Now I am revising these posts so they will be more meaningful to read. Jesus came to heal us and set us free, bless us all. February 2026.
Part 1: Big Questions/Big Ideas
Part 2: Relationships
Part 3: Beliefs and Strongholds
Part 4: Unworthy, Yet Adopted
Part 5: Faith And Intimacy
After I was Christian for a while I was aware that what I had was not
enough.
Then our lovely Jesus had me looking into the Bible account of the Creation -
Genesis Chapters 1 and 2, and John Chapter 1.
I lived in these three chapters for a whole year; I couldn't have a quiet time
without turning there and pondering in my heart!.
The
Creation And Its Purpose - Indescribable!
"He stretches out the north over empty
space, and hangs the earth on nothing" (Job
26:7).
Jesus, "the Word of God",
gave me some answers. I quickly became convinced that our God, the Trinity of
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, created the universe from love. The whole thing
was, and is, from love and for love: "He who doesn't love
doesn't know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8).
Before "the beginning"
there was just God, our God, nothing else.
Not:
• Not Buddha, complacent, and his god, unknowable and unreachable.
• Not the Muslim god, who it seems to me, is all alone, bitter, misogynistic, angry,
vengeful.
• Not millions of Hindu or Roman gods fighting and back-stabbing
for power.
Our God. One God, Father, Son and Spirit. love. Eternally pouring out for
one-another. Giving.
Definitions
perichoresis: A fellowship and sharing so honest and open and real that the
persons involved dwell in one another without fear or coercion. It is union
without loss of individual identity. "When one weeps, the others taste
salt".
homoousios (homo:
same, ousios:
being): describes
the complete mutual indwelling in each Person of the Trinity. While each Person
remains in Himself as Father, Son and Spirit, they are, nevertheless, wholly in
the others and they are wholly in themselves (in ontological relationship). (John 14:10) "I am in the Father, and the Father in me".
ontological - the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or
being (http://www.trinityinyou.com/index
27Aug2010).
Creation
Elohim (a plural
word meaning "God" used in the early chapters of our Bible), decided
to make room for more. Whatever they brought into their presence would have to
be very special:
• The Father so loved the Son; it would be good to bring the Son a
glorious bride, one who would be his delight forever - (John 3:29, Revelation
22:17)
• The Son so loved the Father; it would be good to give the Father many
sons (many children in the inheritance), and bring them to glory - (Hebrews
2:10)
• "Elohim"
would create creatures in their own "image
and likeness" (Genesis 1:27). But not just spiritual.
Physical. Each person would be hand made, and their spirit would flow from
God's breath!
"Let
there be . . let there be . . let there be . . . . let us make man . . and call
them 'man' and 'woman'" ... "and it was very good" (Genesis
1).
The Creation centres on family:
• "Jehovah" or "Adonai" or "Lord God" is called "Father".
• The Son is called "Son".
• They were family and are family . . we are "in their image and likeness" - this is why family seems
so natural to every people-group in the world and has always done so!
A Need
For A Father?
Throughout humankind there is a deep yearning for relationship with a
father:
• Readers Digest: "The quality of a person's relationships is the most
important factor in the level of happiness for that person" (July 2008).
• Maggie Dent: "Human connectedness is what keeps us alive. Nothing Else.
Relationships. So you build pastoral care among our young people. Give them
your relationship if there are no others. Make sure they eat properly, get good
sleep, laugh. Exhausted, unloved, hungry kids are liable to make crazy, costly
decisions". (Maggie Dent is
a community worker and suburban mum, and author of "Live Fast, Die
Young") (Talking Heads ABC-TV 14 July 2010).
• Fiona Stanley: "all children need parenting and education to have a future
in the world; [Australian] indigenous children will continue to live chaotic
lives until this happens: uneducated, under achieving, sick, short lived" Fiona Stanley is an epidemiologist noted for her child,
maternal and public health work), (2009).
• James Baldwin: "Children are not good at listening to their parents, but
always grow up being just like them". James Baldwin was an illegitimate black American 20th Century
writer. "Go Tell it on the Mountain". "Nobody Knows My
Name".
Thoughtful human suggestions. They do not include our spirit, just our body and
our soul, our will and emotions. No answers of practical help to me. Or
you?
A Place
For Father
"The Spirit of God is seeking to reveal a deep but simple truth:
'The undivided consciousness of Fatherhood is the single sufficient source of
authority the church needs to initiate and sustain revival'. This revelation is
a shared state of awareness that can only be realised in the community of the
church" (A Place for God,
John Yates, 2010).
