God the Father WE CALL GOD FATHER HIS

God the Father WE CALL GOD FATHER HIS PLAN OF LOVING KINDNESS

Who are You? ● Do you Know who you are? ● Where you come from? ● You may mention your name and town or city ● That is not your TRUE IDENTITY ● Is being a Son of God!!

God’s calling on your life Jeremiah: 1: 5 ● “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” ● before you came to birth I consecrated you” ○ consecrate = “set apart” ● Out of all eternity - God has wanted You!

The Fatherhood of God ● Find God’s plan for Salvation- letter to Ephesians ○“Before the World was made He chose us in Christ ● 1) Chose us in Christ, to be holy & blameless ○ ○ Holiness is moral purity Blamelessness expresses freedom from guilt & sin

Fatherhood ● 2) “He destined us in love to be his sons • through Jesus Christ”

Father seeks relationship ● “See what love the Father has given us ● that we should be called children of God…”(1 John 3) ● “ I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons. . ● (2 Cor 6: 18) ● “Lord show us the Father, & we shall be satisfied… ● Jesus replies to Philip ● “he who has seen me has seen the Father…(John 14 8 -9)

Jesus is the Face of God ●Jesus was sent to reveal the Father ccc 239 ●God wants to have a relationship with you ●The Father wants to walk with you ○in friendship ○in prayer ○in difficulty ●“For I, the Lord your God hold your right hand… ●Fear not, I am the one who helps you” Is 41: 13

God Our Father

Jesus was sent by the Father ● “ I have manifested your name to men” John 17: 6 ● Jesus said to believe in my works / actions ● “that you may know & understand that the ● Father is in me - and I am in the Father” ● Jesus showed us the merciful eyes of the Father ● He raised those bowed down by sin to new life Jn 10: 37

The World did not accept Him ● Thee - Lie of the Devil is…. ● God does not Love You! ● Jn 1: 11 says “He came to his own home ● and his own people did not accept him” ● Jesus died of a broken heart on the Cross ● He came to bring the Father’s love to the world

4 Things we learn from the Father

The Father’s works ● The different “works” of each divine Person ● The Father ● Creator ○ Father for all angelic / human persons ● Providence ● ● God’s intervention in the world: 1. protects 2. governs 3. keeps all things in existence

The Father’s Divine Providence ● We are divinized “partakers of the divine nature” ● A supernatural change in our being takes place when we are baptized (from sanctifying grace)

Blessing & Evil ● All of the Father’s work is a blessing ○ ○ A blessing is a (divine & life giving action) by the Father the source of all blessings ccc 1079 ●Evil & suffering can put the faith to the test ○ The evil present in the world is a necessary consequence of the freedom to choose, something less than Goodness

God’s Fatherhood demands unity ● Our Heavenly Father is grieved when we turn away from Him ● 1) sin ● 2) unbelief ● Our Father is grieved when we refuse to be reconciled with our brother & neighbor ● One Father – one people of God ○ the Body of Christ united in one (mission)

Father’s might is Universal ● For God who created everything – ○ Rules everything and can do everything ● Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent

Obedience to the Father ● The Father’s power compels holiness & obedience ● Obedience has more to do with ● love than with submission ○ Our choice to obey has significant implications ● Jesus’ example of obedience ● “Not my will but yours be done” ● Accepting death on the cross, ● for love of the Father & his children John 10: 17

Jesus’ example of Obedience ● “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. ” Jn 10: 17 -18 ● Obedience to the Father’s will brings ● His plan on earth ● choosing to obey God ● strengthens our relationship with the Father ● Obligation becomes a response of love ○ Great Commandment to love God & one another, as Jesus loved you, summarizes the Fathers entire will ccc 2196 2822

The Father’s Kingdom ● The coming of the Father’s Kingdom ● Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled & the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel” Mark 1: 15 ● Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven Matthew 6: 10

The Kingdom ● Jesus brought the Kingdom in his person and established it in his Mystical body the Church; waiting until He comes again to reveal the kingdom of the Father in all its glory ● We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God ○ To those who love him & do his will • Rom 8: 28 Mt 7: 21 ccc 1821

False images of Father ● The catechism states: 2779 -2780 ● Need to cleanse our hearts – false images ○ ○ drawn from this world Humility recognizes “no one knows the Father except the Son & anyone the Son chooses to reveal him” that is “little children” Mt 11: 25 -27