Father Talk

It's kind of ironic that tonight we talked about fathers. Because my best friend from The Citadel, Davey Miller, his father just had some serious surgery. He had a stroke awhile back and was unaware that it had happened. Doing hard labor all your life and smoking multiple packs of cigarettes for 30 years will eventually put a hard toll on your body. This past week he went in for a very big and serious surgery. He is doing well, but definitely needs your prayers. His name is Mike Miller, and he is a great man, he stood in as a host father my knob year. His son Davey is obviously worried and for good reason. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of a new problem in this families life. So my first and most important prayer request is that you not only keep Mr. Mike in your prayers but Davey along with his entire family. Tonight we talked about Fathers, our image of God as our Father. Our image of God as our Father is clouded by our sin. We think of our past experiences with our earthly fathers, some good and some bad. It's hard to accept God as our father who is perfect and forgiving and loving and caring. 1 John 1:19 expresses how God forgives us of ALL our sin, no matter what it is, as long as we confess it to Him. This is hard for us to imagine this type of forgiveness because we can go no where else to receive it. In Isiah 43:25 He explains how he even forgets your sins once you are forgiven. They are gone from His memory. Unlike our flawless human examples in our life. God's righteousness is shown in 2 Corinthians 5:21. That is who we are in the Gospel. We are redeemed. We are Holy. We are forgiven. How encouraging!? He loves us more than we can possibly imagine. As much as you think you love someone or think someone loves you, God loves you much more than that, even if you don't love him.... at all. Romans 5:8- "But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were sinners Christ died for us. Really think about that for a second, I mean it, stop and think about that. We have got to come to God and see Him not in light of our sin but in the light of His love and in the light of the cross ans see God as the loving father He is. We see God as our father through our own personal experiences with fathers. Some of you might not have been blessed with great earthly fathers. Thankfully I was. I am thankful to have had such a great dad who was so very forgiving. He even stopped yelling at me as a child because he said that his children were the only people he yelled at and he loved us the most. He truly cared about me, and really represented what an earthly father should be like. He let me go out on my own, like the prodigal son, and received me with open arms when I returned. He always forgave me when I was wrong and never stopped loving me. God in heaven is a much better Father than my dad. He loves me more, he cares for me more, he forgives me truly, he will never stop loving me, never give up, He is my father. I am free from fear. I am the son of the Most High God. Even if you don't believe in Him, He believes in you, and He loves you just as much as anyone else He created. He will never stop loving you, and if you confess to Him, He will forgive you. His son, Jesus, died on the cross for you. Yes, You, I am talking to you! How encouraging is that, there is nothing you can do to lose His love. He loves you more than anything you could ever experience. I have three questions I want you to take seriously, go ahead and write them down if you want. What experiences in your life have led you to your view of God? What is your view of God as your Father? What does the Word say God your Father sees you? Please take this all into consideration. Mainly tonight, tomorrow, all this week pray for Mr. Mike Miller and his family. He is a great father too.

PS: Mom you are just as awesome of a mother. I love you both

Serving Him,

Daniel