Parenting For Wonderful Maturing

 

The Love Of The father

Parenting For Wonderful Maturing

John 14 Part 4,

Testimony of how God instigated my search for Him:

Sometime in late 1969 I was visiting my girl friend at her college, about 40 miles from where I was a student in another college.  When it was time to go home I put my sack of clothes on my back and stood by the road outside her campus and stuck out my thumb. In those days my primary mode of transportation was hitchhiking. Soon a car came along and stopped, not to give me a ride though, it was a police car. Knowing I had some drugs in the sack I threw it a far as I could. The officer retrieved it and of course found the bag of contraband and took me off to a cell at the trooper station. I told him a story that I had no idea what that stuff was he found, that maybe somebody dropped in my sack. Scared stiff as I sat in that trooper station’s small cell, I wrote down a bunch of thoughts. The one thing I will never forget writing was, “If there is a God, GET ME OUT OF HERE!” Soon the officer came, opened the cell, threw my sack of cloths at me and said, “Get out of here, kid; don’t let me see you again.” I don’t remember how I got to the bus station but I will never forget looking out the window of the Greyhound Bus as the stark reality of what happened flooded my mind. For the first time in my life I knew that God existed, that HE got me out of that jail cell and I felt like I owed Him something. Thus, my intentional quest to find God started that day.

I shared all that to ask you the question: are you seeking God or have you found Him? I recently heard some disturbing statistics about a high percentage of American people that consider themselves Christians yet deny the absolute truth of the Bible. They deny that Jesus is the only way of salvation and eternal life. They even deny that Jesus is God. I can understand making those denials, but I cannot comprehend how people who do so can consider themselves Christians. How can you say you identify yourself with the Christ if you do not know who HE is and know HIM personally? I grew up in a Jewish community and had never heard the Gospel. I only knew that as a Jew I should not pay any attention to Christian proselytizers. It was at least a year and a half or more of diligently searching until HE found me with a ready heart. Perhaps the most life altering thing, mind set changing thing that came with Jesus miraculously revealing Himself to me at a Christian commune was that I found ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Since that confrontation with HIS Manifest Presence, there has never been a question about Jesus being the Lord our God, the King of the Universe, and that the Bible is absolutely true. The Gospel is absolutely true whether you believe it or not. TRUTH IS NOT RELATIVE. Everything changes in your life when GOD shows you that Jesus is the incarnation of ABSOLUTE TRUTH and LOVE.

So, now you ask, what has all that got to do with the title of this blog? Do you remember your parent telling you to do something and you rebelliously asked “why?” You must remember the “Because I said so!” stern response. I loved my parents but I hated that response. I love my children, all mature adults now, but I am sure they hated that response like most kids have for generations. John 14:15, taken by itself, seems like that, but read on and we see that Jesus answered the “why” and the “how.” Please take a few minutes and read the following verses a few times from the Amplified Bible. Let the reality of the Father’s love sink in. It will fill your heart with the confidence of THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR YOU.

John 14: 15    “If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments.

16   And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor - Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever

17   the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you.

18   “I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, bereaved, and helpless]; I will come [back] to you. [AMP]

What Jesus said in verse 15 was not a stern, unexplained “Because I said so!” I think His tone of voice and body language was a plea of love. HE didn’t take up some easy way out of giving an explanation. NOR did HE try to bribe anyone with ice cream and cookies. Instead, Jesus made some great promises for our loving obedience to the Bible’s loving commandments. Verses 15-18 are simple, straight forward and a model for Simplistic Parenting that produces Wonderfully Matured offspring.

Let’s take a look at HIS loving promises to His instructions (that are conditional on obedience):

In John 14:16 Jesus promises to ask the Father to help us. He does this eternally as we see in the following verse Romans:

Romans 8:34   Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and HE is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

In times past, the rod of correction was applied to the seat of learning. I’m sure there were mother’s pleading with father’s to “go easy on the boy” on the way to the wood shed. So much more, Jesus took care of the wages of our sins. HE paid the price. HE took the consequences for our sins. We learn quickly that there are consequences for our actions, but, there is a remedy:

1 John 1:9   But if we confess our sins to him, HE is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. [NLT]

I am ever thankful for the promise of what Jesus is asking the Father for us. The Amplified Bible spreads it out so wonderfully. You may want to do a more thorough word study to uncover the meaning of each of the terms used in verse 16.

John 14:16   And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor - Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever

I made a bold, perhaps controversial statement earlier concerning relative versus absolute truth. The next verse describes the reason for the controversy. Acceptance of the absolute truth requires the revelation coming to a person’s heart from God. Personally, with the freedom from the wages of my sin and blessed hope of eternal life, this revelation set my heart and mind on a totally new, and wonderful, path of life. I sought and I found.

John 14:17   the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you. [AMP]

Verse 18 is the proverbial icing on the cake.

John 14: 18 “I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, bereaved, and helpless]; I will come [back] to you.

Christians are connected to GOD the FATHER. We are not like helpless, hopeless orphans left alone in the street. Holy Spirit is our comforter so we’re not stuck in perpetual grief. Jesus is our helper; HE is the other set of footprints in the sand. HE helps us as HE holds our hand so we can walk on the waters of life with miraculous and exceeding joy. And the cherry on top of the sundae… HE IS COMING BACK FOR US.

In Conclusion:

The Christian life need not be complicated. Seek and you will find, it’s a done deal. GOD THE FATHER simply loves as HE expressed in John 3:16. As believers of the Gospel, Holy  Spirit is in us; we can get still and hear HIS heart beating within us, enabling us to stay in sync with Him. We mature in this relationship as we hope our children do also. Thus we hear so much of God’s Heartbeat. 

Prayer: 

Father, forgive us me for those times where we failed to love like you do. Help us to grow closer to YOU and reflect YOU to everyone we meet, in simplicity and TRUTH. As we to keep our hearts in sync with the TICK, TICK, TICK of your loving heart. Give us the boldness to manifest that love, not just by words and good deeds, but by going beyond the natural realm to do  same miracles Jesus did, and then some. May we be as bright lights of Absolute Truth and God’s love to the deceived and dying people all around us. AMEN.