Dad's Dad

"Dad's Dad"

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." Amen. Matthew 6:9-13. As we fastly approach the day we have set aside to celebrate and to honor the fathers of our land, which will be on June the 16th this year, and as I consider the awesome position of responsibility the Lord has so graciously placed me in, I am humbled by the realization of my unworthiness and my inabilities.

There have been countless "How To" books written on it would seem every subject under the sun. And those of "How To" raise children are truly no exception. Some of these books are very good. And some are less than very good to the point of being downright wrong. Some of these books are very helpful. And some are not so helpful and even to the point of being downright harmful. Please let it be known early on in this little article that this is not intended in itself to be such a paper, as I have already indicated my unworthiness and inabilities. It is however intended to first of all bring honor and glory and praise to the only true and living God, who is indeed the only real authority on not only raising children, but every other subject thought of or not thought of as well. And then it is intended to serve as a very real and lasting blessing to the readers. And to honor those who have been so blessed as to be known as fathers.

You will notice that I have entitled this little article, "Dad's Dad". I have done this because the word Dad is one which has been most popularly given to the fathers of children today. I am not sure where the word came from, but it is a shortened version of what my own children call me, which is Daddy. Now, personally, I don't mind being called Dad or Daddy, for I have been called a whole lot worse. But concerning my own personal relationship as a parent, the second Dad in the title is wrong. I only gave this article that title in order to bring to light the need that we all have as parents and as children, to constantly be looking to and seeking the only true authority concerning our relationship with and to not only each other, but to Him.

This authority I speak of is God, Who not only created everything that is, but Who also established the family to begin with. Within every living thing that God created, He planted a seed by which that creation should multiply. Of all the other living things the Lord created, such as the trees, the birds, the fishes and so on, God's Word tells us that He created multiples of each.

Only mankind, which was His last creation and which He created in His image, did He establish the family. He did so as He created one man and one woman within which He planted the seed necessary to build the family. One man and one woman. God did not create two men and He did not create two women. He also did not create one man and multiple women. And He also did not create multiple men and one woman. I said all that to say this, everything that God created, He did so as He intended for it to be and to remain.

As I said before, this article is not an instruction book or a "How To" book, but it is intended to direct us all, including me to the only real "How To" Book ever written. This Book was written by the authority Himself and it is without flaw or lack. You will also notice that right after I purposely misnomered the title of this little article, I also purposely began it with what we have come to call, The Lord's Prayer. And then from there, I just as purposely went to the creation of all that there is, including mankind and the family. Each of these indeed have a very real and just as important purpose and that is why I said I purposely did them.

The purpose of the misnomer of the title and indeed the part about the establishment of the family found in the creation is to make it very clear that we, as the very crowning of God's creation, have blown it from the beginning until now. Every other creation of God, without the interference of mankind, is as He planned it. Not so with His masterpiece. We and we alone have blown it. God gave this act of blowing it a name and that name is SIN. We have even blown that in that we have given even SIN itself other names to make them sound better. You will also notice that I have written the word SIN in all capital letters and that is because it is so wrong to the Holy God that it not only needs to be called what it is, but it is to be made visible to all of us. The reason I say all of us is because if you will notice, right in the middle of that word SIN there is the word I. That's me my friend, and it's you too when it's your SIN.

We have SINNED as God's crowning glory and we have SINNED as the family He established by us. But I have some good news, because there's hope for all of us in all counts as His creatures and as families. That hope is the same in all of it and God called it the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The very word Gospel means Good News and that is exactly what it is. This part of this little article is for those who have not yet received the Gospel and who are lost and without God. You will notice that all through this article I have used the words "We" and "I". That's us my friend. I am a sinner and you are a sinner. We are sinners not because we sin, but because we were born that way. The Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God:". Romans 3:23. The Bible goes on to explain that, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23. That, my friend is the hope that we all have. But that free gift offered to all is only hope when we believe it. If you believe God's Word, you can have the assurance of His forgiveness of your every SIN by going to Him in prayer and confessing that you realize that you are a lost sinner and telling Him that you are trusting Jesus Christ and the blood that He shed for your SINS and that you want to receive Him into your heart and life as your personal Saviour and Lord. If you do that, God will save you and you too will be His child and my brother or sister.

From this point on, it is my prayer that all who will be reading this article will be my brother or sister. Again, please notice that after the misnomered title, I began this article with what we call, "The Lord's Prayer", and followed it with the creation, including the establishment of the family. Again, this was for a purpose and the purpose for this is the fact that even those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour have failed (SINNED) as parents. And with this article being dedicated to and aimed at the honoring of fathers, let me say that whether it be a father or mother reading this little article, there is indeed hope for all of us there too. Of course there will never be one of us perfect in either our lives or in our responsibility as parents. But there is always room for improvement. And that hope that we have for all our improvement is found in the Lord's prayer and in creation. The blessed hope is found in getting back to basics. Those basics like all other answers to life's questions are found in God's Word.

