Father's Day 2023

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear and promotes faith in God. It emphasizes the concept of God as a loving Father and encourages believers to approach Him with reverence and humility. It discusses the attributes of a good father and how fathers can serve as examples of God's love. The transcription also highlights the importance of mercy and the role of fathers in leading their families towards a relationship with God. It concludes with a reminder that God loves us unconditionally and encourages readers to reflect on the ways in which God's love is evident in their lives. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Romans 8.14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. That long walk down the hallway or up the stairs to the door, the door behind which the Father is, the one who you have been waiting for at the behest of your other caregiver, who seems to think that if you waited until the Father got home, things were going to happen. And standing outside that door, you're pretty sure they're going to happen, and that they're not going to be good. And maybe you're wishing that a tropical storm would hit, or polar bears would rampage in your freezer, or even a stray chicken waltzing through the bathroom would do. Anything to either delay the knocking on the door, or, best hope yet, the incident which led to you being at the door would be forgotten. The hope of children everywhere, and a false hope it is. Inevitably, the knock must happen, and then boy, you get it. And usually deserved it, let's face it. Is this the Father whom we see in Yahweh God? In the first half of the Bible, kinda? Notwithstanding some verses like Jeremiah 3.19 and Malachi 2.10, the Lord is not really thought of as a Father in the Old Testament. He is there, but He is the stern figure. The one on the throne. The one in the Holy of Holies. The one you don't want to go in front of, because you have no idea what is going to happen with you do, but you assume it's probably death. Exodus 33.20 God is righteous, holy, aloof, and apart. We fell way, way down. We cannot go before Him. That is the whole purpose of the mercy seat, of the sacrifices, of the offered incense and prayers and worship. He is holy and above us. Look at the visions of Daniel, Daniel 7, and Ezekiel, Ezekiel 1. This is not an average entity. This is more than anything you can handle. Even just the voice of the Lord and just some of His glory directed at the Israelites in Exodus 20.18-19 shows that. All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountains smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled and stayed at a distance. They said to Moses, Speak with us yourself and we will listen, but don't let God speak with us lest we die. Now this is a correct and right way to see the Lord. If we do not have the complete righteousness and total holiness of the Lord in mind, how can we humble ourselves? Our flesh is selfish. If we think we're pretty okay, we aren't going to bow to the Lord. If we don't bow, how can we be saved? Why would we bother to seek it or consider it? Our default of I'm okay would override it. We need to reverence the Lord. It is the beginning of wisdom, Proverbs 22.4, and a key component of humility, Isaiah 57.15. We need contrite and humble spirits to go before the Lord and treat Him the way His nature ensures that He is worthy to be treated, Isaiah 57.15. All of that is right and good, and we need to never forget that. But we also have a better way. Not a better way of thinking, not a better way of viewing God, but a better way of living out our relationship with the Lord. We have the great gift and amazing blessing of being called children of God, John 1, 12-13. God is holy. God is righteous. God is majestic. But God is also our Father. Jesus clearly taught that. He showed how the attitude was true from such Scripture as Isaiah 64.8. But now, Yahweh, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are our potter. We all are the work of Your hand. In His great speech in Athens, Paul said, The God who made the world and all things in it, He, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. He isn't served by men's hands, as though He needed anything. Seeing He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things. He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live, move, and have our being, as some of Your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. Acts 17, 24-28 We were not accidents. We were not unplanned. We were not a surprise. We were planned. He made us with His hands. Genesis 2.7 He created us with a purpose in mind. Genesis 2.1-15 We were made in His image. Genesis 1.27 We were made by Him and for Him. Colossians 1.16 We were made to worship Him, to be obedient to Him. This is our purpose, to give Him the glory that He deserves, because all things must give God the glory at all times. 1 Corinthians 10.31 Jesus called Him Abba, Father, and so did Paul. Mark 14.36 Romans 8.15 Galatians 4.6 It is an Aramaic term, followed by the Greek translation of the term. It expresses warm affection and filial confidence. It has no English equivalent, really. Father is the best we get. Jesus used it as a child would in Aramaic. It's a child's word. And routinely calls the Lord God Father in this way. This is, of course, right in line with Jesus' teaching that we all need to approach the kingdom of God with the attitude of a child. Matthew 18.2-4 The term has a high degree of closeness with reverence. It was used by close family circles, but it could also be used by disciples of a much-loved and revered teacher. As believers, we copy Jesus, and we use it as a sign of intimate relationship with God. Now, there are those who will say that God has no male or female about Himself, that as God, He is above and beyond our comprehension and labels, and this could easily be the truth. But right from the beginning and straight to the end of the word, the Lord God on high has been clear about His pronoun choice. He is chosen to be represented by the male attributes, and there must be a reason. God has a great sense of humor, but He doesn't make whimsical choices. Everything is of a purpose and a reflection of a deep truth. He intended us to relate to Him as a Father. Jesus said to her, Don't hold Me, for I haven't yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brothers and tell them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God. John 20, 17 What are the attributes of a Father, then? Or the attributes that the Lord intended us to embrace? Steadfast love. Lamentations 3, 22-23. Provision. Matthew 6, 25-34. Listening skills. Psalm 44, 1. Giving. Matthew 17, 9-11. Disciplining. Proverbs 3, 11-12. Forgiving. 