Who Is Your Daddy?

(2 Corinthians 5:17) “If anyone is in Christ, they  are a new creation.  Old things have passed away, all things are becoming new" 

If you are not familiar with this verse from reading your Bible, I know you are if you had read my BLOG.  I had a conversation the other day about the influence of parents, and other relatives, on what we think and what we do. Often times that influence is good.  But – other times it is not so good.  I remember my dad talking to me once telling me not to smoke cigarettes, all the while he was puffing away.  Dr. James Dobson from Focus on the Family said “Values are caught, they are not taught.”  At the time, I thought there must be something “right” about smoking otherwise, why would he be doing it?  We look to our parents for an indication of how we should live and relate to others.  When we become teenagers, peer pressure not parent pressure becomes dominant.  Still, the point is not whether it is right or wrong, but is it what the people we admire do.  

(Ephesians 1:3-6) “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. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he [God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” 

(1 John 3:1) “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” 

Do you see the connection between 2 Corinthians and Ephesians and 1 John?  Your Father is now God – the Creator if you have been born again.  What that means is that you should be looking to Him for the answer to the question – “How should I live my life.” And – “What is right and what is wrong.”  The problem is that we have a hard time shaking lose of the world’s influence.  It really gets down to a question of devotion. 

Jesus told the young man to let the “dead bury the dead” when he first wanted to bury his father before following Jesus.  Jesus told the disciples that the people in the room with Him were his mother and brothers when He was told that Mary and his brothers were at the door wanting to see him.  God is not saying stop loving your father or mother or brother or sister.  He is saying – “Love me more – love me first”  That means that you will have to abandon some beliefs and habits that are associated with people you care about. 

Let me leave you with this verse to think about.  (Matthew 16:24-26) “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” 

Do you really want to follow Jesus?  Then you will have to leave some things behind.  What are you clinging to that you know is contrary to the will of your Father in heaven?  Think about it and I pray that you will choose well. CHARLEY