Let us begin with the very basic of the Lord's prayer. It can truly be called the Lord's Prayer even though it is not a prayer that the Lord prayed all the time. It is a prayer which the Lord used as an example to teach His disciples how to pray. Not what to pray, but on what manner to pray. An example, if you will. And God's Word is full of examples which are very basic whereby we are to learn and grow.

And what better example or basic to begin with than that of the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father". The most important basic. It is of utmost importance to be very sure that God is our Father. Or no matter how hard we try, we will be no less than a failure in not only our own lives, but also in that of raising our own children. We were made in His image and likewise, the family structure that He established for us as His creatures is a miniature of the family of God. As earthly fathers, we are to be the spiritual leaders of our own family. Now is that an awesome responsibility or what? Well, the basic of basics is to be absolutely very sure that we don't ever approach God's throne of grace by saying, "Our Dad". Honor thy father and thy mother, His Word tells us. We are to honor Him and recognize Him as our Father.

"Which art in heaven". Another important basic is that of recognizing and acknowledging the dwelling place of our Father. Though He is omnipresent, His Kingdom and dwelling place is not in or of this world. Jesus never told His disciples to pray this prayer, but He did indicate to them that no matter what their concerns or desires, they should pray on this manner and that means that these things should always be acknowledged in their hearts as they prayed for whatever they prayed for.

"Hallowed be Thy name". This God Who has been so gracious to us is a Holy God. So Holy that His name is Holy. And we are to always realize and recognize His very Holiness every time we even think of Him. This should not only help us to see just how unholy we are, but it should serve to humble us as we acknowledge how unworthy we truly are to approach Him.

"Thy Kingdom come". Realizing the awesome responsibilties we are subject to in this wicked world, if we are truely not of this world, we will always be not only willing for God's Kingdom to end this present mess, but we will surely welcome it and seek it.

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven". God's Word tells us that we are to seek His face. Nowhere does He tell us that we should seek His hand. We truly are a needy people with many needs and desires, all of which God already knows about. If we truly trust Him as our Father, we will seek His will above and beyond our own needs and desires. God's Word never tells us not to ask for the things we need as He tells us to ask. However, realizing that He loves us and that being our Father, He knows better than we do what is best for us. Again, this is more of a heart matter than one of the lips. We could say, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.", until we were blue in the face, but without meaning it. This would be worse than not saying it at all.

"Give us this day our daily bread". Now there's our petition for the things we need and God is very much interested in our needs and our desires. And oh what an awesome request. At first glance, this might not seem so awesome to many people, but if you would just think about it for a moment, you would truly see that it is more of a request than the Lord gets from most of His children. Let's break it down and see just how awesome it is. When we say, "Give us" we are not only making a request from our heavenly Father, but we are realizing, recognizing, and acknowledging that we ouselves neither own or can obtain anything without Him. When we say, "this day" we are telling our heavenly Father that it is the moment or the time that is present that we are concerned about and that our total trust is in Him to supply our every need. And we back that statement up when we say, "our daily bread". We are not asking God to fill our refrigerators and our freezers and our bank accounts with not only bread for tomorrow, but so often as some do, with bread for next week or next month or even next year. There is absolutely nothing wrong with planning and saving for the future, but we are always to realize that the very future is in His hands and trust Him for this day. If we cannot within our hearts trust Him for the present and the future, then our trust is not totally in Him, but in the things we have already acknowledged as coming from Him. Pretty awesome huh?

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors". Now that in itself is pretty awesome. Think about how much we owe God. Think about how much everyone we know could ever owe us. There is no comparison and yet, even knowing how much God has forgiven us, we tend to find it hard to forgive the petty things we are owed by others. We cannot expect God Who is Holy to forgive us who are so unholy if we are not willing to forgive others.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:". We all who know God, know that God does not tempt us, but what we are saying here is that we are trusting God to lead our every path, which will indeed not be into temptation. But after the comma, we go on to acknowledge that in our imperfection we sometimes find ourselves drifting from His divine leadership and evil is ever present. We then are trusting in His care to deliver us from all evil. Oh what a gracious God!

"For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever". And after all is said and done, we realize that it all is indeed in the Saviour's hands. And those precious nail scarred hands truly will never fail. What then should we glory, but that we know God.

"Amen". What more could I say, but let it be. Lord, let it be.