"I Need Blocks"

A dear friend of mine told our pastors’ group recently about a shopping trip he and “Mimi” had with their granddaughter. As they went around the store, the little one found a bag of children’s blocks, grabbed it and put it in her little shopping cart. She said “I need blocks” rather emphatically. Her grandpa responded “let’s go ask Mimi,” as though that would change anything, and then

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit of Love

Something every human wants, is to be loved. No matter how messed up someone has been in life, no matter how discouraged and depressed, that person still wants -- needs, is desperate for -- real love. Love without prior conditions, love without judging first, love that is not taken back when they do something wrong. And theology -- the study of God -- is first and foremost about

The Fake Snake, or the Real Deal?

If one day you realized you had been living in a fantasy world that you had constructed for yourself, a world that let you be in control but that was going to end badly, would you

Father's Day, God, Fathers and Men

A few days ago in the US and many other countries we celebrated Father's Day. Historically, Dad has been the head of the family and the bastion of what's right, but in the search for equality and recognition for all, as well as admitting that men (and particularly fathers) have many human flaws, we've removed men, and Dad, from that pedestal. Also, some have had poor relationships with their fathers, and those two factors have led some to reject the God of the Bible whom they see as

Up

A popular animated movie has a retired widower attaching a huge bunch of balloons to his house and sailing off into the air, on "the adventure of a lifetime." Well, back around 30 AD, someone else rose up in the air, without the benefit of

Praying: to Santa Claus, or the Almighty?

I admit it, I fall into a bad habit sometimes:  prayer becoming a list of people I'm asking the Lord to heal, or situations that I think he needs to resolve, and other life issues that I believe only he has the power to change. "Father, please help ____" has become a repetitive phrase.  If we are to "pray

We Have Seen God!

God is immaterial -- he's not made out of anything. We physical ones can't grasp immaterial things with our five senses, so we have no hope of seeing God as he is. Except for one supremely important matter:

Epiphany and Risk

Today, January 6, is the celebration of "Epiphany" on the Christian calendar, and it's celebrating something awesome: the first 'public appearance' of the baby Jesus, the Son of God now in human form. What's that about? And what

A Few Nothings about God

The Triune God -- Father, Son and Spirit -- are not limited in any way. God's attributes include being all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful.  So, here's a list of a few "Nothings" that apply to God:

Nothing that, from our perspective stands in our way, imposes an obstacle

A New Childhood

God calls himself our Father, and he calls us his children. Jesus called little children to himself (Luke 18:15-17 for instance) to explain visually what it means to be God's kids (not just so he could explain humility -- he also took them in his arms and blessed them). The imagery that God accepts us "as his kids" should include our own memories of safety, love, warmth, comfort, care and security. That's how it should be.

But for some of us, childhood

What Works for You?

For many years, I was told "prayer is when you talk to God, and Bible study is when God talks to you" and mostly, that simple answer seemed

What Is God's Name? (Part 6)

The Bible names God as three Persons:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit; yet some scholars and
lay people feel those names are inadequate or wrong.  I hope this series of questions on this topic has been helpful to you!  Here's one more question:  doesn't the Bible talk about God in terms of feminine or motherly actions?  If so, why can't we call him Mother instead of Father, or Father/Mother?  There are good reasons to delight in the motherly traits described of God, yet still to call him Father.  (In this post I'm indebted to Peter Toon's work Our Triune God: A Biblical Portrayal of the Trinity.)

Let's look at one example, and then the principles involved.  Isaiah 66:13 says "I will comfort you...as a mother comforts her child."  Does this say God is a mother?  The word-picture here is a simile, where one thing is said to be "like" or "as" something else, for illustration, but the language is always of comparison, not literal statement, and nowhere is God named as Mother.  There are others scriptures, such as Deut. 32:11 and Isa. 31:5 where God is described like a bird hovering over a nest, caring for and protecting its young (Jesus uses a similar picture in Mat. 23:37), but nowhere does the Bible say God is a bird. 

God is described as Father in three ways.  First, in simile, as in Psa. 103:13, where God is said to have compassion for his children like a physical father.  Second, as a metaphor in the Old Testament, where he is described as the Father of a nation (Jer. 31:9) or a king (Psa. 2:7).  Third, Jesus reveals God as his own Father (John 3:16) of whom he has full knowledge (John 1:18 etc.) and reveals the Father to us (John 12:49-50).  "Father" then is not something we decided on and projected upward to God, but "this is God's self-revealed name and what it means is revealed by the One who is his 'Son' and by the One who is his 'Holy Spirit'" (Toon's words here).  This is no longer a metaphor but a revelation of the very name of God in Jesus' own words to us.  

