06.15.08
Happy Father’s Day, God.
Today, the official day to honor the fathers in our lives cannot begin without first giving honor and thanks to the first FATHER of the universe and our lives. God Almighty, the father of creation, the father of us, the father of the Son of God who gave his life for all of us so that we could become his true people and be reconciled with him.
A few verses that describe my Father, God Almighty, Jehovah.
- Psalm 103:8-11 “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever, he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.”
- Psalm 121:3-8 “He will not let your foot slip–he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you–the Lord is your shade at your right hand, the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will eep you from all harm–he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.”
- Psalm 145: 8-9 “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”
- Psalm 145:13-14 “The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.”
- Psalm 147:11 “The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
- Psalm 149:4 “For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.”
- Proverbs 2:12 “…Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.”
- Isaiah 20:11 “He tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lams in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young…”
- Isaiah 40: 29 “He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak.
- John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
There are many, many more verses that speak the truth of this great Father that we serve and love. He is the Father that shaped us in His image at the beginning of the world, the same Father that sent His Son to die for our sins and reconcile us onto Himself. He is the same Father who we call when we need something and He answers all our prayers–perhaps not the way we’d like it to but He answers it in the way that is right for us.
As our earthly fathers long to protect and keep us safe, working to help us grow into the women and men they desire us to be, so our Heavenly Father is the same. There are many things we can honor our God for today. His never-ending mercy, His abounding love, His overflowing favor, His never-ceasing protection, and His amazing grace. I for one am glad to be called a child of the Living, Omnipotent, Merciful Father and God of the Universe.
Happy Father’s Day, God.
06.12.08
Welcome to your new identity…
Yesterday was such a blessed day! And it all started with an eye-opener about who we are as believers. Bear with me as I share this amazing devotion with you.
Colossians 1: 13-14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
God’s Provision for Salvation: “It’s a Whole New World.”
In March 1992, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, the highest-ranking member of the American Mafia ever to defect, broke his oath of silence and testified against his boss, John Gotti. As a result, Gotti went to prison, the Gambino crime family was decimated and Gravano moved “from social planet to another,” in the words of the presiding judge. In order to protect himself from retaliation, Gravano entered the federal government’s Witness Protection Program.
In effect, entering the Witness Protection Program is like dying and being born again. Its purpose is to erase all vestiges of a person’s past and to create a new identity so as to protect that person and his or her family from retaliation. New names, new birth records, new Social Security records, new tax records, new family histories and genealogies, a new home, a new vocation–the old world is gone and a whole new world is created in which the witness can live.
The impact of salvation on the believer is no less radical than moving “from one social planet to another.” Paul says in Colossians that believers are rescued from one world and transferred into another when they are saved. The old world–”the dominion of darkness”–is not unlike the dark underworld of the Mafia, where sin and wrongdoing are the way of life. It is a world ruled and energized by Satan (I John 5:19), where bad is good, dark is light and lies are the truth. The new world–”the kingdom of the Son [Jesus Christ, the Son of God]“–is a world in which our past has been erased. It is a world where we learn a whole new way of living. In God’s kingdom, good is good, light is light and truth is truth.
The biggest challenge for people in the Witness Protection Program is to remember that their [new] lives depend on their faithfulness to their new identity. The same is true for Christians. In a new world, reverting to an old identity makes us easy targets for the enemy of our souls, [Satan].
After my devotion yesterday morning, I was struck by how common sense this truth was. Another way I thought about it was from a scripture verse in Matthew that says sinning is like “a dog going back to eat it’s vomit.” It’s revolting and just plain wrong, yet we do it as Christians, because of our sinful nature. It would be pompous and highly hypocritical to say that Christians don’t sin but I believe with the help of the Counselor God has sent to us after Jesus resurrected into heaven (Acts 1), we can find that being faithful to our new identity becomes easier with time.
May the Lord help us to hold true to this new identity we have by His Grace.
