Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I Will Not Leave You Fatherless



Before we go any farther I believe it is important to revisit our portion of scripture that is our “jumping off point”.

John 14:18 “I will not leave you fatherless. I will come to you.”

There are several companion passages to this one in the New Testament. One is:

“For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,”  
                                                Romans 8:15-16

Luke 3:38 tells us that Adam was “the son of God.”

We see over and over again that in God’s restoration of creation, He is not content to restore the way we think of restoration. He always makes it better than it originally was.  In this case, the glory of God rested on Adam and Eve (they were naked and unashamed). Now, His glory lives within us!

One Story, One Observation

I have a story to tell and an observation to share, then I will come back to verse 18.

Story

I never knew my father. He left the family when I was 18 months old. I have no memories of ever seeing him again. My childhood was truly fatherless and manless.  My mother was strong and did her best to be provider, protector, shepherd, teacher, and mother. Being a mere human, this was impossible. The unfortunate result in my life was a distorted and confused understanding of what either father or mother is supposed to be. And my life revealed this lackluster understanding at every turn. (And, in many ways, probably still does. I am a work in progress)

When I surrendered to the love and Lordship of Christ I was told that God was now my father. In my creative artist’s mind this presented me with a tremendous opportunity. You see, I grew up wanting to replace Mike Schmidt at third base for the Philadelphia Phillies. My mother taught me enough about baseball to get on a team and get some decent coaching. I took it from there.

From the age of seven to fifteen, I put in hours every day developing my skills as a baseball player. I had no one to work with me. I did not realize that I could ask my coaches to work with me one on one and no one told me I could. So, I worked alone. I worked as diligently as I could. By fifteen it was obvious that I was not going to be good enough to make the Rookie League so, I decided to focus on swimming to try to get a college scholarship.

The one thing that I always noticed was that the other kids had their dads at their games. Their dads played catch with them in the back yard. Their dads supported and were proud of them.

I never had that.

At twenty-one I was recently out of the Air Force and born again. I was starting life all over again. I thought, “If God is my Father, than I want to know what it is like to play baseball with my Dad.”

I went to the batting cages with Him. I talked with Him the whole time. Instead of coaching myself on my technique, I imagined Him telling me what adjustments I needed to make. It was fun!

Observation

At the time of this writing, I have been taking up space on this planet for over forty-five years (counting from conception). I have noticed that, most of the Christian men I've known who are willing to marry single mothers have incredibly blessed marriages and lives.

 I find it to be an amazing phenomenon.

We know that widows and orphans are dear to God’s heart:

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
                                                                                                James 1:27

“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry to at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.” Exodus 22:22-24

“At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, any come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” Deuteronomy 14:28-29 (also Duet. 16:11, 14; Duet. 24:17-21; 26:12-12; 27:19; Psalm 10:14, 18; 82:3; and on and on it goes)  

Job believed that his relationship with God, his wealth, and his place of influence in the community were directly due to his care for the fatherless, widows, foreigners, and the poor. (Job 29)

Back To The Beginning

We saw earlier that Adam was God’s son. And, Jesus, when first explaining the coming of the Holy Spirit says, “I will not leave you fatherless. I will come to you.”

Apparently, since the fall, God has considered humanity to be “Fatherless”.

Obviously most foreigners, widows, and orphans (the handicapped, as well) are the most vulnerable in our society. It is understandable that our compassionate God would go out of His way to make sure that we care for them.

 And, maybe it wasn't until Jesus began to reveal the Fatherhood (heart?) of God that humanity could begin to realize that when we take care of these most vulnerable that we are, indeed, taking care of ourselves. I say this, because, until we receive the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of adoption – we are every bit as Fatherless, widowed (without provision or protection), Levite (without inheritance), handicapped, and foreigners (aliens without the benefits of citizenship, living away from our Father’s land).  

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”                   
John 1:12-13

Are you enjoying a Father-child relationship with God?

The type of Father who wants us loved, provided for, protected, socially integrated in a fulfilling way, and whole spirit, soul, and body.

The Holy Spirit resides within us to lead us into this reality.

As I meditate on the wonders of God being my Father, I hear my heart say,

“Daddy, more, please!?”

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