1 John 3:1
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
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When I was saved back in the mid-1970's I was indeed, just as the Word says, made a new creation, very different than I had been before. I did not come to the Lord in a church setting or at a service, that life-altering event took place while I was sitting at my kitchen table having a cup of coffee. For the first time ever I picked up a bible, one that had been brought into our home by my wife about a month earlier, opened it randomly (or so I thought) and had a radical encounter with Jesus right then and there on my 33rd birthday!

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and as my Savior and everything changed, by which I mean 'Me'. That morning my wife Alice and her sister had gone out to buy me a birthday card and a cake as I recall. Something that became totally inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. When they returned and walked through the door Alice, having accepted Jesus into her life at a charismatic prayer meeting a month earlier, instantly recognized that I had met and accepted the Lord too!

I say all of that to get here: At that time I was the president of a small advertising agency in the New York City area. The people who worked for me, my clients, and the vendors that we used all recognized that something drastic had happened to me. They were all asking me what had happened to me, what was I now? Born again, pentecostal, a charismatic Christian, or some other term that was one of the many bouncing around at the time? The answer to the first part was easy—what happened to me was Jesus! The second, what was I now, was far more difficult because I had no idea!

A butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker—a Catholic, a Baptist, a Lutheran, Presbyterian, a charismatic, a pentecostal, or any of the thousands of names that 'christians' choose to call themselves. I knew that finding the truth was important—so I went to pray and seek the One who is the Truth and who is the Word. Today if you ask me what I am I can surely tell you without any hesitation, I am a child of God—the only answer that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth will confirm! So, how about you?

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Romans 8:15-16)

THE CHURCH IS THE CHILDREN OF GOD