Tilling and Planting

Category: Fatherhood

  • Adopted

    Adopted

    Intro

    The New Testament repeatedly tells us that God adopted us into His family. The topic of adoption is at the forefront of my mind right now. I recently came off of volunteering for a week at a camp that my church put on for kids in the foster care system. (See For The Children’s website for more information about the non-profit organization that my church partners with to make it happen). I’ve done it now five years running, and I intend to continue to do it as much as possible. People who adopt (or even foster) children and children who have been adopted both offer a different perspective (I would think) on this concept of God adopting us than the average person. So, today I’m going to explain what it means for God to adopt us as His children.

    Why Adoption?

    First of all, why do we need to be adopted in the first place? Aren’t we all God’s children? Adam and Eve’s sin resulted in separation from God. Humans were no longer a part of God’s family. Jesus tells the pharisees that they are children of the devil rather than of God (John 8:31-47 for whole context). Furthermore, 1 John 3:9-10 states “Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.” (NLT). The Bible demonstrates that not everyone (not even all Jews – God’s chosen people) can claim to be children of God.

    Now that I’ve established that we are not naturally born of God, it becomes clear that we need to be adopted. And Galatians 4:4-6 says it so well, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption into sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hears, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” (NIV). I find this a beautiful passage since it affirms our adoption into God’s family and declares that we have the right to call Him “Abba, Father”.

    Roman Adoption

    It’s interesting to note that the writers of the Bible really only used the adoption metaphor with Gentiles and not Jews. Adoption was uncommon in the Jewish world and would have been a difficult concept to grasp. However, it really is a perfect metaphor to us Gentiles who aren’t part of God’s chosen people. The Gentile readers readily understood adoption in the Roman world. For Romans, if there was no heir for a man to leave his wealth to (or he deemed the heir unfit) then he would adopt someone. When he adopted someone, that person would get a name change and have any previous debts cancelled. And he would receive all the rights and privileges that come with being a natural born son.

    That sounds a lot like what happens when we come into relationship with Jesus. Jesus paid our debts on the cross (Colossians 2:13-14) and we are now co-heirs with Him (Romans 8:14-17). And to take it a step farther, the Romans made adoptions irreversible.

    Benefits of Being Adopted

    So, what do we get out of being adopted by God? Probably a lot more than what I’m going to talk about today!

    A Relationship with God

    First and foremost, we get a loving relationship with God as our Father. I’m not going to spend much time here because I have an entire post about God as our Father here. One thing I didn’t mention there but I will here is that as our Father, He has an inheritance for us. And while I’m sure there’s more to it than this, our inheritance includes a glorified body, a permanent place of residence in His coming kingdom, and being able to enjoy all of eternity with Him in a new heaven and new earth.

    Led by Holy Spirit

    A major benefit of being adopted by God is that Holy Spirit indwells in us and leads us into what God has for us on this earth. Holy Spirit convicts, corrects, comforts, and empowers us in this life. He enables us to approach the throne room of grace with boldness and talk to the God of the universe. You can read a bit more about Him in my post here.

    Part of a Global Family

    Have you ever run into another believer that you’ve never met before and immediately connected with them? I have. It’s incredible to say the least. Any time I would go to Lifest, I would inevitably have at least one short conversation with a complete stranger and yet feel this connection I’ve never had with any non-believer. All people who have God’s Spirit living in them are part of this giant family that goes beyond all earthly boundaries such as language, nation, race, ethnicity, etc. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 covers this very well.

    Blessed by God

    Ephesians 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” As members of God’s family, He blesses us richly. Blessings such as hope, peace, and joy in the midst of difficulties. Endurance in times of tribulation. The power to love the unlovable, to forgive the unforgiveable. Through Holy Spirit we conquer every fear, worry, and anxiety through the power of Christ. We employ the Armor of God to defeat every attack of the enemy (Ephesians 6:10-18). We are on the winning side in a war between kingdoms. And lastly, we get to spend all of eternity in the presence of the Holiest of Holies, the Great I Am, the Alpha and Omega, God Almighty, Amen.

    What Adoption Does Not Mean

    Now, I need to address a very serious misconception that exists within the church. Called Replacement Theology, it supposes that when the Jews rejected Jesus, God replaced the Jews with the Church as His chosen people. It claims that any prophecies regarding Israel’s future are for the Church, and not Israel. In the minds of those who adhere to Replacement Theology, God has no plans for Israel’s future. He rejected them when they rejected Christ.

