Category Archives: Book Reviews

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Twelve – Complete In Christ

Book Reviews, , , ,

LEARNING TO BE A SON

CHAPTER TWELVE

COMPLETE IN CHRIST

If we are truly the sons and daughters of God, how can we ever attain the high standard Jesus set for us? Take heart! God views us from His perspective as already complete in Christ. God guarantees that what He began, He will finish.

What has He done?

  • He guaranteed the success of the venture because of the power of the cross. It is His will that we be made holy.
  • He cannot fail because of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that He would not only be with us – He would be in us to apply all the effects of the cross in our lives.

Both Paul and Peter confirmed this in their letters. They knew what they were talking about because both of them had started badly but, because of the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, they experienced the transformation that the Holy Spirit brought about in them.

From God’s point of view, the work is complete but we must respond or nothing will change. Our response is to believe Jesus’ words and obey His teaching. This is the way to increasing freedom from the power of sin in our lives and increasing likeness to Jesus, our elder brother.

It is our responsibility to maintain the link, the spiritual “umbilical cord” with God through faith, submission and obedience to Him. As we trust Him, so He works in us to recreate us into the image of our Creator.

Now we must become what we are, sons and daughters of God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Eleven – The Father’s Business

Book Reviews, , , ,

LEARNING TO BE A SON

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE FATHER’S BUSINESS

At the age of twelve, Jesus already knew that He was about the Father. His sojourn in the temple after His parents had set off home, had left the religious sages amazed at His understanding and His questions.

From the beginning of time, God was writing His story, and regardless of the intervention of sin, He continued to write, including the revelation of His mercy to sinners. His story climaxed in the revelation of Himself through His Son. Jesus came to reveal the true nature of the Father and to do His business on earth, to establish His kingdom in the hearts and in the society of His people.

He would restore His wayward people to Himself through His Son’s perfect life and sacrificial death so that, through them His kingdom would come on earth and He would be glorified through His redeemed people and His restored creation.

Since we have explored the meaning of sonship and how we relate to the Father as His sons and daughters, it is time to ask what our role is in His story and how we carry out that role as citizens of God’s kingdom.

God created us to have fellowship with Him and to reign over the earth as His vice-regents. Satan lied to the first pair, convincing them that he was in charge and that he could call the shots. They fell for his ruse and became slaves to his tyranny. Jesus exposed his lie and defeated him at the cross, cancelling our debt and freeing us from slavery to him.

Jesus showed us how to interpret and live in obedience to God’s instructions, contained in the Torah, His directions for living the best life. He also gave us access to the Father so that we can approach Him directly through Jesus, our high priest and no longer through human priests and animal blood.

Prayer is much more than talking to a deity, like pagan so-called “prayer”. True prayer is the right of sons and is our way of communicating with the Father. Why should we communicate with Him?  We communicate with Him for fellowship and directions for carrying out our mandate to manage the earth for Him.

Jesus was the model of true prayer. He had fellowship with the Father and received His instructions for carrying out the Father’s will. His testimony was that He obeyed the Father implicitly in everything. He gave His disciples a simple pattern to guide them in their praying – what we call “the Lord’s Prayer”.

He warned His disciples not to model their prayers on the hypocrites who prayed to gain the attention and approval of people, or the pagans who babbled to gain their god’s attention. We are to relate to God as a Father who knows our needs before we ask Him.

His pattern directed His disciples’ attention away from themselves and their needs and problems,and towards the Father who is everywhere and as close to them as their breath. They did not need to inform Him, advise Him or persuade Him to come into their situation. He was already there and fully aware of every detail. They were to recognise that is was God, their Father and the Creator and Ruler of the universe, “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and forgiveness”, to whom they turned. Their primary focus was to be on His kingdom, not on themselves and their needs.

They were to be concerned, first of all with their inner lives and God’s rule over their hearts so that they would be the agents through whom His kingdom would come on earth. Jesus, the living Word, was to be their daily bread, through the written word, feeding and nourishing their souls, like the manna in the wilderness that came from heaven to meet their daily needs.

They were to keep short accounts with people if they wanted to keep short accounts with God and to remember that they were their own worst enemy. They were to recognise and seek God’s strength to overcome the pull of their own selfish and greedy natures.

It was the will of God, above everything else that they were to seek and to do. The first step in knowing God’s will is to give Him complete charge over our bodies (Rom. 12: 1-3) and to renew our minds through the Word so that our lives will measure up to God’s requirements. With bodies and minds under the control of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to discern and approve God’s perfect will.

The purpose of prayer, then, is to have access to the Father so that we can partner with Him in managing the earth for Him and doing His will on earth. Our needs and concerns must fit into His story, not His story be directed by ours.

