Tag: redemtpion

The Wonders of Having an Abba, Father

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“Abba” is the precious name we have for our beloved heavenly Father. It is like daddy, familiar and endearing to both father and son/daughter. Jesus used the term when praying to God at his hour of deepest need in the garden of Gethsemane. Mark 14:36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Later in Romans and Galatian the Apostle Paul uses the term “Abba, Father” for God in reference to our relationship with Him. Because we are believers and adopted into His family through our faith in Jesus, we can claim God as our Abba Father. Romans 8:14-16 “ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” He also references this in Galatians 4:6 “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

So what difference does this name of God make to you and me? It establishes a close family tie between us and our heavenly father. He is our loving, eternal father who has provided for us in Jesus a way to be reconciled and redeemed. He has indwelt us with His Holy Spirit and provided for us freedom from the slavery of sin and a perfect and protected inheritance kept in heaven for us. Ephesians 1:13 tells us we are sealed by His Holy Spirit, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” He has provided eternal protection for us and I claim the truth of John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” whenever I am in doubt about my salvation. He has me and won’t let me go!

Whatever you earthly father was like- good, bad, indifferent or even cruel, your heavenly father is totally, pure, holy, just, righteous, open, and filled with steadfast eternal love for you! Because Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, I can claim God as my Abba Father along with Jesus as we are family! Lean into God with Jesus and claim Him as your loving heavenly father, too!

Linda

The Prince of Peace makes Peace Possible

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Today’s passage presents a future picture of how God’s people will worship and live. They will be taught by God to walk in His truths and wars will be no more. The people will trade their guns and spears for farming tools. All will be at peace as each man will sit under his own tree and each woman will be able to tend their garden. God himself will bring this about. Micah 4:1-5

1-4 But when all is said and done,
    God’s Temple on the mountain,
Firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains,
    towering above surrounding hills.
People will stream to it
    and many nations set out for it,
Saying, “Come, let’s climb God’s mountain.
    Let’s go to the Temple of Jacob’s God.
He will teach us how to live.
    We’ll know how to live God’s way.”
True teaching will issue from Zion,
    God’s revelation from Jerusalem.
He’ll establish justice in the rabble of nations
    and settle disputes in faraway places.
They’ll trade in their swords for shovels,
    their spears for rakes and hoes.
Nations will quit fighting each other,
    quit learning how to kill one another.
Each man will sit under his own shade tree,
    each woman in safety will tend her own garden.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so,
    and he means what he says. Message translation

The prophet Micah then reminds us that this is not the case right now. People seem to be living like they wish and worshipping their own gods. He encourages us to stay the course and live lives honoring to God.

5 Meanwhile, all the other people live however they wish,
    picking and choosing their gods.
But we live honoring God,
    and we’re loyal to our God forever and ever.

This passage is a reminder to us that God intends for us to live in peace. However, without Jesus, peace can never be achieved. Why is that? God and man are irreconcilable because of sin. When Adam and Eve first sinned in the garden, God put them out of the garden. They could not walk with God side by side and fellowship with Him andy longer because of their sin. Sin had to be dealt with so that man and God could be reconciled. God’s plan to redeem us was to send Jesus to take the penalty for our sins. With our sins covered by Jesus’ blood, God could then look upon us. Hebrews 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Through faith in Jesus, we can be redeemed by His work on the cross making us forgiven of our sins and able to spend eternity with Him. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

I am so very grateful for Jesus who brings peace into our lives through forgiveness and hope for a future with Him. He is indeed the Prince of Peace for all eternity.

Linda