Isn't God described as our Father also?  Yes, because we are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father; but not through a separate relationship.  Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29, Heb. 2:11), and because he said so -- not because we became so on our own -- we are also the children of the Father.  

To conclude the series, then, we see that if we trust the Bible's words as accurate, we see God calling himself Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we are not free to name him otherwise.  If we are uncomfortable with those ideas, or a masculine-sounding context (never to be identified with gender in the human sense!), then it is we who need to examine our hearts and open them to God, as he is already open to us through Jesus.  Solo Dei Gloria -- to God alone be the glory!

What Is God's Name? (Part 5)

Have you ever understood the Bible's names for God, about how and why God is called Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  Have you ever wondered -- or doubted -- whether we can trust
those names?  And by "trust" I mean two things:  the Bible being accurate in its teaching, and trusting God intimately as we come to know him more every day.  I've been trying to understand that myself, and am attempting to explain it briefly here.

So far we've talked mostly about the name Father, and why the Bible describes him that way.  Let's examine, briefly, whether that name includes gender, or male sexuality. We've already said that Jesus called God his Father many times in the Gospels; that God is called the Father of our Lord; and that Jesus said he came to reveal the Father (John 14:9, Matt. 11:27).  In Matt. 23:9 Jesus says to us not to call a human person Father, but why would he say that?  To stop us from projecting human ideas onto God, and polluting our view of him, from two sources:  from elevating a human person too much, and from our notion of fatherhood, however good or bad.  (We've talked already of the difficulty some have of not being able to think of God as Father, because of problems with human fathers.  This is what Jesus rules out here.)

Some say that the name or title "Father" is a way to make male humans more important, and that men wrote the Bible to oppress women.  So then, is the Bible's description of God any different than other religions of the time when it was written?  Here's an extremely brief sketch.  Actually, the writers of the Bible could see many examples in the pagan world around them, of  mythological deities described as being male or female, like humans, and because of their greater powers they misused their male or female qualities worse than the humans did.  Some societies had female gods to worship, but history shows that didn't make the status of women any better.  Because of the broken relations between the sexes in the world around them, people predictably worshiped the mythological gods in broken ways:  there was temple prostitution and all kinds of other horrible activity, in the name of their gods, whether male or female.  The Bible was specifically, carefully, written to exclude all those ideas in referring to the true God.

So what do we come back to?  The God of the Bible, who is described as infinitely loving, giving and concerned for us; who has given himself, in the person of Jesus, to rescue us; and unlike the pagan gods of mythology, doesn't have the weaknesses we do.  We can trust God as Father, so long as we think of him in the way he describes himself and not in other ways.  We'll look at some other ways language is used to describe God -- including some feminine characteristics!-- next time.

What Is God's Name? (Part 4)

We've been talking here about God's name as Father (we'll look at God's other names later).  We said that we can let God, as a perfect Father, define
for us what fatherhood should be.  And since none of our physical dads measured up to God's perfect standard, let's recognize that they did "they best they knew how" (Heb. 12:10) and learn to forgive them for being human, however long that takes us.  That way we stop missing out.  Make sense?

Jesus said in Mat. 23:9 "you have one Father, and he is in heaven," and he was specifically taking all our patriarchal ideas of fatherhood and booting them out of the discussion, to focus on who God really is.  In Mat. 11:27, Jesus insists that one of his jobs is to tell us about the Father:  "no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."  So in Jesus we have 'inside information' on God the Father!  And we'll see that our human negative concepts of fatherhood as a closed patriarchal system, or an abusive, angry authority figure, just don't hold up to Biblical scrutiny.

So, is God a Father in the same way as a physical father?  No, it's not the same idea, and we don't think of him creating children like the Greek and Roman gods did.  But to help us understand him a little, God has "commandeered human language and named himself as Father" according to James B. Torrance.  This was a major topic in the church, in the 300's AD.  We began to realize we should be very careful when using words to describe God, since human language is so limited! 

But when we think "theocentrically"  -- by attempting to understand God from his own words -- we see a different picture. God the Father is not simply called "a father" at random.  Jesus calls God his Father about 60 times in the Gospels (half of those in John).  He's "our Father" twice in Isaiah; and eight times in Paul's epistles plus once in 1 Peter, he is called "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."   He's the Father in relationship, because he's the Father of the Son.  This is not the result of a male-dominated set of Biblical writers, but from his own words.

We'll close with this one thought:  God the Father is love (1 John 4:8) and it's clear from Jesus' own words that he loves you and me: "May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me" (John 17:23).  Maybe your own dad knew how to love you well, but your heavenly Father loves infinitely more.  Will you let him love you?

