Archive for One with Our Father

The Father’s Children

2017-12-26 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER
John 1:10-14; 3:18-21

The Word became flesh and walked among us
in the power, love, and wisdom of the Father.
Yet most who saw the incarnate God
stumbled at Him.
The Son came to the world He had created and
walked among His own people,
yet they refused Him.
His hometown rejected their famous son and
in anger tried to kill Him (Luke 4:18-30).
The most religious people of the day,
the ones who seemed to know God the best and
follow Him the most diligently,
considered the Son a charlatan, a fake, and a devil.
They saw undeniable signs.
They watched as He repeatedly demonstrated
unearthly authority
over demons, disease, and death.
Still they vehemently denied Him.

Most people who see the Light
run from it and cling to the darkness.
Their deeds are evil, and
the Light seems a threat.

But with those who simply turn to Him and trust Him,
the Son shares His own beautiful relationship
with the Father.
He gives them the right to become
children of God.
He shares with them
the life,
the love,
the oneness
He shares with the Father.

Realize who you are.
You are not your occupation or your abilities.
You are not your gender, race, or social status.
You are not your past.
You trusted Christ, and
now you are becoming like Him.
Look to Him.
He is your present and your future.
With Him, you are a beloved child of Almighty God,
your Papa, your Father.
You are His heir and His treasure. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: We Are Children
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Fall and Incarnation

2017-11-22 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER
John 1:10-14; Genesis 2 – 3 

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:10-14, NASB)

Father, Son, and Spirit gifted the humans with the freedom
to will and speak and breathe,
to live and create and rule.
They shared with the human beings the right to
think and choose.

A Rebel, a Liar, a Hater, a Destroyer,
a created being who had turned his own gift of choice
entirely toward himself,
seduced the humans into doing the same.
They chose
their own will,
their own wisdom,
their own sovereignty instead of the Father and Son.
They chose
darkness instead of light,
shame instead of glory,
a curse instead of blessing,
grief instead of joy,
death instead of life.

But the love of the One Being was
still full and overflowing,
still giving and longing for the creature He had made.
Instead of abandoning the humans,
He drew still closer to them.
From His unquenchable love,
the One Being came to them.
He didn’t send them a messenger:
He came Himself.
He didn’t just speak to them.
He joined Himself to them.
He became one with them.
He became one of them.

When the time was right,
the Father willed, and
the Spirit breathed, and
and the Word became flesh.
Heaven and earth,
holy and human,
creature and Creator
were again One.

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven.
By the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and
became man. 

–from THE NICENE CREED 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Before the Starry Universe
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See the Eternal Son

2017-10-11 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER
John 1:1-9; 17:24; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:15-17 

There is but one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and
we exist for Him;
and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and
we exist through Him. (1 Corinthians 8:6, NASB)

See the Son in His eternal magnificence.
Nothing existed before Him.
From the very beginning,
He is with God, and
He is God.
He is the Father’s only Son,
one with Him in every way.
The Father and Son are two persons,
not interchangeable,
yet nothing separates them.
They are one substance.

The Son is the Word of the Father,
sovereign and
creative.
He is completely responsive to the Father.
All the Father’s purposes, all His heart,
the Son brings to full and perfect reality.

See the Son:
all the Father’s life and
all the Father’s light,
pure, unborrowed, uncreated.
See the Son,
overflowing with all the infinite wealth that is the Father.
See the Son,
totally invested,
totally absorbed in the loving will of His Father.

Father, I want to know Christ.
I want a living share in His relationship with You,
in His glad obedience to You, whatever the cost.
I want to share in His Word,
His death,
His resurrection,
His Spirit, and
His eternal glory in Your presence.
Father, I ask for a
constant and complete oneness with You
in Jesus Christ. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: We Can Know Our God Transcendent
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Life and Love

2017-09-04 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER
John 14:15-26

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. 

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:21, 23, NASB)

Loving and obeying God always leads to Him
coming to us and
making His home in us.
Our union with God is a union of love.
As we love Him, He comes to us.
As He comes to us, we love the more.

As we love God, we love others out of love for Him.
That love then unites us closer with Him.
God is love. (1 John 4:8, NIV)
Life in Him increases love,
which increases life,
which increases love,
more and more forever.

Life in God is a life of love.
Life in God flows from love.
Life in God flows into love. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Ever Full and Overflowing
Recording
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Truth

2017-07-12 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER
John 8:31-32

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, NIV)

The Truth—
deep, unchanging, absolute reality.
We long to know it,
to see it,
to grasp and embrace it.
We long to live in this Truth,
to move and breathe in harmony with it,
to stand on it and rest in it
completely, constantly, forever.

