Adult Bible Fellowship:

The Fatherhood of God - Learning His image of Fatherhood and not Mine!

Real life always distorts our perceptions of the true character of God.  Often we cannot recognize, let alone embrace our awesome loving Father God, Creator and Savior.  At the heart of all abuse and sin is the misuse of one’s power to manipulate, dominate, and damage another human being.  All of us end up feeling second or third rate, never first class in the way God wants to Father us. Does God have unlimited power to harm you too as you are harmed by others?  Can you give yourself to God and feel safe, or are you sensing some terror or fear whenever you hear someone mention God is your Father?

The Bible says, God is your heavenly Father in Matthew 6:9, 32.  How then can you change your image of God as an unsafe Father?

1.  Reflect on the negative lessons your sinful father/mother taught you about parenthood, authority, and relationships. 

2.  Clarify from the bible what God says about God’s fatherhood.

• He feeds and cares for the things He made (Matthew 6:26)

• He delights in giving good gifts (Matthew 7:11)

• He knows and cares when His creation suffers (Matthew 10:29)

• No trivial detail in your life is overlooked or ignored by God (Matthew 10:3)

• He tenderly loves the powerless and the vulnerable (Matthew 11:25-26)

• He specifically delights in being a Father to the fatherless and the best advocate for single mothers (Psalm 68:5)

3.  There are many other helpful images used to describe God that are not masculine:

• Psalm 90:2

• Numbers 11:12

• Deuteronomy 32:18

• Psalm 131:2

• Isaiah 66:13

• Isaiah 49:15

• 1 Peter 2:2-3

• Hosea 13:8

• Luke 13:34

• Deuteronomy 32:11

4.  Focus on the character of Jesus, for he reveals the Father (John 1:18; 14:6-11).  How did Jesus treat women, children, social outcasts, powerful male abusers and abuse victims.  Did Jesus treat anyone as a step-child?

Note Jesus’ mission: 

Matthew 9:9-13, 36; 14:14; 15:30-31; 18:1-10; 19:13-15

Luke 7:36-50; 19:1-10

How powerful is the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept”?

Doing the Great Commission in a Great Commandment Way

Wrestling with God                                                           

I have spent many years trying to deepen my walk with God as well as other’s walk with God.  The easy formulas of scripture, prayer, and fellowship planted as seeds in a garden do not always produce a harvest.  When the harvest fails we may accuse the believer of being rebellious or sinful.

Now things have changed.  I realize that spiritual growth is a messy process.  From a human perspective, God can be utterly confusing and downright hurtful.  His actions sometimes prompt fear and anger as well as love and trust.  In it all I do know that God seeks to bless his children…however he often shatters my comfort, and often lets me taste of his goodness more than ever before. 

Note the dark valleys of abuse survivors…who find healing from God and at the same time discover they have more anger, doubts and frustrations toward God.  They have been so numb in emotional pain, that as that life heals, emotions become real and spiritual growth gets even more messy.  A nontidy formula for spiritual growth based on (1 Kings 9:4; 11:4; 2 Kings 14:3; 16:2; Job 1:1,8; Habakkuk 3:17-19)…great furnaces of doubts in these raw passages:

Psalm 13:1-2                                                Psalm 22:1-2

Job 16:11-12                                                Lamentations 1:12; 2:2,4; 3:10-11

These folks wrestled with God (Genesis 32:23-32) a dislocated hip = abuse and consequences of sin survivors…

Wrestling with God means I do not want a shallow relationship with him.  God is a God who desires to be pursued.  I refuse to give up on God. 

When I wrestle with God I’m honest and not pretending everything is OK when it is not. 

I do not accept anyone saying to me, “you shouldn’t feel so bitter toward God.”

When I wrestle with God I set the stage for reconnecting with him, I engage him.

Wrestling with God is ultimately predicated on the conviction that God is a loving, personal God who speaks to his children (John 10:3-4, 14-16, 27).

When I do NOT wrestle with God I either pretend that he does not exist (sin of unbelief), or, I’m too proud to admit that not everything is OK with me.

When I wrestle with God I often receive in His time His personal and loving response.  God is a wonderful, kind and compassionate Father never giving me more than I can handle!!!

- Pastor Mike