Fun With The Father

Having "fun with God" is a foreign concept to many people. Who can have fun with God? God is holy, just and omnipotent. If God exists, many people think, He has got to be very serious, and wholly austere. "He is not someone you can play with", they may say.

Well.... my friends....

God is Holy, Omnipotent, and austere, but He is also a Father. You can know Him as Father. And everyone knows - a good father loves to play with his children.

Someone may object, saying that Christianity is all about the cross, not "having fun".

Let me make it clear: The cross IS the focal point. Dying to self through faith by identifying with the cross of Christ is vital to the Christian life. Paul the apostle said, "I am crucified with Christ...." He also said that those who truly belong to Jesus "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires".

The cross is essential to our relationship with the Father. Without a profound, practical application of the cross to our lives, we cannot have the security of salvation.

We must crucify our own will to the will of the Father. We must die to our sinful nature so that we can live forever with Him. Taking up our cross daily and following Jesus is our way of life.

That means that the cross has to be applied to every area of our life. If we are to call ourselves "Christians" we must live like Jesus. If we are professed followers of Jesus. we must walk like Him, and talk like Him.

We must die to ourselves by faith, and identify with the crucified Christ. Jesus must become our identity. Not that we are to proclaim that we are Jesus, but we are to identify with Him in every way. When Jesus was crucified, we were crucified with Him... more than that - when He rose from the dead, we rose with Him in newness of life... more than that - when Jesus ascended to the Father, we ascended with Him.... more than that - when He sat down at the right hand of God, we sat down with Him. This is why the scriptures declare "we are seated with Him in heavenly realms".

By the cross of Christ we died to earthly fun. We don't have fun like the world does because we died to the world. We don't have fun like the world does because we died to self. But we are not dead, we are living by the life he gave us in resurrection - His life by His Spirit.

Having said that, the truth is NOBODY can have fun with the Father without the cross. You must go through the cross. You must die to yourself in order to have fun with Daddy.

Fun according to the world, and fun according to the Father are completely contrary to each other. Fun (flesh-style), and fun (Spirit style) are incompatible. No one who has not truly died to self, and been truly born-again can have fun with the Father.This can come only through the practical application of the cross.

It has been said time and time again that our "chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever"

Most people do not truly enjoy God now. If they cannot truly enjoy God now, then how can they enjoy God forever?

One day my wife said to me, "If God is not fun, then heaven would be boring". This phrase stuck in my mind. As simple as it is - it is true! All life came from God. He spun the universe in place. By the "blast of His nostrils" He parted the Red Sea. He made a spectacle of the superpowers in the earth. Pharaoh was made to look like a foolish puppet. Jesus was "happening"! Everywhere He went he drew such large crowds He had to look for "time out". Why? Because He wasn't boring. He was awesome, powerful, authoritative, yet He was fun.

It is important to note that one can have a healthy fear of the Lord, and yet have fun with Him at the same time.

The love of God, and the fear of God must be in balance.

He is our Father and being Father He loves to see us happy. He loves to play with us by His Holy Spirit. Yet He is VERY big. The Father is very strong. He is someone that you NEVER want to mess with. Yet He can be a loving Father.

But He does get angry. And when He gets angry - watch out! He has a track record of destroying not only people, but also entire nations. Truly, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Our fun with the Father is not at all to be compared with the fun of the world. Fun with the Father does not include any kind of sinful acts (orgies, sexual depravity, sexual immorality, drunkenness, or any kind of substance abuse).

In order to have fun with the Father you must become like the smallest of children. The picture at the top of this page depicts a father with his little child, Jesus said we must become like a child in order to see the kingdom of Heaven.

I have had a lot of "fun" according the world's definition of fun. Before I got born again I was a partier, I went to see some of the most popular bands and artists in concert. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll was my lifestyle. But when I got born again I became a new creation in Christ.

I have never had more fun in my life as I do now. I mean that with all my heart. He is wonderful.

The cross of Christ and the fear of the Lord became a reality in my every day life. I received the gift of the wonderful Holy Spirit. He had led me. He has guided me ever since - just as our Savior foretold.

I came to know God as Father. I came to know the Father as the most wonderful person in the universe. He is the most kind, yet He can be the most fearsome of all. NEVER mess with Him. What I mean is that sin is sin, and He does not tolerate it. He takes sin so seriously that He sent His only Son to die. He died so that we could know freedom from sin's grip in our lives. He died so that we could know the love of the Father. He died so that we could know the Father in the most wonderful way. He died so that we could receive the fullness of the person of the Holy Spirit. He died so that we could become children of God.

But don't forget, He rose from the dead so that we could know what its like to be in His presence, experience His wonderful Holy Spirit, experience true freedom by the love of the Father, and have fun with Daddy.