Autumn sunset in Lancaster County, PA 

his goodness

For the Father is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting,
And His faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:5)

The Father is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works. (Psalm 145:9)

"Father, you're so good." These are the words that rise from my heart as I see His goodness all around me. This year has been a fresh discovery of the Father's goodness, and a daily journey into His loving Fatherheart.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the Father's house forever. (Psalm 23:6)

the attitude

"...The whole attitude of the Lord's being...his whole thought, his whole delight, was in the thought, in the will, in the being of his Father. The joy of the Lord's life, that which made it life to him, was the Father; of him he was always thinking, to him he was always turning. ...His thought was ever and always his Father. To its home in the heart of the Father his heart ever turned."

- George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, p 171.

the answer

What is the Father like?

Father invites us to come to Him.

Father delights in ever-deepening love relationship with us.

Father waits for us to come and climb into His loving arms.

Father says to us, "Seek My face."

Father carries us along by the wind of His Spirit.

Father understands everything about us and loves us still.

Father longs for us to abide daily in His loving presence.

Father works to bring us into the home of His heart.

"O taste and see that the Father is good" (Psalm 34:8)

the question

"Full fellowship - the 'whole measure' of spiritual maturity of which Paul spoke - the 'full gospel' Jesus came to reveal, is fellowship with His Father.

"To move toward intimacy with Father, therefore, requires that we acknowledge the following with honesty and humble self-examination: It is easier than we may have realized to think we know a great deal 'about' God the Father without knowing Him personally.

"What is the Father like? This is the most important question of our existence. It is the universal quest. Finding the answer and forming a proper heart response to that answer is the ultimate journey upon which our earthly footsteps are bound, the pilgrimage toward our destiny as human beings."

- Michael Phillips, God: A Good Father, p 17.

the process

"After a time of teaching about how Father extends his grace to us while he reshapes our lives, a brother shared something he had discovered: 'I think I finally understood something today, I have thought that God was only pleased by my perfection. Since I never measured up to that I have always struggled. But I am beginning to think he not only wants me to be whole, but that he actually enjoys the process of getting me there.'

"What else explains why Father just doesn't wave his arms over us and make us all perfect overnight. He wants us to reflect his glory from the inside out. He patiently shapes our lives until Christ is fully formed in us. Like a potter spinning a new pot, he's not just excited about getting it done, but he actually enjoys the whole process--softening the clay, kneading it in his hands, and fashioning with great care into that which he sees in his heart.

"If we only think him satisfied when we get it all together, I'm afraid our lives will be filled with frustration--for ourselves and others! But if he enjoys the process, shouldn't we also? He is fashioning you so that Jesus can take form in you. Can you see how he's doing that? But if we can with him enjoy the process of him allowing Jesus to take form in us, then we too can be more patient with our still-glaring deficiencies."

- Wayne Jacobsen, "Every Day, Every Moment," BodyLife, May 1998.

Autumn pond in Lancaster County, PA 

his desire

"That error is this: the assumption that God the Father cannot be known with the same approachability as Son and Spirit.

"The inevitable but false conclusion: it is impossible to know the Father with intimacy or personal immediacy.

"Of all the falsehoods perpetuated by the theologies of men, this must surely be one of the most heartbreaking to God Himself. For it is His Father's heart He desires us to know most of all! This is where intimacy of relationship begins. The Fatherness of God provides the very foundation for both other aspects of His divine nature. Without Fatherhood there could be neither Son nor Spirit.

"The Father sent both Son and Spirit to illuminate His being precisely because He can be known...and He wants to be known."

- Michael Phillips, God: A Good Father, p 10.

working

"The Father is always working. If I don't see him moving in my life, it's not because he isn't, it's because I'm not seeing him. Jesus lived his whole life with his eyes on his Father, never doing anything on his own. He invited us to live exactly the same way. There is never a moment when God doesn't want you to be aware of him and his work in you and around you."

- Wayne Jacobsen, "Getting on Father's Page," BodyLife, Sept 1998.

one thing

What does it mean to behold the face of God?

