Father's Day

Happy Father's Day - almost!

Honor thy Father... The first commandment that has a promise attached to it. That's kind of exciting. I think this Father's Day (like all), we should really try to focus on honoring our fathers - pretty deep, huh?

I was thinking about 'fathers' in the Bible, and realized that we as Christians can be classified as being children of three different fathers. Hopefully everybody reading has been adopted OUT from the family of Satan to which we by nature are born. In John 8:44 Jesus clarifies that to the Pharisees that they were of their father the devil. 1 John 3 also identifies those that are the children of the devil - see vs. 10.

The first father I thought of was the father of our flesh, Adam. Adam, being the very first man, is the father of us all. Genesis 5:1 begins the story of the "generations of Adam." Adam was made in God's image, but Seth (Adam's third son) is said to be made in Adam's image (Gen 5:3). So, whereas Adam was born a son of God (see Luke 3 something), we are born sons of Adam. Now, we are told to honor our father after the flesh - our Adam. The thing is, Adam was a sinner. After the Fall in Genesis 3, just about all we know about Adam was that he had more children. And then, we only know the names of 3 of them. Yet, God still tells us to honor our fathers. The TV today makes out dads to be these bumbling idiots (which I confess, at times, I fit the mold that they make). However, regardless of the wisdom or idiocy of fathers, the commandment is to Honor them. 1 John speaks of a man that claims to love God that does not love his brethren. We can take that and apply it to our fathers as well. If I say I honor God whom I can't see, but don't honor my father who I can, I'm deceived. We can honor them by: Obeying (Eph. 6:1); Having Wisdom (Prov 10:1; 15:20); Speaking only good about him (Matthew 15:4)

The second father I thought of was the father of our faith, Abraham. Romans 4 tells us that Abraham is the father of all of us that have faith like he did. It makes me wonder about guys like Noah. If Abraham is the father of our faith, what was Noah and Enoch, etc. Anyway... how would we honor the father of our faith? Well, we could look at Romans 4:17-21 and follow his example of: Hearing the call of God (we do that in Scripture), by following God even when the call seemed ridiculous, by not considering our own flesh when listening to God, and by realizing Who it is we are to follow!

The third Father I thought of was the Father of all. (Ha! You all thought I was going to alliterate didn't you!) Again, the assumption is that you reading this have been born again, born into God's family. Not everybody is a child of God as we saw in John 8 and 1 John 3 (you know, John, the "love" apostle). We are commanded to honor our fathers as concerning the flesh, but God pleads with His people in Malachi 1:6: "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?..." We can honor God in the same ways we honor our fathers of the flesh: Obeying (if you love me, keep my commandments); being wise; speaking only good about Him! We are not to take the name of our God, calling ourselves Christian, and take it in vain. We need to represent well the God for Whom we are ambassadors. This Father's Day, I hope we don't neglect honoring our fathers of the flesh, but even more importantly, we need to honor "Our Father which art in Heaven."

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour
and glory for ever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:17)

Forgive me for the length of this post, but I had some free time at home yesterday!

Go back...

My apologies for all of you faithful blog readers... I went in to work this morning at 7, and after having thrown up a couple of times there, I came back home. I have been asleep since 9, and just woke up at 2:30...

Anyway, I think the best thing to do for today would be to have you all go back and read yesterday's post again - Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Perfection of God's Attributes

We all know some of the attributes of God. He is holy. He is merciful and gracious. He is love. He is sovereign. He is strong. He is true.

Some of those attributes I think we can grasp to some extent. While others are beyond our comprehension. I was thinking about Romans 3:26 a little bit and I'm sure I've heard this idea before and didn't come up with it myself (every "new" thought that I think I've had, I'm pretty sure came from somewhere else anyway - another new revelation for me). But, I was thinking about how God is not: Part holy, part merciful and gracious, part love, part sovereign, part strong, part true. He is not a part of each of His attributes, yet He is completely and perfectly all of those things.

God is perfectly, completely Holy
God is perfectly, completely Merciful
God is perfectly, completely Sovereign
God is perfectly, completely Wise...

God is not true in one place and then not true in another. He does not demonstrate wisdom in one stage and act unwisely elsewhere. He is not in control of one situation, and not all of them. But this Perfection of God's Attributes can cause contradiction in our minds.

For example: Since God is perfectly just, then all of mankind should be going to hell, for all have sinned. If God, in His mercy, just lets someone off of the hook, then He ceases to be just. That is, it is not just to let a criminal get off without consequences. He would be showing Himself merciful in that situation but not just. The opposite would also be true.

Thankfully, this particular difficulty is answered most plainly in the Bible - by Jesus Christ. That's what Romans 3:25-26 is saying. God executed justice for man in the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He continues to be just, while at the same time He demonstrated His graciousness in justifying those that have faith in Jesus' blood - that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus! Hallelujah!

There are other difficulties that the perfection of God's attributes can cause to man:

• God is perfectly Sovereign, yet He is also perfectly Holy - which to me says that He is completely in control, but yet He will not cause sin to happen or He would violate His holiness. (This is not to say that He won't use man's sins for His purposes at times.)


• God is perfectly Strong, yet He is perfectly Longsuffering - He could right now finish this world's battle with Satan (I like to emphasize here, that God is not at war with, or in a contest against Satan - there's no contest there! The world and Christians have a contest with him.) He could end the battle against sin right now, but He is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. His perfect longsuffering and forbearance cause Him to hold back His perfect strength so that man would come to repentance (Rom 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9)

What a God!

Deuteronomy 32:3-4: "Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

To the praise of the glory of His grace! eph.one.six

Pray for Famine

Michael Barone (missionary to Italy: www.GospelToItaly.com) preached a great message out of the book of James yesterday. He usually preaches great messages... But, it was on Elijah (Elias in the Greek) and how he prayed and the rain came back after the 3 1/2 years famine. Those of you that know the story know that I am leaving the first part of it out. Elijah first prayed that God would stop the rain - Elijah prayed for a famine... In the land he lived in... He was willing to do whatever it took to get the job done.


Last week I wrote on how God's people need to pray for healing in the land. That it is HIS people that need to humble themselves and pray. Well, I realized part of what should be prayed for - I don't say that this is all that should be prayed for, but part. Maybe we ought to be praying for a famine. It's much easier to say this than to actually mean it. But Israel was in a spiritually wicked state, and when the rain came back, the people were ready to return to the Lord - though, I have to admit that the whole calling fire down from Heaven had a big part in that!


My point: Perhaps if God would just chastize this nation some - we would be able to be spared from whatever else could come this way. Still remembering: This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through.


So, maybe we should start a new band: Pray For Famine... Or maybe: PrayForFamine.com anyone?