When children are young, we ask them what they want to be when they grow up.  When leaders cast vision for their organization, they describe what they want they want to become.  Life is very much about "becoming," and making the needed adjustments along the way.

How did Tom Brady become Tom Brady, one of the winningest quarterbacks of all time?  Did it happen when he signed on as a back-up with Patriots?  Did it happen when Drew Bledsoe was seriously injured in 2001, opening the opportunity for Brady to become the starting QB for the Pats?  Tom Brady was becoming Tom Brady all along.  He spent hours and hours and hours running, getting hit, throwing passed, calling plays and playing football games.  We become a mixture of what we are and what we do - over time.

What are you becoming?

Jesus gave those who received Him, those who believed He was the One and Only who came from the Father, the authority to become children of God. (John 1:12)  We are given the right (authority) to become God's children, born and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  We enter into this place of being and doing by definitively receiving and believing in Him, and repeatedly living it out for the rest of our lives.  It's like a marriage.  It begins at a definitive moment, but it must be built upon over a lifetime.  A wedding without a lifestyle is not a marriage; neither is a lifestyle without covenantal commitment a marriage.

Being a child of God - living in obedient relationship with Him - is eternal life here and now. (John 17:3)  It is a matter of becoming and growing.  We exercise and apply what we know, and we grow in our understanding and identity as God's loved child.  You became a child of God when you initially received and believed, and your are deepening, becoming and knowing you are His through countless acts of surrender, worship, service, sharing, through faith steps and risks.  It's all part of continued receiving and believing.

Are you becoming a child of God?  Are you exercising the authority that has been given to you in the name of Jesus?  You will become a mixture of who you are and what you do - over time.

"Becoming" with you,
Pastor Tom

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