Saturday, August 30, 2025

The Good Of The Father (Like Father Like Son) # 2003

 




Perceive what 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  


The question was asked this week, who is God?  Sure, you might fall back on your mainstream church upbringing like I have so many times in my descriptions of God and Jesus, but exactly who is He?  Is He an overseer, sitting upon His throne in heaven bestowing us with His approval or disapproval depending on what we do?  Indeed, this is how the church will speak of the Lord God.  From Sunday sermons to contemporary Christian worship music, the message is clear, "Cone near to us, Lord."  This is how I was raised in the church separation theology.  Where God was an impersonal, far-off entity.  Where sin was an ever-present danger.  Never once in all of my years in the mainstream church did I hear of the personal relationship I could have with the Lord.  Sure, I heard those words bantered around many times.  Yet a personal, loving relationship with God was deemed impossible for we sinners.  This is where our issue with knowing who God truly is lies.  I have honestly come to believe that if we are to began to see the truth of who God is that we first need to separate ourselves from the church and its theologies.  While this might sound like a radical statement to many, it is the apostle John who calls upon us to "Test the spirits to see if they are of God" {First Epistle of John 4:1}.  The author and theologian J Preston Eby has interpreted, rather correctly, the passage which we find in Revelation 18: 4.  In this verse, John issues the warning to "Come out of her (The church), my people, lest you should be joint participants in her sins" {The unveiling of Christ Jesus 18:4}.  Yet for many, the church has become associated with God, and to withdraw from it would somehow mean that they were walking away from God.  This is exactly how I felt when I walked away from the church so many years ago.  There had been a stirring within me in my spirit, something didn't seem right.  I would not discover what this uneasiness was until I began to share conversations with a retired pastor friend who had himself felt that same stirring in his spirit.  I would soon learn the truth of who God really is.  


In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and I in you, and you in Me

Johns Account 14: 20, Concordant New Testament 


The words spoken by Jesus must have seemed inconceivable to those who were listening.  Jesus in me?  Jesus in a sinner?  Again, the sin issue is but one of the issues used by those in the church to illustrate that a relationship with the Father is at best difficult.  The apostle Paul speaks to the truth of that sin issue in Romans.  It is Paul who reminds us that Christ has died to sin "Once for all time" {Paul to the Romans 6:10}.  So it is that through Christ, our realization of who God truly is has become possible.  Jesus has spoken to the truth that if we see Him, we have seen the Father {Johns Account 14:9}.  Jesus also has proclaimed that He only does as He sees the Father doing {Johns Account 5:19}.  The truth is, we are the representation of Who God is.  It is the Father in Whom we have our life {Johns Account 14:20}.  We have been created in the Fathers likeness {Genesis 1:27}.  Contrary to the teachings of the mainstream church, we are much closer to God than they will ever admit.  Perhaps this is why Eby so correctly translated the scripture in Revelation that the Lords children need to "Come out of her."  For as the Son does only what He sees the Father do, so have we been declared sons as well {First Epistle of John 3:1}.  As our life is in Him, we share in all which God does.  The truth is, God has never been some far off entity separated from man by sin.  He is in our DNA, an intimate part of who we are.  THAT is who God is.  


~Scott~ 

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