Dear Heavenly Father:
Words cannot describe my feelings of gratitude and love for You. You have given me all that I have, and You have seen to it that nothing I needed was held back from me. You gave me life; You gave me of your time and You even gave to me that which was most precious of Yours. You made sacrifice after sacrifice for me, not out of a sense of obligation, but because You loved me and wanted for me to have the best.
I thank you Father, for Your love and Your care for me, even though at times I was grossly undeserving of it, and rarely loved You in return. I turned my back on You and did not appreciate Your sacrifices, or Your love. But You, Dear Father, never gave up on me. You put up with all the abuse You received from me and You were patient while I was in open defiance and rebellion against You and Your teachings.
But now, Dear Father, through Your careful, patient and tender-loving care of me and through Your teachings, You have changed my life and shown me how me to become a child worthy of You. I therefore pray, that one day, I will become the kind of man that You would be proud to have as a son.
Dear Father, You have completely forgiven me of all that I have done against You and even built for me a place in Your house. You have received me back into Your life and blessed me once more with a family and a brotherhood. Father, surrounded by the evidence of Your love, I stand amazed that You have chosen to do all this for such a undeserving and unworthy child as I am. I hope and pray, Dear Father that I will never forget, nor take for granted Your love and concern for me; that I will always be mindful of You and that I will be ever grateful for Your wonderful expression of paternal loving-kindness toward me.
Finally, Dear Father, I pray that I can be the kind of father to my children that You would have me to be and that they will come to know You and to love You as I do. I pray that they will come to a knowledge of, and understanding of Your Word; that they can truly be in fellowship with You and know You as I do. Dear Lord, You have given so much to me and I pray that I will give myself wholly to You and that I will never again forsake You. Father, I love You with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. I pray that my worship this Father’s Day will be to you a sweet savor and that it will be done in spirit, as well as in truth. Dear Father, as I close this letter, I want you to know that I will dedicate each and every day of my life to You and that truly every day, to me, will be Father’s Day.
In Love and Awe of You,
Your Humble and Obedient Child
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Thaddeus of Jericho
Thaddeus of Jericho was a member of the Sanhedrin Council.
As a teenage boy growing up in Jericho, while standing in the shade of a sycamore tree, he witnessed Jesus’ entry into Jericho and His subsequent healing of a blind man.
As Jesus approached the sycamore tree under which he was standing, their eyes briefly met – for the rest of his life, Thaddeus would never forget – that brief, fleeting moment, in which Jesus’ eyes fixed upon his and he saw what looked liked recognition, followed quickly by an intense sadness. He overheard Jesus speaking to the local tax collector and wondered why Jesus would even talk to such a man. About a week after this encounter, Thaddeus heard the news of Jesus’ crucifixion and a rumor that someone had stolen the body.
As the years went by and Thaddeus became a young man, he went to Jerusalem to study with a teacher named Gamaliel. One of the other students was a young man from Tarsus. Both young men, grew to be highly respected Rabbi’s, very zealous of the Law and of the traditions of the elders. On a certain afternoon, when the young man from Tarsus had been selected for a very important assignment in Damascus, Thaddeus found himself with nothing to do, and because of a conversation he had had about the Jesus sect, he sought out and found one of the disciples of Jesus, Bartholomew, and spoke privately with him.
After hearing what Bartholomew had to say about Jesus and the gospel – he believed in Jesus. However, being afraid of what his fellow Pharisees might think, he wrote these words on a piece of parchment, “O merciful Jesus thou art the Son of the Most High God. To whom else shall I turn? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Removing a stone from the wall of his chamber, he hid these beautiful words behind the stone. There they remained, undisturbed, from his death in AD 70 until 1949. During an excavation in Old Jerusalem, a section of wall was found containing this parchment and other documents dating back to A.D. 43.
About the same time, Thaddeus’ friend and fellow student of Gamaliel, Saul of Tarsus had his encounter with the resurrected Savior on the road to Damascus. Later he would boldly confess, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." (Romans 1:16)
We all know what followed. Everybody has heard of what the Apostle Paul accomplished by his bold ministry in Christ. Now of course there is no such person as Thaddeus of Jericho, but if there were, who would have ever heard of him?
If our life is to bear fruit for Christ, then we cannot hide our love for Him behind a stone in the wall.
As a teenage boy growing up in Jericho, while standing in the shade of a sycamore tree, he witnessed Jesus’ entry into Jericho and His subsequent healing of a blind man.
As Jesus approached the sycamore tree under which he was standing, their eyes briefly met – for the rest of his life, Thaddeus would never forget – that brief, fleeting moment, in which Jesus’ eyes fixed upon his and he saw what looked liked recognition, followed quickly by an intense sadness. He overheard Jesus speaking to the local tax collector and wondered why Jesus would even talk to such a man. About a week after this encounter, Thaddeus heard the news of Jesus’ crucifixion and a rumor that someone had stolen the body.
As the years went by and Thaddeus became a young man, he went to Jerusalem to study with a teacher named Gamaliel. One of the other students was a young man from Tarsus. Both young men, grew to be highly respected Rabbi’s, very zealous of the Law and of the traditions of the elders. On a certain afternoon, when the young man from Tarsus had been selected for a very important assignment in Damascus, Thaddeus found himself with nothing to do, and because of a conversation he had had about the Jesus sect, he sought out and found one of the disciples of Jesus, Bartholomew, and spoke privately with him.
After hearing what Bartholomew had to say about Jesus and the gospel – he believed in Jesus. However, being afraid of what his fellow Pharisees might think, he wrote these words on a piece of parchment, “O merciful Jesus thou art the Son of the Most High God. To whom else shall I turn? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Removing a stone from the wall of his chamber, he hid these beautiful words behind the stone. There they remained, undisturbed, from his death in AD 70 until 1949. During an excavation in Old Jerusalem, a section of wall was found containing this parchment and other documents dating back to A.D. 43.
About the same time, Thaddeus’ friend and fellow student of Gamaliel, Saul of Tarsus had his encounter with the resurrected Savior on the road to Damascus. Later he would boldly confess, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." (Romans 1:16)
We all know what followed. Everybody has heard of what the Apostle Paul accomplished by his bold ministry in Christ. Now of course there is no such person as Thaddeus of Jericho, but if there were, who would have ever heard of him?
If our life is to bear fruit for Christ, then we cannot hide our love for Him behind a stone in the wall.
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