The Right to Become a Child of God

Read John 1:1-18

When I became a true follower of Jesus it was a three step precess. It all happened within a years time right in the middle of my college education. Step one happened when a friend got me to consider and even believe that there was a God. Before that I would have said I was an atheist. Step two happened about 6 months later when I prayed to become a Christian – primarily because I wanted to avoid hell.

Step three happened when I fell in love with Jesus. It was then when I decided to follow Jesus, to be devoted to him. I was in a Bible study with one man, my Navigator campus minister, and he convinced me to come to the bigger fellowship meeting. At that meet a student shared that he had become a “child of God”. I wanted to know what that was. I had believed in the message of Jesus and according to the diagram I was given I got to go to heaven and not to hell. But this student was a child of God. I asked my leader what that was and he directed me to John 1 and 1 John 3:1.

The way the Navigators did Bible study back then is that we were given a booklet with Bible passages in it and we would fill out the book on our own and then get together to share our answers. I remember vividly the night I filled out this study – the night I realized that I had become a child of God. I even remember the date (And I don’t remember many dates, but this one is funny)- April 1^st, I am a fool for Jesus! (For my international friends, April 1^st is “April Fools Day”). The house I was living in in Arcata California had a living room with a wall full of windows facing the street. My roommate and I were both pretty poor at the time and we had no drapes and no furniture except for a roll top desk that I had brought from home and a very large piece of driftwood that we had found on the beach and we used for seating. The Bible study had lots of passages but two stood out. John 1:12-13 and 1^st John 3:1. Read these passages – they are all about being a child of God.

As I read these passages I realized that there is something better than avoiding hell. I can be a child of God. Instead of just joining a religion I was adopted. All the passages in the Bible about God loving me now came alive (see John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:4-5; 1 John 4:9-10) . Jesus didn’t just come to save me from hell. He came to adopt me. He came to help me have a new relationship – a relation ship with Him– a relationship with God. Now comes the embarrassing part. I realized that I didn’t just join a club – a religion, but that I now had a relationship with God. I was a child of God. As I realized this I became full of Joy and I began dancing around my living room – In front of the big window, and I was singing the few Christians songs I knew. Very few people, including my wife, have seen me dance. I don’t dance. But that night anyone who was outside on Dorthy Court in Arcata California, cold have seen my dancing like a fool in my living room. That night I discovered that I was a child of God. It is amazing that Jesus came to help us become children of God.