This is the true nature of a son – to be in submission and obedience to the Father so that we can serve Him and conduct His business on earth.

Summary of the Lord’s Prayer

Abba, Daddy, my source and the one to whom I belong, I turn away from my circumstances                       and become aware of you. You are here, all around me and as near to me as my breath. I                      honour you as holy by my words and my life.

May your just and benevolent rule come and may I be a part of bringing heaven to earth by                   doing your will, not mine, wherever I can and in whatever way I can so that those around me may see you in my life.

Feed me every day on Jesus, the living Bread.

Let me be merciful to those who offend me by cancelling their small debts, just as you have                been merciful to me by cancelling the huge debt I owed you.

Do not allow me to be pushed to the limit of my confidence in you either by severe trials or by alluring temptations, because you know how weak I am, and how strong my sinful flesh is.                      

Save me from the anguish of my own self-destruction.

 

 

 

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Ten – The Father’s Blessing

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LEARNING TO BE A SON

CHAPTER TEN

THE FATHER’S BLESSING

Unlike slaves who have no rights in the house, a son has a right to his father’s name, his father’s home and his father’s inheritance.  As children of God the Bible teaches us that we have these rights.

The Father’s name

It was Jesus’ mission to do two things – to reveal the Father and to take us to the Father. Jesus took pains to teach His disciples the true nature of the Father, both by what He said and by what He did. He was in constant conflict with the religious authorities because He insisted that the law of God was more about mercy than about rules.

In His high priestly prayer on the eve of His death, He assured the Father that He had revealed His name to His disciples – not the names by which He was known in the Old Covenant but by the name “Father” which was foreign to them because they did not understand the fatherhood of God.

Adam and Eve lost their rights by rebelling against God, and became slaves to fear through Satan’s deception. By His death Jesus would reconcile those who believe in Him to the Father and they would be “adopted” into His family as His beloved children, restoring to them everything they lost at the Fall and especially the fellowship He intended from the beginning.

His first message to His disciples through Mary after His resurrection was:

Go . . . to my brothers and tell them, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ (John 20:17b)

His death had brought about a new status. From God’s perspective they were now on a par with Jesus – He was not ashamed to call them brothers (He. 2: 10). Everything that Jesus was as a son was potentially theirs as well. The Father loved them just as He loved Jesus. They were given the Spirit of adoption, and the witness of the Spirit that they were children of God, as are all those who believe in Jesus.

Jesus not only told them about the Father; He also showed and taught them how to relate to the Father as His sons and daughters in loving submission and obedience. He gave them the right to use His name as their authority for approaching the Father. He revealed the nature of His Father enshrined in His name.

The Father’s house

It was the Father’s desire from the beginning of time to dwell with His people. Even when sin drove the first pair from God’s presence, He still desired to live among them. The tabernacle was His way of showing them His desire and at the same time, making it clear that they could not approach Him except through animal sacrifices. These were a picture of what He had promised – one who would crush the head of Satan and bring them back into fellowship with Himself.

The temple was the permanent structure in Jerusalem which took the place of the tabernacle for the same purpose. But even the temple was symbolic of something better. God cannot be contained in a building, but He has chosen to make His dwelling in the inner shrine of His human temples. All those who have been bought by the blood of Jesus are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Satan targets what is most precious to God – our fellowship with Him. Sin and all its spin-offs, independence and its fruit, i.e., making our own rules, cuts us off from fellowship with the Father.

But not only does He want to have continuous fellowship with us through the Holy Spirit, as sons our role is to “continue the house”. As His sons and daughters, it is our role both to reveal who He is and to bring others back into the household of God.

The Father’s inheritance

As the children of God we have a legal right to His inheritance. As co-heirs with Jesus we have an inheritance which is far superior to material things. Our inheritance comes to us through what God has promised (Heb. 6:12; 2 Cor. 1: 20). What had God promised? He has promised that we become partakers of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1: 3-4)

The problem is that the earth and all mankind have been corrupted by sin. God is untainted by corruption and He cannot have fellowship with that which is corrupt. God took care of the problem by sending His Son to deal with our sin and to restore His nature in us so that we can escape the corruption that is in the world. Just as Adam passed on his corrupted nature to every generation, Jesus has restored His nature in all who believe His promises, the perfect nature of the Father which He refines and purifies in us through the discipline of hardship and suffering (Heb. 12: 10)

The inheritance is already ours because the testator, Jesus has already died. It is our responsibility to make the promises of God ours through faith and patience, not what we want to make our lives cushy and comfortable, but to form in us the fullness of God’s nature in the likeness of His Son.

He calls us to leave the world and it corrupting influences and be separated to God. He has promised to dwell with us and to be our Father and we will be His sons and daughters                                                                      (2 Cor. 6: 16-7:1).

