LEARNING TO BE A SON – THE WAY TO THE FATHER’S HEART
For several months I have advertised my debut book, “Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart”. I believe it’s time to pique your interest by giving you a glimpse into the content of the book.
First of all, I must tell you why I wrote it. A few years ago I was encouraged by a friend to spend a month studying one chapter of the Bible. I chose Luke’s Gospel and inched my way through chapter one with great enjoyment and profit; so I carried on into chapter two and three and eventually to the end of the book which probably took me a year or more, nearer two, I think.
At about the same time I was introduced to the teaching of a young American preacher by another friend which became a turning point in my understanding of the Bible. This young preacher had studied under a rabbi, a Messianic Jew who was also a Christian minister. What he had to say was life-changing for me as he explained many aspects of the Bible from the ancient Hebraic language and culture, which made sense to me as never before.
I also discovered a scholar of the ancient Hebrew language – Paleo Hebrew – on the internet and, through reading some of his work, I was faced with the truth that much of what I had understood and believed had no foundation in Scripture. Talk about having to change my mind! These events sent me on a quest to read and understand the Bible from the perspective of the ancient writers and not from my own western scientific and philosophical imposition on the Scriptures.
Now don’t get me wrong. I did not become a Hebrew scholar by any means, but I did lean heavily on the scholarship of others. As I pursued Luke’s story, and then later on the other three gospels, I began to realise how far the church has strayed from the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching and mission.
His primary purpose was to reveal the God of Israel who had been buried under all the baggage of Judaism. It was His passion to reveal to His people the one name by which they did not know God – the name “Father”. This was His all-encompassing mission which included His way of life, His teaching, His miracles, His death and His resurrection, all of which were a revelation of what God the Father is really like.
Why was it so important that His people understood that God was their Father? It was God’s intention to create a race of human beings to be His sons and daughters and who would relate to Him as a Father. Luke even called Adam “the son of God” in his genealogy of Jesus, linking the Messiah to the first man God created. Because sin alienated God’s children from Him, Jesus came to deal with sin so that the human race could be reconciled to their Father and be restored to fellowship with Him in His family.
Jesus lived on earth as the model of a perfect son, to qualify as our substitute when He paid the debt for our sin but also to show us how to be sons and daughters of God. it is on the basis of sonship that we have access to the Father and that we are privileged to have a share in His nature, His resources, His kingdom, a home, an name and an inheritance.
Like the password we use to have access to many of the benefits of the internet, so it is the “password” – son or daughter of God – that gives us access to all the benefits of being a member of God’s family. Prayer is the privilege of sons. It is the way in which we gain access to the Father, and to His heart and mind as we live in the world to do His will and to extend His kingdom on earth.
My book explores reason why every human being whether he is aware of it or not, is a son of God; the way to access and enjoy our sonship; the nature of Jesus who is the model son, and the privileges and responsibilities of being sons and daughters of God. Our role as sons and daughters is to follow Jesus, as He called His disciples to do, so that we can learn to be imitators of our elder brother.
In the next few weeks we shall explore the contents of each chapter of the book in the hopes that your appetite will be so whetted that you will want to buy your own copy.