Freedom

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     You probably weren’t surprised to see a letter titled “Freedom,” going into Independence Day weekend. You might, however, be surprised at the Bible’s definition of where freedom is to be found:

…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2Corinthians 3:17).

    In math, an equation remains balanced if the same operation is performed on each side. Same goes for language describing logic. Apply one “not” to each side of the statement above – where the Spirit of the Lord is not, there is not freedom – and it’s still true. Is there any place where the Spirit of the Lord is not? In the sense of omnipresence, no. But where the psalmist was describing omnipresence – Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139:7) – the apostle has a different sense in view. From the second verse of chapter 3 of 2Corinthians through the fifth verse of chapter 5, a particular presence of the Spirit is the topic: not his omnipresence, but rather, his indwelling and manifest presence in the hearts, minds, and lives of the redeemed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is – animating the believer to the degree the believer allows – there is freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is not – his Spirit does not indwell or animate unbelievers – there is not freedom.

     Bold statement, maybe, and not provable unless we also tackle the definition of freedom, starting with what it is not. Freedom is not the latitude to do whatever one wants. The first two humans to inhabit this planet found that out, but the misconception persists. Every generation since then has given it a ride, and been thrown. Our generation is tail-over-teakettle even now. Imagine what it would be like if 7.9 billion people simultaneously insisted on their right to do whatever they want. Or, open up your newsfeed and save your imagination the strain.

     Christians have got to understand what freedom really is, and not only for our own benefit, but also for the benefit of billions who are in bondage to the false definition. The verse we’re looking at today is plugged into a very tight context: the Lord wants us to know where freedom is found, and from the context we can also derive that he wants us to know what it is that we are free to do…

     Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2Corinthians 3:17-18).  

     Into the same image – we are free to reflect the glory of God. The Spirit of the Lord gives believers total freedom to do and be whatever exalts the beauty and majesty of our Father in heaven.

     Romans 8 was in our Bible reading plan lately. Some translations of the Bible give this chapter a heading: “Life in the Spirit.” The heading isn’t Scripture, only a handy tool, in the sense that it encapsulates the thrust of the chapter. As I’ve said before, chapters 6 through 8 come as a package; please don’t take any one or two of them without the other two or one. Chapter 6 gets downright aggressive in describing our condition before salvation: like everybody else, we were slaves of sin (verses 17 and 20). No freedom – that’s what we were saved from. Chapter 7 is kind of awkward, describing how we are released from the power of sin, but not relieved of the presence of sin: But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code (verse 6). If we try to nail down every detail of chapter 7 before moving into chapter 8, we’ll probably drive ourselves crazy. There’s plenty enough crazy already, so let’s pace steadily onward and then look back on whence we came:

     There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (8:1-4).   

     Chapter 8 gives a name to the law chapter 7 only mentions. What law are we set free from in Christ Jesus? The law of sin and death. But look: there’s still a law – the law of the Spirit of life. I’ve tried for years to discover the boundaries of the law of the Spirit of life, and I keep finding more freedom. As long as I’m reflecting the glory of God, as long as I’m cooperating with him in being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, there are no restrictions, only more room to run about. And the most blessed, peace-filled, secure Christians I know are having the same experience.

     Freedom is getting a lot of air time lately, and not just because of Independence Day coming up. Many are shouting about freedom. Problem is, most of the world is working from the false definition: “Whatever I want to do I should get to do.” Language has been turned inside-out to support the false definition. The irony here, I believe, is that every image-bearer of God wants true freedom. At soul level, everyone created in his image, which is to say every one, longs to be transformed from one degree of glory to the next.

     This is where Christians come in. True freedom will be insanely difficult for the world to find unless-and-until we Christians consistently do the following three things:

1.      Operate according to the law of the Spirit of life, reflecting the glory of God.

2.      Stop expecting those who are not yet animated by the Spirit to live according to the law of the Spirit of life.

3.      Engage in the ministry of reconciliation (2Corinthians 5:18) by making life in the Spirit more appealing than false freedom.

