fatherhood

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain-- for me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? 'Tis mystery all! Th' Immortal dies: Who can explore His strange design? In vain the first-born seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine. 'Tis mercy all! let earth adore, let angel minds inquire no more. He left His Father's throne above,-- so free, so infinite His grace-- emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race: 'Tis mercy all, immense and free; for, O my God, it found out me! Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,-- I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, thorugh Christ my own.

One good man, one man who does not put on his religion once a week with his Sunday coat, but wears it for his working dress, and lets the thought of God grow into him, and through and through him, till everything he says and does becomes religious, that man is worth a thousand sermons - he is a living Gospel - he comes in the spirit and power of Elias - he is the image of God. And men see his good works, and admire them in spite of themselves, and see that they are Godlike, and that God's grace is no dream, but that the Holy Spirit is still among men, and that all nobleness and manliness is His gift, His stamp, His picture: and so they get a glimpse of God again in His saints and heroes, and glorify their Father who is in heaven.

It was a maxim with Foxey - our revered father, gentlemen - "Always suspect everybody."

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence.

The late Peter Marshall illustrated our trust or lack of trust with the following story: Suppose a child has a broken toy. He brings the toy to his father, saying that he himself has tried to fix it and has failed. He asks his father to do it for him. The father gladly agrees . . . takes the toy . . and begins to work. Now obviously the father can do his work most quickly and easily if the child make no attempt to interfere, simply sits quietly watching, or even goes about other business, with never a doubt that the toy is being successfully mended. But, what do most of God's children do in such a situation? Often we stand by offering a lot of meaningless advice and some rather silly criticism. We even get impatient and try to help, and so get our hands in the Father's way, generally hindering the work. . . Finally, in our desperation, we may even grab the toy out of the Father's hands entirely, saying rather bitterly that we hadn't really thought He could fix it anyway . . . that we'd given him a chance and He had failed us.

She crept up to her father's knee to sit there quite contentedly. No word needing to be said, Laying his hand upon her head, and looking down, he gently smiled upon his treasured trusting child. 'tis thus with me approaching prayer, feeling father's spirit there. In quiet peace all fears are fled, heart so warmed, so fully fed, That, oh, it's just as though he'd smiled on me, his blessed, joyous child.

The Bee Story I want to share something with you. A few days ago, I was stopped at a large, busy intersection waiting for a long light. Not really looking at anything in particular, my eyes moved about until I noticed a honey bee on the street alongside the car. It was near a bold white line which was between my lane and the left turn lane. The bee was not flying in a lush garden among beautiful flowers and shrubs and trees, in the cool clean air with quietness and beauty all around it. Instead, it had lowered itself to walk on the hot pavement surrounded by noise, pollution, heat and great threats to its very life. It crawled onto the line and seemed to be pulled toward the other side. But then it resisted and wandered back. Back and forth it went, indecisive about whether it would cross over or not. The traffic was now moving in the left turn lane and presented a grave danger. Finally the little bee, perhaps confused, being in an environment to which it was not accustomed, and not using the abilities that God had given it, drifted over the line and headed directly into foreign territory. Two tires went by quickly without harming the bee although ruffling its wings a bit. It could see that it could stand up to any danger so it carried on. Then came a bus and, in a split second, its life was snuffed out. It perished on the wrong side of the line. This is a true story about one unfortunate bee. It has been acted out, set in different environments, in the lives of many of the children of our Heavenly Father.

Am I as aware of Heavenly Father as I want Him to be aware of me?

It is not enough to hold that God did great things for our fathers: not enough to pride ourselves on the inheritance of victories of faith: not enough to build the sepulchres of those who were martyred by men unwilling, in their day of trial as we may be in our own, to hear new voices of a living God. Our duty is to see whether God is with us; whether we expect great things from Him; whether we do not practically place Him far off, forgetting that, if He is, He is about us, speaking to us words that have not been heard before, guiding us to paths on which earlier generations have not been able to enter. There is - most terrible thought! - a practical atheism, orthodox in language, reverent in bearing, which can enter a Christian church and charm the conscience to rest with shadowy traditions; an atheism which grows incessantly within us if we separate what cannot be separated with impunity, the secular from the divine, the past and the future from the present, earth from heaven, the things of Caesar from the things of God.