The Compassionate Father

I try to write based on what I have been learning or what has been on my heart. I feel as if I am in a season where God is giving me new perspective and teaching me new things about who He is. Our whole lives depend on our perspective of God. As a Christian, the way you view God affects every aspect of your life. Do you see God as an angry God who wants you to be perfect, thus causing you to live your life in constant fear? Or do you see God as a loving Father who has given you freedom to worship Him and glorify Him as who you are?

Recently, I had some Christians come to my door and talk to me about God. They were doing door-to-door evangelism, and they seemed very joyful about it. However, I feel as if they painted a very scary picture of God; they made God seem as though he is an angry old man who sits on a cloud and hates sinners. We know that God does not hate sinners. He would not have sent His Son into the world if that was really how He felt (John 3:17). However, we also know that God is just. God doesn’t hate His own creation; He hates the sin that has corrupted them. I’m not becoming a Universalist. I still believe that Hell exists, and those who refuse to follow Christ are condemned to it. I just believe that God is a loving Father who wants the best for His creation; the God of the universe is completely in love with who you are.

Psalm 103 has been the source of my recent revelation. It paints a beautiful picture of a Father who is completely in love with His children, wants to bless them, and deals with them in an unconditional and caring way. God has been speaking to me through Psalm 103 for about two months now, and I feel closer and closer to my Father every time I read it. I encourage everyone to read it and meditate on how much God loves you.

Psalm 103 (ESV)

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name!

² Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits,

³ who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

⁵ who satisfies you with good

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The Lord works righteousness

and justice for all who are oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,

his acts to the people of Israel.

⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

⁹ He will not always chide,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

¹² as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

¹⁴ For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass;

he flourishes like a flower of the field;

¹⁶ for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

and its place knows it no more.

¹⁷ But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,

and his righteousness to children’s children,

¹⁸ to those who keep his covenant

and remember to do his commandments.

¹⁹ The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,

and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Bless the Lord, O you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his word,

obeying the voice of his word!

²¹ Bless the Lord, all his hosts,

his ministers, who do his will!

²² Bless the Lord, all his works,

in all places of his dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

I want to go back to my first point about how your whole life and the way you act depend on your perspective of God. Have you ever seen the show “Intervention”? In intervention, a film crew documents the life of an addict (the show covers addictions such as drug and alcohol addiction, as well as anorexia or any other unhealthy addictive behavior). They do several interviews and film their daily lives; how they obtain their drugs, a brief glimpse into their past, how they became an addict, and their interactions and relationships with family and friends.

I have never seen an episode where the subject of the documentary become an addict NOT because severe social, mental, physical, or emotional trauma in the past (i.e., molestation, abuse, divorce, etc.). There is always some event or relationship in the past tied to their addiction. Eventually, they get the addict in a room with close family and friends and a professional interventionist. They confront the problem, and ask the addict to consider treatment for their problem.

The most dramatic episodes are when the addiction is tied to an issue with the subject’s father. Sometimes they were abandoned, abused, molested, raped, or just not properly loved by their father. During the intervention, the addicts often become very angry and refuse to participate in treatment. They act as if they hate everyone. Then there is a dramatic moment when the father looks the addict in the eye and says “I love you. I am doing this because I care about you so much.” It is amazing how these words from their father, whom they have grown to hate, completely changes them. They will calm down, and even accept treatment. It really is astonishing.

Knowing and feeling your father’s love changes your life, no matter who you are.

When you know that God calls you His child (1 John 3:1), is completely in love with who you are, knows everything about you, including your greatest desires, and no longer deals with you according to your wrong-doings, it really is a life-changing experience. I have been a Christian since I was very young, and this same concept still impacts me and continues to change me in ways that are too deep to write in a blog about. Psalm 103 is such a good reminder and beautiful picture of the love that God has for His children (You and I).

The Master and the Slave.

I am learning that there is a substantial difference between knowing something and actually understanding it. Too often we allow our pride to control us to the point that we ignore good advice offered by a friend by saying “I know, I know.” If we know what is right, then why don’t we act like it? Understanding something means that it impacts the way you think and act. It’s not just being aware of what is right and wrong, it is knowing what is right and acting upon it. When you understand something, it affects you in a deep enough way to change you. Knowing the truth yet choosing to disregard it is ignorance; “If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise. If you reject criticism, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding. Fear of the Lord teaches a person to be wise; humility precedes honor,” Proverbs 15:32-33 (NLT).

I honestly believe that too many Christians limit themselves by allowing money to control their lives. While they may grasp the idea that God is bigger than money (or the lack of money), faithful to us, and will always provide for us according to our needs, I honestly don’t know if they really understand it. That is a pretty cliché thing to say, I know, but I can’t help but notice this. How can we know that we allow money to run our lives? It’s a matter of faith. Having faith doesn’t mean just believing, it is completely trusting in God. This means that worrying about money says that we haven’t fully surrendered our finances to God. Instead, we choose to worship our money by allowing it to run our lives to the point that it actually controls our emotions (i.e. stress, joy, depression, jealousy). When you worry about anything, you are saying, (whether you realize it or not) “I don’t think God can handle this situation.” If you actually understood that all things are possible for those who believe (Mark 9:23), than it would impact you in a way that you know that God doesn’t have a handicap, and nothing is outside of his potential.

Think about it like this: Jesus teaches us that “No can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money,” (Matthew 6:24), and Paul writes “…you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness…” (Romans 6:16). Do we allow money to control our lives, or God? Do you obey your finances? If so, would that not make you a slave to it? Everyone struggles with obeying or worshipping with something outside of God. We break our slavery to sin and the world when we choose to worship and serve God instead; there is healing in worship.

The Bible is powerful enough that when we actually understand what it is teaching us, it will radically change us; not confirm the way we are living. We can never fully understand God (Ephesians 3:14-21), which means that we will never stop learning and growing as Christians. My hope is that we won’t allow pride to hinder our spiritual growth.

The Narrow Gate.

I taught this past Wednesday (01/05) on the Holy Spirit. I was asked to teach at 10:30 the night before, so I just shared some things on my heart.

Here are a few scriptures that I've been thinking about lately:

Matthew 7:13-14

“¹³Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

1 Corinthians 2:12-13

^“12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ¹³And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

¹⁴The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.¹⁶‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

I also recently read Francis Chan’s book “Forgotten God”, which covers the need for the American church and all Christians to return to having an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, as well as living a life guided by Him. It led me to realize not just how much I need the influence of the Spirit of God in my life, but also how much I want to live a life that is radically transformed by the Holy Spirit on a day-to-day basis. I want to enter by the “narrow gate”! I want take up my cross and follow Christ. I feel that we need to be walk in the way the Spirit leads us on a daily basis. I know this sounds very basic and simple, but I challenge you to truly measure yourself in this area of your life. There is always room for improvement with this, I believe.

1 Corinthians 2:13-14 says “¹³And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. ¹⁴The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ” As Christians, we no longer live by the same logic or reason as the world does (also see Romans 12:2). Rather, we are “taught by the Spirit” and “have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2). The world will never make sense of what we do, and it shouldn’t. It didn’t make sense for the Son of God (who is God; John 14) to come down to earth in the form of a humble servant in flesh to die for the very sinners whom He created. This is best example of the “narrow gate” I can give you. I want to live radically for Christ. I want to be led by the Holy Spirit everyday. I want to go the way of the narrow gate.