Tag Archives: Father

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

October 23, 2015Book ReviewsFather, Kingdom, prayer, son, willLuella Campbell

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

October 19, 2015Book Reviewsblessing, Father, home, inheritance, nameLuella Campbell

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.

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 ?

Jesus Did Not Say That We Must Accept Him As Our Personal Saviour

September 30, 2015Apologeticsaccpet, Father, journey, personal Saviour, wayLuella Campbell

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT WE MUST ACCEPT HIM AS OUR PERSONAL SAVIOUR

I suppose that the most common expression that is used today of someone becoming a Christian (and even that idea is not Biblical), is that he has “accepted Jesus as his personal Saviour”. I’m sure you’ve heard that one as well! But I have yet to find any place where it is used in Scripture.

Is it wrong, and if so, why? I understand that people use it to describe what happened to them and what changes it made in their lives, but it does not fit the reality of what the Bible has to say about this experience.

The Bible presents life as a journey, symbolised by Israel’s migration from Egypt to the Promised Land. Their’s was an unknown way through the wilderness where there were dangers all around them and where it was easy to get lost and perish in the desert if they did not stay on the path and follow the landmarks. There are many references in Scripture to a path or way which will take us to our appointed destination. For the Israelites it was the Promised Land, symbolised by the city of God – Jerusalem, which was often called “Zion” – the highest point in the city and the place where God had established His name.

God gave them His torah, His directions for the journey, i.e. His “law” which was summarised in the Ten Commandments. If they followed His way, it would light their path and show them the way to their destination. The “landmarks” they were to follow were the opportunities to treat their fellow Israelites and the strangers among them with kindness and generosity, prescribed in God’s Torah or teachings. If they followed His way, they would become like Him, i.e. they would move towards “Zion” where He had placed His name – His character.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path. (Psa. 119: 105)

Sin, or going their own way, caused them to leave God’s way and take a way that would lead them to destruction. There was no food or protection for the journey away from God’s path. Those who went their own way were lost and in danger of perishing. He continually called them, through the prophets, to repent, shuv, change their minds and return to God’s way.

Jesus came to restore the wayward hearts of His people that were bent on going their own way in spite of God’s warnings and the judgment that fell on them because of their disobedience. Through His death and resurrection He dealt with and removed the barrier of sin which animal sacrifices only symbolised and could not do. He calls His wayward sons and daughters to shuv, to return to the path we were on before Adam chose to go his own way and took the human race with him.

John the Baptist’s message to Israel was “Repent (shuv) – return to God’s way, for the kingdom of God is near.” Jesus echoed John’s words with the invitation, “Repent (shuv), for the kingdom of God is here.” He came to restore God’s rule of torah, teaching His way of doing life by being merciful, compassionate and generous to all people, in the hearts of those who would follow Him. It was never His intention to do away with the “law” – His directions for following His “landmarks”, but to show us how to fulfil what God required, not by observing rules, but by loving God and people from the heart according to the greatest commandment.

If we have only “accepted Jesus as our personal Saviour”, we have completely missed the point. Jesus did not call His disciples to “accept” Him but to follow Him. That means embracing His yoke – His way of believing and doing life, which was the correct understanding of God’s intention in His word. Life is about unselfishly serving others and sharing our resources with them because God has been merciful and generous towards us, most clearly revealed to us by the cross.

“Becoming a Christian” is much more than accepting Jesus as our personal Saviour, as though we now have a free pass to heaven. It is a commitment to follow Jesus because He is the way to the Father. It is His intention to teach and empower us through the same Spirit that empowered Him, to be true sons and daughters of the Father so that we can bring heaven to earth by becoming replicas of Jesus, our rabbi.

He promised that, through His true followers who live by His yoke, He will transform ever the most wicked and debased people into His church – the visible representation of the kingdom of God on earth.

Jesus did not call us to respond to an altar call or to sign a decision card. He called us to follow Him. It is a step-by-step, day-by-day, decision-by decision to walk with Him in submission and obedience, learning from Him how to “wear” His yoke and how to be sons and daughters of God. He is both our model and our mentor on this journey through His “Other Self”, the Holy Spirit.

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

It can be ordered directly from www.partridgepublishing.com or from your local branch of the publishing company. Details of where you can buy the book will be posted in due course.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

Learning To Be A Son – The Way To The Father’s Heart

September 22, 2015Book ReviewsFather, Jesus, model, sonshipLuella Campbell

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.

Son Of The Father

September 9, 2015Bible StudyBarabbas, Father, murder, prisoner, releaseLuella Campbell

SON OF THE FATHER

Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. ‘Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?’ asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

‘What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked them. ‘Crucify Him!’ they shouted. Why? What crime has He committed?’ asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify Him!’ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified. (Mark 15: 6-15)

King of the Jews? Pilate had obviously not bought that one. From his point of view, Jesus was no more a threat to Rome than his pet puppy.

But the chief priests and religious leaders were adamant. Jesus must die! If Pilate did not find Him guilty, there was another way to get Him sentenced to death. The exchange! This was their trump card. They were play Barabbas against Jesus and Pilate could not wriggle out of that one.

According to the custom that the Roman governor release a prisoner during the Passover Festival, they demanded the release of one, Barabbas, an insurrectionist and a murderer. Can you credit their hypocrisy? They accused Jesus of treason when He was clearly not guilty. On top of it, He was a man who healed the sick and gave life to the dead. Instead they demanded the release of a man who had taken life and who was among those who rebelled against Rome. How devious could they be?

But Pilate was not stupid. He knew the reason why they had condemned Jesus. He was too good for their liking. They preferred the company of those who were like them, wicked to the core but covered with a veneer of religious “righteousness” which Jesus had seen through and exposed, time and again to their discomfort. The quicker they got rid of Him, the better, and they would not hesitate to stoop to murder, just like the one they chose for release.

Who was this Barabbas anyway? This is the only time his name appears in history, and what a record! Bar-abbas. His parents gave him the name “son of the father”. Was that prophetic? Was he destined to become just like his father? Was he the offspring of a criminal like he had turned out to be? He certainly was the offspring of Adam, father of the human race, flawed from birth. All he had to do was to live up to his nature and he would be a replica of his father.

Who was his father? Jesus put his finger on the core problem during a debate with the religious leaders. They were adamant that they were the children of Abraham. “How can that be?” Jesus demanded, “when you are plotting to murder me? Your real father is the devil because that’s who you resemble.”

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8: 44)

Yes, according to the Scriptures, Barabbas was a true son of his father, the devil, and that’s the one they chose for release. How true is the proverb, “Birds of a feather flock together.” These men had shown themselves up for who they were.

But what about Jesus? This was their accusation – that He had claimed to be “the Son of the Father”. His nature and actions, like Barabbas, were evidence of the identity of His Father. Just as Barabbas mirrored his father, the devil, so Jesus was the image of His Father, God.

And they chose Barabbas because they were of the same family.