No its not Fathers Day yet but it is kinda my Father’s Heart Day. Today I remember it was 17 years-ago today that I gave my heart to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour of my life. A long time for sure compared to some. To others though who have been saved through Christ;  its been 30, 40 or more years so to them, maybe its not so long. How ever long we have been saved, we should all have our Father’s heart. What do I mean by Father’s heart? Well, we should first of all have love. Love for a “Christian” should be the most important part of our walk, talk, and fruit of who we are and what we do. Agree? The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins. Many walk around the Earth judging and pointing fingers at others but rarely if ever at themselves. This unfortunately also at times applies to  us “Christians.” Jesus said in John 13:35 “…They shall know you are my disciples by the love you show one-another.” Isn’t is love that was the motivation for Jesus to shed his innocent blood on the cross for our sins? Our demonstartion of love should be evident to everyone. Lack of love and being non-Christ like can point to one of two things I believe. One is that we were never truly converted to “Christianity” or the other; that we are steeped in sin. Love was the motivation in the book of acts where “everyone gave to those who were without.” The type of love I  personally want to have is sacrificial, daring in dedication, outstanding, forgiving, repenting, giving, generous, pointing to the cross at Calvary, type of love. The type of attitude I don’t want to have is; fake, demeaning, non-caring, unforgiving, hateful, spiteful, wolfish, abusive, self-centered, hidden-agenda, lieing, cheating, stealing or anything at all non Christ like. In other words, not of the flesh or any appearance of it. I do want to clarify here that there are in fact times with love, we must be confrontive like Jesus was in the temple driving out the marketers or In Mathew Chapter 18 where Jesus talks about confronting someone with sin or unrepentive sin in their life. To see some saved or repent of their sins or rebellious attitude, we should be caring but also I believe, straight forward. Personally, I don’t believe sin or open rebellion is anything to fool around with. The root of the matter should be dealt with quickly. Jesus gave us clear instruction when dealing with someone with a rebellious/unrrepentive heart. Love though I believe, should always be the motivator.

I’m not sure how many of you have teenagers or have ever had teenagers but for me, I always wanted a t-shirt that said something like “I survived my child’s teenage years.” Teenagers can be tough for sure. All children can be a hand full at any age I suppose but teenagers I think are the toughest. When teenagers continue in their rebellious attitudes into their adult years, That’s when we see more broken lives, more broken families. You see, Those Teenagers becoming adults, get married and have children(hopefully they get married before they have children) and if their attitude is that of rebeliousnesstowards God, they will probably influence their own children for the negative as well.  Here I want to share from thee Bible an example of how a parent of that young rebellious aduly might feel by asking; Can you imagine the heart of the “Prodigal Son’s” father? This poor man was probably so heart broken when his own son became a prodigal. Here is dad, working hard, giving all he can to make his two son’s happy and give them a blessed life. The news of his one son running off in rebellion must of brought poor old dad to his knees in tears. I can just imagine the heart ache and pain. I can also read of the love in this fine parable where it reads of the prodigal son; “finally, he came to his senses.” The father in this story was told by Jesus; “The father seen his son from a distance far off and opened his arms to receive his son.” Wow, that thought literally brings tears to my eyes. The love of the father.

Perhaps in our lives we currently have those that have “run off” somewhere and have not yet returned. In our two GFOM feeding programs there at times, children who come into our Poor Children’s Feeding Programs and for a brieftime, are fed the Word of God and a hot nutritious meal. They  sometimes disappear. The children move with their families to another part of the Philippines, or even the children decide on their own that being in a loving place hearing about Jesus is not right for them. They are still yet attracted to the wild streets or the wild life. These children , Just like my very own children,  are very special. Even though they are rebellious now, It is my heart to show them a love of a father. Yes, the love of the Father.