The Father’s nature

God is holy love. He is separated from everything that has been corrupted by sin. As His children, He insists that we be separated from sin to Himself. God is generous. He requires that we show who He us by our generosity, not only with our resources but with our attitudes.

The manifestation of God’s sons

Sin corrupted the whole universe which is waiting in pain for the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom 8: 19-21). This will be the sign that everything will be restored, including the heavens and the earth. Jesus’ return will be the cue for the restoration of all of creation and the final judgement of the rebellious angels who followed Satan. They will be condemned when God is vindicated.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

 

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Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Nine – The Father’s Love

Book Reviews, , , , ,

CHAPTER NINE

THE FATHER’S LOVE

It is time to explore the Father’s love and what it means to us, His sons and daughters.

What does Abba’s love mean to us?

Firstly, we cannot know the Father’s love without the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of sonship. He bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God. He is the “umbilical cord” that joins us to the Father. Only He can reveal the Father’s love. Knowing and experiencing the Father’s love begins with acknowledging the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

God the Father is the pattern of all true fatherhood. His generous, giving love is for the whole world (John 3: 16). His love gave the best He had – His only Son.

Does God have special love for His children? Yes He does. If you love God’s Son, He will love you!

            He who loves me will be loved by my Father . . . (John 14: 21b)

Jesus is our elder brother in a family of God’s sons and daughters. But God does not hate those who hate His Son. He provided Jesus as a sacrifice so that those who are in the “far country” can come back home to the Father.

Paul prayed that we would know and experience all the dimensions of God’s love; its width, length, height and depth.

How wide is the love of God? Wide enough to encompass all people for all time no matter what their attitude or condition. He gave His Son for the sin of the whole world.

How long is God’s love? Long enough to be patient with the worst of Israel’s kings, Manasseh, and to forgive and restore him when he repented. Long enough to be patient with Israel’s disobedience and unfaithfulness and to send His Messiah to save them from sin.

How high is the Father’s love? As high as the immeasurable heavens, wrote David in Psa. 103. God took filthy, dead sinners and make them alive again through His Son.

How deep is the love of God? so deep that He had His Son endure the worst that humans could do to Him to rescue us from our own self-destruction.

All of this love is encapsulated in the word “Father”, and in our response as children of God. David, who did not know Jesus, nevertheless knew the greatness of God’s love, beautifully expressed in Psa. 103. The Shunamite woman, enslaved by the love of Solomon, said this:

. . . ‘Love is as strong as death . . . it burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot wash it away. (Song of Solomon 8: 6, 7)

If they could experience love like that, how much more we who have the full revelation of the Father in His Son, Jesus Christ?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

 

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Eight – Reconnecting The Umbilical Cord

Book Reviews, , ,

CHAPTER EIGHT

Reconnecting the Umbilical Cord

Babies have an attachment to their mothers in the womb without which they cannot survive of grow. It’s called an umbilical cord. At birth the cord is cut because the baby has to learn to live an independent life from its mother.

The parents’ role is to raise that child to mature self-reliant and independent adulthood. No parent would like to have an adult offspring around their necks into old age.

In the spiritual realm God has reversed the process of “growing up”. As children of God we have to learn to live in union with Him. It takes Him a lifetime to teach us to live in dependence on Him because our natural bent is towards self-reliance and independence.

Like the umbilical cord which provides the growing foetus with oxygen and nutrients and removes the waste products from its body, so the Holy Spirit is the link between us and the Father, applying the truth about Jesus to our hearts to nourish our spirits and the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin.

Once again, Jesus is our model. As a perfect son He lived in union with the Father and in submission and obedience to Him. He understood Satan’s tactic and modus operandi to disturb His union with the Father so that He would act independently from Him. Jesus never fell for his deception because He was committed to His submission to the Father. He spent much time in fellowship with the Father and could claim that He always pleased the Father.

Jesus also lived in intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit who was with Him throughout His human life from His conception to His resurrection.

The same Spirit who was with Jesus is in us, leading us into truth, teaching us about Jesus and applying the word to our hearts that we may mature in holiness. He is like a spiritual “umbilical cord”, joining us to Jesus and enabling us to live in union with Him.

Jesus called a little child and used him to teach His disciples about helpless and dependence.  Like a branch in the vine, we can only bear fruit if we are intimately connected to Him. Sever the branch and we die. The more dependent we are, the more we mature and the more like the Son we become.

Part of our learning process as sons and daughters of God is to reconnect with Jesus through the Holy Spirit so that we can be nourished and cleansed, and so that we can take as much delight in doing God’s will as Jesus did (Psa. 40: 6-8)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/