by David Gibson<\/p>\n
I knew a wonderful family in Pennsylvania who lived in a big house on Flagstaff Mountain-a great place for kids. This Christian home opened its doors to those with special needs, and several\u00a0of the children were adopted.<\/p>\n
For centuries, God’s family consisted of His covenant people, the descendants of Jacob. Tragically, many of them failed to remain true to the covenant, thus forfeiting their right to be called God’s children (John 8:33-47). Yet God had plans-wonderful plans-for expanding His family.<\/p>\n
In time, God “concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name<\/em>” (Acts 15:14 NASB; see Galatians 3:14). As Paul wrote to Gentile Christians, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household . .<\/em> .” (Ephesians 2:19).<\/p>\n It grieved Paul that so many of his fellow Israelites had fallen away from the family. Wherever he went, he dedicated himself to reaching both Jews and Gentiles.<\/p>\n Whenever we bring someone to Christ, we are acting as adoption agents. We are helping expand God’s family-exactly what He wants us to do.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson I knew a wonderful family in Pennsylvania who lived in a big house on Flagstaff Mountain-a great place for kids. This Christian home opened its doors to those with special needs, and several\u00a0of the children were adopted. For centuries, God’s family consisted of His covenant people, the descendants of Jacob. Tragically, many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[99,451],"class_list":["post-70426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-becoming-a-christian","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45386,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-biblical-definition-of-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":70426,"position":0},"title":"What is the biblical definition of marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the biblical definition of marriage according to both the Old and New Testaments? Answer: Marriage is a special covenant entered into between a man and a woman for the purpose of establishing a new family. \"For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61158,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-god-about-to-kill-moses\/","url_meta":{"origin":70426,"position":1},"title":"Why Was God About To Kill Moses?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton The text of Exodus 4:24-26 seems oddly placed, but it is a separate paragraph from the rest of the text. Moses has been commissioned to go back to Egypt where the Israelites are and tell Pharaoh to free them. Moses thought of excuse after excuse, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88841,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-it-gods-will-that-i-didnt-know-about-my-husbands-sins-before-we-got-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":70426,"position":2},"title":"Was it God’s will that I didn’t know about my husband’s sins before we got married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings! I am reaching out to let you know that I think the Answers to Questions section on the church's website is an invaluable resource, and I appreciate the very direct and truthful responses. The following are some questions that have plagued me for years, so I thought I'd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12607,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-became-a-christian-and-am-improving-but-my-family-is-lashing-out-against-me-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":70426,"position":3},"title":"I became a Christian and am improving, but my family is lashing out against me. What do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I recently obeyed the gospel earlier this year. Prior to my conversion, I was a member of a Baptist denomination. My boyfriend studied with me about the truth. The more we studied and attended church services together, I quickly began to realize that denominations were wrong. Since my conversion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36282,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-need-to-be-baptized-in-order-to-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":70426,"position":4},"title":"Do you need to be baptized in order to go to heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a couple of questions, but I hope I am not bothering you in any way. Do you need to be baptized in order to go to heaven? If so, what other things must you do? Do you need to be baptized to be a Christian? Can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27894,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-promises-the-same-as-marriage-covenant\/","url_meta":{"origin":70426,"position":5},"title":"Are promises the same as marriage covenant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear minister, I have been feeling torn, confused, really unsure of what to do at times, I have prayed, trying to trust God to help. In the context of understanding marriage, I have searched about promises compared to covenants, including some answers on your site, and from other sources.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}