ONE FATHER

In Matthew 23:9 Jesus spoke these words.

"And call no man your father on earth,

for you have one Father who is in heaven."

It is terribly important to grasp this truth. This is at the heart of the gospel. And the gospel is the heart of Christian theology. When Jesus instructed us to pray to God as our Father, and when Paul said God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, "Abba, Father," the pattern was set for our relationship with God. We are born again into His family, into His embrace.

When I recognize God as my Father, I admit that He is the source of all that I have and all that I am. He brought about my spiritual birth. He suffered all the labor pains. He's covering the cost.

I am physically the product of my parents combined DNA. Even that was determined by God. He determined when and where I would be born. He decided who my parents would be.  More than that, He has determined my spiritual gifts for His great purposes. He plants His spiritual DNA, in me.

He is developing His character in me. When I was a child my earthly father worked with me to develop my character. The summer before my final year of high school I went to work on a farm in a different state, hundreds of miles away. All that spring Dad was obvious in his purpose of developing my character. He did that because he loved me. He also let me know he was proud of me even though he was often frustrated at how slow I was to apply what he was trying to teach me. Knowing God is my Father leads me to submit to Him. It gives me a hunger to spend time with Him in prayer, Bible study, service, and obedience, so He can graft His nature into my heart.

Knowing God is my Father helps me trust Him to provide my needs. If the God of the universe is my Father, I can be at peace about my needs. More than that I can grow in the joy of His generosity. As God prompts me to give more and more, I can enjoy it, trusting Him to provide. If God is my Father, I can risk everything in the adventure of His purpose. My Heavenly Father will take care of me in and even beyond this life.

I have one final word for this blog, although we will never grasp the breadth and length and depth of this reality. If we are God's children, we do not do any of these things to win His approval. We serve Him because are His. We have become God’s children. He loves us as much as He loves Jesus. Your pictures are on His refrigerator. He holds you in his heart.

THE FOUNDATION OF HOPE

I have begun thinking, studying and praying about writing a book on hope. I have already written a few preliminary things. And I want to share one of these with you today.

I have been frustrated some at reading books that offer hope with no foundation of ultimate hope. They treat hope as if it were merely a hopeful feeling that could be drummed up without reference to our ultimate predicament. I want to show hope from the beginning of our anxiety. I have recently heard this problem posed in several different ways. The essence of it is that God created us even though He already knew that Satan would tempt Adam and Eve, and we would all be plunged into sin.

First, let's examine the nature of God and reasons He created the world. As a tri-personal being the Father, Son and Holy Spirit loved one another with infinite love from eternity. The same Bible that affirms God's omniscience says God is love. This defines His nature. He did not create us out of any need. He created us that we might be caught up in His love.

Now, there are several possible worlds that God could have created. He could have created no world at all. Or He could have created a beautiful universe without any sentient beings. He could have created an a-moral world where it didn't matter what we did. He could have created beings that were not tempted and were programmed only to do right. But love would not be possible in a world without free will and the risk of failure. There could be no true devotion in a world where rebellion was impossible. In a different world there could be no moral courage. There would be no heroic faith or sacrificial love. There could be no repentance or redemption in a world without freedom. I am aware that the humility of repentance can be fearsome and painful. But for those who submit to God, it becomes one of the most fulfilling facets of our lives.

The primary issue of right and wrong is not merely obeying a law. It is love. Jesus said all the law and the prophets were summed up in the commands to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds and our neighbors as ourselves. Paul said love is the fulfillment of the law. And God draws us to come, even as sinners, into the redemption, embrace and expression of His love.

God already knew everything that would come when He created the world and said it was good. If we look at things the way they are now, it is hard to say the world is good or that this is the best of all possible worlds. But that is like deciding a ball game is lost before it is over. You might say, "This is a terrible game. My team is so far behind they will never catch up!"

But what if at the very end your team comes from behind against impossible odds to win after all? Is that a terrible game because your team was embarrassingly behind? No that game is far better than a game where your team won easily.

Well, God's omniscient foreknowledge extends beyond today. And while things look bad at this point, we can trust Him to bring them to glorious conclusion in the end.

You can trust God because He is good, benevolent and loving. The same Bible that reveals His power and foreknowledge tells us He is good and the source of all good. I believe we know this instinctively.

And I believe we can know the source of accusations against God. The same one who continually accuses you before God accuses God of injustice. But God who saw our failure before He created us, also saw the cross where our redemption was purchased. And while He will not force healing on those who are determined to reject Him, His grace is freely offered. And He sees the ultimate conclusion. In Revelation 15 we read,

"All nations will come and worship before you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed."

We put our faith in God, in the promise of His word, to bring all things to a satisfactory conclusion. To doubt this is to believe that the ultimate, all powerful, loving Creator will not work things out in the end. What is the point of that belief?

There is certainly no hope related to such faith. If the creator is not good, goodness is smuggled in to our reality. If God were not love, there could be no selfless, unconditional love. If you believe this, your hope is hopeless. Your only hope is in something or someone less than God. You are trusting in the wickedness of our world. Your hope is in the devil himself and in his vision of the world. How does that faith make life better or easier? It leaves us screaming in terror at what must come.