After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen. - Matthew 6:9-13
Before I begin I need to make a short apology to some of our readers. In the past few weeks I have chosen to write on topics that dealt with events and customs which were completely local in nature. Normally that�s not too bad. After all we are relating the Writings of God, as we search out the Scripture, to our daily lives as well as to the life to come. But, I seemed to forget the forum to which I was speaking. WWW stands for world wide web. I have been writing concerning entirely local, and national, subjects as they relate to the Scripture and have forgotten the fact that the Scripture is written to all people, at all times, and at all places. I apologize for my myopic view and promise to do better in the future.
This week I have chosen a topic that is somewhat local but the concept is universal. Today, June the 19th 2005, is �Father�s Day� here in the U.S. It is not a national holiday, as such, but rather a day set aside to honor the fathers of our communities.
I�m extremely fortunate in that I get to experience this day from all sides. I am a father, of course. But, so is my son. So, I�m a grandfather as well. And, this afternoon I will be visiting with my father.
Even more importantly, as we open the pages of God�s Holy Word and read the above Scripture from the Book of Matthew, we are drawn to the picture of God as our Heavenly Father.
That isn�t a popular concept in some circles today. Hymnals have been desecrated to remove all mention of a male figure from religious singing. Bibles (so called) have been stripped of any reference to God as the Father. ...often even of Jesus as the Son.
I don�t want to get into any real discussion of this. In the songs it is simply a silly example of political correctness run amuck.
But, in the Scripture it is a complete rejection of the Words which God chose to place within His Message to humanity. Again, I don�t want to get into a real discussion of this at this time. But, it is a sin for us to pick and choose which of God�s Words we will allow Him to use.
What I do want to do is briefly look at the above passage and make some observations as God uses His Words to speak to us today.
The first phrase, of course, is �Our Father.� That is such a humanizing and comforting phrase to describe Deity. It brings up feelings of warmth and love.
It is a Biblical description of the relationship which the believer has with God. The Apostle Paul puts it this was: �For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear: but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.(Romans 8:15)� As much as a child will come to his earthly father with problems and trials, so can we approach our Heavenly Father.
Some years ago, when my daughter was quite small, there was a problem with one of the children from the apartment complex across the street from us. He was constantly picking on her. When I became aware of the problem I went the this child�s parents to resolve the problem.
God does that when we bring our problems to Him. He might say for us to bear up with the problem. �It�ll make you stronger to go through this time.� Or, He might just say to Satan, �Not with my kid you don�t!� Either way we can be certain that His approach will be the one which will draw us closer to Him and make us stronger and more able to stand against further attacks from the wicked one.
The caveat here is that just as I needed to know about my daughter�s problem, so must we approach God with our problems. It isn�t that He doesn�t know; it�s that He wants us to cast our cares upon Him (I Peter 5:7). This is the family relationship. We do not serve an impersonal God Who just starts the engine and lets the motor run to see what will happen. He cares deeply and wants that two way relationship which includes our seeking Him out in all of our life�s cares, worries, and joys!
But, there is another part of �Our Father...� My granddaughter Shandi has several young cousins that she plays with quite often. As I write this she is over at one of their home�s for a birthday party. Two of these little boys are quite young, themselves.
One of the little boy�s has followed Shandi�s lead. He calls me �Grandpa.� Now, I�m not his grandfather. I answer him, of course. But, I�m not really his grandfather.
God is the Creator of all mankind. But He is not the Father of all mankind. The verse above (Romans 8:15) speaks of being �adopted� into God�s family.
The Biblical religion is somewhat exclusionary. Romans, chapter three, presents a picture of humanity as one that is lost in sin and incapable of fellowship with God (vv. 10, 11). But, this same chapter presents a picture of God offering to freely justify those who would come to faith in Christ (vv. 24-26). The clear picture is that anyone who has not experienced salvation through Jesus Christ and His substitutionary work on Calvary can not be considered a �Child of God� in the spiritual sense.
Acts 4:12 reinforces this truth: �Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.� That may sound narrow. But, the narrowness is in our thinking. God has opened wide the doors of His love and forgiveness. He only asks that we respect His Son�s sacrifice on Calvary and accept that which He freely offers.
That may sound somewhat harsh. Still, is the free offer of an antidote for the sickness of sin harsh? A person may be very moral. He may be very fine and upstanding. He may even be religious. Those aren�t the questions God will ask. His question revolves around their acceptance or non-acceptance of His Son. �He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)�
Salvation is quite simple. If we disrespect the Son and His work at the cross of Calvary, we disrespect the Father and His proffered Gift of salvation. Until and unless this gift is accepted on the part of mankind, the process of adoption is not completed!
Yes, God is the Father of the Christian. He is also The Father which art in Heaven. God is the Constant Contemporary. When my children were very young, newborns, I used to lie on the bed with them on my chest. I would talk to them in �baby talk� and hold them. After a few months, when they would begin to roll around a bit, I�d let them go but hold on to one of their feet so they wouldn�t fall and hurt themselves.