     Not to leave us with an unfunded mandate, God makes this promise:

     If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:11). In this walk-around world, we have resurrection power already – on loan, so to speak, until the full resurrection takes place – to carry out the will of the Lord between now and then.

     In the form of prayer, I’ll invite you into this one, which showed up in my prayer book this morning (Thursday). I’ve prayed it twice already, with one more to go today:

    “Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”  

  Grace and Peace (essential for freedom),

 

John

Time Machine

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     The rich man in Luke 16 wanted someone to go back into the land of the living and warn his five brothers. The someone he picked was a certain Lazarus. Both men were dead, as we understand dead: departed from this life. When you read the story as Jesus tells it, you’ll note that the rich man had it made, in this life, while Lazarus had suffered in the shadow of the rich man’s wealth and heartlessness. In the next life, the rich man was realizing the horrible and eternal consequences of his heartlessness, desperately looking for a way to spare his brothers the same outcome.

     Recent events have got me hankering for a time machine. Not that I’m eager to identify with the rich man in Luke 16, but if a time machine could help to produce different outcomes, I would like very much to give it a try. One after another, I would load into this contraption the victims of men’s ugly actions, sending them to some critical moment in that man’s life, or his dad’s life, or his dad’s-dad’s-dad’s life, with a message: “Hey, mister, I’ve come from a future you haven’t seen to show you what’s going to happen if you don’t grow a heart and straighten up.”

     Rather than catalog the ugly actions, let’s understand that it’s not just the big-headline items. Every man has the potential for ugliness. It begins with the original sin of Adam, which has infected everyone since, both male and female. With a boy, there are a million mission-critical moments in which his mind and body must be turned away from harshness and disregard. “Sin is crouching at the door,” the Lord God said to Cain, the very first procreated son (Genesis 4:6). Starting early, with steady hand and watchful eye, a boy needs to be taught ways to “overcome it.”

     You thought the Father’s Day series of “Hey, Cobblestone” letters was over last week. So did I. But a late call the other night got me thinking otherwise. The Lord helping me (a lot), I’ve got to take another swing at bringing those closing words of the Old Testament before our eyes – the Lord’s intent “to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse of utter destruction” – and let them do their work. I’ll make no apologies for whatever may look paternalistic, patriarchal, or andro-centric in Scripture – haven’t yet and don’t intend to – only let the record show, both biblical and cultural, that dads have a role no one else can fulfill. And since the overwhelming majority of boys become dads themselves, we’ll be talking father/son relations today.

     Every man who has fathered a son is failing that boy/teen/man to some degree. The first dad failed his first son, and no dad since has logged a perfect record. Every son-raising mission has a certain scope. My dad had certain challenges in raising my brother and me; I’ve had certain challenges with my son, and he with his. But please hear this: our Father in heaven is thoroughly acquainted with the scope and context of each mission. Nothing is outside of his reach. Don’t give up; get over it, and cooperate with the Lord. Dads, if you were to drop what you’re doing right now, precisely what would you ask the Lord’s help with in raising your son?

     The Bible is packed with God-breathed instructions for dads. Here’s a small sampling:

When I was a son with my father,
    tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
    keep my commandments, and live.
Get wisdom; get insight;
    do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth (Proverbs 4:3-5).

Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them (Colossians 3:19).

Fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4)

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged (Colossians 3:21).

    From Solomon writing to his sons to the apostles and elders writing as dads to the church, there’s no shortage of “tech tips,” straight from the heart of the Everlasting Father.

     When I was in vocational school, our junior-year instructor led the class through an odd exercise. Hypothesis: “There is no such thing as an accident.” As evidence, he collected stories from the class, stories of traffic crashes and mishaps in diverse places. Every time, he traced the tragedy back to a cause. Machines have certain design parameters; exceed them and bad stuff will happen. Ladders are to be set a certain way. Drugs and alcohol make the brain malfunction. But none of it is an accident. Nobody in the class stumped him.

