Bishan church

God our Father

Why did Paul bother to write “God, our Father”? Isn’t the name “God” sufficient? more respectfully appropriate with much grandeur?

Romans 1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Colossians 1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

How would the Lord’s prayer be diferent if worded like this….Our God, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name…

Any different with ” Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name” ?

What emotions do you experience?

During courting, a couple may address each other’s parents as ” uncle” and “aunty” (Singaporean custom). Once married, the uncle and aunty are respectively addressed as your spouse would with terms of endearment like Pa and Ma, or father and mother.

What has changed? What are the implications?
It has to do with family. It has to do with being added ( Acts 2:47) to the family, blessed by the head, the “jia zhang” !

Ephesians 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named

Family members all have the same name, related by blood or added by the head through adoption. Families have heritage or inheritance. Families have priviledges set aside by the head for the children. You can’t just join a family like a club. The family must add you in and accept you by some formal process of adoption. A formal process of declaration to the community that you are one of them.

In our society this “adoption” comes in various forms: 1) legitimate birth of a child conceived by parents legally or customarily married 2) adoption through a legal or socially accepted process of a community 3) a legal declaration through a will that the beneficiary has some rights accorded to him/her by the deceased.

Spiritually, many are called but not many are added according to our Father’s requirement. 1 Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Baptism is a requirement Jesus Himself commissioned to His disciples to teach and ” obey all things I have commanded you” .

In good conscience as you declare “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10) that you are now solely His and no more belong to the prince of this world.

It is significant why God must be declared and acknowledged as Father, AND constantly remind ourselves.

Not only does He adopt us as children, He provides, Jehovah Jireh Ge.22:14
He leads His children as Father’s do, Jehovah Nissi. Ex. 17:15
He provides comfort, He makes all things well. Jehovah Rapha Ex. 15:22-26
He makes us whole. Jehovah M’Kaddesh Lev.20:8

Muslims do not call God Father. They have lofty names for Allah, but not Abba. Their god is a distant god.

Our Father is not only near us, His spirit is in us. He is also called Emmanuel, God with us!

With many more ways He cares, why do we often live like orphans?

Add comment June 2nd, 2008

When I become a pagan….

I often say my prayers
But do I ever pray?
And do the wishes of my heart
Go with the words I say?

I may as well kneel down
And worship gods of stone,
As offer to the living God
A prayer of words alone.

For words without the heart
The Lord will never hear,
Nor will He to those lips attend
Whose prayers are not sincere.

Anon

Do you pray because you have been assigned or delegated, “arrowed” ?
Do you pray because you are scheduled and expected to mouth certain ” spiritual words” publicly?
Do you pray because it is ” one of the acts of worship” ?

Add comment June 2nd, 2008

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe…..

Lesson from Mother Goose.

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread.
She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

a)Is this old lady shepherding a flock or managing an organization?

b)Is she more concerned with efficiency or the needs of each child?

c)Why do you think she didn’t know what to do?

d)How is she coping with maintaining order without compromising numbers?

e) Do you see an example of “one size fits all” approach?

f) If the shoe is a church of poor lost hungry children for God, what kind of leader does this old woman represent?

g) How does such a leader ” whipped them all soundly and send them to bed” in a church setting?

h) Is such a leader feeding the flock to grow spirirually healthy or just feeding a flavour of the real thing wihout much substance as in ” broth without bread” ? What kind of sermons do these people preach?

i) How does the size of a church change a family to an organization?In what way does an increasing congregational size a disadvantage?

Is the church to make disciples or increase headcount in membership?

Why do you think such a situation arises in modern churches especially?

Add comment June 2nd, 2008