In honor of Father's Day, this week's verse is Ephesians 6:4:"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."
Directed at fathers, this verse plainly tells fathers not to work their children into a lather, but to seek to communicate with them and forge strong and intimate bonds with them. This extends past merely spending time with them. Fathers should teach their children how to live, to love God and to love people, and to abide by His commandments.
In the main service at church today, we had a guest speaker. This guest speaker continued in the series on the book of Romans, describing that there are no excuses for excuses. That is to say, we are specifically and clearly told to evangelize and win souls to Christ anywhere and everywhere. One of the biggest lies that Satan has perpetuated, said the guest pastor, is that we have plenty of time to evangelize, plenty of time to win souls. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. The pastor said that we are always closer to Christ's second coming than we ever were before, and as he could come back at any given time, we must always strive to reach out to the unsaved.
In the High School service, another guest speaker gave a basic overview of the gospel. Starting with Genesis and going all the way to 1 Corinthians, the speaker told of how the entire Old Testament was basically us saying, "I don't need you God. ...Oh, wait, I actually do." The New Testament describes the fulfillment of the law, that is, Jesus himself. In sum, we owe everything to God, and we should always live for Him wherever we are, wherever He needs us. The reason we owe everything to God is because He sent His only son, Jesus, to die a horrible death in order to take the punishment that we, sinful humanity, so richly deserved. And then he was raised from the dead, just to prove that it was totally legit.
Father's Day, I believe, is a very special holiday. It is not only a fine occasion to celebrate our earthly fathers, but to celebrate our Heavenly Father as well. I would not be the person I am today if not for both of my parents working in sync, not to mention the innumerable teachers and mentors I've had over the years. Most of all, however, God, my Father in Heaven, is the number one influence in my life. I would hope that everything I do would give glory to Him, and to Him alone. But I wouldn't have grown to respect my Heavenly Father if it weren't for the profound influence of my Earthly father. So thank you, dad, and thank you, Heavenly Father.
Image courtesy of nationalharbor.com
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