God Is Dad!

How do you think people imagine God to be? Is He far or near? Is He powerful or passive? Is He disgusted with them or in love with them? Is He a mean old man? Is He a kindly grandpa-type? Is He listening? Does He care for people individually? Can He really help?

During the late 1960’s and through the early 1970’s many people questioned if God existed due in part to the Viet Nam war. “God Is Dead” bumper stickers were everywhere. Crosses were replaced with “Peace” Symbols. Long hair and bell-bottom jeans were the fashion rage. The Jesus movement began during those troubled times and it was also when Jesus captured my heart.

A close friend of mine owned a Volkswagen panel van like the ones surfers carry their boards in. We would drive all over Southern California in it. Everywhere we went people would stare at us as we drove by. We were quite a sight to behold. Two young guys with long hair, beards, and wild flowered shirts, driving in this beat-up old VW van, Christian music blaring, with stuffed toy animals packed on the rear shelf facing out the back window, surrounding a bumper sticker that said “God is Dad.” My friend and I had learned through our own personal and intimate experience with the risen Christ that God truly is not dead, He is Dad!

What a person believes about God is the most important thing contained in their mind. It affects everything about them. Specifically, what they believe about God affects them spiritually, emotionally and physically.

Sadly, there are many wrong perceptions of God commonly believed. These misconceptions distort our prayers and in some cases prevent people from praying altogether. For too many people, God seems remote, impersonal, and unknowable. Because of that, even Christians suffer from an inability to feel forgiven, nagging doubt, and mistrust of God.

Our prayers are shaped by the way we picture God. A dysfunctional picture of Him results in a dysfunctional way of praying and preaching. Jesus revealed this truth;

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?," asked Jesus. "Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" (Luke 11:11-13 NIV).

Those that had a father who was never around when they needed him, or has experienced trauma, abuse, or extreme discipline, will have a very difficult time preaching and personally pursuing an intimate, loving, and trusting relationship with the heavenly Father. They will see God as a vengeful judge - spewing out wrath and retribution when sinners do by nature what they do best - sin! (That’s why we need a Savior!) Jesus forgave all sinners – in the past, present and future - on the Cross. It is up to every single human on this planet to accept the free gift of forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus.

When a person asks Jesus to become Lord of their life and repent of their sin and rejection of Him, they are reconciled back to God and can now begin experiencing an intimate relationship with their Creator. The Bible declares that the Father’s passionate rejoicing echoes throughout the heavenlies. Jesus paints a wonderful picture of unbridled joy:

"I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (Luke 15:7 NIV)

The Father promises that He “will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul" (Jer 32, 40-41).

The Dancing and Singing God

The Great, Almighty God, the infinite Creator of the universe, takes great delight and unsurpassed joy from our relationship with Him.

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (Zeph 3:17).

God is quietly contented in His love for every person on the planet. Someone once said that if God had a refrigerator our picture would be on it and if He had a wallet our photo would be in it. He longs for people to feel the peace of His presence, the beating of His heart next to theirs.

In Hebrew, the word ‘rejoice’ contains the suggestion of "dancing for joy," or "leaping for joy," since the verb originally meant "to spin around with intense motion."