Love Of God The Father ~ Episode 202
Do you understand the love of God the Father? If so, I applaud you! The love of God is one of those mind-blowing ideas that will take the rest of our lives to fully grasp, and even then, we fall short. I feel the Creator God is so amazing and I’m in awe of Him (as I should be!) In this podcast, we will discuss God the Father and how we worship Him, even when we don’t necessarily think of Him.
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Gosh, God the Father! I remember one year our church had a challenge, the first year was God the Father, the next God the Son, and the next year God the Holy Spirit. This challenge made me realize that my main focus is on Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but not so much on God the Father. Intellectually, I understand there are three separate persons and one God, but do I truly understand that? When my children we little we often listened to and read Christian books for kids, and I have to say, it helped me as much or more than them! The concept of God was explained as the properties of water. Water is an element but it’s form changes, it is ice- a solid, vapor – which is steam, and liquid – water. It is all water but in different forms and the same idea is God. When I pray I usually begin with a prayer that encompasses all – the sign of the cross, “In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Still, a difficult concept to grasp, but it does help us to wrap our minds around the persons of God. And, when we look at it this way we are always worshipping all three, not just one. But, for the sake of argument, this podcast focuses on the Father.
We think about God the Father when we pray the Lord’s prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught us, Matthew 6:9-13 “Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; …
The Nicene and Apostles Creeds both taught to early Christians as a profession of faith, teach the truths of the faith and focus on the first, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty…”
But, while the concept of God is not foreign I think it is crucial to concentrate on the Father’s love for us. His love created the universe for us, He created us and wants us to live with Him in eternity. He sent His son to die for our sins, and ultimately break the curse of sin and death with His resurrection, and new life in heaven. This is what we celebrate at Easter.
How do we celebrate this love for us? Do we live it out each day? Do we deny ourselves from sinfulness – or sinful acts? For most of us our sins are not grave, but all sin leads to more sin. The entire Old Testament speaks to God the Father and His love for us and over and over, some are righteous, those who try to follow the Lord, and others are not. Those who fail lose heart and courage to continue to follow God’s law and commandment. The laws and the judgments seem harsh but the result of sin is being lost forever in the fires of hell. With that looming ahead can you see why the harshness was there? For the sake of mankind not for God.
Truthfully, God does not need us. Anything we do is for ourselves and our eternal well-being, and while it pleases God and it is His will for us, it does not change the Almighty. Think about the Ark of the Covenant and when that was lost, the people cried. Did they cry because they lost the Word of God in the 10-Commandments that was in the Ark? Or did they cry because they had lost their protection from God. Either way, God was still with them, and yet they wanted that outward sign. They also lost the Ark of the Covenant because of disobedience to God’s commands. You can read all about it in 1 Samuel 4:7 – but in 1 Samuel 4:10 it says,
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home; and there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 And the ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, HoFiny and Phin′ehas, were slain.
Death came to those who disobeyed – and Isreal lost the Ark of God – the Ark of the Covenant.
God loves us – ultimately and without reservation. But God is also a God who is just and loves us even while this justice may hurt. When we reprimand someone we love in correction, we do this from a love for their well-being, and so it is with God – and yes, it hurts! How can we love God? By following Him, and sometimes we can do this by denying ourselves. As I record this episode we are past Easter, and now in the celebration phase of our Christian journey the time after Easter, with Pentecost soon to come. Yet, we should always consider, yes the joyous Resurrection but also the love of Christ’s sacrifice for us – I talked about this in the last podcast. (here)
Sometimes God’s love is demonstrated in the oddest of places, and in chance meetings. I met a young man who is a street evangelist, and he was explaining that he would go to the beach to share about the Lord, in a laid-back way. Not aggressively, but with love. I was so impressed by his calmness and his calling. He invited me and my sister-in-law to join him on the beach during the weekend to share in this ministry. My first inclination was no. But truthfully, I need to pray about this. Will I go? Maybe, someday. But the thought of this is hard for me. And, I have plenty of excuses and they are all valid. Sunday is our family day and we get together with extended family. It is a great excuse, but I can rearrange my day, or go early. So, I will pray.
God’s love calls us to be love to others, our family, our friends, and those we meet on the street as that young man is a witness to faith. He has a calling, yes, but God calls each one of us in many different ways. How is God calling you? A great book I recommend is Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing The Will of God, by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King. I haven’t finished the book yet, as it is a Bible study, but it is very good, especially for those searching to unite your will to the Lord’s, and it is a very basic study.
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