Fathered By God: Living Securely As His Beloved Child

By Olivia Jones

Ever wonder what it would be like to have a perfect, strong, powerful father who could give you everything you need? Your perfect father would love you unconditionally and always do what was best for you. If you had that fortune, you'd probably feel privileged and highly confident. Life would be pretty good, right? Guess what. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you were adopted into His family. His father is also your father. God is delighted to have you as His child. He loves you dearly and wants to parent you during all stages of your life. He created you and knows everything about you. He knows how to develop your strengths, fix what is broken, and guide you along the right path. God is the only perfect father, and He is yours. In this book, you'll get to know: • How and when you were adopted into God's family • The many ways that God parents you • How you are to live as a member of His family • Why you can live with great confidence This book will leave you with a deeper understanding of God the Father, and how you can have the life He desires for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781641140362

Book preview

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Fathered

by

God

Living Securely As His Beloved Child

Olivia Jones

ISBN 978-1-64114-035-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64114-037-9 (Hard Cover)

ISBN 978-1-64114-036-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Olivia Jones

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

296 Chestnut Street

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Used by Permission HCSB ©1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 Holman Bible Publishers. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. ™

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to everyone who feels an emptiness inside because they are missing a parent. It is also dedicated to my brothers and sisters who have accepted Jesus but don’t really know our Father. I have great news in these pages for us all.

Acknowledgments

To my dear husband, thank you for always supporting my calling, goals, and dreams. I appreciate your words of wisdom and encouragement.

To my sons, you bring me great joy. I am proud to watch you grow in your gifts and service to the Lord.

To my dad and mom, thank you for teaching me about Jesus at a young age. That was the best gift you have ever given me. You have built a legacy of faithfulness that has continued through to succeeding generations.

To my Sun Rise Church family, you are awesome. It has been a pleasure to serve and learn alongside you for so many years. Thanks for your continued encouragement and support as I try to live out God’s plan for my life.

To God, my father, You are truly the best. You have proven repeatedly that Your Word is true. You have been faithful and have delivered on Your promises. Thank You for fathering me. I am a piece of work, for sure; but You never leave me or forsake me. It is my privilege to share Your Good News with all who will listen. All the glory belongs to You.

Preface

Imagine having a perfect father. Think about how it would feel being his child. If you’re like me, you thought of feeling confident, joyful, protected, and secure. Perhaps you began to smile, and a warm feeling came over you. It would be wonderful wouldn’t it?

Except for Jesus, all of us who were born into this world through the womb our mothers are the seed of a human father. Some fathers have done a great job, some haven’t done their jobs at all, and the others have fallen somewhere in between. But they all have one thing in common: none of them are perfect. All of us are flawed in many ways. And unfortunately, a parent’s many imperfections impact their children. If you are a parent, you know this all too well.

Even with our best efforts, we fail to execute our parental responsibilities without error. We do some things well, and we mess up plenty. Sometimes we identify our errors right away, and other times, we don’t until it’s too late to fix them. We do our best and hope for the best. But there is great news for all of us: God has given us access to a perfect father—Himself. Through His son, Jesus, He offers to accept us into His holy family—flaws and all.

It is God’s desire to be a Father to everyone He created. He has a deep love for us and a desire for a close relationship with us. Often though, we believe in God and accept Jesus as our Savior; but we leave them both in the pages of our Bibles. We visit God at church on our Sabbath day, and we mentally lock Him in the sanctuary until our next visit. As a result, we don’t get to know our perfect Father or experience the benefits of being His beloved and blessed child.

This book was written to help everyone get to know the Father. In knowing Him, we can build a relationship with the One who can provide all the help we need throughout our lives. No matter how good our earthly parents are, none compares in goodness to our holy God. He is the only perfect parent that we can have. If we have Him, we have everything we will ever need; but if we don’t, we will never be truly satisfied.

Please come with me on this journey into the heart of our Father. We will share treasures in the Word that reveal His character, love, and compassion for us. We’ll also address how we are to live as His children. When we’re done, it is my prayer that you be filled with joy in knowing that you have a wonderful Father in God and that He desires to take excellent care of you. Let’s go!