    I’m not going to talk about this in any depth here. In fact, I plan on doing a whole separate post about it. I wanted to mention it here though and just say that this is an erroneous doctrine. The Bible declares God’s plans for Israel over and over again. God is far from done with the Jewish people. Refuting false doctrine will be new territory for me in this blog, but I feel it needs to be addressed. I don’t plan on writing up a lot of refutations on false doctrine, but I will address it where necessary.

    Wrapping Up

    After this I hope you see the blessings of adoption into God’s family. And I only scratched the surface of it. I encourage you to look into this more and find out for yourself just how much God loves us to choose to adopt us.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • The Shepherd

    The Shepherd

    Intro

    Jesus refers to Himself as The Shepherd. Even more specifically, the Good Shepherd. What exactly does Jesus mean by this? In what ways is Jesus like a shepherd. And how are we, His followers, like sheep?

    Sheep

    To understand why Jesus likens Himself to a shepherd and us to sheep, it would help to get an understanding of what sheep are like. Here’s a handful of characteristics of sheep that as humans, we tend to resemble. Disclaimer: I found the original list here. Credit where credit is due.

    No Sense of Direction

    Sheep are notorious for wandering. Without a shepherd to guide them, the sheep will get hopelessly lost. They’ll likely go wherever the sheep ahead of them goes. If a couple of sheep wander off a cliff, the rest of the flock will probably follow. Stories of sheep doing exactly that are well documented. Here’s one such story.

    Hundreds of sheep followed their leader off a cliff in eastern Turkey, plunging to their deaths this week while shepherds looked on in dismay. Four hundred sheep fell 15 metres to their deaths in a ravine in Van province near Iran but broke the fall of another 1,100 animals who survived. Shepherds from a nearby village neglected the flock while eating breakfast, leaving the sheep to roam free. The loss to local farmers was estimated at $74,000.

    Sounds pretty dumb, right? But let’s be honest. How many people do something, follow some fad, some star just because “it’s cool.” So many people go along with the crowd because they want to be “in.” We don’t always think about the consequences. We just want people to accept us – even if it means doing dumb (or dangerous) things.

    Defenseless

    When you think about an animal who’s great at defending themselves, sheep are probably not the first one that comes to mind. Frankly, they’re terrible at it. Apart from ewes kicking when protecting their young or the fact that when frightened, the whole flock tends to run together (safety in numbers), they can’t defend themselves very well. That’s where the shepherd comes in. They defend the sheep against predators and their own stupidity.

    Similarly, we can run and maybe kick a little against small things, but when it comes to needing protection against the bigger enemies, we desperately need God’s divine protection. Without that, we will fall prey to Sin and Satan over and over again with no hope.

    Can’t Get Up

    I remember watching the VeggieTales adaptation of David and Goliath (Dave and the Giant Pickle) and thinking that the portrayal of sheep falling over and needing help to get back up was just a fun thing the creators put in. After all, there’s no way that there’s an animal incapable of standing back up when it falls over, right? Apparently, there is, it’s called a sheep. When sheep tip over (particularly on their backs), they are physically unable to stand back up. They require assistance from the shepherd to get back on their feet.

    How many times have we fallen in life and would have fizzled out or even died (whether self-inflicted or not) if we didn’t get help from God?

    Emotional and Recognizes Voices

    On a brighter note, sheep have an amazing ability to recognize the voice of the shepherd who cares for them. If a stranger’s voice tries to command them, they will more than likely run away in fear. They know who’s voice they are safe listening to. In addition, sheep are emotional creatures. They build friendships with other sheep and will even stick up for those friends in a fight. They can become anxious or distressed, and they feel sadness when a fellow sheep dies or is lost.

    I don’t think I need to explain the parallels to humans with this one. For we have all felt anxious or distressed at times and most (if not all) of us have felt the pain of a loved one passing away. We long for companionship and connection to fellow humans. And we learn from an early age, the voices of our parents. When strangers try to tell us to do something, we tend to question if we need to listen.

    Can’t Carry Burdens

    If there’s one thing that sheep were not made for, it’s carrying heavy loads. You will never see a sheep as a pack animal. They will be quickly crushed by such a burden. Similarly, God did not mean for us to carry the burdens of life like we do so often. God created us to be dependent on Him, and to give our burdens and trials of life to Him. We can’t carry it all on our own. We were never meant to.