What Is God's Name? (Part 3)

Is God a male person?  Why do the descriptions of God in the Bible seem male instead of female?  Why is God called a "father"? Can we use feminine concepts
for God also?  We've started on some important questions here:  whether the names and descriptions we have for God are adequate and if not, what to do about it.

Last week I wrote about whether being wounded by a father figure (or any male figure) means we shouldn't try to think of God as a father, substituting some other word instead.  We recognized that idea as "anthropocentric" or human-centered reasoning, which is basically idolatry.  It starts from the basis of who we are, what we understand, and what we feel our needs are, then projects our ideas onto God, like he was a big movie screen.  But God is far greater than our ideas of who he should be, so we need to use "theocentric" or "God-centered" reasoning instead. 

Since God describes himself to us in the Bible using the word Father, then we should use those concepts to describe and define for us what a physical father should be like.  God is not often referred to in the Old Testament as a father, but Jesus describes him right from the start as "Our Father" (Mat. 6:9) and he speaks of God as Father 16 times in Luke's gospel and at least 93 times in John's Gospel!  We would do well to review John's writings, especially, to see more of the Fatherhood of God as Jesus showed it to us.  But in summary, we could say that the Father is an infinitely loving Person who plans and provides good for us, looks out for us, and always works out what is best for us, even to the point of sacrificing himself for us (see John 3:16).  In fact, he loves us as much as he loves the Son of God (John 17:23) -- which shows us that the infinite and eternal love that is characteristic of the Father-Son-Spirit God is now being shared with us!

If we are willing to trust that Scripture has come to us as it was inspired by God, without changes in its meaning, then we also have to accept that the names for God are what he actually calls himself.  Can God be Father even if we have similar terms in human life, and some of those terms leave us with negative images?  Yes, if we're willing to think in theocentric terms:  admitting that God is Father of all, and that he defines for us what Fatherhood is, therefore we can re-define what fatherhood should be!  Our own fathers fell short of that ideal, no matter how good they were, but we can choose to see them through the eyes of grace just as our heavenly Father sees us.  More on all of this next time.

What Is God's Name? (Part 2)

Last week we introduced some of the questions about how God is named in the Bible, and whether we should add
to those words or change them, with the goal of understanding God better and loving him more.  These goals sound noble, so let's see if the strategy is a good one. I am indebted for this material to the work of James B. Torrance and his brother Thomas F. Torrance, Gary Deddo and Roland L. Frye, among others.

My dad and I didn't get along well when I was growing up.  Until I began to understand and appreciate both God and my father better, I had difficulties accepting God as a father figure -- no surprise, right?  In fact many (not all, of course) of us in the Western world have strained relationships with our physical fathers.  So it seems logical to us that we should want a different word for God, that doesn't remind us of that wound.  Some evangelists have even substituted "friend" for "Father" to be a more acceptable idea to those who don't know God yet.  Others focus on Jesus, who seems more palatable than the Father, thus avoiding -- for the moment -- the issue of God's fatherhood.

So here's the first problem we're going to look at:  this strategy is "anthropocentric" or human-centered, rather than "theocentric" or God-centered.  We've created ourselves as the center of the universe.  We allow our pain to define and determine who we are for the rest of our lives, not believing that God can heal any wound.  That's idolatry.  Instead, when we look to Jesus we find the love and healing of God expressed toward us.  Jesus took on our sins, our weaknesses and our pain (Isa. 53:3-5).  When he touched a leper, he didn't contract leprosy -- the leper was healed!  When he spoke with people, he didn't leave them in their sin and selfishness, but confronted their anthropocentric ways, challenging them to turn away from themselves as idols, and toward God (the Sermon on the Mount, Mat. 5-7, is a good example of that idea, but there are many others). 

Here's the point for today:  your pain, the abuse in your past, your personal or public wound, does not define you.  Only God can define you -- and God says you belong to him, he loves you just like you are right now, and he will love you forever!  Even though you've been wounded by a father figure, God is the perfect definition of all fatherhood, and he knows how to help you perfectly.  Hebrews 12:10 says "For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness." 

God is asking you, right now, to let go of whatever you think keeps you from his "YES" toward you.  Even if you've been saying "No" to him all your life, God says "No" to your "No" and "YES" to you.  His love as a perfect Father will completely make up for any lack of love from your own dad -- and you will find healing in him (Mat. 11:29).  (Next week, we'll look at why the Bible uses the word "father" for God.)

What Is God's Name? (part 1)

If you want to get in trouble fast, try calling a loved one by the wrong name.  Those of us from large families sometimes got called a sibling's name by Dad or Mom, especially if we were in trouble -- and that just made it worse.  But what do you call God?  In the Bible, he's
Father, Son and Spirit, but a modern movement wants to neutralize these names because they're thought of as sexist.  I think you'll see that, far from being an esoteric argument by theologians in a back room somewhere, this discussion is key to truly understanding God, and resting assured in his love for us!  And for this series, I am indebted to the work of Dr. Gary Deddo, who has written clearly and with a deep love for God and others on this topic.

