by Pastor Joel Lawler

1 Corinthians 1:25 - "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."

I remember being a teenager and saying many times that I did not understand my parents.  Their rules and requirements of me were burdensome and frankly interfered with me being who I wanted to be. 

They were old and out of touch.  They could not possibly understand my world.  The one they grew up in so very long ago was surely quite different than the one I was living in.

As I have grown older and have four children of my own, I have come to an amazing discovery, the older I get the wiser my parents are.

Parents have a perspective that is sometimes beyond the understanding of their children.  Obedience calls for the child to abandon their own limited view and believe that their parent is acting on the child's own best interest.

When God spoke to Abram (means exalted father) and changed his name Abraham (means father of many), God could see the big picture.

Abraham had only two sons.  Was God wrong in calling him "father of many" or does God see far beyond what we can see?  Today, the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith can be traced back to their father Abraham. God saw what no man could possible see.

God has a master plan that will be completed and each one of us has a role to play in that plan.  We all were created with a purpose and a mission.

We are also given free will to choose to disobey God.  Like an adolescent, we think we know better than God and act on our own wisdom.

We choose to be our own god and rebel against the true God. 

We loose our purpose.

Many of us go our whole lives trying to make sense of it all.  We try to be the best person we can be.  We work hard to do what is right.  There is still something missing.  There is an emptiness to life that just cannot be filled. 

Life from man's perspective is an endless cycle from cradle to grave. From God's perspective, there is so much more to life.

We have been separated from our father and we need to fix this broken relationship.

God in His love has provided a way to reconcile our relationship. Like any good parent, rebellion requires punishment.  He took the penalty of our rejecting Him upon Himself.

Romans 5:8 - "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

We cannot see what God sees and we cannot know what God knows.  We have to step out on faith and trust in Him.

We have to return to Him and acknowledge that we were wrong and that He is in control and that He knows what is best for us.

1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

It is our choice.  We can continue to hold to our own perspective or we can choose to believe in the one who created us.  God has provided a way home and he waits patiently for our return