     I’m ready (Jesus, help me!) to lead our church through a somewhat similar exercise. Hypothesis: “Men don’t do ugliness for no reason.” As evidence, I’m willing to collect man-ugliness stories of any magnitude. At some point, I’m confident we’ll find a dad who failed his son to some degree. I’ve told a few of those stories on myself, and my son could tell a few more on me. And the idea isn’t to remove responsibility from the man who committed the ugliness; the idea is to open a door for the Lord to train it out of him, to reject whatever didn’t need to come into another generation. Our junior-year instructor’s name, by the way, was John Shock. We could call this The John Shock Challenge. Maybe this John can shock us all into finally understanding: having the hearts of fathers turned to their children is the difference between generational success and utter destruction.

     Even before finishing this letter, I’ve realized that my time machine idea is a flop. Speaking for father Abraham in Luke 16, Jesus said, “‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead’” (verse 31). What chance does a time machine stand? All we can deal with is the here-and-now.

     There’s an old saying about planting trees: The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second-best time is today. Dads, most of the time we will operate in the second-best, whether battling some burden from a past generation or something we’ve heaped on ourselves. Never give up. Never stop piloting the ship. Circumstances in our church and elsewhere will dictate that some of us will even have to step in as surrogate dads and do the best we can. Second-best is far better than nothing.

     What is the Holy Spirit saying to you – yes, you? 

 Grace and Peace (to beat back the ugliness),

 

John                

 

 

Act Like Men

 

Hey, Cobblestone Dads,

     If you’ve ever wished for a sneak peek at what’s coming up in our worship service for a Sunday, this is your week! Most weeks, you’re just as well off without one (maybe better), but I’m happy to provide a partial preview of Sunday, June 19, which is also Father’s Day of 2022:

     Men, you will receive a Slim-Jim-ish hunk of high-fat, high-sodium, highly processed meat in a colorful, mass-produced package. You’re welcome. If we could duct-tape a jalapeno pepper and some string cheese to the Slim Jim, we’d really be rockin’. Maybe next year. Your Slim Jim will, however, have the following attachment: a slip of paper or card stock with a Bible verse…

 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love (1Corinthians 16:13-14).

     Dads, lift a hand up in front of you and squeeze it into a fist. Imagine what might be done with that hand. Now, release your index finger from the fist, straighten it, and say, “Be watchful.” Has it ever occurred to you that, between Adam and Eve, only one of them had any idea what the world was like outside the Garden of Eden before they were expelled from it? Adam was created of dust from the ground (Genesis 2:7), after which the Lord God put him in the garden (verse 15). You are the point man, the watch-man. Nobody else in a family can or should be any closer to whatever might be a threat. Your vantage point is essential to the family’s well being. Scary? The Lord wouldn’t call you to it if he weren’t equipping you for it. Don’t leave your post, dad.

     Straighten the next finger. Gee, if only this finger could’ve been dedicated to the message “Stand firm in the faith” – instead of what it got hijacked for. Without flashing the middle finger at one another in church, let’s agree that it’s actually where it is as a reminder to test everything; hold fast what is good (1Thessalonians 5:21). And if anyone else in the world flies a middle finger at you, feel free to say to yourself, “Got it… I will stand firm in the faith… thank you!” With two fingers now extended, they form a V for Victory. If you haven’t lately, go read the end of the Bible again. See who wins. Guide your family in the direction of glory.

     Next finger, and say, “Act like men.” There’s no need for us to act like a wife, mother, or woman. God gave us wives, mothers, and women who do an infinitely better job of it than we ever could. Don’t fall for the “sameness” baloney. Men and women are different – glory, hallelujah! That being the case, consider why God made men the way he did. One of the most impactful comments I’ve ever seen on this subject came from a Christian teacher who said, “Men are put on this earth to solve problems, not create them.” If you lifted your left hand, the finger we just extended is also the ring finger, and it prompts me to say to our unmarried dads, “The Lord sees you. He will not turn away from you. Don’t you turn away from him.” My hope is that every unmarried dad in our church would know at least one of our elders on a first-name, call-me-anytime basis. Yours is a situation that’ll require extra diligence and finesse. The Lord is acquainted with every detail of your fatherhood, and wants you to succeed. Dads – married and unmarried – I can’t say it enough: you are irreplaceable.

