On my trip to Boston earlier this week I had the opportunity to teach a Theology 1 class. The professor for the class asked if I could talk about how theology affects ministry. I thought it was a good opportunity to hear the students' voice in a discussion I've been having as of late regarding how our relationship with our parents can affect our perception of God.
Something that stuck out to me in the discussion with the students was from a girl named Allie, who had grown up in a broken home, like many others that I work with in Teen Challenge and around the world. Allie mentioned that in her early years as a believer she had trouble identifying God as her father because of the abandonment and failures in her own family. She said clarity came as she got older and was able to understand a little more the nature of God and as she aged, her mother and other family members became more intentional in affirming her and making sure she understood that her father leaving was not her fault.
In part 1 of this series, I asked what is looks like to be intentionally involved in a child's life who is lacking a parent? I believe Allie's story begins to answer that question, we must affirm that the situation in their lives are beyond their control, that it is not their fault and help them develop an understanding of the unfailing fatherhood of God. Any thoughts?
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“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;” (Ephesians 5:1). Have you ever seen a little boy with a toy lawnmower, following closely behind as his father uses the real thing a few steps ahead? Or a little girl using a pretend steering wheel in the passenger seat of a car, as her mother drives down the road? It’s just a simple fact of life that children like to imitate their parents.
If you have been brought to repentance and redemption by the sovereign grace of God, then you have a “spiritual Father” that should be even more important to you than an earthly parent is to his or her child. In like manner, you should desire to walk after, and to imitate, your Heavenly Father. “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” (Ephesians 5:2)
God is love. (I John 4:8) For a Christian, born into the family of God, and therefore being a partaker of God’s divine nature (II Peter 1:4), to not be loving is to fail to be an imitator or a follower of our Father. It has been well said that, in the New Covenant, love is not something – love is the thing.
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