As the Son of the Father,
as the Creator and Source of all, Jesus
speaks the Truth,
lives the Truth, and
is the Truth.
His Spirit within us is the Spirit of Truth.
As we live in Him and He in us,
we are wrapped forever in the full reality of all He is.
In Him life is right and good and complete, and
we are free! 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: I Have the Truth
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Tuned to the Father

2017-05-15 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER

John 17:20-26

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity.” (John 17:20-23, NASB) 

In John 17 Jesus’ prayer and His vision encompass,
not just His disciples,
not just all who would believe through them,
but the entire glorified Church with Him in heaven.
His prayer,
His vision,
His deepest longing
is that we all be one.
But one with whom?
And how?

An orchestra tunes,
not by all attempting to tune to each other,
but by each individual tuning to a common pitch.
In the same way, our unity starts with
the unity between Father and Son.
Their unity is born of deep love and unbroken sharing.
As we trust that Jesus is one with the Father,
the Holy Spirit makes us part of their sharing.
The Spirit tunes each of us to the Father and Son.
Our unity with each other is a by-product of
our union with them.

The Father loves us as completely as
He loves His own Son.
All the blessings of eternal life and eternal oneness
flow from the Father’s love.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Father, as You Love Your Son
Recording
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Completion

2017-04-12 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER 

John 4:34; 5:36; 13:1; 17:4, 23; 19:28

Throughout His earthly ministry, from first to last, Jesus repeatedly spoke of completing the work His Father had sent Him to do. It seemed always on His mind. To express His desire, He used a Greek word meaning to complete, finish, or accomplish.

For example, when He was weary from travel, His disciples urged Him to eat. Jesus was more concerned with drawing a Samaritan woman to His Father:

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” (John 4:34, NASB)

Jesus’ critics scoffed at His claim that God was His Father. They considered it blasphemy! Jesus said His works proved that God was His Father:

“The works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.” (John 5:36, NASB)

On His final night with His disciples before His arrest, Jesus prayed to His Father and gave Him this report on the task for which He had been sent:

“I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” (John 17:4, NASB)

Jesus finished this same prayer by praying for all who would believe on Him in the years to come. Looking ahead, the work He desired to see completed was their perfect union with each other in the Father and Son:

“I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:23, NASB)

What was the task that had characterized Jesus’ ministry from first to last? It was showing the Father’s love, in all its length and depth and height:

Jesus knowing that His hour had come that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end [margin: to the uttermost, or eternally]. (John 13:1, NASB)

Considering this focus of His life, how else would Jesus spend His final breath as He died in agony on the cross?

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.”
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (John 19:28, 30, NASB)

The completion of His Father’s work was Jesus’ daily food, His unshakable foundation, His love’s driving force, His dying wish, and His vision of the future for every believer.

Father, my desires,
my time,
my energy,
my future are in Your hands.
Plant me like a seed,
as You did Jesus.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ Is Our Horizon
Recording
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I Long for the Father

2017-03-15 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father One comment

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER 

John 13:1, 3 

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. (John 13:1-3, NIV) 

Father, as Jesus neared the end of His time here,
His deepest longing,
His burning desire was this:
to return to You.

His Spirit in me is breathing the same desire.
Father, I long to come home to You.

Father, You are the goal toward which
all history is moving.
I want my thoughts,
my desires, and
my daily living
to keep moving toward You as well.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Longing for Home
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See as God Sees

2017-01-25 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father One comment

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER 

John 13:1-3

In difficult times,
our concerns, our pain, and our loss
seem so real and permanent.
But this entire physical world is passing away,
including these bodies.
What seems so solid and lasting is only temporary.

What will last is
God,
His life in us, and
our service to those He loves.
In the long run, material things are only important as
they impact His purposes.
Money and possessions either lure us away from God or
draw us closer to Him.
They either serve Him or
deny Him.

Look to God,
consider His purposes, and
begin to see the events in your life as He sees them.

Through life’s painful experiences rejoice that

His purpose is advancing and coming to completion.
We are not suffering permanent loss but are being drawn closer to God.
He has not forgotten us. In fact, He is showing His love for us in a richer, deeper way. 

Father, when difficulties come,
help me to cling to You and to Your will
the way Jesus did. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: We Are in Christ Jesus
Recording
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Jesus’ Life Is God’s Promise

2016-12-29 Devotional with Hymn, One with Our Father No comments

from the book, ONE WITH OUR FATHER 

John 20 

Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
(Ephesians 1:3, NIV)

Look at Jesus Christ:
human, yet divine;
completely dependent on the Father,
yet always sufficient in Him;
weak, yet strong;
suffering, yet joyful;
pressured, yet at peace;
having died, yet risen to boundless, endless life.

The life of Christ is the Father’s promise to you.
As He lived, you can live here and now.
As He lives, you will live forever.

Imagine Jesus Christ the first of a
whole new race of human beings,
a race completely free from
the curse of sin, death, and the fall,
holy and glorious as He is,
children of our Father in the fullest sense.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Jesus’ Life Is All a Promise
Recording
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