Pastor Jason Hinkle
John 3:16 NIV
1 John 4:8b-13 NIV
John 4:34 NIV
John 5:30 NIV
John 6:38 NIV
Genesis 1:1 NIV
Genesis 1:26-27 NIV
Quote by Brennan Manning “The Furious Longing of God”
“The foundation of the furious longing of God is the Father who is the originating Lover, the Son who is the full self-expression of that Love, and the Spirit who is the original and inexhaustible activity of that Love, drawing the created universe into itself.”
Quote by Brennan Manning “The Signature of Jesus”
“The Abba experience is the source and secret of Christ’s being, his message, and manner of life … In order to comprehend his relentless tenderness and passionate love for us, we must always return to his Abba experience. Jesus experienced God as tender and loving, courteous and kind, compassionate and forgiving.”.
Brennan Manning once again talks about this relationship in The Signature of Jesus when he writes.
... God, the Father who loved Jesus so well, stands ready and waiting to share that relationship with us. He longs to speak with us as we look to him for guidance during our happiest and darkest moments. Manning further states, “You and I not only are invited but actually called to enter into this warm and liberating experience of God as Abba … We are privileged to share in the intimacy of Jesus with his Father.”
The lyrics to the hymn Love of God really sum up the Love of the Father.
The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair, bowed down with care God gave His Son to win. His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin. Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure how measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song.
He created everything in heaven and earth was made for his glory. In Psalm 19 it says the heavens declare the glory of God. All creation is doing its part to declare his glory. But our part is different. We, unlike the rest of creation, were created in the image of God.
Quote from John Piper: The point of an image is to image. Images are erected to display the original — to point to the original, glorify the original. God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God — images of God, seven billion statues of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation. Nobody (unless they were stone blind) could miss the point of humanity, namely, God — knowing, loving, showing God. The angels cry in Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” It’s full of millions of human image bearers.
To sum up everything in a brief synopsis:
We believe in, trust, rely on, cling to, and give our hearts to God the Father who is the ultimate authority, priority, source and originating lover with the Trinity. God is love. This love that knows no bounds sent his son to die and to be raised again so that we could be invited into the amazing loving relationship of the Trinity that has been interacting in love throughout all eternity.. As Almighty he is limitless in power with complete control over everything. There is nothing that he cannot do. So we have full confidence in his love, power and control. And as the Creator of heaven and earth—of all things visible and invisible—He commands our perpetual wonder as all creation glorifies his name. And so we live our lives as his beloved children and image bearers to rightly reflect his image through how we live, thus giving him the glory that he so rightly deserves.
Points:
I BELIEVE: To trust, rely on, cling to, and give my heart to
GOD THE FATHER: The ultimate authority, priority, source and originating lover within the Trinity.
ALMIGHTY: Absolute power, complete control over everything in heaven and earth.
CREATOR: He created everything in heaven and earth for his glory.