    Settles For Less

    Sheep generally don’t know what’s good for them. If they see a dirty puddle, they’ll stop and drink from it – even though there might be clean water just a few feet away. As long as it satisfies in the moment, sheep just don’t care. Shepherds help the sheep find what’s good for them. And sadly, we are like that all too often. Rather than going after the good things of God, we settle for the things of this world which do not satisfy.

    Valuable

    Another point in favor of sheep is that they were quite valuable back in ancient times – and still are in different parts of the world. Owning large flocks of sheep indicated that one had wealth and influence. God declares us to be His special possession (1 Peter 2:9). God values humans above everything else in all of creation (Matthew 10:29-31).

    Can’t Care for Their Wounds

    Many animals lick their wounds until they heal. But not sheep. Sheep can’t do anything to help their wounds. Without treatment, sheep might die of easily treatable wounds. Shepherds are essential to the treatment of wounds. While we treat our physical wounds very well, we have no ability to treat our spiritual wounds on our own. We need help.

    Innocent

    Lastly, sheep are often associated with innocence and purity. How could you look at a sheep and blame it for anything worse than wandering away from the flock and getting lost? God calls us to be innocent and pure like sheep. Though that’s not possible without His sacrifice on the cross. Jesus washed away our sins and made us spotless as a sheep’s wool. Innocent in His sight.

    Jesus as The Good Shepherd

    Knowing now the nature of sheep, it doesn’t take much to understand the importance of a shepherd. And in John 10:11, Jesus declares himself to be the Good Shepherd. So, now I’ll describe how Jesus fits into that role of a shepherd. I’ll reference back to the list of sheep characteristics and show how Jesus fulfills these.

    Valuable, Innocent, Healed

    I’ve already mentioned how much God values us – similar to how valuable sheep have been. And I’ve also mentioned that through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we are innocent and pure in God’s sight. And going along with that, the cross and resurrection provides the means through which God heals our spiritual wounds – much like the shepherd must care for the sheep’s wounds. Romans 6:8,11 (NIV), “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him…In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Through Jesus, God made us alive spiritually – totally healed.

    Guidance, Settling

    A shepherd leads his flock of sheep from one place to another. And he always leads them to the best pastures and waters he can find. He ensures that his flock will have everything they need and not settle for less. Psalm 23 is a fantastic passage to describe God leading us as a shepherd does his flock. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:1-4, NIV).

    Falling, Carrying Burdens

    I briefly asked how many times we might have fizzled out in life if God hadn’t been there to pick us up. To put a verse to this: Psalm 145:14 (NIV), “The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.” When times are tough, God will be there always to lift us up. And furthermore, Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus carries the burdens we cannot carry on our own. He invites us to come to Him and learn from Him, because His burden is light, and it’s light because He carries it with us.

    Defenseless

    A lot of people might get offended to think that we are defenseless like sheep. And in the physical world, I can’t argue that we will defend ourselves in a variety of ways. However, in the spiritual world, we got nothing. Our only defense against the powers of Satan and our own temptations comes from God. Only through Holy Spirit living in us and enabling us to we have any sort of defense against the dark powers that operate in this world. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:11 (NIV). This verse makes it clear that we need God to stand against the devil. We can’t do it on our own.

    Hearing His Voice

    Jesus states in John 10 that sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd and He further states that His sheep know Him and know His voice (verses 3-4,14-16). A lot of people (myself included) struggle with this idea of hearing God’s voice. We wonder if we are hearing His voice or if it’s our own thoughts or if it’s the enemy trying to trick us. There is a process of learning to recognize God’s still small voice. It comes through spending time with God in prayer, worship, and reading of the Word. Simply knowing His word helps to prevent us from being deceived by other voices. After all, the Bible is the chief way by which He speaks to us.

    Wrapping Up

    Comparing people to sheep may not be the most flattering thing but praise be to God that we have a Good Shepherd to take care of us! I hope this instills more confidence, hope, and peace in your life.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Good Good Father

    Good Good Father

    Intro

    I’m sure many of you have heard the song Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin. The song does a good job capturing the heart of God as a loving Father. I’ve already briefly touched on God as Father in my post God the Father. I didn’t have time to go in depth on that, but now I’m ready to dive a little deeper into what it means for God to be our Father. In addition, I aim to hit upon another of His characteristics that I only briefly mentioned – His goodness. It’s hard to talk about God as Father without also talking about His goodness.

