Good morning to all!  I want to continue to share with you some of the privileges of being a child of God.  When we’re born for the first time, it is not with divinity in us.  We are sinners and a part of a family with the devil as our father.  The devil is the spirit of bondage.  He wants to make a slave of you as well as wreck and ruin your life.  He uses fleshly pleasures which are fleeting.  With our new adopted family, we have a new Father.  We are no longer in bondage and fear, left to wonder if our needs will be met.  For many people with adult salvation coming out of a troubled background, whether it’s the absence of a father or abusive parents, there is a lingering skepticism.  Last week, we discussed the importance of being adopted into the family of God and the first privilege of being a child of God; personal leadership of the Spirit of God in your life.  In this blog, we will evaluate two more privileges of being God’s child; consistent undying love, compassion, and protection of God; as well as the assurance we belong to the Lord.

It is a great privilege to have a compassionate Father Who loves and protects His children.  The word “father” for some people has a negative connotation.  When you became saved, you were placed into a family with an absolutely perfect Father.   Through the Spirit of adoption, we are not taken in as slaves, but as sons and daughters.  I like how the Scriptures demonstrate how wonderful and personal this relationship is.  For example, in Romans 8:15, “Whereby we cry, Abba Father”; the Bible refers to the cry of a child.  The cry of your children even amongst a large group is easily identified.  This is how it is for our heavenly Father.  He is so close, personal, and loves you so deeply that He hears your cry regardless of any situation or circumstance.  Why should we linger on serving the devil and sin when we’ve been adopted into a new family?  We don’t have to work there any longer.  Nor do we have to be a slave to the devil anymore.

Another privilege of being a child of God is the assurance that we belong to the Lord.  Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit which reveals that we are the children of God.  He’s the Spirit of communication.  However, He does much more.   Our relationship and the knowledge of Him comes froma desired revelation through the Spirit of God.  In John 14:7, Jesus declared to His disciples that when the Holy Spirit would come, He would be the Spirit of truth.  He also said that the world would not receive Him, but you are going to know Him and He’s going to be in you.  How do we know Him?  How is His word illuminated to us?  That is a ministry of the One who bears witness.  He carries a testimony.  The Spirit of God is the One Who internally explains how God the Father and the word of God operate.

As we read the word of God, the Spirit guides and directs us.  As we learn more about spiritual things through the ministry of the Spirit of God, He bears witness.  He’ll guide us into all truth and alert us to danger ahead.  God knows what’s waiting in the future. This exemplification lies in 1 John 4:6:

The privileges of being a child of God are designed to lead us to a life of fulfillment in Christ.  Next week, in the last selection in this series on privileges of being a child of God, we’ll discuss the last two privileges:  ultimate gain through Christ and the glorification of God. Let’s appropriate our adoption into God’s family and appreciate all its benefits, that we may live victorious Christian lives.  Spend some time today to bask in God’s mercy and undying love for you!

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I often hear young people use a single word to describe someone who is defeated or “misplaced”. The word is “LOSER”. I thought recently of Moses who perhaps thought, at times, that he himself was a loser. My Pastor has been teaching on leadership from the life of Moses. When I think of leadership in any ministry position, I see some correlations from the life of Moses. The Lord chose Moses to lead His people out of Egypt and Moses tried his best to convince the Lord that he wasn’t the man for the job! He felt as though he was definitely “under-qualified!” (Have you ever felt that way?) Five times Moses refused to listen and argued with the Lord. Do you remember? Let me share with you how I think it may have gone:

MOSES:
“Lord, You don’t really know me or You wouldn’t have even thought about asking me! I’m a nobody. And that’s not all – I killed a man-I took a man’s life! Therefore, I’m a social outcast and a hated man. I have been for almost forty years-living out here in this wilderness-isolated-hiding-lonely-forgotten.

You say, “I will be with you,” but how do I know that You will stay with me? I could have at one time in my life said that I was a friend of Pharaoh. I lived in his palace and I was even looked upon as part of his family. I had “clout!” No more. Whose name can I use to impress these people to whom You are sending me?