     Uncanny, isn’t it, that the smallest, weakest finger of the hand would be dedicated to “be strong”? It’s the next instruction in the verses we’re looking at today, and the next finger to be unfolded from what used to be a fist. Let it be a reminder that our physical strength is given to us to be used in measure proportionate to the need. There’s a world of difference between closing a door and slamming it. Yes, by all means, be physically strong; gain all the reserves of strength your body can build – and be strong, mentally and emotionally, to apply that strength in proper measure. In the motorcycling world we say, “Power minus control equals stupidity – any fool can twist a throttle.”

     Ah, the powerful, prehensile, opposable thumb: unfold it, and trace its line back to the meaty part of the palm. Over the years, I’ve been without the use of one thumb or the other due to injury – burns, breaks, and whatnot. It’s no fun – nothing seems to be gripped well without the thumb. (Thankfully, I’ve never been without the use of both at the same time!) “Let all that you do be done in love.” The opposable thumb is one important feature that separates humans from the critters. So is love, as distinguishable from raw instinct. Love is a choice, a decision. Gentlemen, we can easily see our part in the biblical instruction; it’s a sentence unto itself, much like that other-way-pointing thumb. And it starts with the implied you: “Hey you/Hey me, whatever the heck you do, make doubly daggone sure it’s done in love!” For a solid reminder of what love is and does, see all thirteen verses of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. Faith, hope, and love abide, 1Cor 13:13 says, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Dad can be watchful; Dad can stand firm in the faith; Dad can be the manliest man; Dad can be strong – but if Dad isn’t a steadfast practitioner of love, how will the children ever know how to practice love themselves?

     We now have an open hand. Lift the other and do the same.

     “Father, bless the hands of these men, these dads, my brothers – and mine too, Abba! Let the strength and gentleness, power and prowess of these hands be used in perfect measure, according to your will and your way – in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

     If I happen to see any of our men looking curiously at their fingers while gnawing on a Slim Jim this Sunday, I’ll know this letter found its target. Just, please, be careful with that middle one, and stand firm in the faith!  

 

 Grace and Peace (let me count the ways!),

 John

 

Haunted

 

Hey, Cobblestone Dads,

     Without looking, do you know the last word of the Old Testament? Malachi – whose name means “my messenger” – wrote down what God wanted his people to hear immediately before a four-hundred year period of silence… no more prophets until John the Baptizer. What was the very last one of those words? “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Malachi 4:5-6). The last word of the Old Testament is “destruction.”  

     I hope the Lord isn’t displeased when I admit to being haunted by that passage, the closing words of his message through Malachi. I’m especially haunted by the word “lest,” and the working relationship it sets up between God and his people. An artillery shell, so to speak, has been lobbed. Now, with man-made artillery shells, the trajectory is unchangeable, and the destruction to be wrought is a foregone conclusion. But with “lest,” God leaves open the possibility of a different outcome. That’s where the haunting begins. What are those different outcomes? How would we enter into them? If utter destruction is to be averted – and Scripture indicates it can be – what needs to happen?

     Scripture gives the answer plainly: the turning of fathers’ hearts to their children and the turning of children’s hearts to their fathers.

     In ramping up to Father’s Day and dedicating four weekly letters to the role of fathers in their children’s lives, I run the risk of appearing to diminish the roles of mothers, and of aunts and uncles and the church family. I’ll run that risk. For the sake of driving the point home, I won’t back down from saying, “Hey, dads, from the moment your child is conceived, you are completely irreplaceable.”

     Don’t be misled by Bible translators who do a little too much of the translating for you – who, for the sake of softening the blow of a gender-specific term, choose a less impactful word. In Malachi 4:6, the original Hebrew word for “fathers” is a masculine noun. None of Malachi’s original readers would have mistaken it for “parents.” Dads, we don’t get to dodge this one, or deflect any of the strike.

