Papa

Tuesday July 19th, Romans 8: 12 My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. 13 If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God's Spirit you say "No" to your desires. 14 Only those people who are led by God's Spirit are his children. 15 God's Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father. Angel encounters in the scripture are met with the words from these heavenly messengers, “Fear Not!” From there the church has all too often gone on to instill fear. The twisted gutting of the gospel in the popular “left behind” series is a prime example of how easily the demonic deception of fear based religion can be swallowed by a public the church of Christ has left largely alone as we hold our meetings and potlucks and feed only ourselves. Most of the statements about God alluded to on Monday’s thoughts around the water cooler, relate to a god who must be feared. Those who grasp at least part of the Gospel seem afraid to speak up. And our politicos know that fear combined with the promise of a solution (you don’t really think the republicans want to solve the abortion issue do you? It is the best ballot bait they have) can be a very useful tool in an attempt to fulfill the desire for power and control exerted over others. Too often the church has succumbed to this same fear based model. As the children of God, we are called to introduce to a world in fear, the God that children can call Abba, or Pappa. When I visit my granddaughter she would often sit in my lap and say, “Tell me a story about………. And the blank would be filled in with various subjects. That is Abba. That is the God we need to introduce into a world left behind in fear. The God who welcomes little children and you and I to sit in the lap of, feel safe and protected and loved, and hear the story of God’s love over and over again until we can repeat it to our grandchildren.