And furthermore, how can I be sure the people will believe me? I’ve been humiliated deeply and enough is enough! I don’t want any more of that! They will reject me! They won’t listen to me! I’ve never done anything like this before. I was a valiant warrior when I was young. People respected me. I was a hero! But talk to people? I’ve never been a good speaker. That’s just not me, Lord.

No. I am Moses. A loser. I know who I am, Lord. Choose someone else.”

Ever felt that way? Ever felt that you are who you are and you cannot see how anyone, let alone God, would desire you to do “___(blank)_________”. Have you ever wondered what was inside of the mind of God?

GOD:
“I don’t remember asking you to do anything, Moses. I said that I would do it all for or through you. You are to be My spokesman. And Moses, you are not a loser! Yes (in your flesh) you were at one time, but I have touched your life! You’re different! The killer, the outcast, the humiliated man-that man is no more! Moses. I am now a part of you. The God of the universe is with you. I will lead you. I will empower you. I know you, Moses. I made you and created you for just this time. Moses, I AM that I AM. I AM GOD!” (Exodus 3-4)

I think most of us relate to Moses. Perhaps it is fear, insecurity, instability…it really doesn’t matter. God wanted Moses to KNOW who he was and to KNOW Who God was! He just as surely wants you and me to know who we are and Who He is!

We’re new! We’re different! We live IN Christ and He lives in us! He doesn’t ask us to do ANYTHING! He tells us over and over again, “I’ll do it all for you, dear one.” He desires for us to be strong in the strength of Someone else. That Someone else is the Holy Spirit Who indwells every Christian. We are not called Christians because of what we do, but because of what He does through us.

The Lord is alive and He is alive IN me and IN you. That makes me something very, very special. “I can’t do it, Lord,” should never pass our lips without this phrase added on – “but I know that You can!”

O how thankful I am for the scriptures that teach our need for total dependence upon Him. For we are not under the law, (man doing the work), but we are under grace, (God doing the work). We are not losers…no, we are victors IN HIM!

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How does the Hid-N-Life relate to my affections? If I appropriate my identity in Christ by faith, I need to also cooperate with God’s Spirit as He “restores my soul.” This process of renewal in the mind, will, and emotions (Romans 12:1-2) depends on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

An aspect of this renewal that has been impressed upon me lately is that of renewing the affections. If Christ is my life, I will delight in that which HE delights. My affections will be directed to what is valuable to Him.

How prone the flesh is to delight in the sensual and carnal desires of this fallen world. I recently heard a great definition to help identify present day idols in the lives of 20^th century Christians. One simple question will reveal unhealthy delights. How would you respond if it is taken from you? Idols are a very real addiction in our society today. This should be no surprise to us as it is in the list Paul gave us for the manifestations of the flesh. James rebuked the early Christians for following after their own lust or pleasures (James 4:1-3). Why else would John need to caution us in his first epistle? 1John 2:15-16, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” This delight to have, be and do can be changed by the inside persuasion of a new spirit as well as the Spirit of God.

The true believer has the blessing of a regenerated human spirit – “the new man” (Colossians 3:10). We have been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Yet the soul is still vulnerable to the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;” 1 Peter 2:11.

When the Lord Jesus is functioning as my LORD and LIFE, He will redirect my AFFECTIONS. What should we delight in?

“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

(Psalm 37:4)

Delight in God’s perfect will –  “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:8)

Delight in the Word of God – “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.”

(Psalm 119:162)

Delight in God’s moral principles – “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:”

(Romams 7:22)

Delight in God’s comfort – “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.”

(Psalm 94:19)

Delight in the Second Coming –  “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”

(1Peter 1:13)

Delight in the blessing of eternal fellowship with God – “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

(Psalm 16:11)

Evan Hopkins wrote, “We shall seek what we love and delight in. It is where our treasure is that our heart will be also. ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is nothing upon earth I desire beside Thee.’ What are the things we are seeking? It is those things that are filling our thoughts and attracting our affections. It is upon these we set our wills and concentrate our energies. It is not difficult to seek what we love.