First, let's look at the objections, conscious and unconscious, to naming God with male terms.  Then, we'll look carefully for Biblical answers to each one. Finally, we'll see what difference it makes in our lives and our relationship with God, when we understand him for who he is, using his true names.  Ready?

When I was in college, desiring to know more of God, I ran into a roadblock:  a broken relationship with my human father leading me to mistrust God as a father.  Sound familiar?  I was afraid that God would be angry or impatient with me, as my dad often was, and it took many years to learn that he really wasn't that way.  That broken relationship with a father figure, so common in our society today, leads some to believe the cure is to change our words for God.  More about that in our next installment.

Another major argument is that the Bible was written in a society dominated by men, so descriptions of God were obviously male in character and ignored the needs of women and the true nature of God, who must have feminine traits and perhaps a female person.  If all that is true, it creates a lot of additional concerns for us!  We'll answer that too.

Finally, the argument goes, if the Bible really does ignore a female side of God and the needs of women, as some say, then the Bible and Christianity is simply another method for oppressing women.  If that's the case, then the whole foundation of Christianity -- including a male Savior -- is in a lot of trouble.  Would you like an answer for that?

Please bear with me!  We'll see that there are solid answers for all these concerns, answers that actually tell us a lot more about who God is.  By doing that, we will learn to trust his love for us more than ever! 

The Holy Spirit of Love

I've been writing the last month or so on the Holy Spirit, and how he works to draw us to God and to help us understand the mind of God.  Today we're looking at how the Holy Spirit creates God's love in us.


It is the heart of God himself, who has loved us since before the creation (Eph. 1:3-8), that gives us life.  God pulls us closer to himself through the Holy Spirit: "For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love" (Rom. 5:5).  God's love in us lets us live in confidence, not in fear. Jesus guarantees us, in the Sermon on the Mount, that the Father will take care of us:  “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs" (Mat. 6:31-32).  John the Apostle said it more flatly in his first epistle:  "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love" (1 John 4:18).

When we understand the Father's love more deeply, we will respond to others with that same love:  "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God...But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us" (1 John 4:7, 12).  It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the love of God (Romans 5:5) and reminds us what our Father wants us to know (John 14:26).  So this morning, when I was thinking of writing something sarcastic in this column, it was the Holy Spirit who reminded me that wouldn't be loving, even though it felt like fun at the time. 

So the question is, are we properly hearing and following that loving voice of the Holy Spirit?  Typically, one of two things gets in the way:  distraction, or our own selfish desires being stronger at the moment.  I've been writing  lately about how we can reduce distractions to listen better, and learn to surrender more.  When we do, we will be able to think, speak and act in that God's love, and we will find our relationships work a lot better.  How's that working for you?

Daddy

The picture many of us have of God is often one of a stern, harsh ruler, ready to 'take us out' at our next infraction. Some see the OT God as some sort of angry authority figure, balanced out by his really nice and loving son Jesus. The angry God sent the Son, the idea goes, to be punished because of us -- sort of like the vicarious 'whipping boy' employed by royalty when the prince messes up.

But we need to remember that God is one (Deut. 6:4, etc). So there is no difference between the God of the Hebrew scriptures and the God of the Greek New Testament. Whether we think of the Father or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, the passions and love and desires of God are the same.

Jesus referred to God as his Father. To do so in a personal sense was unheard of in Israel's thinking. Observant Jews of his day would not have dared claim God as a Father. But Jesus did!

He told us to pray to "Our Father" in a personal way (Matt. 6:9). So he was opening up that relationship of love and acceptance, tenderness and grace, on a personal level, for the first time.

The Father wants us to experience that relationship with him, not just learn about it in some sort of classroom way. Paul uses some OT verses to construct a new thought in 2 Cor 6:18: "And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." The Father is serious about being our Father, and he wants us to accept our status as his children. He thinks of us as his children, and he wants us to think of him as Father.

Those of us who are fathers know how much we want to be Daddy to our kids. We desire to be close to our children emotionally, to have a deep relationship with them. That's just what the Father says to us also. His love for us was so strong that, before the universe existed, he knew he would have to sacrifice his own self, through the Son, to bring us into intimacy with him: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life"(John 3:16).

God has already made that move. We already belong to him as his children and he yearns for us to have that same intimacy with him. That relationship already exists, whether we see it or not. But the experience of it is up to us. How about it? Will you run into his arms and call him Daddy? It will change your life forever.