The Call Of The Father

Where are you! Are you hiding in the bushes wearing a cloak of self righteous works that you’ve created to cover the shame that you feel?

What do you feel when you realize the time of the day is approaching for fellowship with God? Do you try to blend in with your surroundings by sewing together an apron of leaves or by producing “good” works?

God is calling you. He knows where you are, but wants you to own up to who you are. He wants to speak into your heart. He wants a personal relationship with you where you allow Him to redeem you.

The shame we feel is the means by which we realize that we need God.

Adam and Eve did just that, and as the Bible describes, it wasn’t enough. As they heard God approaching for His daily walk with them they hid trying to blend in with their surroundings. God called them out, not because He didn’t know where they were, but because He wanted them to own up to their sin which caused them the shame they felt. No amount of self righteous covering will cover the shame that we feel when we fall into sin. It was not their nakedness which made them feel the shame they felt, rather it was the sin which they committed, and as they now were impure before God, they felt exposed and covering their nakedness was their attempt to limit their exposure. They weren’t necessarily covering themselves because they suddenly felt a shyness with each other because of their nakedness, rather, because they felt exposed before God.

The call comes ringing down through the millenia, the call of hope to a heart that previously had a dismal future laid out before it.

Isaiah 1:18

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” King James Version (KJV)

The call to die.

Luke 9:21-26

“And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing;

Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.” King James Version (KJV)

Walking in our own human pride and reasoning is to rebel against God and His fore-ordained way of life.

The standard of the kingdom of God is inverted; which means that by dying to yourself you live, and that by walking in the authority God has given you, others will be served.

God lifts up the humble and the proud will fall.

God calls to us to crucify our pride and our will.

If God has said certain things need to be done or observed, then we must or we become like Adam and Eve our ancient father and mother who swallowed satan’s lies. Satan loves to have us question what God has said or foreordained as truth. He says, “Hath God said”?

Jesus said that his disciples would be known by their love. He has commanded us to love our enemies or those that are against us. He showed us by example what that looks like, and yet we tell ourselves we are justified in our anger, hate, or bitterness because of how they have treated us and ours.

First, we need to be justified by Christ.

Second, we listen to Satan's voice saying did God really say that? Then, is that really what He meant?

Third, we rebel against God's Law making our reasoning our god.

And Fourth, we have tried to justify ourselves.

Friends, while this is one scenario, we see it played out in a variety of ways including in our treatment out our spouses, children, and peers. This is a result in our thinking we know better than God.