To gaze upon Him with the eyes of our heart.

Where can we find this in Scripture?

"The upright will behold His face" (Psalm 11:7)

"One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD" (Psalm 27:4)

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened" (Ephesians 1:18)

our father

"The most important truth in all the universe can be stated in four words: God is our Father."

"The world literally hangs together by this central truth. Without divine Fatherhood, there is no life, there is no love...there is no universe."

"To the extent we apprehend God's Fatherhood will our life be integrated, whole, and complete in relationship to the Creator who made us and to the surroundings in which He has placed us."

"Seeking and finding God's Fatherhood is the great story, the essence of history, the meaning of the hidden thread weaving through every human life. It is the story of God's people in the Bible. It is the reason Jesus came."

- Michael Phillips, God: A Good Father, p 44.

destiny

"This is and has been the Father's work from the beginning - to bring us into the home of His heart. This is our destiny."

- George MacDonald

From back cover of God: A Good Father by Michael Phillips

his embrace

"The demands upon me now were greater than ever before, and I needed a relationship with Him that was built upon more than just occasional crisis encounters with His power. I needed a loving Father's arms to crawl into daily so that I could cast all my cares upon Him. I needed to trust so much in His loving nature that I could daily believe that He was present to meet my need for comfort and nurture, even in the times I could not sense His fatherly embrace. This was a defining moment in my journey into dwelling daily in the Father's love."

"Father longs for us as His children to enter into this kind of relationship with Him. He wants us to enter a place of faith in His goodness and love where we know deep in our heart that He is always with us seeking to meet our need as a caring Father, not just during times of dramatic encounters. It is in this place of abiding daily in His presence that His loving nature displaces our insecurities and fears and where we are being conformed into His image of love."

- Jack Frost, Experiencing the Father's Embrace, p 172.

Waterfall at Ricketts Glen State Park 

longing

Is your heart longing to know Him in a deeper way?

"As the deer pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?" (Psalm 42:1,2)

"Deep calls to deep" (Psalm 42:7)

easy

"How good it would be if we could learn that God is easy to live with. He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust. He may sometimes chasten us, it is true, but even this He does with a smile, the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is."

"Some of us are religiously jumpy and self-conscious because we know that God sees our every thought and is acquainted with all our ways. We need not be. God is the sum of all patience and the essence of kindly good will. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections, and believing that He understands everything and loves us still."

- A.W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous, p 16.

spirit wind

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

I thought about naming this post "blown away," because that's my reaction when I look back on the past ten months and see the Father's hand guiding me -

From the bedside of a comatose college friend and roommate...

To the Carolina basketball reunion where this same friend, healed by the Father's hand, rose to acknowledge the loving applause of 200+ fellow lettermen,

From a house church that had ceased to be an environment of life for me...

To a gathering of believers where there is a passion for the Father's heart and a freedom in the Spirit unlike anything I've ever experienced.

The wind of the Spirit has carried me along, bringing me into situations and relationships through which the Father continues to reveal the depths of His love and mercy and grace.

his face

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of his glory and grace. (Helen H. Lemmel)

When Thou didst say, "Seek My face," my heart said to Thee, "Thy face, O LORD, I shall seek." (Psalm 27:8)

What is He saying to you?

be still

Over the past several months, few verses of Scripture have come to mind as often as Psalm 46:10 -

"Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

These words cause me to look at my heart. Am I worried? upset? discouraged? "Be still (cease striving, let go, relax) and KNOW that I am God." The revelation of who He is brings peace.

These words cause me to look at the Father and His perspective. What does the future hold? "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The revelation of who He is brings security.

"Peace, be still."

Autumn sunrise in Lancaster County, PA 

his government

While praying for Tuesday's election, this verse came to mind -

"There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this." (Isaiah 9:7)

Whatever the outcome of Tuesday's election, "there will be no end to the increase of His government." His kingdom will continue to come in the hearts of men, women, and children throughout the world.

Whatever the outcome of Tuesday's election, His kingdom will continue to be established and upheld. "The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this," not political leaders, lawmakers, or judges.

"Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven."