I realize that we celebrate Father’s Day in this month, so I guess I will write a piece on it, but not with the normal point of view the world holds about what makes a perfect father, since there never has been or ever will be a perfect human father! Scripture is very clear that there has only been One who is perfect. That, of course, is our heavenly Father.
Now most would agree that one of the main jobs of a father is to provide for all his children need in order to reach maturity as people. So, with that thought in mind, lets discuss God’s provisioning for His children to help them reach maturity in their faith.
God never asks anything of us that He hasn’t already provided. It’s a great thing when we learn this principle of God’s dealings with His children. Do we have anything of our own to give God when He asks something of us? If we think we do, we’re beside the mark and are in spiritual poverty. God’s requirements are so many, so varied and so great, that a man who tries to meet the call on his own will certainly fail. (I certainly have. Haven’t you?)
The unsaved man will look to the Creator wondering what he must do, do, do...seeking to provide a deposit balance to his credit that may satisfy some of the demands of God. The result of such hopeless attempts is that “the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; there is no peace, says my God, to the wicked”. (Isaiah 57:20,21).
But when the unsaved man realizes that God must require perfection, absolute holiness like His very own, he realizes that, as imperfect beings, we can’t attain that end, and therefore God must provide it! When he looks to the cross and sees that the revelation of God’s righteousness may be had as a gift to meet God’s requirements, then he’ll know peace with God for the first time. His own struggle to furnish the unattainable will cease, and he’ll recline in the joy and rest of full confidence and trust. He’ll know that God has provided for him that which He had to demand of him. That’s justification!
Then the child of God, day to day, will also realize that the strength for the daily life is provided in Christ. The Christian life is one of countless requirements, but every one of them is met in Christ. The Father asks that we let our light shine. But we look at the burned-out wick of our lives and cry with Paul, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing”. I have no light. Then the Father points to the fact that before He ever said to us, “Let it shine”, He already said, “You are the light of the world” and that He had already placed within us a light that can never go out.
He requires in us the reflection of Christ, and He polishes our lives that we may give back that reflection. He wants increase through us, but it is He who sows the seed in a field that He plows, harrows, and waters with the graces of the Spirit. And so He adorns the life with the Spirit’s gracious fruit, and “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control” appear within us.
Show me more and more what God requires of me, and point again and again to the Lord, that He is a hard Master, reaping where He has not sown, requiring a high rate of interest. Reiterate my responsibilities, contrasting them with my infirmities, and each time I’ll point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. As each need or each lack is demonstrated, Christ is therein magnified, for He is the fulfillment of each need. “I will glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” I will revel in my nothingness, that Christ may be all in all. For God has never asked of us (or me) anything that He hasn’t already provided, the full and free provision for life is in God, the Perfect Father!
May He bless us all as we strive to live within His provisioning!
Pastor Pat
If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.
Now most would agree that one of the main jobs of a father is to provide for all his children need in order to reach maturity as people. So, with that thought in mind, lets discuss God’s provisioning for His children to help them reach maturity in their faith.
God never asks anything of us that He hasn’t already provided. It’s a great thing when we learn this principle of God’s dealings with His children. Do we have anything of our own to give God when He asks something of us? If we think we do, we’re beside the mark and are in spiritual poverty. God’s requirements are so many, so varied and so great, that a man who tries to meet the call on his own will certainly fail. (I certainly have. Haven’t you?)
The unsaved man will look to the Creator wondering what he must do, do, do...seeking to provide a deposit balance to his credit that may satisfy some of the demands of God. The result of such hopeless attempts is that “the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; there is no peace, says my God, to the wicked”. (Isaiah 57:20,21).
But when the unsaved man realizes that God must require perfection, absolute holiness like His very own, he realizes that, as imperfect beings, we can’t attain that end, and therefore God must provide it! When he looks to the cross and sees that the revelation of God’s righteousness may be had as a gift to meet God’s requirements, then he’ll know peace with God for the first time. His own struggle to furnish the unattainable will cease, and he’ll recline in the joy and rest of full confidence and trust. He’ll know that God has provided for him that which He had to demand of him. That’s justification!
Then the child of God, day to day, will also realize that the strength for the daily life is provided in Christ. The Christian life is one of countless requirements, but every one of them is met in Christ. The Father asks that we let our light shine. But we look at the burned-out wick of our lives and cry with Paul, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing”. I have no light. Then the Father points to the fact that before He ever said to us, “Let it shine”, He already said, “You are the light of the world” and that He had already placed within us a light that can never go out.
He requires in us the reflection of Christ, and He polishes our lives that we may give back that reflection. He wants increase through us, but it is He who sows the seed in a field that He plows, harrows, and waters with the graces of the Spirit. And so He adorns the life with the Spirit’s gracious fruit, and “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control” appear within us.
Show me more and more what God requires of me, and point again and again to the Lord, that He is a hard Master, reaping where He has not sown, requiring a high rate of interest. Reiterate my responsibilities, contrasting them with my infirmities, and each time I’ll point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. As each need or each lack is demonstrated, Christ is therein magnified, for He is the fulfillment of each need. “I will glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” I will revel in my nothingness, that Christ may be all in all. For God has never asked of us (or me) anything that He hasn’t already provided, the full and free provision for life is in God, the Perfect Father!
May He bless us all as we strive to live within His provisioning!
Pastor Pat
If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.
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