Category Archives: father

Tribute to my Father

Fathers play an immensely important role in the family and in the rearing of children. Fathers are responsible for bringing up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Sadly, our society is reaping the fruit of fatherless families or families where the father doesn’t care. Fathers are worthy of honor (Ex. 20:12). Some of us have great fathers, others not so great. I want to honor my great father with this simple poem I’ve written.

I need you now more than ever, Dad,
When things all around me start going bad.
I need your advice and your guidance, too,
When I alone can’t figure out just what to do.

I need to hear you say, “How are you, son.”
When I have fought some battle but haven’t won.
I need to hear you say, “It’ll be alright.”
When I have failed some how and feel uptight.

I need to hear you sing when you greet the day,
Your voice reassures and drives my fears away.
I need to hear you laugh and see you smile,
When I have been feeling down and sad awhile.

I need you now Dad and I’m thankful, too,
For all the little things you say and do.
I need you to teach me all I haven’t learned,
When I have been lazy and unconcerned.

I need you now Dad and I always will,
And I hope you know just how I feel.
I need you to know what you mean to me,
A greater father there could never be.

I need you now Dad as I always do,
To help me get along and see me through.
I need you and in my heart you’ll always be,
Because you are so precious and so dear to me.
Copyright 2015 Eric L. Padgett

Show Us The Father

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18).

The Creator of all things is not visible to the corporeal eye (Col. 1:15; Heb. 11:27). No time in human history has any mere mortal man seen God as He is, having never seen His shape nor heard His voice (I John 4:12; John 5:37). God has manifested Himself to man in various ways, as when Moses saw God’s “back parts,” (for no man can see His face and live–Ex. 33:20-23), or when He appeared to Abraham on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18:1-19:1), or when He appeared to the prophets (i.e., Is. 6:1-13). But God Himself, as God, has never been seen by merely mortal eyes.

And yet, men have seen God in a way that is perhaps just as clear. The Lord said, when asked by Philip “Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (John 14:8), “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9). This statement of Jesus cannot mean that The Son and the Father were numerically identical for on other occasions the Father spoke from heaven while the Son was on the earth (Matt. 3:13-17). Nor does it mean that Jesus’ physical body is what the Father looked like, for God is a spirit (John 4:24) and a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39).

The Bible teaches that Jesus “hath declared Him” (John 1:18). Jesus is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). Just as the sunshine reveals the sun, so does Jesus reveal the Father. Jesus said “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30).

In everything Jesus did, He acted as would the Father (John 8:28). Just as the Old Testament was written for our learning (Rom. 15:4), the Gospel Record reveals to us, not only the historical account of Jesus of Nazareth, but they afford us a look into the divine nature itself. How do I know the love of God (John 3:16)? By looking at how Jesus loved. Jesus said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). How do I know the purity of God (Hab. 1:13)? I can see it in the sinlessness of Jesus (Heb. 4:15). How do I know the power of God (Ps. 147:5)? I can see it in the miracles of Jesus (Mark 4:41; John 3:1,2). All that can be known of God can be seen in Jesus (John 10:30)

Jesus reveals the Father in both His actions and His words. “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (John 6:45). To hear Jesus is to hear the Father! To hear and follow the Son of God is to be able to partake of that divine nature which Jesus manifested to us. Peter said “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (II Peter 1:3-4). Through the knowledge of Him we can fellowship, participate in, the divine nature!

How sublime a thought. Our mortal eyes may have never seen the Father, but we know Him nevertheless. Not only do we know Him, but we partake of His divine nature. We become one with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and through this the world may be led to believe in Jesus (John 17:21).

Eric L. Padgett

A Good Father

“The greatest gift I ever had came from God, I call him Dad”

good-father

The Bible teaches that several factors go into making a good father.

First, a good father Forges the character of his children. Prov. 22:6 states that if we train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it. The idea is to dedicate the child to the Lord, just as the temple was dedicated to the Lord (I Kings 8:63; II Chron. 7:5). The only way for this to be accomplished is for the father, himself, to be dedicated to the Lord. A father once told me, near tears, that he could not understand why his child was unfaithful because he, the father, did not drink, swear, hurt anyone, etc. But it takes so much more than merely not doing things as a parent. A good father will bring his children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:1-3). A good father forges, molds, and shapes the character of his children.

Second, a good father Administers proper discipline. One of the hardest things for a parent to do is to discipline a child. The old saying, “This hurts me more than it does you” may seem trite or quaint but it is literally true for a good parent. A father who loves his children does everything in his power to keep his children from harm and so it may seem counter-intuitive to discipline them, but this is sometimes necessary. The Bible teaches that the rod of correction will harm them much less than some evil way they might live (Prov. 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13,14). Eli failed this test as a father because he chose not to restrain his children even though they had made themselves vile (I Sam. 3:13). Because of this, God said he was going to perform a thing upon Eli’s house which would cause the ears of those who heard it to tingle (I Sam. 3:11-14).

Third, a good father Teaches his children about God. The children of Israel were to teach God’s word “diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates” (Deut. 6:7-9). Every waking moment was to be spent in teaching their children about God’s will. They were to make every word a lesson and every deed an illustration. Their faith was not to be superficial, not intermittent, not only when it was convenient. It was to be real, consistent and tangible. When fathers do not live this way, apostasy is only a generation away (Jud. 2:10).

Fourth, a good father Hearkens unto his child’s needs. Sometime parents do not listen to their children’s cries or do not know how to recognize them. Many children have done something reckless and even deadly because the parents could not recognize a desperate cry for help. Jesus said even an evil father knows how to give good things to a child that requests it (Matt. 7:9-11). Many times fathers project onto their sons what they wanted for themselves, maybe forcing them into a life they would not choose. This is sad when it happens and only alienates father and son later in life. But a good father will listen to his children, not just giving them anything they want, but listen to understand what they truly need. A man who does not provide for his house is worse than an infidel (I Tim. 5:8).

Fifth, a good father Entreats God in prayer on behalf of his children. The Bible says Job went to God often for his children. “It was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually” (Job 1:5). How powerful it is when a family prayers to God together! How powerful it is for children to see their father on his knees in prayer to God, with tears, for their spiritual and physical welfare. The old saying is true: The family that prays together stays together.

Finally, a good father Rejoices in his children. A good father recognizes that children are a gift from God (Psalm 127). To be responsible for the souls and lives of such precious little children, to see them grow into adulthood, to see them reflect all the love and attention given them through the years is a blessing, indeed. A father who does not care, who is not concerned about the fruit of his loins, who has no emotional connection with his children is a worse than a travesty. In our culture, when marriage is profaned and on the decline, when men father many children by many different women, when homosexuality is being promoted as normal, it is no wonder that children are left without fathers. But a man of true character will rejoice in his children.

I am so thankful for may own Dad who has taught me so much about life and who has given me so much of himself. He is my hero, my guide, my friend, my Dad.

Eric L. Padgett