Our Father

“But now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the Potter; and all of us are the work of Your hands.” Isaiah 64:8 “Go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and Your Father, to My God and your God.’” John 20:17b What mankind lost in the fall was incalculable – we became estranged from our Creator and from the purpose for which He created us. God our Father became to us a distant, unknowable and ethereal concept as we sunk further and further into the abyss of self-worship and sin. But God didn’t leave us to this terrible fate. He sent His One and Only Son into the world to save us, to reverse the curse of sin and death, to remove the veil, “the covering that enshrouds all peoples” (Isaiah 25:7). The first words that Jesus uttered to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection made this abundantly clear – “I am ascending to My Father and Your Father, to My God and your God.” Because of Jesus, we can know our Father the way He always intended for us to know Him…and this, in itself, is life from the dead! The impact of our decision to trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior is so profound that Jesus likened it to being born a second time (John 3:5-8)…and this is so appropriate because when we truly make this decision in our deepest souls, He awakens our dormant spirits so that we can be responsive to Him as was always intended. He then sends His Holy Spirit to live within us, to be our Comforter, and to “guide us into all truth.” (John 16:13). When Jesus prayed to His Father, He often used the most endearing term, “Abba” which, in Hebrew, means “Daddy”. Jesus has made a new and living way for us at a cost that we will never fully comprehend; but, because He chose to go to the cross for us, we can now return to God, our everlasting, all powerful, Holy, righteous and loving Father…who will shelter us always in the shadow of His wings.

True Freedom

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but, in humility, consider others better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3 Insecurity is the greatest challenge to a Christ-like life of selflessness and the personal freedom that always accompanies it. If one consistently feels threatened and unsure of his/her value and purpose in life, it naturally follows that the driving force of that life will be comprised of repeated attempts to validate and reinforce personal worth through an unwavering focus on self. The essential ingredient of the forbidden fruit was selfishness, a replacement of the divine order of [(1) God, (2) others, and (3) self] with a corrupted order comprised exclusively of self…but man and woman were not created to live like this, and devastation in various forms will always result when we rebel against God’s order. Jesus, however, came to reverse the effects of the curse by reversing the curse itself through an act so profound, so full of the mind and love of God, so complete in power and glory that all of creation, lost as it was through the fall of God’s image-bearers, was, and is, being re-created in accordance with the exact specification and plan of God, to build an eternal dwelling place for Himself, constructed of living stones, with Christ Himself as the Capstone. Paul states triumphantly that “we are being built together to become a dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit” (Eph 2:22) and that, therefore, “God’s will for us is our sanctification” (1 Thes 4:3); because of this, we must continually strive above all things to enter His rest by walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Jesus said that “everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40)…which brings us back to our theme passage in which we learn that, when we are most like Christ, we are selfless, we are servants, we are love. The first step in this process is to realize how infinitely valuable we are as God’s children; our value is, in fact, unassailable, being firmly rooted in God’s heart...so we have nothing to prove. We can drop the onerous burden of continually striving to defend and promote ourselves at the nail-pierced feet of Christ who said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mat 11:30). We don’t have to work to uphold ourselves any longer because the God of all creation holds us securely in His very heart! What a relief to have done with that awful work of promoting and defending ourselves! So beloved, “the Freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21b) is this: - We are immensely valuable and eternally loved. - We’ve been called to join our great God and Savior in the greatest mission that ever was or ever will be, to work at His side to restore what was lost and expand His eternal Kingdom “until it fills the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:35b). - We now have the freedom to love and serve others, to consider other human beings, made in God’s image, as more important than ourselves, to take the time to understand their needs and then to meet them through the power and love of the Holy Spirit… …until that glorious day when faith shall be sight, and we will become like Him completely, “for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2

The King of Glory

When God crowned His glorious creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) by creating man and woman as dual expressions of His very image and likeness, He saw that “it was very good.” (Gen 1:31). Man and woman together were completely untainted by sin, selfishness, or corruption of any kind, but that was short-lived. God said to Adam and Eve, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:16&17) The tincture in the poison of that deadly fruit was selfishness, a desire to replace God’s perfect Lordship with a corrupted focus on self…so mankind, created uniquely to reflect the very character of God Himself to all creation, revolted against that purpose and sunk into the oblivion of self-worship…an oblivion that only God could rescue him from, at a cost so great as to defy explanation. God’s One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, described by the apostle Paul as “the last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45) came into this world to reverse the effects of the curse…the very curse that we had brought upon ourselves, and to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). It should not surprise us, therefore, that self-less-ness characterizes Christ at every point, from His birth as an infant in a horse trough, to His death on a cross. “It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master,” (Mat 10:25) Jesus said. God’s purpose for each one of us is to mold the character of His One and Only Son within us by the indwelling power of His Holy Spirit “to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13), which is why Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23&24). Make no mistake about it, our flesh, our old natures which are, in fact, an aberration of who we were originally created to be, will not go down without a fight…every minute of every hour of every day. We must be intentional about this sanctifying work as we partner with God’s Holy Spirit; there is simply no other way if we are to be successful…which is why only our love for Jesus Christ is a motivator sufficient to the task…and that love will only develop as we surrender completely to Him and exercise our God-given wills to yield the throne of our lives to the rightful King, “the King of Glory” (Psalm 24:7-10) without hesitation, without reservation, and without stipulation. This is the critical proposition for every human being. Will you stop…and listen to the voice that spoke you into being…will you let that voice resound in your life…will you follow that voice, the voice of God Almighty, out of the “dominion of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Col 1:13)…for…”The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” (Proverbs 4:18)

Ears to Hear

Several miraculous events occur simultaneously when a person truly surrenders his/her life to Christ: 1) Saving faith is granted them, 2) Their eyes are opened, 3) Their spirits are awakened from the sleep of death and estrangement from the Creator. This is referred to by The Master as the process of being “born again”.  Once this occurs, the vital relationship between Creator and created begins – and communication is a critical component of that relationship. The communication process is referred to in scripture as “prayer”. Breaking this down further, prayer involves both speaking and listening. If one of these components is missing, the relationship will suffer. We often think narrowly of prayer as supplication only, asking God for things…but it is actually so much more. From my perspective, THE most critical element of prayer is listening to God and worshipping Him, as Solomon boldly says: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” (Ecc 5:1&2) While I’m always mindful of God’s intense love for us, and that He, therefore, delights in hearing of our needs in prayer...and even commands us to tell Him of those needs, viz., “Knock and it will be opened to you…” (Mat 7:7) there is, actually, a proper order in the process of prayer that involves a constant abiding in Him (John 15) and a listening, attentive, waiting spirit that will ensure we step in the cadence of the Holy Spirit and pray according to His will. The art and discipline of listening to God requires tenacity, patience, and prolonged periods of silence before Him – hence, the critical importance of the spiritual disciplines. The prophet Elijah learned to discern God’s voice on the mountain, not in the world wind, nor in the fire, nor in the earth quake…but in a still, small voice. “My sheep hear My voice,” Jesus says, “and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27). How are we to follow Him if we don’t hear His voice? We must cultivate our listening skills with a personal resolve and by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Indeed, since “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3) our very lives depend on it. Perhaps there is no greater passage in scripture that underscores the life-giving importance of listening to our Creator than John chapter 1, verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Indeed, God has spoken completely and perfectly, to all creation for all time…in the person of His One and Only Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“This is My Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased,” the Father said, “Listen to Him.” Mat 17:5b