For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. Rom 14:8

A common phrase among our local community is “Who’s your people?” It is a way to identify and understand a person by kinship, community, and family history. It is a phrase based on relationship, and expectations may be set based on family’s history and influence in the community. For some, this may be a blessing or a curse. But no matter what the family history, it is whose we are. The scripture passage reminds us of whose we are. As a child of God, “we are the Lord’s.” We are His for eternity. Nothing can change that. Nothing and no one can separate us from His love. Though we are surrounded by things that are temporal, things that come and go, things that fade and fail, but life in Jesus Christ is eternal. When we sleep in death, we are still “in the Lord” (Philemon 16). When He returns in glory we will go to be “with the Lord” (1 Th 4:17) forever. For the child of God, eternity is settled. “Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” We are the benefactors of God’s love and eternally adopted into His family. We are His children, joined to Him through Christ Jesus by witness of the Spirit of God “whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15). My friend, you are loved with an eternal love. You are liberated from the bondage of sin with an eternal liberty and “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom 8:16). What great hope we have for life today and for all eternity that “we are the Lord’s.” Father, thank You for Your eternal love and the liberty to love You, praise You, and adore You through Your Son Jesus Christ. He is the hope of glory and my eternal salvation. In the blessed Name of Jesus. Amen.