We all deeply desire to belong as a child. The Bible calls this
"sonship".
• Sigmund Freud: "I could not point to any need in childhood as strong as that
for fatherhood".
• Lucille Ball of the "I Love Lucy" TV show when discussing the
decline of Western society: "Where are the fathers?"
• Catalyst: Dr Jonica Newby: "New science suggests that fathers, as well as mothers,
experience changes throughout pregnancy and childbirth. Fathers appear to be
subtly primed, by their hormones, for fatherhood, even before the child is
born" (ABC-TV Thursday
1 July 2010).
• Fatherhood is generally regarded as being precious. Anthropology and human
history show that fathers have a special place in families in virtually every
culture throughout all the ages. Jesus treasured his Sonship; He was
always aware that He was the Father's Son, this was precious beyond everything,
His yearning for Father was satisfied.
• When told that IVF babies have no need of a father, something inside us says
"not true".
• Kids naturally trust and admire their father, the hero without fault.
• "Who am I the son of?" This is my identity. Often single and de
facto mothers give their children their father's family name. This is not a
rational act.
• Today, many poorer Western children, particularly teens and young adults, are
profoundly confused because they do not know who their father is.
• Many young men seem to have no grasp of what it is to be a
man.
In an ancient Sumatran village missionaries found an old story that the God of
the whole Universe would one day send his Son to save the village people from
their guilt and sin. (A story like this has been part of the consciousness of
many peoples around the world for hundreds of years). When Christian
missionaries came to that village and talked about Jesus, the people
immediately knew that He was the One they had been waiting for. The entire
village quickly became Christian. The missionaries stayed and translated the
Bible into their local dialect. Much rejoicing, then and now still.
Http://christiankonnections.com/html/primitive_religion.html
(31/10/2010).
One answer . . God is our Father . . Is this too scary?
IF
If I am truly a beloved intimate child of God most high, how do I respond?
What do I do? Not nothing - but everything.
Because I am loved, I love, and am inclined toward the object of my love.
Devoted. Caring. Seeking to please.
Not "I must", or "I should". I cannot help myself. Personal
growth is enabled.
How about you ? Can you identify with this ?
Beloved - I Am Beloved - You Are Beloved - He Is Our Beloved.
Love: A "Doing " Word
• As with an earthly beloved. Spend time together with Jesus. Hang out. Snuggle
up. Talk. Listen. Jesus came to Earth as a man, a person. We can identify
with Him, He is approachable, indeed "He
is not far from any one of us" (Acts 17:27).
• We do not have to have huge, intense, prayerful, worshipful, dress-up
events – I believe that simple is best.
• If Jesus' Daddy is my Daddy then Jesus and I are brothers.
• Sure, he is my Saviour. Certainly he is my Lord. Absolutely he rules
and reigns over all the universe, and over me. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
• He has given me His righteousness (Romans 5:17). And His "yes" (2 Corinthians
1:20).
• Jesus is always with us (Deuteronomy 31:8; Isaiah 60:19-20; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).
• We are with Him, at the right hand of our Father (Ephesians 2:6).
This is the New Covenant!
"If then you were raised together with Christ,
seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of
God" (Colossians 3:1).
The
Woman At The Well
(John 4:5-26) (Three minutes to read aloud)
"So he came to a city of Samaria ... Jacob's well
was there. Jesus, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was
about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to
her, 'Give me a drink'".
This woman has been so devastated by life. Possibly she is barren. Being barren
is the worst thing that could happen to a woman in that Bible-times culture,
being unable to bear children.
A lovely person? Beautiful? Five men married her, so she must have been very,
very special.
But she was always rejected ...
Every man she was ever close to has abandoned her, she did not even go home to
be with her parents after her fifth divorce, but endured the disgrace of living
unmarried with a man.
Jesus came to her, He spent time with her. Her life was transformed. Jesus became a father to her.
Jesus awakened the woman's spirit to know the truth. He did not approach her as
a Rabbi (which He was well qualified to do), or as a thirty-something man (she
did not need another man telling her how to live).
No, He was Father to her, the one thing she needed above all else.
Praise
Jesus.
Isaiah prophesied of the coming Messiah . . "His name will be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah (9:6).
Jesus is also fully Mother: "How often I would have gathered your
children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matthew
23:37).
Jesus is Truth - The Word of
God (John 1:14)
"As for you, the anointing which you
received from Him remains in you, and you don't need for anyone to teach you.
But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no
lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in Him" (1
John 2:27).
"Truth" brings our "Father". Amen.
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