetly say,
“Have you hurt yourself, are you O.K.?”
No, it couldn’t possibly be true!
The most popular girl in my school,
Sitting here, by my side,
Unwounding my broken pride.
Afterwards, all agreed she had done me a kindly thing.
But I think more.
I think they had seen a child of the King.

Picture God in your mind…

If you’re like most of the people I’ve asked, you probably thought of some combination of a man in a gray beard floating on a throne in the clouds or a scowling judge glaring down from his judgment bench.  Both are totally wrong.  God has a presence in the world today, and how we see Him will determines how we see ourselves and how we see others.

Before we can establish how to see God today we need to explore how he was seen in the past.  Bible accounts paint a picture of a God who made himself visibly present; initially for His benefit an eventually for ours.

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day….”   (Gen 3:8 NIV).  I love to imagine what it was like in the garden of God when He physically walked among and enjoyed the beauty of his creation.   To think about enjoying the presence of my creator in the unsurpassed beauty of his newly created earth is overwhelming to me.

In the garden that day Adam and Eve could not be found because they were hiding from God.  They knew they had disobeyed and were ashamed of themselves and their appearance.   This was the moment that separated us from God, but also set into motion a plan to redeem his creation and reestablish the perfection of His dwelling place. From that moment on God manifested Himself in various forms.