Week 8 (Feb 28- Mar 3)

FATHER HEART OF GOD. Speaker: Holger Schein (Germany)

God is our Father, but for some of us it is very difficult to accept this truth because of our experiences with our earthly fathers. These experiences create a wrong filter that we see God through. For someone, an emotionally absent father may lead him to think that he is not important to God and God really doesn't care about him. For another person, an abusive father may lead him to think that God is not full of love, gentleness or compassion, but rather he thinks God is going to hurt him if he disobeys. For a girl, how she sees her dad treating her mom may make her think that is how God treats her. But these are all WRONG FILTERS! God wants us to know Him as HE IS, not through our experiences with our mom & dad. The Bible is the only way to get us out of viewing God through the wrong filter, because the Bible is TRUTH! It is the only "correct filter"! So what glasses are you wearing that's changing your view of Him?

Some truths about God, our Father:
*God is NOT an absent Father.
*His role is to speak identity & value into our lives.
*God is NOT unloving or uncaring. And with that, God knows how you receive love the best, so don't limit His ways of showing his love to you! (5 love languages)
*God wants your burdens! (Not always physical burdens, but burderns of.. pressures of religion, always being perfect, never disappointing anyone, etc.) "Come to me, all of you who are weary & carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28
*God always keeps his promises! He doesn't get your hopes of for something and then forgets to do it. If something doesn't turn out right, it's not that He let you down, but probably that you didn't hear Him right.. NEVER BLAME GOD! "God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?" -Numbers 23:19.
*God is not stingy, He is generous! God wants to bless you because He loves you THAT much!
*He is not indifferent! He listens & cares.
*God is not slack or weak.
*God disciplines through gentle, humble training - Hebrews 12. Discipline is correction out of love, not punishment or rejection.
*He is not overbearing. He does not munipulate or push anything on you that you don't want.

"So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, 'Abba, Father'. For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children." -Romans 8:15-16

All I have left to say is that this is a week I will NEVER forget!!

Blessings to all of you!
-Aslyn