January Reflections & Corrections - Year 8

Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Welcome to January's bonus episode. We're going to try to do an episode like this at the end of each month, offering some reflections and corrections, some Rs and some Cs. Let's start with the Rs. looking back at Genesis, Job and the first few chapters of Exodus we've covered so far. The Bible is one unified story. It's the story of a family and it all starts in Genesis. God the Father is literally known best to us by being a Father. He defined love by sending a son to die on a cross and he makes his paternal design apparent by choosing a family through which he would bring change to the world. Genesis and Job and Exodus demonstrate this sovereignty and the goodness of the Lord. This is the way he writes our stories too. Second Corinthians 517 tells us he speaks a new identity over us, just like he did with Abraham and Sarah and Jacob Israel. These books have set up so many amazing things for us, a biblical view of life and marriage, God's good design for work, what humility looks like, the underappreciated beauty of just sitting in the struggle with someone instead of trying to play God and solve it for them, plus a laundry list of how to ruin your family dynamic if you're interested in that. Some of you may have never tried to read through the Bible before or maybe you've tried and failed, but you've made it so far. I'm so proud of you, you are doing something eternal, which means it's definitely worth 15 to 20 minutes of your morning. But that also means the enemy of your soul is going to wage war against it, so keep at it. Don't let the enemy or the flesh deter you from the mission we're on together. Pray for an increased desire to keep reading the Bible with us. Pray against distraction and ask God for help. As we keep reading, I bet God's intricacies and specificity will surprise you. I know it surprised me and caused me to wonder a lot over the last 10 years. The story he's written about himself, about his family, about his faithfulness, it's just the beginning. I can't wait for us to see it unfolding even more. Now let's tackle a few of the things I wish I'd done differently. These seas. I'm so grateful for your grace when I make errors or when I'm confusing in my delivery. It's hard to know all the ways things will be heard or interpreted until it reaches a mass audience. But when it's just me and my dining room, recording these episodes at 3 in the morning, I'm bound to miss a few things or misspeak here and there. I make every effort to avoid that, but it's bound to happen and I always hate it when it does. So we've created this section of this month's bonus podcast to address a few of January's due overs. As of today's date, which is January 30th, these are the applicable corrections. Any mistakes I make tomorrow or new reflections I happen to have between now and then will appear in February's bonus reflections and corrections episode. Finally, I want to speak a bit about adoption, which is something I've referenced in four or five different episodes. I had someone ask me why I refer to us as God's adopted children instead of just God's children. But before I get on the topic of spiritual adoption, I want to address earthly adoption, which the Bible also addresses to some degree in regard to some of its most beloved people, like Moses and Esther. Adoption is a step to redeem a really broken situation. If you've been adopted and especially if you've had a difficult experience, the language of adoption may be challenging for you. There's a similar challenge for people who've had broken sinful earthly fathers because they struggle to accept the relationship terminology of having God as their father. Since God loves perfectly, he's the only one who can redeem these images for us where they're broken or distorted. Without sin or brokenness of some sort, adoption is never necessary. It's a consequence and result of the fall. But God has made a way to restore and redeem what has been broken by sin. Now I want to address the spiritual aspect of adoption and what my intentions are in communicating things with the language God's adopted children. I don't always say it that way, but in the times that I have, there have been two important motives in play. First, there's a common misconception that all humans are God's children. That's not what we see in Scripture. It sounds nice, but I can't back it up biblically. All humans are God's creation. We're all image-bearers of God, and we all have inherent value because of that. We should treat all people with dignity and respect as fellow image-bearers. However, Scripture indicates that God's only children are children by adoption. Being a child of God is a privilege, not a right. For those who are His children, He initiated a process of redemption. He bought you with Christ's blood and He filled you with His Spirit as a marker of this full and final transfer into His family. Romans 8, 14-16 says it like this, All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Not everyone is led by the Spirit of God. It goes on to say, you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry of a Father. Not everyone calls Him Father. And then it says, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. Not everyone has that. We'll link to some additional Scripture references in the show notes if you want more information on this. You may wonder what this means for those who are not adopted by God. In John 844, Jesus is talking to a group of people who are not believers, and He says, you are of your Father, the devil. There are two families here, and the only way to be a part of God's family is to be adopted through faith in Christ. The good news for those who are outside God's family is that God is in the adoption business, and this adoption is far more permanent than any kind of DNA. We are inextricably linked to Him through His Spirit that dwells in us and seals us. So by calling us God's adopted children, I'm not only aiming to point out some theological distinctions, but I'm also aiming to show us how Scripture has a high view of adoption and to point out that we must esteem it rightly. I hope that helps clarify things for any of you who have been confused by my words or were shit offended by them. Okay, that's all for our January R&C bonus episode. I'm excited to hopefully have lots of ours and no seas in February. Pray for me as I do this. I desperately need and want your prayers in this process. I need wisdom. I need stamina. I need to stay healthy. I've already seen the enemies attacks on those things because He hates what we're doing here. So please pray that God equips me with all I need to continue doing what we're doing together here. I love being able to study His words so fully and share it with you all. Truly, truly. He's where the joy is. The Bible Recap offers tools that equips millions around the world to read, understand, and love the Bible. We want to help people encounter God in a way that transforms their entire lives. To find out more, visit thebibelrecap.com.