A New Year, A New Day, let’s see what we can learn going back to the beginning…

Happy New Year and thanks for checking back in. This year with a full year of dad devotionals in place, I am going to share the lessons from my reading through the Bible in a Year here in addition to working on starting up a podcast in 2023.

God’s created all of us dads on purpose, with purpose, and for a purpose! God created us to be the dads that our wives need. God created us to be the dads that our kids need. God created us to be the dads that our world needs.

God blessed me by bringing an incredible redheaded girl into my life when I was finishing up my Bachelor of Mathematics degree in Applied Math and Computer Science. I had prayed the summer before for a wife as I wasn’t interested in a girlfriend and wow what a blessing it was when she walked into my life and the journey ever since including 25 years of marriage, 3 kids, and an incredible home and family.

Today’s devotional brought us back to the beginning too as I’ve chosen to read the Bible in a year using the Chronological Bible and titled To new beginnings….

From the beginning the devil has been using the same technique to try and rob, kill, and destroy humanity by tricking us into doing things that will cause us to be ashamed. The devil is trying to make us be self-centered focusing on what we think will make us feel better or give us a better experience.

Let’s be the dads who choose to be God-centred and focus on God’s Word rather than the lies of the devil and of this world.

Going back to the beginning, we see how the devil tricked Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which God had given them a safety boundary from eating but they disobeyed and then we read how they became ashamed.

‘At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” ‘

Genesis 3:7-11

We see how by disobeying God’s command they found themselves having eaten the fruit which they thought would make them feel better but in reality felt shame and the need to hide from God.

Let’s be the dads who realize that we have two choices:

1. Living with confidence through God whose plan for us is to live life more abundantly.
2. Living on shaky ground because of the separation from God and the lies of the devil who is wanting to rob, kill, and destroy us.

So as we consider this, let’s pause to consider what God’s Word has to tell us across the following scriptures:

• 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
• John 3:16
• Romans 6:19-23
• Romans 3:21-26
• Hebrews 13:5-6
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2

Let’s be the dads who are seeking God’s wisdom and pursuing His will.

‘The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. ‘

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

‘ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ‘

John 3:16

‘Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.’

Romans 6:19-23

‘But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. ‘

Romans 3:21-26

‘Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” ‘

Hebrews 13:5-6

‘This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.’

‘As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation. ‘

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 – 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

Let’s be the dads who are God focused and God centered so that we know the reality of the cross is that it is the very power of God to give us life and salvation! Let’s be the dads who are so God focused that we don’t get drawn into the ways of the world and find ourselves lost, foolish, and setup for destruction! Let’s be the dads who realize who Jesus is and why God sent His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life! Let’s be the dads who receive and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior so that God’s strength is revealed in our weakness and so that we aren’t led deeper into sin by being slaves to impurity and lawlessness! Let’s be the dads who choose to become slaves to righteous living so that we will become holy! Let’s be the dads who realize how living apart from God and against His will cause us to be slaves to sin, free from the obligation to do right and cause us to feel ashamed of the things we used to do, things that end in eternal doom! Let’s be the dads who are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God so that we do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Let’s be the dads who know that God will never fail us and never abandon us! Let’s be the dads who are God focused and fully trusting in Him because He is our helper and so we don’t need to live with fear! Let’s be the dads who stand firmly on God’s Word, being God centered so that we don’t have to worry because if God is for us who can be against us! Let’s be the dads who are living as the new creations we have become through Jesus! Let’s be the dads who are living in the power of the reconciliation of God through Jesus and choosing to live as ambassadors of reconciliation to the world around us!

Are you ready to be the dads God created and purposed for you to be? It requires that you turn from the tricks and traps of the devil and walk into a life that is God centered! Are you ready to be the dads who extend this ambassadorship of reconciliation to your wife, your kids, and your world?

Let’s be the dads who choose to live in the truth that gives us freedom from God and living God-centered rather than being self-centered and allowing ourselves to be fooled by the devil and finding ourselves living ashamed of our decisions and actions.