Viewing God as Our Father

In: Personal Reflections on the Study of God's Word
Published:

Several years ago while on vacation with my family in Myrtle Beach, SC I broached the topic of God as our father with my extended family (all of my brothers and sisters were together for the first time since my mom's funeral a little over a year before). My focus on these words had been on "father". What does it mean that God is referenced as father? How has my relationship with my earthly father informed and directed my understanding of what it means for God to be called father? As I brought this topic up my youngest brother Peter wouldn't let me get past the word "Our". He commented that Jesus didn't say "My Father..." or "Your Father...", but "Our Father...." What does it mean that he is "ours" and not "mine" or "yours"? How does that change the way I see people? What about those people that I don't like very much - the ones that have hurt me? Is He their father too? If He is, how should that influence the way I view (and more importantly TREAT) them? Each one of us has been wronged by someone (and each one of us has wronged someone else!) Recognizing that God is their father as well as ours should direct the way we treat each other. (We could broaden this to include all those people who have different religious, social, or political views than us.) How can we become ONE family with differing views but the SAME father focused on HIS will

Friday Blog

This past week has been an interesting and thought provoking week for me. Last Friday I received a phone call from Stephanie Sheehan, Dean of the School of Business at Southern Adventist University, continuing a conversation that began about three months ago. We had been dialoging about an open faculty position in the School of Business at Southern that had taken several intriguing twists and turns over the course of the months long conversation. The simple summary of the phone call on Friday was "with everything that has transpired, are you still interested in teaching at Southern." On Wednesday of this week I received an official invitation from the Academic VP's office to join the School of Business faculty. Throughout the past three months both Lisa and I have felt like every time the door seems to be closing on this opportunity God has pushed the door open again (the post from March 13 is a response to incidents that happened as part of the ongoing dialogue!) Due to the vast array of evidence that seems to point to God's direction in this matter on Wednesday evening I accepted the position.

Friday Blog

When I was younger my brothers and I would often camp beside the pond at the top of Tumbledown Mountain in Weld, Maine (unfortunately camping is now prohibited on the mountain.) Most of the time we would be the only campers on the mountain providing a peaceful solitude away from the busyness of life. We would start at the drive-in base camp located on a long dirt road off the main highway leading into Weld and hike the nearly 3 miles along the Parker Ridge trail to the top. From this bare summit we could look down on Tumbledown pond or we could look to the south and east toward Webb lake and Mt. Blue. One of the defining features of this hike was the climb through the woods to a steep ascent that lead over three succeeding rock ledges before finally ascending Parker Ridge. As you came out of the woods all you could see was the crest of the first ledge. For a first time hiker it appears you are about to reach the summit, only to be disappointed when you finally get there and discover there is another ridge. That experience was repeated two more times as you crested ledges two and three before finally reaching the (almost) summit (if you continue on the loop trail that goes around the lake you will ascend to a higher summit before descending back down through the "chimney" and "fat man's misery" - it is far better to come UP that trail rather than try to go down!) 

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