HE IS! Knowing God through Fifty Scriptural Meditations can probably be considered devotional theology that is inspirational in nature. I share from my own stories of life and ministry like a grandpa would tell his grandchildren to make the devotionals relatable to life and practical. At the end of each devotional there are reflection questions and more suggested Scriptures to read for one’s personal meditation and spiritual growth.
I took the challenge of Hebrew 11:6 to seek God seriously by looking for all the God is statements that I could find in the Bible and discovered that God clearly reveals who HE IS throughout the history and stories of the Bible. Each chapter is a HE IS statement about God that helps us to know Him better as we mediate on each attribute of God. I suggest that readers do a slow reading of the book through the year by taking one chapter each week so they have time to really pause and think about who God is. However, a quick read can also be enlightening as one is exposed to aprocximently 800 quoted verses of Scripture through the fifty HE IS meditations.
Of course, I like my grandpa stories that are spread throughout the meditations but the meat of the book is the Bible Scriptures that tell us who God is being pulled together in each chapter to focus on one particular attribute or work of God. Each chapter can be read independently, however there is a flow to the order of the chapters and a few chapters build upon the proceeding chapters. After reading the book after publication, in preparation for a speaking engagement, I realized that there is a subtheme of God being our Heavenly Father and we being His children through faith that ties it all together with a crescendo in Chapter 47, HE IS OUR FATHER.
47
He Is Our Father
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we
should be called children of God; and so we are.
The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
—1 John 3 :1
My dad was really good at finding great places to camp and fish.
I remember him poring over the topographical maps to find
just the right place. When I was in junior high school, we found a
section of fishable public land on the Williamson River in Eastern
Oregon between two private ranches. It was an adventure just getting
there! We hooked lots of fish on dry flies, and dad hooked me on fly
fishing. After a rather cool night in the tent that was pitched about
thirty yards from the river, I said to my dad as we were snuggled
down in our sleeping bags, “Will you give me ten bucks if I run and
jump in the river?” He laughed and said, “I won’t have to, because
you’re too chicken!” “Will you?” I probed. “Yes!” Instantly, I jumped
up out of the warm sleeping bag, quickly slipped off my sweats, and
ran and jumped completely in. That plunge took my breath away, and
Dad paid up. Decades later, I ask myself, “Why did I do that?” Well,
for the most part, my dad was an absent father. I know now that I
wanted to prove to my dad that he did not know me very well, and
I certainly was craving his affection and approval. I probably also
wanted the cash!
There is much brokenness in our world, and we have no further to
look than our own families. Many people carry father and or mother
wounds—childhood traumas that may be so overwhelming that the
memories are deeply buried. I carried some wounds for way too long
that affected my relationships for years. I would have a measure of
healing and growth in my ability to understand my parents and offer
forgiveness, but the temptation to bitterness would rear its ugly head
when I was triggered by a bad memory, someone else’s anger, or the
family sufferings of others. The process of healing from life’s wrongs
has been compared to peeling the layers off an onion. God brings, uses,
or allows situations into our lives for us to realize we need to look to
our heavenly Father for healing, wholeness, and completeness. A person
can never take the place of our heavenly Father, and we will struggle in
life and relationships as long as we look to a person to supply what only
God can.
It has been a process for me, but I keep finding deeper levels of
healing as I peel back the layers of soul hardness by taking each memory
of childhood and adult traumas to God, inviting his healing into my life.
Oftentimes, bitterness toward a father or mother is a generational sin
that is passed down from one generation to another. This can be very
distortive in all of our present relationships. Scripture warns, “See to it
that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’
springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Hebrew
12:15). Our human parents may have let us down, but God’s fathering
will not, if we allow him into the secrets we often want to keep hidden.
He is a caring and loving Father who will help us when we ask and are
open to his care and healing power. Will you let him in to your pain?
You may have said or heard someone say something to this effect, “I
have a hard time accepting God as my Father because I never really had
a dad who was a father.” Perhaps this kind of statement leads pastors to
say things like, “If you haven’t had a good father, it’s difficult to see God
as your heavenly Father.” However, I invite you to consider J. I. Packer’s
insightful perspective on the matter:
Sorry for that cliff hanger. This is one of the longer chapters in the book and after this long introduction we get into the Scriptures about God being our Father and we becoming His children by adoption.