Perceive the manner of love the Father has given us, that we may be called children of God! And we are! Therefore the world does not know us, for it did not know Him.
First Epistle of John 3: 1, Concordant New Testament
I grew up never really knowing the man that my father was. I would catch occasional glimpses of him in those rare moments that he would open himself up for people to see, but those were few and far between. Men of my dads generation weren't big on emotions or showing their feelings. So it was that I grew up never knowing the man he was. By the same token, my dad spent most of his own life not knowing a relationship with his own children. When they speak of broken families, this is definitely what they are speaking to. I've never had the opportunity of being a parent, but I have been around some good friends whom I have learned a lot from. One of these men, a very dear friend, has struggled in recent years due to a fractured relationship with one of his children. I can see how much it concerns him in those moments when he shares his thoughts about the situation. Even though I grew up without knowing the man my father was, I rarely thought about what it must have been like for him. To go through life not knowing your own child? That pain is something I can't speak to. Yet, from those I have spoken to over the years, a lost relationship with a child can be a gut-wrenching feeling. We might blame ourselves, or we might go through life with resentment towards our own flesh and blood, but in the end we miss that which we've never had. I was thinking about this the other day as I thought of my own relationship with the Father. In a way, my own relationship with God has followed that same path as my relationship with my earthly dad. For years I never really knew Him. For years my Father longed for that relationship with me. As with my dad, I knew OF God, I just didn't truly know Him. The author Wayne Jacobsen, in his book He Loves Me, lays out our typical one sided relationship with the Father that I once knew. This relationship, based more on fear than anything else, is the relationship which the mainstream church continues to push on people today. Imagine that you're someone looking to know God. Along comes a pastor, someone you think would point you in the right direction, who explains to you that you have the choice of either knowing God or going to the suffering of hell. Well, what choice do you think you'd make? Faced with that same choice, I chose God. A no brainer, right? Well, the only catch is that this isn't how the Father wants to be seen. Like any father, God WANTS a relationship with His children. Do we come to Him because we're afraid of the consequences, or do we come to Him out of our desire to really know Him?
Religion has actually convinced people that there is a invisible man living in the sky watching everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever until the end of time! But he loves you. He loves you, and he needs money. He always needs money. He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow he just can't handle money.
George Carlin
Growing up I had a fear based relationship with God. I knew about Him, and I knew what the church had taught me I was supposed to do to keep me in His good graces. The trouble was, I was never able to uphold all of what was expected of me. So, in my own eyes, I was often the bad son of His flock. Consequently, I was never able to fully see Him as He wanted me to, as my loving Father {First Epistle of John 4:8}. Wayne Jacobsen makes the statement in his book that "Once you convince someone that hell and heaven exist, winning a convert is easy." How true this is of the church today! Religion has convinced us to live our lives in fear of God. But this is not how God really wants to be known. Would a God of love desire to rule His children through fear? Yet this is the mantra I bought into for so many years. Often, God was a contradiction to me. When things were going well in my life, He was happy and blessing me. But when the pitfalls of life came, suddenly He didn't want anything to do with me. How could a Father who had created me in His own likeness be so cold and distant {Genesis 1:27}? Again, this is how I was taught to see Him. One night during a bible study on the parable of the prodigal son, I was introduced to the REAL Fathers love for me. In Jesus' story, the rich mans son took his inheritance and traveled to a distant land to live his own life. Well, things didn't work out and , destitute, the son decides to return and make amends with his father. Imagine the sons surprise that, while he was still a ways from home, his father came running out to greet him! This father, whom the son was assured would be upset with his wayward son, had nothing but love for him. THIS is the love that God has for us. Despite what we have been told, it's a relationship with His children that He desires. What father would not want that? The Fathers love is not a love based on fear, but on genuine affection. This is the good of the Father.
Fear is not in love, but perfect love is casting out fear, for fear has chastening. Now he who is fearing is not perfected in love.
First Epistle of John 4: 18, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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