August 19, 2025 -- John 1:12 -- Adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High God

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But to all who did receive Him [Jesus], who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God…
John 1:12 ESV
 
I wonder something. Do you, dear fellow believer, understand how significant it is that through faith in Jesus Christ you are a beloved son or daughter of God? J. I. Packer, the well-known Canadian theologian wrote:
 
“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God   as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”
J. I. Packer, Knowing God
 
This is Jesus’ longest prayer in the Bible; it is found in John 17. It is called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. Read and ponder some portions of it and based on that reading, consider if what J. I. Packer said is true.
 

  • “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 17:1-3

  • Righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:25-26)

 
The concluding prayer is the Lord’s Prayer as it is found in the contemporary English translation called the Message:
 
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty! Amen.
(Matthew 6:9-13 MSG)
https://youtu.be/PCa8RxaOPW8?si=NvYG-LJODcdlhmWP Baba Yetu — the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili
 

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