FATHER, what does this name conjure up for you? This should be a term of endearment, but instead in our society it has become a term of derision. Many young people today, have no idea who their father is, let alone understand what it means for God to be our heavenly Father. Yet that is the term that Jesus told the disciples to use when they pray in Matthew 6. It stands to reason that if we want to know what God is like we should listen to what Jesus said about Him. More than any other concept of God, Jesus knew Him as His Father. God is the very essence of that term. I think it is important that we take a few moments and remind ourselves anew of the blessing of being called a child of God. Since according to Romans 8:14-17 we are adopted into the Family of God, we have the privilege of referring to God as our Abba, which is a personal term reflecting trust, dependence, intimacy, and love. Once we were sinners living in fear; now we are children in the care of our heavenly Father, and as a Promise we are reminded in … READ MORE

Life is so much easier when we allow God to work in our lives. The world is filled with so much more joy when we are not blinded by petty resentment. It is a lesson our world never learns. Resentment causes families to break apart, communities to be torn in violence, nations to remain at war for generations. It injects its teeth into countless souls of those who walk among us, so that lives that might have been productive, lives that might have been a blessing, become consumed by self-destructive hatred. This hatred keeps us from knowing the goodness of God, and it keeps us from being faithful parents, children, and neighbors. We do not have to live this way, all we need to do is ask God to free us from the chains of the ledger books of our lives. How many ledgers are you carrying around with you? Won’t you allow Christ to cut them away for good? Throw away the books, walk free and lighthearted, and you will live in an atmosphere of grace and joy you never thought possible. Resist your resentment. Banish every trace of bitterness. Live by the liberating law of grace – and … READ MORE