Part 1

God as Your Father

Chapter 1

God, Your Creator

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

—Genesis 1:1

Practically everything that mankind has made was created intentionally. That is, with the exception of children. Many children are considered accidents, having resulted from casual intimate encounters. When this happens to the surprised parents-to-be, one or both make the important decision to allow the unborn child to live or die. They probably feel empowered to make this decision because they feel that they created the new life. However, human mothers and fathers do not actually give life. Rather, they present an opportunity for God to create a new life. God decides if a child will be conceived. And when He chooses to, He creates a special new contributor to this world.

There is a scripture in the book of Jeremiah where God said to him, I chose you before I formed you in the womb (Jer. 1:5, HCSB). This lets us know that God, our Creator, was involved in our lives even before we were conceived. As difficult as this may be to fathom, we must remember that God knows the beginning and the end of time. Our conceptions did not come as a surprise to Him. He knew in advance that the free will actions of our parents would lead to the conception of a child. He gave the gift of life and was involved in our formation.

While you were being developed in your mother’s womb, God formed the body that you would have for your entire life. Your DNA was designed to give you traits and characteristics similar to other human family members and ancestors. God gave you a soul that will live eternally and a spirit that was to be nurtured and trained by your parents, your other family members, and your community. God created you intentionally and carefully. I realize that many of us don’t often think about ourselves as intentional creations of God, so let’s take this time to really give it some thought.

Created in God’s Image

With so many people having been born on this earth since its beginning, it is easy to think of human births like that of animals. But that is not so. In the first chapter of Genesis is a recap of the six days when God created the heavens and the earth. In five and a half days, God had made everything except mankind. Then God paused and said,

Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. (Gen. 1:26, HCSB)

Notice that no other part of creation was created in the image of God. Only us. How are we made in God’s image? I think it is impossible to answer this question completely with our limited knowledge. But we do have some ideas based on what we understand about God and how humans function differently from other living beings. Please know that I am not approaching this topic as an authority on the differences between humans and animals. My desire is simply to prompt you to think about yourself as one who was specially designed in the image of God.

The Godhead is a trinity. We are a trinity. In the context of Genesis 1:26, the word God is plural for the three entities in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I realize that for some, this is controversial as is the rest of the Bible. But for those who accept the Word of God as it is, we accept that the three are one. That does not mean that they are equal in authority, but rather that they operate in complete agreement. God made us with three parts: a physical body, a soul, and a spirit. As living humans, we have a physical presence, a living presence, and a spiritual presence in this world. We cannot function normally as humans in this life without the coexistence of our three parts.

Humans have a higher degree of intelligence. God gave us exceptional mental capabilities. You may know some very smart animals and some unintelligent humans who cause you to question this. However, our minds were awesomely designed by God. Consider this. A professor in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Marc Hauser, presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science four distinct ways that the human mind is more advanced than those of animals. His theory¹ is that humans are unique in having the following abilities:

ability to combine and recombine different types of information and knowledge in order to gain new understanding

ability to apply the same rule or solution to one problem to a different and new situation

ability to create and easily understand symbolic representations of computation and sensory input

and the ability to detach modes of thought from raw sensory and perceptual input

I have certainly seen many smart animals, but all of them have a limited range of thought. Yes, humans can train them to do amazing things. But without the human interaction and the authority that God gave us over them, they would operate in their natural state. God designed them to survive and to sustain the circle of life. Animals are wonderful creatures to observe and study, but they were not designed in God’s image.

We have a measure of authority on earth. After God said that man would be made, He said, They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth (Gen. 1:26, HCSB). God Himself has all power, and He granted us a measure of power.

We have free will, the ability to make choices for ourselves. We do not live on autopilot like the fictional Stepford Wives, who do what they were programmed to do. We can decide to go left or right, up or down, over or under, here or there. We recognize that we have choices, and we make them for ourselves each day.

Let’s stop here for a moment. At this point in the creation story, God had created mankind with intelligence, authority, and free will. In a perfect world, man would have used these gifts to live in obedience to God. Adam and Eve would have relied on God and trusted Him for their sustenance. They would have trusted His Word and accepted Him as their one and only guide and Father. But at this pivotal point in history, God’s adversary, the devil, arrived on the human scene and presented them with an option.

Satan, in the form of a serpent, approached Eve and offered an alternative to obedience. Knowing that God had given the new humans free will, Satan suggested that they use it to disobey Him. And although God had proven himself to be reliable, faithful, and trustworthy, Eve and then Adam took the bait, committing the first sin. God told Adam that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. Adam and Eve’s physical bodies did not die at