    Fatherhood

    The Bible refers to God as our father on a number of occasions. While the Old Testament tends to demonstrate the distance between man and God, there are still several references to God as the Father of the Jewish nation. For example, Isaiah 64:8 (NIV) says, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” The Israelites certainly had this understanding, but the relationship wasn’t intimate. To many of them, He was more of a distant Father. Someone you see or talk to occasionally and dare not disappoint or upset in any way. Someone you respected with fear and trembling.

    However, the distance between Israel and God was Israel’s doing. God had a more intimate view of their relationship. The first few verses of Hosea chapter 11 records God saying He “loved him [Israel] and out of Egypt I called my son”, “taught Ephraim to walk”, “healed them”, “led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love”, and He “bent down to feed them”. Jeremiah 31:9 (NIV) says, “I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.” God declared Himself to be Israel’s father – and a very loving father at that – even though Israel itself didn’t share the same view. Hosea 11 also notes how Israel kept going astray and didn’t acknowledge what God was doing in their midst. And yet God kept loving them. And that’s how God treats us as Christians. With perfect love.

    Abba Father

    And when Jesus came, He doubled down on God as father. He called God His Father on numerous occasions using the deeply intimate word “Abba” (Daddy). One such example is in Mark 14:36 (NIV), “‘Abba, Father,’ he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” In one of Jesus’ most difficult moments, He cries out to God with the most intimate word. But even when all was going well, Jesus used that same term. And taking it a step farther, Jesus taught His disciples to pray to God using the phrase “Our Father…”. I’m sure you are all now mentally reciting the Lord’s prayer. In addition, Jesus says multiple times throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) the phrase “your Father” when referring to God. Clearly Jesus wanted us to understand and know God as our Father.

    And not just any father. A good father. Matthew 7:11, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV). Matthew 6 gives two other examples about our “Father in heaven” caring about our basic needs – clothing and food. He tells us not be worried about those things because God will take care of us. And this is the perfect segway into the second half of this post.

    Goodness

    There’s a phrase I remember hearing as a kid and later as a young adult when I would go to Lifest, the MC of the festival (Peder Eide) would say “God is good” and wait for the crowed to respond, “All the time”, then “All the time”, “God is good.” Numerous songs talk about how good God is and people will say the phrase “God is good” over and over again.

    And yet, there are people who doubt that. Does the Bible really claim that God is good? Yes! I referenced the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says that God will supply our needs and gives good gifts to His children. But even more than that, we find it all over the Psalms. Here are a couple of examples from the NIV: Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” and Psalm 31:19, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

    In addition to the Psalms, when King David appointed Levites to minister before the Ark, he gave them words to praise the Lord with. And the entire passage 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 is just praising the Lord for how good He is and how He is worthy of praise and is their deliverer, etc. The Israelites knew what it meant for God to be deliverer. Just read the account of the Exodus and the worship service that occurred after the crossing at the Red Sea. And as mentioned before, the Psalms are loaded with similar songs of praise to God for His goodness. Not just all the good things He has done for the people, but simply for His goodness.

    God’s Nature

    God doesn’t just do good deeds. Goodness is a part of the nature of God. God is good. It’s impossible for God to do anything evil. I do recognize that there is lots of evil in the world. But I also firmly believe that God did not, does not, and will not cause any of that evil. But there are many people who question the existence of evil, “If God is so good, why is there evil in the world?” And this is a good question that deserves a thorough answer. Which I cannot give here in this post. I plan on covering that question when I address the related question of evil and the sovereignty of God. As you’ll see there, the issues of God’s goodness, His sovereignty, and the existence of evil in the world, are all tightly related.

    Wrapping Up

    I sure hope and pray that you see how much God loves you as a good father loves his children. I know that earthly fathers disappoint us, and some are downright terrible to their children. My goal with this post was to encourage you that God isn’t and will never be that kind of father. He perfectly loves you and has been and always will be good to you.

    A Time to Remember

    Earlier in this post I mentioned Peder Eide, the MC of the Lifest Grandstand. As I was working on this post, I needed to confirm the spelling of Peder’s name and discovered that he passed away April 26, 2024 (this is a very good read on the kind of man Peder was – the image of him on stage is from Lifest). It’s a very sad thing to hear and Lifest will never be the same. Peder was fun to listen to as a MC, but he was also a musician. Two of his songs that I know are both songs that fit right in with this post’s twin themes of God’s goodness and His fatherhood: “Taste and See” (based on Psalm 34:8) and “Abba, I belong to You”. Because of that, I’m dedicating this post to Peder Eide, I know that you are in Heaven worshipping before Abba, Father God.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!