Fathers, as designed by the Heavenly Father

Have you ever noticed on the back of certain products, they label proudly where they were designed. Did you catch that? Not where the product was manufactured but in whose mind it was conceived. Pretty interesting concept as we near a Father’s Day holiday here in America. 

You see the pattern in Genesis, (the book of beginnings), God created things in order, with a sense of order, not in a haphazard manner. After God created the Earth and everything in it, then created man and woman, who with their offspring became the first family. He gave us, in this simple creative act, the ultimate illustration of how we can relate to an Almighty, Amazing, Holy God. The concept of a father was designed by God.

God showed us a father that had the responsibility to not only provide through the sweat of his brow, but also the direction of his worship, to lead them spiritually. God is not a god of chance, luck or circumstance, He is the God of Intentionality. He had a purpose when He created this father figure in a family setting. It is something that we can see, experience, and for the male portion of humanity, it is something we have the potential of being. 

This responsibility was not only shown by God but also lived out, fulfilled by the Heavenly Father, when He by the sending of His Son showed us how to live, love, and pass on to the next generation how to do the same. It ultimately cost God his only son to save us. John 3:16, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (NLT) You can’t say that our Heavenly Father doesn’t know the cost of being a parent to His children.

As for us, the Bible is overflowing with people coming to know the Lord through the Holy Spirit, through the preaching and teaching of the Word, but it is also full of Deut. 6’s and Psalm 78‘s, where it talks about the faith of a father being passed down to his children. For example in Acts 16:33-34 where it says, “And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.” (ESV) Along with countless other examples.

Here at Faith, we want to strengthen fathers and their ability to lead in love, not oppressive force. We want to strengthen mothers and their ability to teach, lead and guide their children by loving their husbands and supporting them as spiritual leaders of the family. We want to show children how not just to obey their parents like a boss at work, but as people who have a vested interest in them, not just their career, but in their eternal welfare. We want to lift up the family structure here at Faith so those from broken homes or who have no family structure to model can see how to break the mold, get out of the cycle, and ultimately see the Heavenly Father for who He is, how He loves,  how He leads His children, and how He sets the example for His original design.