     That said, what does it mean for a father’s heart to be turned to his children? First of all, it means not being distracted from the dad-mission. Distracted dads are like distracted drivers: they run into stuff and don’t even see it coming. As dads, we need to have one simple question running in our minds: “Where is this child of mine headed?” That question will cause us to look on down the road ahead, assess the threats along with the possibilities, and make the right adjustments… the Lord helping us, of course. A dad’s heart is turned to his children when he longs for their success and fulfillment even more than his own.

     Here’s a fact: distraction comes in limitless forms (which is exactly the point). But God has provided an antidote that is overwhelmingly available to men. Almost every man I’ve ever known – I could count the exceptions on one hand – has had an amazing ability to compartmentalize. Usually, this term carries a negative connotation, claiming that the one who practices it lacks the ability to integrate. Whatever. In men, I call it an aptitude for focus. Keeping the compartments in proper order and proportion determines whether the compartmentalizing is a good thing or not. The marriage compartment isn’t excluded; neither is the job compartment. Even the bass boat compartment can be accommodated, down the list a ways. Dads, lean into your ability to focus.

     And what does it mean for children’s hearts to be turned to their fathers? To keep from complicating the issue even in the least, this second thing is the natural outgrowth of the first.

     I ran a little experiment this week without realizing it in the moment. To put a finer point on it, the Lord led me into a minor revelation – all I did was cooperate, without insisting on knowing exactly what hypothesis we were working on. As we do almost every week, Kay and I gathered with our grown children and their children at our house for dinner. Our youngest grandchild, Selah, is almost six months old, and when it comes to sheer contentment, there’s no place she’d rather be than with her mama – everybody runs a distant second, or further, to Emily. But at one point, I noticed her daddy had been holding her for a good long time and she seemed satisfied enough. Hmm. I’ve always been awkward with infants; maybe this was a chance to gain familiarity and favor with this little one (especially since I wasn’t taking her directly from Mom!). “Can I have you?” I asked.

     Instant fussiness. I looked into her eyes, talked to her. I might even have cooed unintentionally. No good. Then I turned her around the way her daddy had been holding her. That’ll do. We were good for a solid ten minutes… a record in my world. When the women of the family hold her, Selah wants to be bosom-to-bosom. Unwavering eye contact is a big plus. When the women hold her, it’s all about the nurturing. When the men hold her, and especially Dad, she’s good with a cradling arm beneath her and the strength behind her, but she much prefers to encounter the world face- and feet-forward. I took it as an object lesson, and I think the Lord would be pleased to have me pass it along: dads are the critical inch in preparing their children to encounter the world.

     In Malachi 4:6, there’s a fascinating, almost confusing interplay between “will” and “lest” and “utter.” It gives the absolutes “will” and “utter,” with the mitigating “lest” down the middle. Will the Lord’s messenger avert destruction altogether? Will destruction be utterly complete? Do those two extremes define the only two choices? Without getting too wrapped up in definitions and verb tenses, I think the passage can be seen clearly. Scoping out into the nearby context, the Lord says in verses 1 and 2, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”

     Most of the men I know are grateful to have a Go/No-Go gauge when they can have one – a dividing line between success and failure. These two verses establish the line. The arrogant will be left neither root nor branch – utter destruction. But the calves (or offspring) of those who fear the Lord will go leaping from the stall – for them there is healing. And what does it mean to fear the Lord? The best definition I’ve ever heard is: To take the Lord seriously. He means what he says.

     Seems to me the Lord is giving us a peek of what utter destruction could look like. There are daily reminders of aimlessness, hopelessness, frustration, and violence in generations of children who haven’t known a father whose heart was turned toward them. May the trajectory be substantially changed.

     We know there’s a day coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (see Philippians 2:10-11). But not every heart will have been changed. Not everyone will have been saved. The decree of utter destruction bears on those who don’t fear the Lord. The extent of the decree’s reach, according to the Lord’s word given through Malachi, has a lot to do with fathers.  

