Dad Goals!

We gathered at FBC this morning not knowing what blessings awaited us, but we came to praise and worship God, knowing that He Who is in control of all things knows each of our names and what we need to hear from Him today.  We began our service on this Father's Day Sunday with a congregational song followed by the welcome from Matt along with some heartfelt thanks to the church body for all the support and encouragement he has received over the last six months as he was and still is battling cancer.  After he finished, we were blessed to witness a baptism.  The choir, orchestra and all our talented accompanists followed that with a soulful rendition of "Hymn Of The Ages".  The congregation sang a few more songs before Chris introduced our guest preacher, Gerald Griffin.  Bro. Gerald had started a church in Frisco, Texas, pastored that church for over 30 years and retired from that to begin a new ministry to support, encourage and train pastors.  Bro. Gerald focused our attention on Isaiah 40:11 and told us about three things this verse says that God does as our Father, things that dads can aspire to do for their children and families.  The first thing is to tend, to be present in their children's lives.  The second thing is to carry his children close demonstrating compassion in his interactions with them.  The third thing is to lead, to demonstrate guidance.  He, then expanded on each of the three goals, as shown in the lives of three different fathers in the Bible: Job who had many children to tend to, Jairus who had a dying daughter that he trusted Jesus to heal and Joseph, the man who raised Jesus from a baby to manhood.  Bro. Gerald used the lives of these men to illustrate one of the dad goals and you can hear and see how he laid it all out in the Live-stream which would be well worth your time to investigate.  I did exercise a bit of photographer's privilege in putting a picture of my 95 year old dad---without his and my mom's strong trust and faith in God and the power of prayer, I would not have survived my first year of life.  So, I thanked him today for being my dad and making sure that I came to know God as my Father, as well.....