The Baptist Faith and Message: IIA. God the Father (Part 1)

“God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.”

The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that each of the persons of the Trinity work together, but also that each has specific areas for which they have freely chosen to be responsible. We must be careful about drawing some of these lines too firmly, for there is what we might see as overlap between these responsibilities. Theologians use the term “economy” to describe the relation between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God the Father is the primary mover in creation and providence. While both the Son and the Holy Spirit have roles in this, the Bible depicts the Father as the prime mover and initiator. The entire universe, our own world, and every creature is the product of God’s creation. The early chapters of Genesis describe God’s creative word, and throughout both the Old and New Testaments we see many references to God as the Creator and the world and humanity as His creation. We see in Romans 1 that creation serves as a visible evidence of the reality of God.

God did not simply create the universe and leave it to run on its own. He also watches over His creation, sustaining it and both keeping watch over it and intervening in the flow of history. We call this care “providence.” This general care is provided for all, both those who follow God and those who do not. Providence is the product of the grace of God, given to humanity to show us His love and compassion.

The flow of history, particularly human history, is also cared for by God. The Father knows every event that happens. We must not think of this as God moving through time with us. As part of His creation, God created time, so He isn’t bound by what we perceive as the movement of time. This is another one of those teachings that we, as humans, can’t fully grasp since we are ourselves “stuck” in time. It does remind us that God is beyond our human comprehension, and that He is greater than anything we can comprehend or control.

God’s creation, providence, and oversight of history are enabled by His attributes. We looked at some of the attributes of God in a previous post. Here in this article His power, knowledge, love, and wisdom are mentioned. These affect the specific works of the Father mentioned here. It is important for us to remember that the attributes of God are not just theological constructs, but elements of His person that help us understand who He is and how is able to do all that He does.

Knowing that God is the initiator of creation, watches over us with providential care, and is involved in the flow of our history should provide comfort for us, since this shows us we are not alone in the universe. It also serves as a caution for us, since it reminds us that God sees and knows everything we do, say, and think. The power of God, revealed through His creation and care, keeps and sustains us through our lives.

The best-laid plans...

It's amazing sometimes the way life derails even our best-laid plans. Thus, no blog posts for the past three weeks. Sure, it sounds like an excuse; after all, everyone's busy with the stuff of life. And, in fact, it probably is just an excuse. However, it gives me a chance for some theological ruminations.

We all live out our lives here on earth under the providence of God. For some, this provides the comforting thought that no matter what happens, God is there with us through it all. For others, it provides a level of frustration, since they expect that God's presence should keep all the problems away from us. For many, the providence of God is an uncomfortable or even unwelcome thought. They want to be in control, and if there is a God is means that He has some claim on their lives.

Maybe for most of us all three of these are true at various times in our lives. For instance, we have the innate desire to be in control of what happens to us, to be the captain of our own fate. Further reflection will remind us that this is obviously not true. That's not a fallacious "obviously" that attempts to evade the question; if you think about your life, how much of it happened without your approval? Your physical makeup, your family, where you were born and grew up, the talents you have, many of the circumstances of life- all of these happen without any input on our part. No matter how hard we try or how much we work at it, we can't control much of our lives.

The thought that if God is for us nothing bad should happen to us  is the focus of a lot of teaching these days. (It was also the focus of a lot of teaching throughout history, but we tend to forget that.) By reading certain Biblical passages in a certain way, and taking a few verses out of context, and tying that together with the truth that God does care for us, we think that as long as we're trying to please God we should avoid the bad things that happen in this world. Yet the Bible never promises us that we will avoid problems if we're faithful to God. In fact, it promises just the opposite! (Read Mark 10:30 and James 1:2-4, in context please.)

Ultimately the promise of the presence of God in our lives provides comfort not because it ensures we won't face trials, but because it promises that He goes with us through the trials. One of the salient points of Easter is that Jesus went through suffering on our behalf, so when we suffer we don't go to a God who doesn't understand what we're facing, but One who experienced it all for us. In the end, our peace and comfort come from knowing our loving Father carries us through all the trials of life, so that whatever happens we are not separated from Him.