1 John 1, 9-10. Loving. John 3, 16-17. Teachers. Proverbs 22, 6 and Deuteronomy 6, 6-7. A tall order for some. The enemy has spent centuries attacking the idea of fathers, trying to reduce them to neurotic overachievers who do nothing but work, to keep them from family time, to deteriorate their effectiveness through a stark difference between what they say to their children and what they do in their own lives, to make them ineffective as much as is humanly possible, to keep them from being an example to their children of how the Father in heaven interacts with us. Sadly, when you look across the landscape of many nations, this is what is happening. There's a verse I look at from time to time. It isn't written down everywhere. I don't even have it highlighted in a Bible. But when I come across it, my reading it always makes me think. It's 2 Timothy 3, 14-15. And it reads, But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. From infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Now I have been blessed in life for this verse to be a truth. My Father taught us the Word. He started with nightly readings of Bible stories. He modeled being prayerful and studious when it came to the Bible. He held weekly prayer meetings with friends. It was shown to us that He and our Mother weren't Sunday school teachers for fun or prestige. They cared about teaching the Word to kids. That it was important for us to know the stories and know that they were not only stories. This wasn't religious myth. These were things that happened. And these particular things that happened were recorded for what they could teach us and also how they related to the rest of the Bible. My Father worked hard. He thinks too hard. But I was a kid and I cannot speak to that. He was there every day. We saw Him leave in the morning and come home at night. Sometimes we had the privilege to help Him do His job. Other times we suffered through the punishment of helping Him do His job. He bought us the toys we drooled over, got us fond in silly things, funded our summertime outings, wardrobes, entertainment, and made sure there was always food on the table. We saw how He cared about finances and fiscal responsibility. We saw that being frivolous with money was a bad idea. We saw that tithing to the Lord because we could wasn't just a privilege but a joy. He always did it, seemed to feel it was important, and never spoke a single word ever about it being a chore. He valued people and always had a good word for a neighbor or acquaintance He came across. And believe me, it must have been a challenge for some of them. He helped the church, helped in the community, and modeled the idea of responsibility. He voted, but He never beat His own ideas into us. He taught us to form our own opinions. Whether by guidance of the Lord or merciful happenstance, He picked for Himself a good wife, a good woman. He treated her well. They didn't fight in front of us or take out their disagreements on us. He showed us the value a partner brought to life. He taught us to take responsibility for our actions, whether we wanted to or not, and that there was such a thing as mercy. As a father, I seek to promote these things to my own children, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. My father wasn't perfect and neither am I, but I could always rely on a thoughtful answer to a question, not a flippant remark. He relied heavily on experience, but wasn't afraid to admit he didn't know something. I could do worse than model myself on my father. He was and is a good, generous, and giving man, one who seeks to be a blessing to those around him, not just his family. He doesn't shower us all with gifts, but he likes to do it unexpectedly, which is the best kind of giving. We never thought of him as an ATM machine, but when in trouble, it was surprising how often he was there with assistance. All these things are features of my walk with the Lord. The Lord teaches me. He has wisdom. He is generous and bails me out, without me asking, more often than not. He just knows when I need something, and boom, there it is, right on time. I don't get the sense he ignores me, but listens to all that I have to say, even when I babble. He sets tasks before me, and asks me to complete them, but he never beats me over the head with it. He's a gentle guide, but always corrects when I step awry. Close and loving, but firm in his righteousness and holiness. I always know where I stand with him. I never need to doubt that he will follow through with his word. I hold him in high respect, and worship him as the Almighty God, but I can also approach the throne, and see him as a loving father, concerned for my well-being. Now, I don't know why the Lord picked fatherhood as the model for himself. Perhaps he didn't. Perhaps we chose it, because it is so obvious that he is, in fact, our father. Ephesians 3, 14-15 tells us that it is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. It is an awesome responsibility to be a father in light of that verse. We are a type and shadow of him. One of the highlights of my own journey as a father was looking over one of my son's homework assignments about family. He listed as one of my qualities as being merciful. I can think of worse ways to be thought of. I don't know if it's because I've listened to the Lord so much, correcting my behavior over the years, or if it's because I had such a good role model to start with. I suspect a bit of both. But that is a great heritage to leave my children. Mercy. It is because of mercy that we are here as believers. It is because of mercy that Jesus came. It is because of mercy that we are saved. It is because of mercy that we are corrected. May we all, this day and every day, seek to step into the model of fatherhood that the Lord cast upon creation. To be something for others to look toward. To be leaders, guides, and statesmen for the kingdom that the Lord wants us to be. To be people that others can look at and say, if they are like this, I want to meet their God. Fathers are guides and teachers. The Lord is our guide, teacher, corrector, provider, and everything else. May we be like Him more and more each day. In Jesus, by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. I thank Him for my father. I pray I can be a good father to my own children. And that we can all be fathers the world can look to as leaders for families, communities, nations, and the world. Lights in the image of the Lord Himself. The one from whom we get our name. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Ephesians 3, 12-21. Simply, this is my prayer for today. We fathers are named after the Lord Most High. More than that, though, we are all people called to be like Him. Male and female. To abide in Jesus and through Jesus. To get a greater sense of who this Father in Heaven is. John 15. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord Strong and Mighty. Psalm 24, 8-10. He fights for us. Protects us. Leads us. Guides us. Develops us. Provides for us. And gives us faith, mercy, grace, and every good thing that is in our lives. This is what we as fathers are to embody. The example we are to be. The type and shadow that helps to lead our children to the Lord. It takes great grace and lots of correction by our Heavenly Father, I know. But in Jesus, by Jesus, and through Jesus, we can do it. I join Paul in praying this and hope that you do as well. I bow my knees to the Father of my Lord, Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant me, according to the riches of His glory, that I may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in my inner person, that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith to the end, that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know Christ's love, which surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God, that Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask or think, according to the power that works in me, in Him be the glory, in the assembly, and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. As we close, remember that you have earth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love, and no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you, just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loved us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.