     “Jesus, eldest brother and firstborn in the resurrection of the dead, let the fear of the Lord be made manifest in me and in every man who is raising a child. Let our children be blessed. Let them escape the decree of utter destruction. We gladly receive the Father’s affection – his heart turned to us – making us able to turn our hearts to our children. Our prayers come in the power and authority of your name. Amen.”

 Grace and Peace (from the almighty and everlasting Father),

 

John      

Can and Must

 

Hey, Cobblestone Dads,

     I hadn’t planned to write a series of letters ramping up to Father’s Day, but my heart is certainly tugging in that direction. Keying off of last week’s letter and looking into the next two, my heart yearns for the nineteenth of June, 2022 to be a breakthrough day – a Father’s Day unlike any we’ve known up until now.

     Even though my son and son-in-law are all grown up – and are already better men/husbands/dads than I’ll ever be – I’m including myself in the “we” language to dads. That’ll keep me from using too much “you” language, and remind both of us that I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be an every-day dad.

     With men, the message has to be kept clear and simple. Breakthrough comes by way of AHA moments in all-caps. To that end, I’ll say there are precisely two truths the Lord wants us to get as dads:

1)      Yes, we can.

2)      Yes, we must.

     Can… what? By the power of the living God and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit, we CAN raise children who will, in turn, raise children who love Jesus and carry on his mission in this walk-around world. I’ve heard it likened to stacking kindling around the firewood – when the Lord puts the spark to it, that fire burns good and hot. Psalm 100:5 says, the LORD is good, and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Is it merely the idea of his faithfulness that continues, or his faithfulness, actually? Is it some memory of something God did for somebody long ago, or the working out of his faithfulness in this generation and all that will follow? There’s nothing vague about faithfulness; it shows up in every detail of life. In every detail of life, God makes a way for dads to convey his faithfulness.

     And we must… why? Because a father’s influence is irreplaceable. How do I know? Because I’ve tried time and again to replace the influence of Dad in the lives of other men’s children. I’ve seen organizations and entire governments try and fail. Without dad’s influence, there will be a void in a child’s life that goes plumb to the grave. The idea, of course, is to provide a consistently positive influence, but even a negative influence gives a child an idea of what not to do. Without the experience of a dad’s influence and authority, countless aspects of a child’s life go unguided – like static electricity looking for somewhere to go, quivering, groundless.  

     In the Bible book of Isaiah is a section dedicated to the “suffering servant.” This suffering servant, of course, is Jesus, who left heaven to come and live the perfect life we couldn’t live and die the awful death we should’ve died. We’re probably familiar with how he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and how, like a lamb, he was led away to the slaughter. We’re probably less familiar with an aspect of life he was willing to put on hold for a later and better time. See if you can identify it…

    By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
        and as for his generation, who considered
    that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
        stricken for the transgression of my people?...
    Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
        he has put him to grief;
    when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
        he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
    the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand (Isaiah 53:8, 10).

     Jesus was willing to be cut off out of the land of the living, to not have a generation carry on his name as men typically do by fathering children. Jesus was willing to forego marriage and fatherhood, trusting that he would in due time see many more offspring than he could’ve had by natural means.

     Gentlemen, listen to me: he left that work to us.

     By proxy, and for the sake of Jesus’s joy and fulfillment, we are raising up offspring for him. The promise of God the Father to Jesus his Son was that he would see his offspring, he would prolong his days, and the will of the Lord would prosper in his hand. Dads, can you begin to believe that Jesus wants us to succeed in fatherhood?

     By way of encouragement, I’ll offer a verse from one of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. The context doesn’t give a reason not to plug it into the realm of fatherhood, and does give reason to plug it into the realm of promoting God’s faithfulness through the generations, so here goes:

     Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord you labor is not in vain (1Corinthians 15:58).      

 

 Grace and Peace (because we can and because we must),

 

John