I wouldn�t try any of that now!
As they grew up through the various stages of their lives, I would relate to them in differing manners. It wasn�t so much that I had changed; it was that as they grew our relationship took on differing natures.
We see this in the various dispensations of the Bible histories. God worked with infant mankind in various ways and recorded the failures of men in their relationships to Him. �But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)�
And so it is in our own lives. When we are young in the faith we might see God as a mystical thing somewhere up yonder Who looks after us as a celestial Santa Claus and waits for the chance to pounce upon us for our evil doing, or give to us rewards and gifts for trying to please Him.
Later we may grow to realize that He is that friend Who stands beside us to comfort, to encourage, to guide... As we grow He becomes more real with each passing trial and triumph. We can never outgrow Him, or become so intelligent as to place Him in our little box of treasures from our youth. He�s always there, just a step or two ahead of us. He continues to hold out His hand and say, �Come on. I�ve got something really good for you over here.�
And, when the time comes, He�ll be there at the �Valley of the Shadow.� He�ll say, �Come on. I know it�s going to be hard passing through this land. But, come on. I�ve got something really good for you over here. I�ll be right here with you all the way.�
That�s the wonderful thing about God. He made the heavens and the earth. He is not bound by the physical laws of time and space, which are of His construction. He stood as the friend of Peter, and James, and John, and all the rest. And, He stands by to be your friend as well. He�s the Friend Who stands by you in whatever place you call His Name. Even when you sometimes fail to call His Name, He stands by you, waiting if you are an adopted child of His.
...and He always will be there! I�m at the age where attending funerals is an all too common experience. Too many of my friends, relatives, my wife of over thirty years, these are not abstract names; they are real to me in my memories. I know that in Glory I�ll see them again in reality. That is true of God also, of course. But the glorious thing is that we can experience the reality of His presence today. He is our Constant Contemporary.
We are also reminded that His Name is to be hallowed. That means revered - or reverenced. That doesn�t just mean a proper and respectful utterance of His Name. Although, neither swear words nor jokes which tend to demean His Holy Name should be in the mouth of the child of God.
Neither should we invoke the Holy Name of God to advance our own cultural perceptions. We tend to think we know how the world should be run. It�s the way we�ve always been taught by our parents and their parents. Often this is correct. Western culture has been seeped in things Biblical for over fifteen hundred years. But, we need to remember that much of that culture was christian in name only.
I remember when I was growing up, the pastor of the church I attended - a Godly man in all respects I felt then and still feel now, preached strongly against television. It was most assuredly wrong; it was a tool of the devil. That was his assertion. The interesting thing was that he often came to our home for a meal after church on Sunday - in the fall. He was a football fan and we always had the game on the tube.
I don�t hold it against him. Television was a new enterprise back then. The �churchy� people didn�t know how to react to its intrusion into their culture so many of them preached against it. The same thing happened with phonographs and radio - and the internet. The point I�m trying to make here is that we dare not tie our religious views up in our culture.
Culture is a shifting sand of a landscape. We dare not paint the picture of true Christianity on the canvas of culture or that picture will be obscured and outdated with the passing of time. Our preaching and Christian Message must constantly be �Thus saith the Lord.� Whether culture, or society, or science, or any other construct of time agrees or disagrees with our message is of no importance; we must secure our message to the Preserved Word of God or we will see our message become outdated.
Worse, our message will be only our message and not the timeless Message of the God of Heaven.
Our Lord also taught us to pray that God�s Will be done. Now, this is going to happen. The Will of God will be done. But, when we pray for this it will tend to line up our hopes and aspirations with His agenda. Too many (Way Too Many!) churches and ministries are too busy (Way Too Busy!) preaching a political agenda when they need to be preaching that Jesus Christ came to die on a cross so that mankind could live eternally.
Now, I understand this preaching. There is a paranoia in the Western churches today. They have seen a great shift in cultural values in the past 30 + years. Whereas in times past the Message of Christ was respected, if not always accepted, in society in general, today sees that same Message is vilified. If is neither accepted nor respected by society in general. When spoken of at all the Message is normally scorned. We are admonished to keep that Message to ourselves and our conclaves.
Folks, we are back in the first century. As I recall from my history, those ancient Roman territories were not exactly eager to receive the Message of a crucified and risen Lord.
We have a great opportunity. We are not being physically abused or persecuted, for the most part. That really should make no difference to the Christian. Our Lord�s command is still to �...Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in... (Luke 14:23)�
This needs to be done. It is the will of the Father of Heaven.
Jesus also said that we should ask for our daily bread. We need to keep our physical bodies under subjection so that we will be able to do the work which He has given us to do.
I am fat. No; that�s not true. I used to be fat but then I gained a whole lotta weight! I joke about it. But, the truth of the matter is that it is a sin against God to mistreat my physical body. God gave us these bodies to use them as instruments for Him. He gave us instructions in His Word on how to best live our physical lives. To ignore those instructions is to sin.
