NORMAS DE SEGURIDAD

The wonderful truth is that you too can really get to know God as Father if you give yourself the chance. He need not be a stranger to you. Matter of fact, He longs to have an intimate relationship with you as His son. The problem has always been that we ignore Him or rebel against Him, usually at our peril. When we do so we are the greater loser. When we are far from His eternal love we expose ourselves to dangers we need not face alone. The entire scripture is

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really about the love God longs to share with man, as a Father. It was the relationship He had with Adam when He made him and put him in the garden. However, it is Adam’s sin and obedience that first distanced him and all his descendants from this most intimate relationship. The chief reason why most people never sense or experience this relationship with God is because of the effect of sin. It stands as the proverbial barrier between a “lost mankind” and a loving God, between children and their Father.

It is, however, also true that quite a number are indeed “distanced” from a loving relationship with God as Father because of the prevailing misconceptions assumed about who God is. Even among His own chosen people, the Jews, the impressions of God tended to be of a very remote and austere personality. They considered God in the highest degree as a person to be approached with extreme caution. It was even unthinkable to mention His name. And although God Himself spoke of His enduring love for them as His beloved children this impression was never seen at an individual context. At most they thought of Him as the Father of the entire nation of Israel. In fact, mention of Him as Father is done only 15 times in the Old Testament. Similarly, pictures of the renaissance period only worsened this impression as they depicted God as an old angry figure, preoccupied with judgmental attitudes. Compounding this legacy are the very available numbers of legalistic religious leaders and highhanded earthly fathers that have only served to elude the true impression of a kind, gentle and loving God as our Father.

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And yet, if the truth is told God is indeed a very loving Father and everyone is capable of knowing Him that way. He is the kindest, nicest, most loving person anyone can ever meet. It is important that we realize that all persons were made in His image and have in them a void, a hole that only His love can fill. More than anyone ever did, Jesus clarified the image of God. In fact, it can be said that one of the principal reasons, if not the most important motive for His coming was to reconcile us to this wonderful person, God. A closer study of His own relationship with God shows that for all the latter’s many titles and offices yet Father was Jesus’ preferred term for referring to Him. In His immortal Sermon on the Mount of Olives He used the expression 14 times. And that is how He addressed God in prayer (Matthew 6:9). His purpose was to reveal that God was not some unapproachable, remote, and austere figure but a loving, caring and easily accessible person. And in so many ways, He actually revealed the Father. In all that He did, He sought to reflect the very work and image of God. Where God had healed, forgiven sins, and fed His people Jesus demonstrated the same virtues. The gist caught with His disciples who He had taught to refer to God as their Father (Matthew 6:9). They saw his compassion, how He cared and never rejected whoever came to Him (Matthew 18:34-36; Luke 5:12-13, 17-20) and they too knew that they could call God Father. As a result, the term Father appears 245 times in the New Testament.

Not only did Jesus reveal the Fathers intimacy and compassion for mankind but also in His death He rendered apart the barrier between people and God. By shedding His

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innocent blood for the atonement of our sins He in a single stroke made it possible for all mankind to be reconciled to God. Where sin had estranged us from God’s favor and kindness the blood of Jesus dispelled it to legitimize our identity as God’s own dear children. All we have to do to begin sensing and experiencing this privilege and its powerful results is to acknowledge our sins and God’s love for us expressed in the death of His only begotten Son. If we

believe in our heart and confess with our lips that Jesus died for us (Romans 10:9)…. Nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:39).

What is the privilege of knowing God as “Father” for all who do not have fathers, patrons or life coaches? The benefits are

enormous: As the aforementioned cases in God’s word reveal, God is indeed a most vital coach and patron. In fact, He is the most seasoned patron anyone can ever have. His experience has been tested and His loyalty is total. The scriptures confirm that He is a father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5) and that He will never leave us, even if our earthly parents do (Psalm 27:10). Short of the love of a father or patron God is indeed that dangerous substitute. With Him, the struggler need not be afraid of the varied challenges on the way to victory. It is in this regard that the Apostle Paul boldly confessed to a terrified church shaken by the persecution they faced that if God be for us who can be against

us (Romans 8:31). All men that relied on God as Father were

never disappointed. From the patriarchs of our faith – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the kings, prophets and other servants of God we continuously see men and women that intimated with a loving and compassionate God as their

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Father overcoming steep opposition. It is this relationship that moved many to make vows and covenants with God and every one of them testifies to God’s faithfulness in keeping His part of the bargain. In these great accounts, we are shown a Father that is very concerned about every detail of the lives of His children. It was not only the broad aspects of a struggler’s destiny that saw God’s intervention but all aspects of their lives were precious to Him. This same Father is still available today and has never changed in His ways.

He is not a man that He should change His mind (1 Samuel

15:29). On the contrary, He is the same yesterday, today and

forever (Hebrews 13:8)