The New Name For God

Jesus said, “And I have declared to them Your Name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26) 

What name was Jesus referring to? 

It was the name “Father”. If there was anything close to Jesus’ heart, it was introducing God as “Father” to us.

This was quite a stunning revelation for the people who heard Him because this portrayal of God is surprisingly rare in the Old Testament. Only 15 times is God called the Father of Israel or of certain individuals! Nine other times is father imagery present, although in those cases the term "Father" is not used. So 24 times, mostly indirectly, God is called a Father in the entire 39 books of the Old Testament!

Yet Jesus called God “Father” over 100 times in the gospel of John alone! And 65 times in the other gospels! Jesus called God Father 165 times in the first four books of the New Testament, as opposed to 15 times in the entire Old Testament. I am not emphasizing these numbers to prove I can count but rather, to emphasize something we might take for granted. Jesus wanted us to know God differently than the people of the OT. This was not just a way Jesus taught His disciples to address God; it was the way. They were to relate to God as Father, to pray to Him as Father.

The rest of the New Testament also emphasizes the fatherhood of God. In the Pauline letters God is described as "Father" over 40 times. It occurs in blessings, doxologies, thanksgivings, prayers, exhortations, and creeds. For Paul, this Fatherhood is based on the redemption and reconciliation He has made available to us in Jesus Christ. It is through the finished work of Christ that God invites us to call him "Abba, Father." At God the Father’s initiation, it is through Christ that grace and peace have been given to us and we have become God's children. God is called Father over 30 more times in the other NT letters and epistles for a total of over 235 times in 27 short books as opposed to 15 times in the long 39 books of the OT.

Do you think God is trying to tell us something?

And the exact term Jesus used is still found three times in the New Testament - ABBA (Mark 14:36, Rom. 8:15-16, Gal. 4:6). Elsewhere the Aramaic term "Abba" is translated by the Greek "pater" as "father". This was another shocking revelation for the audiences that heard Jesus. There is no evidence in pre-Christian Jewish literature that anyone ever addressed God as “Abba”! Jesus's use of "Abba" as a name for God was a term of great intimacy. "Abba" was a term little children used when they addressed their fathers. The nearest equivalent would be the English term "Daddy". No one had heard anyone talk about God like that before.  

And Jesus said that this, knowing He's a loving father, is the key to experiencing the love of God in us - “that the love which You have loved Me may be in them...”. That is the name of God that Jesus taught us to use and how God wants us to know Him.  

1 John 3:1 "Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God!"

Problem? For some people this becomes a difficult way to relate to God because of possible father issues. I will address that issue in my next blog entry. 

Some people grow up and some people just grow older

...is a quote from the movie King's Row, the movie that made Ronald Reagan a star.  It's also an adage he took to heart and lived out in real life.  In the movie, his character had his legs unnecessarily cut off by an evil doctor.  He then had a choice if he was going to stay bitter and bed bound or get up and live his life in spite of his loss. 

We don't always know why things happen but our response to them - even difficult, hurtful situations - will make all the difference in the world. We can choose growth or stagnation of the heart by the actions we take in response to life’s challenges. 

Through years of personal healing and also as a counselor I've discovered a few things about growing up:

• Choose to forgive others - AND yourself
• Repent for wrong attitudes and actions
• Take responsibility for what you've done
• Choose to be honest about your "stuff"
• Embrace the pain and yield to God's love

Some people just can't handle facing the truth so they always blame others or circumstances. Obviously victims of abuse and crime are not responsible for what happened to them.  I'm in no way making light of their terrible pain and suffering nor the difficult mountain path of recovery.  But we choose which way we will go. 

I was stuck in the past for years because of emotional pain and anger towards those that hurt me.  This caused me to view life through a distorted lens and make bad decisions as a result.  Healing began as I not only forgave my offenders but when I faced the painful truth of my own failures, some very huge indeed, and forgave myself. 

I would not have been able to face these failures without believing and experiencing the Father's affectionate and passionate love for me just as I am, in failure and imperfection, not only after I got my act together.  This was a slow and difficult process for me and His love was the hardest thing to receive, due to being locked in a culture and mindset that teaches our value is based on performance and "success". 

Its not just head knowledge I'm talking about.  It's heart knowledge.  Head knowledge holds facts but our hearts determine whether it becomes truth or just information.  Believing the truth and choosing to walk it out makes us grow and causes our hearts to live in freedom.  

Courage

“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right…” 

-Ronald Reagan

Today, we are being challenged like never before to be afraid - to compromise our faith, freedom, convictions, and the word of God. It would be so easy to compromise just a little here and there so we can be politically correct, accepted, not thought of as weird, etc, etc, etc. I am not suggesting what you should believe, say, or stand for. What I am suggesting, however, is whatever you believe, whatever you know is true, whatever you know as God’s truth; to stand and not back down - no matter what the cost.  

Those that know me, know I joke that I’m 39, but it’s incredible to me that anyone that young can have the eloquence, wisdom, and courage to say something as deeply moving and poignant as below: 

“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid… You refuse to do it because you want to live longer… You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you’re afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you, or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. ”

-Martin Luther King

Maybe your challenge today isn't a lack of courage to stand up for your moral convictions. Maybe your challenge is to have the courage to do something that you believe in, something you know you are supposed to do, perhaps a dream God has given to you - but you don't because you are afraid for various reasons. Someone once said that life begins at the end of our comfort zone. Rosa Parks, another courageous person said, “Without a vision people perish but without courage dreams die.” 

Maybe today is the day to take a stand and start living. 

"For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, love, and sound judgement. "

2 Timothy 1:7 NASB, greek notes

"Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Deuteronomy 31:6-8, ESV