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Scriptures used here come largely from the World English Bible (e-Sword.com), the New International Version (Zondervan), and The Message (Eugene Peterson, e-Sword.com).
Who Am I ? Why Am I Teaching This ?
I am John. Born in New Zealand in 1942. Came to Australia in 1970. Married in 1980 to Trish; we have six grown children, two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren.
I've had rich life experiences, made plenty of mistakes and learned a little! There is much of my own testimony in these talks.
25 years ago I became Christian. I knew that Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit love me, they actively fill me, and have purpose for my life. But, until a few years ago, mostly I was stuck.
I have been on two Father Heart of God courses, after each one I would say to Trish, "the course was really good, but I don't feel at all changed". But I was.
Now I can say that God is a wonderful Father to me and I love him!
My Lord Jesus asked me to share His Father with you.
Favourite Scriptures - HOPE and ASSURANCE
Jeremiah 29:13 and Matthew 5:6
You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
Luke 12:22-23 and Matthew 6:25
Therefore, I tell you, don't be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Philippians 1:6
. . being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:1
For freedom did Christ set us free . .
BIG QUESTION(S)
• Why Are We Here?
• Was there a Creation?
• Is the spiritual real? •• How can we know?
• Is the Creator God real, is Jesus?
• What gives life meaning?
• Why is the world such a mess?
• Where does love come from? •• Family? •• Beauty? •• Gender and Sex?
• Evolution ? Is it real? "If everything is just matter, why does everything matter?"
DICHOTOMY
For most of us there is a vast difference between God's design and plan for us . . and the reality of our lives . .
But our heavenly Father urgently wants to put this right . .
God's Promise - His Nature - Psalm 68
We live in the promises of God - He created and now sustains everything.
(Colossians 1:16-17)
For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
Jesus has overcome sin and death. Yet trouble still abounds. Satan's rule here struggles onward; this is called "already and not yet."
(Ephesians 2:2)
. . the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience . .
But God is always God - Creator - Sustainer - Father - reliable:
(Psalm 68: 5-6)
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families and the desolate in a homeland, he leads out the prisoners with singing.
(Psalm 68: 9-10)
You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance. Your people settled in it, and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.
"abundant showers" - rain - "life giving" - "refreshing" - "what is needed to grow"
THE WORLD WE SEE
I was a boy in mid 20th Century. I grew up in a very mixed world:
• WWI - the Great Depression - WWII - millions dead, tortured, broken - cities devastated.
• The Iron Curtain - the Cold War - MAD - the Communist Menace - the Yellow Peril.
• Egalitarian society - Economic freedom, rapid growth, endless promise.
Then - John F. Kennedy was assassinated . .
• Horrendous memories - big ideas - shattered hopes.
Big Ideas In The World
• Psychology: the six major theories in psychology: humanism, psychoanalytic, socio-cultural, behaviourism, neuro-biological, and cognitive. Freud, Jung, Nietzsche, Skinner. Few people ever come out of therapy - few answers?
• Communism and Socialism: failures - vast millions dispossessed - more millions killed.
• Economic Rationalism (today's favourite): Money is everything, morality is irrelevant, global market rules, greed is good.
• Companies are now more powerful than governments.
• Companies benefit the affluent and powerful - are terrible for everyone else.
• Increasing "have" and "have-not" separation in Western countries.
• Injustice in the World - many hungry - increasing slavery (yes, increasing slavery)
• Global Financial Crisis - the rich stayed rich but millions lost their pensions.
20th Century
Did God take His hands off the world for the 20th Century ? My thoughts in 1963 - JFK killed.
21st Century
Our present time seems even more chaotic: 9/11 - climate change - drugs - terrorism
Are there any answers ??
WORDS HAVE POWER And Their Own Baggage
"terrorist"
"climate change"
"father" possibly has the most impact of any word - everyone affected by their father.
Normal thinking in our present culture:
"partner"
"user pays"
"prosperity" - worldly success - material wealth (and celebrity?)
DICHOTOMY: The Promise / The Reality Of Life
The World: Impersonal Irrational (Plastic) Conformist / Materialistic
21st Century
Our present time seems even more chaotic: 9/11 - climate change - drugs - terrorism
Are there any answers ??
WORDS HAVE POWER And Their Own Baggage
"terrorist"
"climate change"
"father" possibly has the most impact of any word - everyone affected by their father.
Normal thinking in our present culture:
"partner"
"user pays"
"prosperity" - worldly success - material wealth (and celebrity?)
DICHOTOMY: The Promise / The Reality Of Life
The World: Impersonal Irrational (Plastic) Conformist / Materialistic
God: Is RELATIONAL Not PROPOSITIONAL Does NOT impose His will
God's View - He Is Father And Mother!
Jesus said: (Luke 13:34)
How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings.
MY DAD and ME
I was a wartime baby, conceived during that poignant time when my mum and dad knew he was going to war, but had not yet left. My parents loved the outdoors; trekking in the bush and skiing with friends. They were very social; they wore formal clothes a lot.
I think my father was a happy, fun, generous, sweet guy.
He became a navigator on bombers, he directed the plane to the target and pulled the trigger to release the bombs. One of his planes came down in France, he was captured by the Germans and escaped back to England bringing precious military intelligence with him. The King gave him an MBE, a medal of great honour.
Pop returned home when I was about three. He was very saddened; he was not able to talk about the war. Most of his fellow airmen died. A few years earlier my mother and he had had a wonderful honeymoon in the countries he bombed. He bombed cities and people he had loved.
Us kids remember him as stern, distant, authoritative, bitter, and without worldly success. He was mean. We all knew that he had at least one affair while we were teenagers.
He and I did not converse in any real way from when I was seventeen until the day before he died, thirty years later. He loved my wife Trish, and twice came to visit us at our hobby farm in Australia's South West. They talked a lot, but when I walked into the room he would fall silent.
When he was dying his sister said that I must go and visit him in the hospital. The hospital registrar assured me that he would quickly get better and I should save my money until he was really sick. My aunt insisted and I went. We had about eighteen hours together. He could not speak, except with his eyes and his hands. We had eighteen hours of loving one another. Then he was gone.
What a waste . .
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https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2011/08/father-heart-of-god-1.html
Amen.
