|
Date of message: 15 December 2002
Subject: The Family Prayer - "Who Is In Heaven"
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
Last week, I started on the Family Prayer and I shared on the first phrase
"Our Father". This week I am directed to continue with the next
clause "Who is in heaven". Again the Lord is so wonderful that
He chose the most appropriate and endearing terms to describe the Father.
Who
The Lord is the covenant- or promise-keeping God and He is a living Person.
Unlike the idols created by human hands, the Lord God is none of those.
He is the Creator God Himself and He is very much alive today as He was
at the very beginning. God lives outside our time zone and therefore time
is of no material impact on Him. The idols created by human hands have
eyes but they cannot see; ears but cannot hear; noses but they have no
sense of smell and they are sculptured with mouths but they cannot speak.
In fact they are dead pieces of either word or stone. The correct adjective
used to describe the Father is indeed "who" and not "that"
or "which".
Is
The present tense in this verb is important. It draws out for us that
the Lord is in the PRESENT as much as He was involved in the past and
will be involved in our future. The fact that He lives in the 'present'
gives us great hope that He will see us through our problems and difficulties.
The Psalmist in Psalms 139: 7 - 16 described for us the omnipotence, the
omnipresence and the omniscience of our Lord God.
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold,
You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of
the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, "surely the darkness shall fall on me," even the night
shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as
the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous
are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes say my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they
all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none
of them.
Because the Lord lives in the present, His help for us is always on time
and sufficient. Since I became a Christian I have not found one single
moment when He is not there for me and with almost 33 years of experience,
trust me, my God is interested in your affairs of life and He wants to
bless you as He has blessed me.
In Heaven
The Lord God resides in heaven. And heaven has no walls; neither is there
any floor or ceiling. Heaven stretches for infinity. Even within our solar
system, the distance from Earth to the nearest planet Mars would require
the astronaut to travel for a few years before he can reach Mars. Well,
I have good news for you. Heaven is billions of times larger than the
distance between Earth and Mars. Astronomers have been discovering new
planetary systems every year and they admit that there is much more to
be discovered which they acknowledged they would never be able to comprehend.
Such is the enormity of heaven. And God lives there. And as He is not
confined by the boundaries of time, He is able to be everywhere at all
times. What a wonderful thought for us to hold onto! The Lord is now in
heaven and He is sitting on His throne ruling over all His creation.
The final enemy, death was conquered when our Lord Jesus died on the cross
for us and now we can have His victory in our lives. We need not have
to be downcast or dejected but we can wake up each day and smile. Be encouraged
knowing that the One who died is also now sitting at the right hand of
God judging everything.
My friend, have you made God your Father? It is indeed a great privilege
to be counted as His children and to enjoy His blessings on your life.
Why not take a few moments and pray this prayer and receive the Lord Jesus
Christ into your life.
Our Heavenly Father, our daddy God, thank you for the privilege to be
counted as Your children when we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Thank you that You loved us so much that even when we were still sinners,
You sent Your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, down into this world
to die for all our sins.
Lord Jesus, thank you that You came, You obeyed the Father, You died for
all on the cross, You conquered death and You rose again on the third
day. And now, because of Your death and resurrection, we, who believe
in You as our Lord and Saviour, will no longer have to die but we receive
Your eternal life. Come into my heart, I pray, and make my heart Your
home.
Thank you that because of what You have accomplished for us on the cross,
I am now a child of God the Father. I am eternally forgiven of all my
sins, greatly blessed as Your child, highly favoured as a joint-heir with
Jesus, deeply loved because of my position in Jesus and completely protected
because of You, Lord Jesus and in Your precious Name I pray.
Amen.
If you have prayed that prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family
of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important
that you are not alone facing your personal trials but that you can obtain
good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your own local
Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together? You will
be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father, for
fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all
your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 - 26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
This and other archived messages can also be found on the following URL
http://www.oocities.org/fibredrive/index.htm
|