Will we ask God to search our heart and redirect our affections to where they belong?

Our Father, we confess that our affections tend to get misdirected as we live by sight instead of by faith. Illumine us so that we will set our hearts on things above, where Christ, Who is our life, is seated with You. Continually restore our soul by redirecting our affections to what is eternally worthy. Amen.

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Tom with Nephew

As a child, I went to several schools including Catholic, Lutheran, and Baptist. The final school I attended was North Love Baptist School with Steve Curington during my ninth and part of tenth grade years. Then, I dropped out. I began using drugs and eventually began to see Steve Curington once again…only this time it was at parties, not the Baptist School. We saw each other at these parties for about a year before the time came when I began to use drugs with him. However, this did not last long as the United States government indicted me as part of the largest drug ring in the state of Illinois (and quite possibly the western half of the United States). Just to show you the magnitude of the devil’s control over my life, the government seized 1.2 billion dollars in drugs, cash, and real estate including: car lots, night clubs, hotels, gas stations, restaurants, cars, boats, homes, and jets from the group I was associated with. I, along with others I sold with, went off to prison for several years.

Little did I know that in the meantime, God got a hold of Steve Curington’s life, and he had gone back to church. When I got out of prison, God brought Reformers Unanimous to me, and I learned about the lives that were being changed as a result of it. I began to actively take part in the program. I struggled with my faith and with alcohol. All of the other activities and drugs I had been involved with previously were no longer tempting to me. However, my relationship with God and the abstinence from alcohol were the two things that would cause me to see how weak I really am and how desperately I needed God. I have attended RU locally for four years and have been working to assist in the ministry for three years. I am a helper in this ministry and am privileged to be a small part in the overall picture. If you ever want to meet me or find out more about me, you can visit me at the Men’s Discipleship Home. I am not far from the kitchen working. I am responsible for all of the food procurement of both our men and women’s homes.

At times, I struggle with wanting to take back the control of my life for a day or so, but it never lasts long. God will not allow it. God is blessing me, and He will bless you if you seek Him too. God is using Reformers. Just look around your Friday night meeting, and you will see Him at work; if you don’t have Reformers, you will have to get one and see God begin to work. If you once had a chapter, yet you gave up too soon on the addicts who suffer, please remember that God doesn’t give up. The devil tricked you and robbed you of not seeing this ministry serve the addicted. It is interesting to note that six of the men I sold drugs to earlier in life are now faithfully serving the Lord.

I dedicate this testimony to my mother, Diane Montena, for never doubting God nor giving up on me and the staff of the RU homes. I pray this testimony reaches just one.

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Shannon and Family

I grew up in a very strong, solid Christian home. My childhood memories are extremely happy and filled with love from my parents. My life revolved around church and school, so I knew only Christians. Accepting Jesus as my Savior at the age of five, I enjoyed many church activities as well as attending Christian school throughout my elementary years.

Although I was aware of a “world” out there somewhere, I had no clue what it
was all about. My parents were careful to shelter us from outside influences. When I was in 8th grade, my mother quit teaching to home school my brother and me. As I grew, I felt overly controlled. Although taught to obey and honor my parents, sometimes I didn’t understand all their rules. During my home-schooled high school years, it became very important to act right, speak right, and look right at all times. That’s when the games began.

I began “playing” Christianity because it seemed like the easiest solution. I went to Bob Jones University where my way of life was reinforced. By then, apathy had turned to rebellion—I was tired of playing church and just wanted out. Dropping out of Bob Jones my senior year, I went to bars; but I hated all the superficiality I felt there. I needed substance, and there was a big emptiness inside of me. I started searching, reading different philosophies, drawn to free thinkers like Timothy Leary, William F. Burroughs, and Hunter S. Thompson. I sought other people engaged in the same way of thinking. They were, of course, “drug people.” I started experimenting with hallucinogens that made me even more confused and the big empty hole even more hollow.

