Friday, April 08, 2011

Living the Story #27, Lent 2011

"...I have not come of my own accord..." John 7:28

When you take a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With A Mission, one of the major teaching requirements is a subject we call 'the Father Heart of God' and over the years, it's gotten so common that it sometimes seems like a throw away statement.

"Well, what do you learn in DTS?"

"Oh, you know, some basic things about missions and evangelism and like, you know, the father heart of God and..." You get the idea.

But God having a father's heart is more than just a week of teaching in YWAM or a nice thought. It is the very essence of the good news. Jesus came into the world on behalf of the Father.

I was raised in a church that subtly told me that God was angry and Jesus was the good guy that saved me from God's anger. That Jesus is the one that gets in the way of God's wrath and holds it back through his sacrifice. It was in reading John Dawson's article for the Last Days newsletter (read it HERE) that I first began to understand that this is a less than worthy understanding of God.

Jesus is the full expression of who God is...he did not come on his own, God, the Father sent him. He did what he saw the Father doing (healing, blessing, helping) and he said what he heard the Father saying (teaching, comforting, correcting). Jesus even said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. What's God like? He is like Jesus.

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