Title: Abba, Father
Scripture: Luke 15:11-32
Author: Tim Melton
William Barclay tells a story from the time in history when the Roman Empire was at its greatest.
"A Roman Emperor was being honored after a victory at war. He had the privilege, which Rome gave to her great victors, of marching his troops through the streets of Rome, with all his captured trophies and his prisoners in his train. So, the Emperor was on the march with his troops. The streets were lined with cheering people. The tall legionaries lined the streets' edges to keep the people in their places. At one point on the triumphal route there was a little platform where the Empress and her family were sitting to watch the Emperor go by in all the pride of his triumph. On the platform with his mother there was the Emperor's youngest son, a little boy. As the Emperor came near the little boy jumped off the platform, burrowed through the crowd, tried to dodge between the legs of a legionary, and to run out on to the road to meet his father's chariot. The legionary stooped down and stopped him. He swung him up in his arms: "You can't do that, boy," he said. "Don't you know who that is in the chariot? That's the Emperor. You can't run out to his chariot." And the little lad laughed down. "He may be your Emperor," he said, "but he's my father." That is exactly the way the Christian (should) feel towards God. The might, and the majesty, and the power are of one whom Jesus taught us to call Our Father." Our heavenly Father is above all, but still calls us to come near.
In Jesus' day most people believed that God was very distant and unknowable. Among the Greeks there were two dominant beliefs concerning the gods. One was held by those known as the Stoics. They believed that the gods did not have the ability to feel any emotion. This came from the idea that if the gods could feel emotion then they could be hurt, and surely the gods cannot be hurt so they must be emotionless, apathetic and indiffere ...
Scripture: Luke 15:11-32
Author: Tim Melton
William Barclay tells a story from the time in history when the Roman Empire was at its greatest.
"A Roman Emperor was being honored after a victory at war. He had the privilege, which Rome gave to her great victors, of marching his troops through the streets of Rome, with all his captured trophies and his prisoners in his train. So, the Emperor was on the march with his troops. The streets were lined with cheering people. The tall legionaries lined the streets' edges to keep the people in their places. At one point on the triumphal route there was a little platform where the Empress and her family were sitting to watch the Emperor go by in all the pride of his triumph. On the platform with his mother there was the Emperor's youngest son, a little boy. As the Emperor came near the little boy jumped off the platform, burrowed through the crowd, tried to dodge between the legs of a legionary, and to run out on to the road to meet his father's chariot. The legionary stooped down and stopped him. He swung him up in his arms: "You can't do that, boy," he said. "Don't you know who that is in the chariot? That's the Emperor. You can't run out to his chariot." And the little lad laughed down. "He may be your Emperor," he said, "but he's my father." That is exactly the way the Christian (should) feel towards God. The might, and the majesty, and the power are of one whom Jesus taught us to call Our Father." Our heavenly Father is above all, but still calls us to come near.
In Jesus' day most people believed that God was very distant and unknowable. Among the Greeks there were two dominant beliefs concerning the gods. One was held by those known as the Stoics. They believed that the gods did not have the ability to feel any emotion. This came from the idea that if the gods could feel emotion then they could be hurt, and surely the gods cannot be hurt so they must be emotionless, apathetic and indiffere ...
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