Then, one day, I was given my first line of coke. I remember thinking, “I finally found what I was looking for; I’m finally home.” Selling myself out, stealing, lying, and manipulating everyone I knew, produced guilt and the need for more drugs. Losing job after job, trying to quit, out of control, hiding my habit, more guilt, more drugs, losing all self-respect, my morals going down the drain, doing whatever I had to do just to get high. How glamorous did coke look now?

One night, God gave me a wake up call as I was flat on my back in a hospital bed. With my life out of control, I went to a secular outpatient program. It helped me understand how addiction works, but that big gaping hole that was back inside my heart. Then, I went to RU and learned that, in spite of everything I knew about the Bible and Christianity, if I did not have a growing, personal relationship with Jesus to allow the Holy Spirit to guide me, I could not know true peace and contentment.

My RU leader came to my house every week to disciple me. She taught me to love the Lord in a way I had never known in all my years in church and Christian college. I continued to go to RU and church as much as possible. Unfortunately, as a single mom and a waitress, I had to work most Fridays and Sundays. Nevertheless, I stayed in the Bible, praying and trying desperately to be a good Christian woman and mother. Now I know that I was trying to do it in my own strength. I thought that was what I was supposed to do—try really hard all by myself. I started to get down, really tired, overwhelmed, and eventually depressed. I believed Satan’s lie that I couldn’t do it anymore. “Once a coke-head, always a coke-head,” people had said about my attempts to get clean. I fell back into my addiction after almost two years clean and trying to live for God. That’s when God worked in a miraculous way to bring me to Rockford. I couldn’t do it in my own power.

I felt very blessed to be able to come to the Ladies’ Discipleship Home. God used it to show me so many things that could never be expressed in writing. The teaching and preaching that I got to sit under definitely helped me grow spiritually and develop a much closer walk with the Lord. One of the most important things that I learned is that under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the rest of my life on earth will be constant change and growth towards being more Christ-like. I will never and should never be comfortable and content to stop growth and learning. The other important concept I needed to learn was concerning my self-righteousness. I learned to die daily and dedicate myself everyday to knowing and doing God’s will. God taught me and changed my heart towards others. I now realize that I had lived my life selfishly, and that it’s not about me, but others. God has blessed me with a godly husband, and the restoration of the relationships with my family, especially my mother; but most of all, the relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ. I no longer am living with all the anxiety and depression that I once felt. That big gaping hole in my heart is now being filled.

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My name is Gloria Crutchfield. Born in 1952, I was the middle child of seventeen siblings. We grew up with a father and mother. My father died when I was nineteen.

Although my childhood seemed “normal” to me, I just did not know what I was missing. Growing up in such a large family, we were not hugged, kissed, or loved on. After seeing television programs showing loving all-American families, my understanding was that, “only white people get treated like that.” It is often amazing the way people come to think, solely because of the way they are raised; not to mention that, back then, we hardly ever saw black people on television.

I grew up just wanting to be loved. I learned to do good things in order to gain favor from my parents as well as other people in my life. With the way of thinking I had learned, I started believing that I had to make up and substitute somehow for not being pretty, for being poor, and whatever else I thought I lacked, in order to be loved. In my world, love seemed to be something earned or exchanged.

Yes, I needed to feel love, and I was deceived by a young man with his promise that I was loved. At the age of nineteen, I had a baby as a direct result of believing that somebody loved me.

It was upon my Dad’s passing that I started my drug use. I could not stand to be me because I was ashamed to show “me” out in the world.

After thirty-five years of abusing drugs, one form after another, I suffered a stroke at the age of fifty-one. It was then that I was introduced to my mentor’s best friend, Jesus. I was saved and I started attending Reformers Unanimous. I didn’t think I would ever be able to stop using drugs, until I met my Savior, Jesus. He showed me the way, the truth, and the life.

It was re-enforced in my spirit about the One called Jesus. I have been free these past three years, more than I’ve ever been. After so long in the world, it has been a process of sanctification; but believe it or not, I enjoy this process. For, to what else in my life can I compare it? There is nothing. Thank you, Jesus!!

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