This series of blogs have come from my men’s study series, Walking Worthy as Sons of God. The focus has been on who we are as sons of our fathers and in this month’s blog the spotlight is on who we are as sons of our heavenly Father. When God came to earth, He came as a son, not as a Father, in order to bring us to God. He came to reveal the heavenly Father to us so that we might realize that our lives are determined by our identity with Him as sons of His Father. 

Fathers for generations shape our lives in ways we don’t realize. All of us have become taught by successive generations of fathers who have shaped our lives by what they did or didn’t do. This goes all the way back to our first father, Adam!

When we as believers in Jesus Christ think about who shapes our lives, we certainly place Jesus at the top of the list. How does our identity with Jesus Christ impact our lives? Jesus’ call to discipleship and eternal life is primarily a call to identify with Him. 

The last three months, we discussed the fact that when we wish to connect with or identify with someone, we do so because we believe there is something to be gained from the association. They have a power we don’t have, and subconsciously (or perhaps consciously), we deduce that we can have that power if we are connected to them. Once we conclude there’s something to be gained, we begin to look for ways to connect with them.

When you are facing responsibilities, do you rely on your own strength? It’s easy to do. We do it without thinking—without thinking about who we belong to. We belong to and are connected to our heavenly Father through our faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. One of the astounding blessings of salvation is a new relationship with God. We see with the eyes of faith that the Father of Jesus Christ has become our Father!

Last month, we began a four-part series on the very important issue of identity. We will unpack four identity principles from Matthew 16:16, where Jesus discussed His identity with His disciples. Jesus initiated the conversation by asking who people said that Jesus was. Then He asked them who they thought He was. Simon Peter was the first to respond, and his answer was recorded so we might know who Jesus is.

This month I want to speak to men and fathers primarily. It’s not that women and moms don’t need to know about identity. They do, but if we fathers are going to live to love with Jesus, we need to understand who He is. We also can glean some very powerful insight into our children, especially our teens, when it comes to why they behave the way they do.

For the past four months, we’ve been considering the riches of what is revealed in 1 Peter 1:22-23. My prayer is that you’ve been encouraged and inspired by Peter’s insight into the Christian life. 

There are many verses of Scripture that call Christians to love. Since God is love, we should expect love to be the way believers conduct their lives. In 1 Peter 1:22-23, the apostle makes the case for fervent love as the fruit of all who have been born again “through the living and enduring word of God.”

I hope you’ve been encouraged by the Live to Love blogs this year as we have pondered verses 22-23 of 1 Peter. Hopefully, we’ve recognized that before we can offer what God has commanded us to offer in our worship to Him, namely, an all out love for others, we need to purify our souls. We purify our souls because we were chosen by God to be holy, to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit, to obey Jesus, and be sprinkled with His blood.

This year in the Live to Love blog, I aim to give you monthly Scripture encouragement to help you grow in love for God and love for others. I’ve chosen to focus on 1 Peter 1:22-23 for six months. Last month we unpacked the phrase “Since you have in obedience to the truth…” We saw that those who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood, have been made one with Jesus. That oneness with Jesus, or holiness, governs the behavior of those who are His. He commanded them to be holy and love like He loves, and He gives them the grace to do it.

Can you imagine a stereotypical career fisherman penning the above exhortation in 1 Peter? The…

“Approximately 200 years after Jesus’ birth, an anonymous Christian wrote an expanded account of the…

God is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Jesus’ commandment is to love.…

Jesus and His disciples had just finished their last meal together. As they finished, Jesus…

Last month, my blog topic was The Great Deception. I suggested that one of the…

What is the greatest and most destructive lie that Satan ever perpetrated on mankind? How would you answer that one? I am sure there are many different opinions. Near the top of the list, I think, is the lie that he told to Adam and Eve regarding death, namely, that if a person is breathing in a body, then he is alive. Well, he didn’t exactly say it that way, so let me invite you to think with me through some verses from Genesis 2-3.