Now, before you begin to berate me, or someone else for some other sin, look into your own life and see where you have failed God either directly - in doing some thing you know you should not have done, or indirectly - in not doing some thing that you know you should have done!
Let�s not go on such a crusade against someone for some particular sin that we would fail to show them that there is a God Who loves them where they are. He might want them to make some changes, but they can not do this - not completely in a spiritual sense - until they are allowed to respond to His love.
Don�t just tell them about His love while you are beating them over the head with your Bible,
show them that love in your attitudes and actions toward them! Talk is cheap. Your actions will show if you mean well or are just, well, mean. Remember God�s standards in doing God�s Work.
Part of our daily bread is also that Bread of Life. Pray for it. But, read and meditate upon It as well.
We live in a post-Christian culture. We need to know the Word. We need to be ready to respond with the Word�s of Life when the Spirit give opportunity.
Several years ago a professional baseball player stole 130 bases in one season. You know how he did it? He kept getting on base. He could not have stolen any bases had he never gotten to first. Our Christian witness is like that. We need to always be ready to speak when the Spirit gives us opportunity. Part of being ready is being on friendly, or at least not unfriendly, status with the unsaved. They will not listen to someone who has shown them hate and a superior attitude.
You also need to pray for people. By name and often. Sometime I�ll preach a lot about this. It is vitally important that we pray, and pray specifically. Praying for the world brings a nice religious feeling, but praying for Jim or John, or Sue or Sandy, down the street, will bring conviction and the smile of God.
We ask God to forgive us of our trespasses. That ain�t a hard one! Don�t have to talk much about this. We all know what we�ve done wrong and are really quick to ask God to forgive us of these things.
But, we need to also forgive those who�ve transgressed against us.
Reminds me of the little lady down in the hills. The new preacher preached against drinking the hard liquor. She said, �Amen, Brother. Preach it!� The new preacher preached against smoking. She said, �Amen, Brother. Preach it!� The new preacher preached against carousing and �running around.� She said, �Amen, Brother. Preach it!� The new preacher preached against gossiping about our neighbor. She met him at the door and said, �Preacher, you just quit preaching and started meddling.�
If we hold hate in our heart against others we will never be able to win them to the Lord. This is a hard thing to pray. I am supposed to forgive those who�ve wronged me? That�s real easy to say. It�s a little tougher to say when we remove the question mark and insert a period at the end of the sentence. But, it needs to be done. Is this where you sin lies? It does with me.
It�s easier to diet than to forgive a person who has wronged me. We need to remember that Jesus did not make this an option. He said to talk to God about it. Remember, we call Him our Lord. The Lord is a Person we claim to follow. So, follow his orders. God don�t make no suggestions.
If we are ever going to be useful in advancing His kingdom, we need to do this. We need to show the love to others that God has shown to us. People will not appreciate our Book when we hit them over the head with it; they will respond to our God-energized love when we display it in action.
I am not talking about the �social gospel� of charity and good community works. These are good, and they have their place. What I mean is that advancing of His kingdom that comes one soul at a time brought into the adoption agency of His eternal love.
I can�t do this. It is beyond the ability of my pride and selfishness. But God can do it through me if I let Him work.
When I was in the military I qualified with a .45 pistol. I still don�t know how I did it! I am a terrible shot with a pistol. I honestly don�t believe I could his the broad side of a barn with a pistol even if I was standing inside the barn! I asked my drill sergeant if I could take the bullets out and throw them. I figured I would do more damage that way.
He asked if I�d mind washing a few dishes.
Well, O. K.; he didn�t ask.
Neither did God.
He simply said that I should forgive those who�d wronged me.
But, He also said that He�d help me do it. All I have to do is chamber His love within my heart and allow Him to squeeze the trigger of my emotions.
No problem? Large problems. I seem to forget that the glory is His. When someone hurts my little feelings (O. K.; large feelings!), I get all upset and worried because they have dishonored me.
Big deal!
It is the Glory of God that is important. His Glory shines forth every time a soul is brought into His kingdom. His Glory shines forth every time a soul is approached about accepting the sacrifice of Christ. His Glory shines forth every time a Christian allows His Will to have sway in the Christian�s heart.
His Glory shines forth all the time. May we never be so offensive, or offended, or just plain afraid, that we hide His Eternal Glory from a soul that needs a home in heaven!
And, may this be our attitude forever as long as we have breath within our bodies of clay.
Amen. So be it Lord Jesus!
What about you? Why haven�t you responded to God�s Message of salvation?
Have you said, �I don�t want to go to church with some those hypocrites!�? So, am I to understand that you wish to go to Hell with all of them?
Be serious. Don�t let someone you don�t like keep you from the greatest thing that could ever happen to you. God loves you even if some unthinking Christian hasn�t figured out that point, yet. Go on. Accept Jesus as your Savior.
At the very least you�d be able to tell that Christian, �God loves me.� for all eternity!