Abba, Father

After taking a couple days to think of what title for the Lord I connect with the most it would have to be Abba.  A little background, the word Abba is derived for Aramaic and is "baby-talk" for daddy, like dada or moma would be.  It used often in the New Testament, Mark 14:36 for example.

The thought of God being our Heavenly Father is something that is hard to grasp.  I have heard many of sermons talking about such a subject.  To quote A.W. Tozer, "What I believe about God is the most important thing about me."  I look at God as a big guy in the sky who I can always run to whenever I'm in need and who will comfort me, as my earthly father would.  The Lord is always looking out for me and truly wants what is best for me.  He wants my love and He wants me to show Him love and respect. 

There have been times when I have been on the brink and seriously in distress when all I want is my father or mother because I know that whatever is happening to me they will show me the love that I crave.  I desire, excuse me, I want the desire to feel that way toward my God all the time.  In our times of pain He can make it better.  He can provide everything we need.  He can give us that hug that we always need when we have screwed up and are ashamed to even talk to Him.  He will discipline us when we get out of line, only because He loves us (Hebrews 12:6).  He will guide us to the way of righteousness.  We are undeserving as sons and have spoiled the rights as sons, much like the prodigal son, but yet as we return bloody, ashamed, full of sin and discouraged our God is there to hug us, love on us and show us the way.  Our Abba.  My Father.

"Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." - Galatians 4:7-8

Pew

John 3:36

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." - Jn 3:36

This sentence didn't quite make sense in my English major brain.  On the one side of the sentence, all we have to do is believe, and on the other, we have to obey.  In other words, the sentence only makes sense if obedience follows belief.

I think obedience does follow belief.  Once we've come into contact with the Creator of the universe (and we have), understood Him to be what He is (and we have), accepted His Son as our savior and acknowledged that He lives in us (and we have), the overwhelming value of that sacrifice gives immediate rise to the sheer desire, need, compulsion to obey what he asks of us.

That's not to say that our flesh on its own is capable, or that there aren't any other links in the chain between belief and obedience.  But it is necessary for us to recognize, like Jonah, that there is no hiding, no ignoring our duty to listen and obey Christ, as believers and followers of Christ.

Powell

Exodus 12

As we know, Jesus is in the Old Testament.

("He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." -Luke 24:44)

"and when he sees the blood on the litnel and on the two door posts , the Lord will passover the door and not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you." (Exodus 12: 23)

This is foretelling the justification we receive as children of God and believers in Christ.

("Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." -Romans 5:9)

When God sees Christ's blood that has covered us and our sins, the wrath that we deserve passes us and we are not destroyed, but delivered into a better land. It is nothing we did, but in fact, what Christ accomplished on the cross. Dying the death we should have received, and because of his blood we are free.

Walker

Exodus 2

When they [Reuel's seven daughters] came to Reuel their father, he said, 'Why have you come back so soon today?'  So they said, 'An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and what is more, he even drew the water for us and watered the flock.' - Exodus 2:17-18

There are three separate instances in the first two chapters of Exodus where Moses demonstrates his penchant for delivering people.  The first is when he kills the Egyptian, the second when he confronts the two Hebrews for beating up on each other, and the third is when the shepherds tried to drive these girls away from their well.

This week we're talking about spotting how our desires get in the way of God's desires, and becoming willing to subordinate our desires to His.

But this part of Exodus (and my own experience) gives me the impression that God uses some of our desires, our penchants, our predispositions, to His own glory.  Some get in the way (the weeds and thorns from Mark), but not all of them are weeds.

 In other words, God has built in you a foundation for greatness, one that is not unattractive.  There is something already in you that He can use!  He put it there himself.  We simply have to make a decision between living through Jesus and letting Him guide us in the way He pleases, or butting heads with our in-born purpose for the rest of our lives.

Either way will be difficult, but we can handle it.  If God is for us, who can be against us?

-Powell

Psalm 73

A nice musical representation, and straight from scripture, of a lot of what we talked about last night:

I've had enough of living life for only me
And reaching just for the things that keep destroying me
So sick of envying the lives of so many I see
Somehow believing that they have what I need

My God's enough for me
This world has nothing I need
In this whole life I've seen
My God's enough, enough for me

I can't explain why I suffer though I live for You
Those who deny You they have it better than I do
Cover my eyes now so that my heart can finally see
That in the end only You mean anything

Who have I in heaven but You
Nothing I desire but You
My heart may fail but not You
You are mine forever

"Psalm 73 (My God's Enough)" by Barlow Girl