You're From the Same Stock As Jesus!!

"It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, make perfect through suffering the leader of their salvation. For the consecrator (Jesus) and the consecrated (us) are all of the same stock! That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters!" (Hebrews 2:10-11)

Jesus knew who he was! He was God's beloved and massively favored Son, the perfect ambassador of His father's Kingdom, and the inheritor of absolutely everything that belonged to his Dad!

Do YOU know who YOU are? Jesus knows who you are! So does the Father! And so does Holy Spirit who lives in you to convince you of the truth!

Jesus' status as God's beloved son is exactly the same status that you have as God's son or daughter! Exactly the same! That phrase, all of the same stock can also be translated "we form a single whole" with Jesus! There is no separating us out from him. He shares his identity with us and we are perfectly one with him!

The Mirror Translation puts it like this:

"Because both He who performed the rescuing act and those rescued and restored to innocence, originate from the same source, He proudly introduces them to be identified as His immediate family."

Come on! How much better can this get? Jesus has his arm around you, beaming, so very proud, and says about you, "This is my AWESOME bro! This is my AMAZING sis! We've got the same genes and Dad loves us ALL the SAME!!"

Jesus, who was given all authority in heaven and on earth by our Father, says to us, "You are a purebred from heaven just like me! You're made of what I'm made of! And what's mine is yours. Let's all use the authority that Dad has given us. Go and ROCK the world with his love, grace and power! I showed you how and now I'll go with you to the ends of the earth because I'm your true brother and I've got your back! We're family!!

By the way, your family with us, too!

Love,
Brent & Suzanne

A Doting Father!

When my oldest son, Derek, was a few months old, he would make the cutest cooing sounds as he was waking up in the morning. My wife, Suzanne, and I would hear him and get out of bed and quietly tip-toe over to gaze through the crack in the door and watch with utter delight as our son would look around and make the most adorable gurgling noises. I can’t tell you how precious he was! After a time, we would push the door open, enter the room and begin sweetly singing over him a good morning song. Immediately, he would begin searching the room for us with his eyes until he spotted us, squealing with delight!

Your Father in heaven gazes on you all the time! Not so that he can somehow spy on you, but because he can’t take his eyes off of you! Yes, God is smitten with you! I can picture him calling the angels over to himself, pointing towards you and saying,

“Hey! Come take a look at my awesome son! He’s remarkable!”

“Would you just look at my daughter? Wow! She’s beautiful, isn’t she?!”

And then he begins to sing his love song over us…

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

And as his song fills the air with choice words of adoration and approval for us, we begin to search for the origin of that sweet voice. Then we squeal with delight,

“Oh, Papa! There you are! You LOVE me!”