The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Abba Father"
"God made us to know Him and to understand His truth. Genuine relationship and fellowship with Him requires both devotion of the heart - the love of Christ - and comprehension of thought - the mind of Christ."
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15).
"Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).
Many linguistic scholars believe the term "Abba Father" denotes both personal and principled relationship with God, an eternal wonder of devotion in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and a gift of grace given to all who trust Him. "Abba" speaks to the personal bond of living fellowship with God. "Father" addresses the principle of an established relationship with Him. Thereby, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Himself dwells within us to enable a walk with our Heavenly Father in terms of both heart and mind.
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
God made us to know Him and to understand His truth. Genuine relationship and fellowship with Him requires both devotion of the heart - the love of Christ - and comprehension of thought - the mind of Christ. The Apostle Paul refers to both aspects of true worship in terms of our Savior having taken spiritual residence within us.
"The love of God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).
"We have the mind of Christ" (I Corinthians 2:16).
Such truth should both encourage and challenge us. First, we are not required to seek fellowship with the eternal, infinite God by ourselves. Nothing could be more impossible. Nor must we seek to intelligently walk with Him in His truth apart from the Holy Spirit's working in us to reveal the wisdom and understanding of Christ. Through our Lord's active and involved presence, we can walk with God, a blessed privilege of promise. Moreover, through Christ, we must walk with God, a solemn calling of responsibility. "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48). Thus, in the most important reality of life, our fellowship and relationship with God, we look to our Lord's "Abba Father" as the grace enabling our personal and principled devotion.
God calls us in this day to know Him better, and to more understand His truth. Thankfully, He does not demand that we make bricks without straw. He rather sent the Spirit of His Son into our heart when we believed, making possible our worship of Him in both spirit and in truth. "Abba" - to know - and "Father" - to understand - came to us in the grace of the Lord Jesus, and abides with us in this day and forevermore. "To live is Christ," a gift that promises enabling for all things in our lives (Philippians 1:21). First and foremost, such grace assures us that living and genuine fellowship with God is possible and will be actual as Christ lives in us, and we live through Him. Such a bond of love and light comprises the very essence of life itself, as the Lord Jesus prayed in the wonder of His Abba Father…
"This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."
(John 17:3)
Weekly Memory Verse
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."
(II Corinthians 5:17)
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