My Nine Children

My nine children, 2008

"But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name."


      At Bible study, I asked for prayer for my nine children, and a friend exclaimed, "Nine children! You have nine children!"
        "Yes ma'am: three by birth, three by marriage, and three by multiplication," I answered.
        As we say in the south, God has a passel of children: one by birth, the Lord Jesus Christ ("For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son begotten Son" John 3:16) and a host by adoption ("All those led by God's Spirit are God's children...you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" Rom. 8:13-15).
        Every person in the whole, wide world is God's creation, but only those who believe in the name of His Son, Jesus, are God's children. Are you a child of God?

"(Jesus) came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God!" (John 1:11-13)