6/16/13- Father's Day

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:26)

Thoughts: Six times Jesus describes God as "heavenly Father" in the sermon on the mount.  In the Lord's Prayer Jesus tells us we should address God as "our Father who art in heaven."  In many ways this is the core of the teaching of Christ.  He teaches us to trust in the love and the power of God.  Jesus came in part to teach us that love is the best way and his miracles and resurrection shows us that God is able and cares to help us.  The fatherhood of God is an Old Testament idea that sharply contrasts to the goddess worship of paganism. 
     The Father idea is that God cares for us, protects us, and provides for us as a good father would his child.  He knows us by name- as a good father would know their child. God not only made us- He cares for us and extends love to us.
     The heavenly father not only infers that God is in a powerful place so that He CAN help us.  But He is also "heavenly" meaning that while earthly fathers may be mean and neglectful or failing- God is distinct and different from earthly fathers.  But the best in earthly fathers point to the heavenly Father.  

Prayer: Our Father, help me to trust in you and rely on you.  

Listen to "Children of the Heavenly Father"

7/31/12- God our Father

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:“‘Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name, (Mt. 6:9)

SCQ. 100 What does the preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us?
A. The preface of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father in heaven", teaches us to come near to God with full, holy, reverence and confidence, as children come to a father who is able and ready to help us.  It also teaches us to pray with and for others. 

(Michelangelo- Sistine Chapel- Vatican)

Thoughts: Any language of God will be limited, and in this case, no father can fully represent the fatherhood and love of God.  Yet, the idea of a perfect father is not to be given up easily.  Jesus' point in not only allowing but encouraging us to call God "Father" is so that we may know of the personal care of God, and that we should trust in God as a child trusts in their father.  God is not so far removed from us that He cannot help or care.  Yet in calling God "Father" versus the pagan "mother" of almost all the surrounding cultures and religions, Jesus is pointing to the subtle separation in creation.  Creation is not God- we are not linked to God simply by our being- forming from His womb.  There is no umbilical cord to cut. Pantheism and panentheism are denied, but so is deism and atheism.  God cares for us though we are separate from Him.  While God is like or similar to a mother (Isa. 66:12), scripture never calls God mother or feminine, and to portray God in that way goes against how God is portrayed in scripture.  God is separate from us- in heaven.  He is the good father- where earthly fathers fail.  He is the father in a different place and so deserves our reverence.  But since He is our Father- we can approach the holy one with confidence.

Prayer: Father, help me to trust and call on you- finding you my provider, sustainer, and help.

[Modern Translation: Q. 100. What does the beginning of the Lord’s prayer teach us?
A. The beginning of the Lord’s prayer (Our Father in heaven) teaches us to draw near to God with
completely holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father who is able and ready to help us. It also teaches that we should pray with and for others.]

4/21/12- Not all are Children of God

4/20/12- WSC Q. 32- What rewards do those who are really called by God obtain in this life?
A. Those who are really and effectively called by God obtain justification, adoption, sanctification and the several other awards that come with or from them.

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God. (1 John 3:1).

You are of your father the devil.  (John 8:44)

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

(Jesus and the children)


Thoughts: In some ways God is father of us all.  He makes each of us.  As part of creation, He provides for us- making His grace to fall on the just and the unjust.  His father's call is offered to all people- to come back to Him.
    But we cannot overlook that some have obviously rejected his fatherhood.  Some have disowned God and refuse to listen to Him or claim Him.  In fact, we all disown God's fatherhood by doing wrong.  The Bible says, and we experience, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Sin ultimately is against God who defines right and wrong by Himself (and thus by His creation and Word).  Jesus even said to those who were rejecting him that they belonged to their father the devil.
    Now without knowing that God is our father, we do not know who we are or whose we are.  Without knowing that God loves us, we have forgotten a key ingredient and hide the blessing of God from ourselves.  Without knowing that God has made us for a reason- a purpose- we struggle to find an eternal purpose in this life.  Without knowing that God loves us as a father- we are alone in the universe.  
    But Jesus teaches His disciples to pray..."Our father..."   It is a loving gift to know that God did not just make us way back when, but cares for us today.  It is truly a gift to know God desires us to talk and pray to Him- and that it is possible to communicate with God.  


Prayer: Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.  TYhy kingdom come thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.