The first of the three part series was called God is... FATHER. After hearing this sermon all I can say is WOW! Craig did an awesome job hitting on some really key points about our Heavenly Father. His unlimited patience, His intimacy, and ulitimately, His desire to see His children live in a day to day pursuit to do absolutely nothing but bring glory to HIS name! I often forget to look at God as a father and sometimes misunderstand His love. Most of us, to some degree, have difficulty understanding, believing, or even accepting God's unlimited and unconditional love for us. The reasons for doing this may vary from one person to another, but for me, it had so much to do with the relationship that I had early on with my earthly father. Early on I had this belief that I needed to do, do, and continue to do in order to please my dad, and maybe now I could relate it to a sense of fear I had of letting him down. Therfore, the impact of that transferred a lot of my feelings over into my relationship with God. I felt like I had to do, do, and continue to do more to please Him, and there was this fear that if I didn't, I would let Him down. Please, don't misunderstand me, I love my earthly father with all of my heart, and he has taught me a lot! It's just that early on, my relationship with him had a negative impact on my early relationship with God. I knew that God loved me, but it was something that I was taught. I never really understood this concept for myself. Thankfully, I no longer feel this way, and my relationship with God did a complete u-turn. After sitting and thinking about this for a while, I believe a lot of people's perceptions of God as a father have resulted as a negative relationship with their earthly father. And for some of us, that hasn't been the case, but regardless, all of us long to feel wanted, or loved, and for some people, you may have never had that from your earthly father. What we need to realize is, we have a Heavenly father who is so CRAZY IN LOVE with us that it ultimately led to the death of His son Jesus in order to have a more initmate relationship with us, his children! IF THAT DOESN'T JACK YOU UP, THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT DOES! Nothing we can do will make him stay ticked off at you, we will ALWAYS be wanted and loved by Him, and that ROCKS! I don't know where you're at in your relationship with your earthly father, or even your heavenly father, but I want to encourage all of you today who read this... RUN HARD IN PURSUIT OF YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER, His love NEVER fails!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Father's Day
I had an awesome Father's day! Not because I'm a father but because I was able to spend time with mine, and Ridge church rocked today! The afternoon was spent grilling some awesome steaks over at my grandparents house, and chowing down on some baked potatoes and salad. What really topped this father's day off was the evening service at Elevation Church. I was able to hear a life-long hero of mine,Craig Groeschel (for those of you who may not have heard of Craig, he is the pastor of LifeChurch.Tv in Oklahoma City... http://www.lifechurch.tv/ ... and is probably best known for his amazing book Chazown... if you haven't read it then check it out!)speak the first sermon of a series they are doing as a result of the oneprayer 2009 campaign, titled 'God is...' 
The first of the three part series was called God is... FATHER. After hearing this sermon all I can say is WOW! Craig did an awesome job hitting on some really key points about our Heavenly Father. His unlimited patience, His intimacy, and ulitimately, His desire to see His children live in a day to day pursuit to do absolutely nothing but bring glory to HIS name! I often forget to look at God as a father and sometimes misunderstand His love. Most of us, to some degree, have difficulty understanding, believing, or even accepting God's unlimited and unconditional love for us. The reasons for doing this may vary from one person to another, but for me, it had so much to do with the relationship that I had early on with my earthly father. Early on I had this belief that I needed to do, do, and continue to do in order to please my dad, and maybe now I could relate it to a sense of fear I had of letting him down. Therfore, the impact of that transferred a lot of my feelings over into my relationship with God. I felt like I had to do, do, and continue to do more to please Him, and there was this fear that if I didn't, I would let Him down. Please, don't misunderstand me, I love my earthly father with all of my heart, and he has taught me a lot! It's just that early on, my relationship with him had a negative impact on my early relationship with God. I knew that God loved me, but it was something that I was taught. I never really understood this concept for myself. Thankfully, I no longer feel this way, and my relationship with God did a complete u-turn. After sitting and thinking about this for a while, I believe a lot of people's perceptions of God as a father have resulted as a negative relationship with their earthly father. And for some of us, that hasn't been the case, but regardless, all of us long to feel wanted, or loved, and for some people, you may have never had that from your earthly father. What we need to realize is, we have a Heavenly father who is so CRAZY IN LOVE with us that it ultimately led to the death of His son Jesus in order to have a more initmate relationship with us, his children! IF THAT DOESN'T JACK YOU UP, THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT DOES! Nothing we can do will make him stay ticked off at you, we will ALWAYS be wanted and loved by Him, and that ROCKS! I don't know where you're at in your relationship with your earthly father, or even your heavenly father, but I want to encourage all of you today who read this... RUN HARD IN PURSUIT OF YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER, His love NEVER fails!
The first of the three part series was called God is... FATHER. After hearing this sermon all I can say is WOW! Craig did an awesome job hitting on some really key points about our Heavenly Father. His unlimited patience, His intimacy, and ulitimately, His desire to see His children live in a day to day pursuit to do absolutely nothing but bring glory to HIS name! I often forget to look at God as a father and sometimes misunderstand His love. Most of us, to some degree, have difficulty understanding, believing, or even accepting God's unlimited and unconditional love for us. The reasons for doing this may vary from one person to another, but for me, it had so much to do with the relationship that I had early on with my earthly father. Early on I had this belief that I needed to do, do, and continue to do in order to please my dad, and maybe now I could relate it to a sense of fear I had of letting him down. Therfore, the impact of that transferred a lot of my feelings over into my relationship with God. I felt like I had to do, do, and continue to do more to please Him, and there was this fear that if I didn't, I would let Him down. Please, don't misunderstand me, I love my earthly father with all of my heart, and he has taught me a lot! It's just that early on, my relationship with him had a negative impact on my early relationship with God. I knew that God loved me, but it was something that I was taught. I never really understood this concept for myself. Thankfully, I no longer feel this way, and my relationship with God did a complete u-turn. After sitting and thinking about this for a while, I believe a lot of people's perceptions of God as a father have resulted as a negative relationship with their earthly father. And for some of us, that hasn't been the case, but regardless, all of us long to feel wanted, or loved, and for some people, you may have never had that from your earthly father. What we need to realize is, we have a Heavenly father who is so CRAZY IN LOVE with us that it ultimately led to the death of His son Jesus in order to have a more initmate relationship with us, his children! IF THAT DOESN'T JACK YOU UP, THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT DOES! Nothing we can do will make him stay ticked off at you, we will ALWAYS be wanted and loved by Him, and that ROCKS! I don't know where you're at in your relationship with your earthly father, or even your heavenly father, but I want to encourage all of you today who read this... RUN HARD IN PURSUIT OF YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER, His love NEVER fails!
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