Paths to Dwell In

Is God Angry?

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Obedience Based on Fear

When I was still a boy my family and I went to a restaurant. My brother and I used our napkins properly and kept our elbows off the table, we were not noisy nor did we interrupt, in fact we did not speak unless spoken to. A couple sitting nearby commented to my dad how well-mannered my brother and I were. What they did not know was that we lived with an abusive father and were obedient for fear of our lives!

My father extracted our obedience, but at what cost? I grew up hating him and rebelled in every way. He extracted obedience, but he did it based on fear and control, producing only an outward conformity.

I cannot put into words how huge I think this is! This is the church; this is the world system; this is the debate of our times! A huge amount of preaching relies on the idea of threat, punishment or judgment. I feel like this is bringing God down to man’s level or projecting onto God how man would do things. Having to resort to threat is weakness, it is fear-based and it implies insecurity. A bully would not have a need to intimidate if he was secure! I grew up with an abusive father and it was all based in fear. I just cannot believe that God is in heaven wringing His hands over what in the world He is going to do with so many disobedient children!

Bill Johnson said, “A battle is brewing, not over the Holy Spirit, healing or revival, but over the goodness of God. If I did to my children what some people accuse God of doing to His, I would be thrown in jail for child abuse!”

God is not destroying cities with earthquakes, He did not cause 9/11 because of homosexuals, and He is not putting sickness on people to try and teach them something. He is a loving God. 1 John 4 says that God is love and so everything He does is with love in mind. Am I saying there are no consequences for sin, of course not, but I believe how we look at it is vitally important. Man chooses his own way, the world is under sin, and breaking God’s laws bring reaping. If an airplane loses a wing and thus breaks God’s laws of aerodynamics it will crash, not because God poured out His wrath but because laws were broke. God’s will is that all the people on that plane would be saved, 1 Timothy 2:4.

True obedience is born out of a heart broken by love not out of scaring someone into fire insurance. It is love alone that can make a person feel safe enough to lower the walls down from around their heart and move into empathy. True conviction has to have the element of empathy for it is then that we see how our actions have hurt others, we move out of selfishness and can begin embracing steps of humility! Even to the point of seeing our need for a Savior.

A loving father is one who sets boundaries for his children, gives them free choice but also does not rescue them from the consequences of their actions, but he never devalues, demeans or belittles. And it is certainly not his heart to pour out his wrath on his disobedient children.

God is well able to be the mature one in our relationship with Him, to take the high road, not being childish or petty. He is not threatened by ways we are still selfish and immature. He rejoices over us with joy and singing, Zephaniah 3:17 and His banner over us is love, Song 2:4.

Receiving versus Grasping

Richard Jones

Recently the press has made allegations that Pavarotti’s marriage was on the rocks prior to his demise. They also assert that his widow is locked in a legal battle with his daughters over the tenor’s assets. It seems that Hulk Hogan’s 23-year marriage to Linda Hogan is also in ruins, with some suggesting a divorce of convenience to protect assets from litigation. How about Anna Nicole Smith and her marriage to the billionaire J. Howard Marshall, 63 years her senior, and the grieving widow’s ensuing legal battle with his son over J. Howard’s fortune? Isn’t it amazing what extremes we will go to secure assets and gain inheritance? We might not be brooding or arguing over millions or billions, but the heart reflects the man and at its core inheritance is a heart issue.

Similar attitudes and their consequences surface in Christians circles every week; this church splitting, that leader leaving, people seeking position and power, the discontent going from church to church or ministry to ministry demanding attention and recognition, people burnt out slaving in Christian service, angry people demanding or tired people slaving for their ever elusive inheritance. The problem is that in Father’s house if you try to take your inheritance before its time then you will ultimately lose it, and if you try to earn it then the harder you try the farther it will seem from your grasp. The late Jack Frost would point to the many ministries inciting us to claim our inheritance now, and then ask his listeners to show him someone who had received it and was living in it.

The problem is that the majority of the human race is living as spiritual orphans, not just outside the church but also many of us within. Orphans do not have any inheritance coming to them so they have to go out and fight for and grab all that they can get for themselves. In Luke 15 we find two sons living as orphans, one opts to take all that is coming to him and to spend it on himself, while the other is slaving in the field trying to earn what he regarded as his birthright. The father’s response to the latter was: “My son…everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:29,31) – even when everything was already his, the inheritance eluded him because his motivation mirrored that of his younger sibling. Both sons had orphan hearts.

Of late, Father has gently shown me the brokenness of my own orphan heart. I realize that I have fought for position, power and for status, that I have longed for others to acknowledge me and recognize my ministry. That I have served out of a need to be needed (Notice the emphasis on me, my and I…) These orphan attitudes have not been overtly obvious, rather they have been a subtle undercurrent, an almost indiscernible flavoring, tainting my leadership, teaching, working-relationships and friendships. Please forgive me if you have been an unwitting recipient – In my blindness Father is helping me to see and to let go.

All this time my hands have been tightly closed, my fingers grasping to take hold, straining to secure that which I believed to be rightfully mine; that which would somehow make me feel complete. But Father’s inheritance cannot be taken it can only be received, it cannot be earned it is only given. True sons and daughters do not have to fight for or earn inheritance. As we position ourselves as children of God, living in submission founded on love, rich inheritance will simply flow. I remember my step-father saying to me one day; “I hold everything with open hands, if Father wants to take things out or to put them in he has free access. If our hands are clenched shut to prevent him removing anything, by default we simultaneously exclude him from putting anything into them.” The reality is that it all belongs to Father anyway and no one is going to steal it out of His hands – we do not have to grasp and clench, we can let go, we can have open hands, living in the eternal security of our Father’s house and presence.

Jesus is our shining example, the one who did not count equality with God something to be grasped, instead humbling himself and consequently being exalted by Father (Phil 2:6-9). We are co-heirs with Christ but the inheritance cannot be taken or earned, only received by grace as we become like him, living in humble submission to Father’s heart and purposes.

Richard Jones is a long time missionary to Malaysia and Indonesia. For information on his ministry email fathersloveministry@mac.com

His web page :http://web.mac.com/ridwan/Fatherslove/Welcome.html

Frances was abandoned by her mother early. She had to be responsible around the house. She grew up to be an efficient person, well able to organize and get things done. She was smart and intellectually competent. As time went on, however, her struggles with intimacy produced feelings of loneliness. Intellectual power and efficiency could not meet this need. 

Psalms 145:8-9 the LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.

1 Thessalonians 2:7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

I love hanging out with my 15 year old son. We lift weights and play soccer together. He loves to tell me the latest happenings in the sport’s world. But when he needs comfort he goes to his mom. Men can certainly express affection but there is just something about mothers.

Genesis 1:27 says that God not only created man in His own image, but also woman. If that is the case then God certainly has in His heart all that we could ever need in the way of a mother’s love.

Fathers give direction, purpose and a sense of destiny, whereas a mother’s love comforts, nurtures, sooths and expresses affection. Duty verses rest-activity verses just being.

So often in church we hear about vision and duty, the Great Commission. Maybe this is because the needs are real, the lost do need to be saved, and it really does take money to go. Maybe this is because the bulk of preaching is done by men. Whatever the reason, there is a tender side to God’s nature that we also need to know about. Can I value resting and just being with God, allowing His love to comfort me as much as I value getting things done?

1 John 4:18 says that when love is brought to completion it casts out fear. As Frances saw God’s tenderness she was able let go of her fears, risk opening her heart and allow the pain from not having a nurturing mother to come to the surface. She was able to allow God Himself to meet that deep need within her and to begin receiving His gentle loving nature.