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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
If we are tru ly God’s children, by faith in Jesus Christ, then we can ask God, our F ath er, in th e name of Jesus, to bless us and make us strong and well, help us to obey our fath e rs and our mothers, to learn our lessons, and to do all the good we can. Can anyone tell me now why we have called this lesson “The Happy F am ily?” Wouldn’t it be a happy world, and wouldn’t every fam ily in th e world be a happy fam ily, if every one loved Jesus and belonged to God’s fam ily? God’s family is a happy family, and th ey have a wonderful home w aiting for them . If we do not belong to God’s fam ily, then we can never live w ith Him in the beautiful home He is preparing fo r His children. How many of you have taken Jesus to be your Saviour, and have become chil dren in God’s fam ily and can call Him F ath er? ' Memory verse: “God is a Spirit and thev th a t worship Him must worship Him in sp irit and in tru th .” (v. 24.) RUNNING TO THE BOOK The Bereans searched th e Scriptures daily to see whether what P aul preached was true. I t is th a t kind of running at once to th e Book th a t saves Christians from the inroads of false teaching. And th a t hab it of running to the Bool^ itself gives such a rich fam iliarity w ith its contents th a t many passages a t once come to m ind to confirm or to over throw. It is the general ignorance of the Church about th e detailed contents of the Bible th a t makes so many the easy prey to Christian Science, New Thought and Russellism, and it is a like dense ignorance of Bible contents th a t leads the H igher Critics to say the absurd and foolish things they say. Everybody back to th e Bible and then everybody will be immovably orthodox!
only the F ath e r of those who have been born into His family. Can any one te ll me how we can he born into the fam ily of God? Do you remember what Jesus said to Nicode- mus when he came to visit Him on th e housetop a t night? (John 3:3.) We are horn into th e fam ily of God when we believe on Jesus as our Saviour. Then He gives us a new kind of life which we call etern al life, o r ever lasting life, and it is th e same kind of life we will have when we get to Heaven. (To illu stra te :—Mary was horn into h er fa th e r’s family, and John was bom into h is fa th e r’s family. Mary’s fath e r will always be h er father, and she will always be his child even though she may be naughty and have to be pun ished. So, a fte r we are born in to God’s family, if we are naughty we will have to be punished, bu t God will still be our F ath er, and we can ask Him to forgive our sins and cleanse us, as we learned in the lesson we had about the Cleans ing of the Temple. (Lesson Jan . 28.) When we are really born into th e " family of God and have th is new life, or new natu re, we have a rig h t to call God “F a th e r,” and He calls us His dear chil dren, and then we can worship Him in spirit and in tru th . He is always seek ing fo r such worshippers. We m ust remember w hat Jesus said (v. 24) th a t "God is a S pirit.” That is, we cannot see Him any more th an we can see our own spirits. We do not need any pictures or images or anything like th a t to look a t when we worship Him. We ju st need to believe on Him and receive Him into o u r h earts, and then worship Him “ in Spirit and in tru th .” We cannot hide anything from Him, for He can see rig h t into our hearts and always knows whether we are in earnest when we say we are wor shipping Him, or w hether we are ju st pretending.
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