Or, maybe, I should say that in the end, the trials of life will bring us to the glories of a perfect life, the kind of life we desire and were made for. Life only lasts so long. Unless Jesus comes back first, we're all going to die. (There's an encouraging word for the day!) But, through the suffering and death of Jesus and the promise of His resurrection, we can be restored to life the way God meant it to be. We've wrecked our lives and our world through sin; Jesus broke the power of sin so the life we want to live can be ours through Him. So I'm not complaining (at least, I'm trying not to). I just want to lean on the comfort of the presence of God through my life, until I have the life He promises in Christ.

What Israel forgot

In reading through the Bible, I have once again arrived at the Psalms. (Some years I use a system that reads an individual psalm each day, but this time I'm reading straight through.) By reading through the entire book over a few days, you can pick up repeated themes and phrases that the psalmists use, which can be very enlightening.

There are a number of psalms that refer to the events of Israel's past. These historical reminisces served as a reminder to Israel of what the Lord had done for them, both in blessing and in judgment. In a corporate setting, they would be a call to the congregation to pause and reflect on the relationship between Israel and God.

One word that struck e as I read through this time was the word "forgot." After recounting many of the awesome acts of God, several psalms note that Israel forgot what god had done and went their own way, chasing after other gods. As a result, they came under the Lord's judgment.

The psalmists don't dwell on why Israel forgot. They had the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, as well as the Law and the other extant scriptures. There were priests, Levites, and prophets to teach and remind the people of the Lord's work. I suspect there were two major reasons. First, that when they didn't need the Lord to do great and awesome things, they grew complacent and ignored the fact that God was active in their lives every day. Second, when they didn't see everything go their way, they were tempted to follow the latest "god" who promised to fulfill their desires.

These same reasons, complacency and selfish desire, are just as tempting today. My family is currently going through some struggles, and I'll admit I started wondering when God was going to do something about it. I forgot all the times that He had been faithful, and even beyond faithful, in bringing us through tough times before. As the situations are beginning to resolve, I freely acknowledge my own shame and embarrassment at my wavering faith.

To cure myself, I started doing what the psalmists did: writing down all that God had done for me and for my family in the past. As I recalled His faithfulness, I gained encouragement through the memory of His love, mercy, and faithfulness (as well as a stinging sense of rebuke at my own "forgetting"). It was an exercise well worth the time and effort, as it brought back my lapsed memory of the goodness of God.

So let me recommend this: if you're going through some hard times right now, stop and write down all the times you can recall that God brought you through the trials and into blessing. Think of how He has provided for you, how He has comforted you, and how He has blessed you even through the tough times. If you're like me, when you do this you will regain a sense of confidence and faith in the Lord, and be encouraged as you continue to go through whatever you are experiencing in your life.

Sunday sermon: "When God Calls, God Provides"

Often when we seek the Lord's direction for our ministry or service, we seem to hit a wall. Perhaps God isn't answering our prayers the way we expect, or maybe an opportunity hasn't arisen to move ahead. IF you are like me, you may become impatient and plead for God to just get moving. Frustration may set in, and we wonder if we've misunderstood what we are supposed to do.

Yet God is never silent without reason. We see in Nehemiah 2 that Nehemiah did not have an opportunity to speak to the king about his desire to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem for almost four months. I'm sure he kept praying, but to a man as active and gifted as Nehemiah that four months may have felt like an eternity.

Nehemiah understood, though, that God works in His own time. The Lord did not decide that Jerusalem should remain in ruins, or change His mind about Nehemiah leading the project. It simply wasn't yet the time for the work to begin. We are not given a reason in the Bible why this was so. All we know is that Nehemiah exercised patience until the Lord opened the door for him.

When his opportunity came, Nehemiah did not hesitate. He prayed (his natural first response), then made his request to the king. It was carefully worded to avoid alarming the king, but it was also bold, asking for exactly what Nehemiah needed. When every element was in place, God gave him the opening to make his request.

The king responded favorably. Nehemiah was a trusted servant, so the king wanted to know how long he would be gone. He also agreed to provide the timbers needed for the work. In addition, Artaxerxes provided an armed guard for his cupbearer, something for which Nehemiah had not asked. The situation turned out to be as favorable as Nehemiah could expect.

As we seek our place of service, and seek the Lord's guidance for our ministry, we need to exhibit the same confidence and patience Nehemiah had. At the same time, we must be ready to move forward when the time is right and God opens the doors for us. When we trust the Lord and are willing to serve Him, He will provide what we need to successfully minister for Him.