Anglican Morning Devotion, 28 March 2022 Anno Domini
a ministry of the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genensis 1:1-5; all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)
We will begin a series on the ten great doctrines of the faith. These will be brief summaries due to the space limitations of this devotional approach. (Doctrine of God, or theology). I hope these short devotions will engender love and curiosity to further research in the reader.
The first fundamental truth that we must acknowledge is the reality of God the Father – the beginning and end of all things. In describing the Father, we must as well, note that those attributes of the Father are shared in the Triune Godhead. There is a subtle difference between the role of God as the first cause and beginning of all Creation and God as Father to all of faith. As Paul has said to the Thessalonian Church, “Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 1:1)
In the sense that God is Creator and First Cause, we must admit that He is the Sovereign of all living. In His creative genius, He has made the blessings of His Creation available to all; but as God the Father, He has a special distinction as Father to all who are of His elect and chosen family on earth. In that role, He is not father to those who are incorrigibly wicked and reject His authority to rule over them. This means there exists two separate and distinct families only – those who claim the only Begotten Son as their Redeemer, and those who are lost and reject any part with God as Father. God the Father is not the “Father of all Mankind’ as the hymn avers, but the true Father of those of faith who have believed the promise made to Abraham of a Redeemer.
The Hebrew word for God in Genesis 1:1 is a special case not duplicated in English – Elohim – which is a singular/plural, or God in Three Persons. This is the Triune Godhead made reference to in Genesis 1:26. There is an overlapping scope of love and fatherhood in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, though they Trinity is comprised of distinct Persons. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (John 14:20-21)
Only those of faith may refer in truth to God as their Father, but we must come out from the family of mammon and be part of Gods separated elect: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)
There are different terms by which God is known. God is love (1 John 4:8); God is Light (1John 1:5); Our Shield, etc. God encompasses every blessing. He is long suffering. He may abate His judgment on abject sinners (as in the case of David and Paul), because He knows the end from the beginning and does not judge at a moment in time. He looks upon us with prescient knowledge and sees what we can become in Christ rather than what we may be at the present moment in time.
The entire nature of God’s salvation plan is summarized in John: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17) The Greek manuscript of the Received Text does not claim Christ is the ONLY Son of God, for you and I are also sons and daughters, but Christ is the only Begotten Son – meaning of the same nature and substance of the Father. We, on the other hand, are sons and daughters by ADOPTION!
This elementary devotion cannot do justice to the nature and works of God. Only a diligent and regular study of His Word can open one’s eyes to His glory, greatness, and love.
