"FATHER!"

John 8:42-45                             (ESV)
"42 JESUS said to them, "If GOD were your "FATHER", you would love ME, for I came from GOD and I am here. I came not of MY own accord, but HE sent ME.
43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word TRUTH.
44 You are of your "FATHER" the devil, and your will is to do your "FATHER"'s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the TRUTH, because THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. When he lies, he SPEAKS OUT OF HIS OWN CHARACTER speaks out of his own character, for HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF LIES.
45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe ME."




GOD blessed my wife and I with two sons that are definitely our sons!  Each of them show traits of their mom, which endears them to their dad, and each of the bear resemblances of the dad, which they have to struggle to overcome!  They didn't have to work on being like either of us, they simply exhibit what their DNA produces.  Whenever I see imperfections in their lives, I have to admit that imperfection probably came from one of their parents, more than likely from me!!

In the book of John, chapter 8, JESUS was talking to the "scribes and the Pharisees".  HE wasn't talking to a sect of "infidels" or outcasts.  The Scribes were the educated of the day while the Pharisees were the  self-prescribed "nobles" who considered themselves just a little better than the everyday person.  Keep in mind, not every scribe, and not every Pharisee, was "bad", just like every Jew is "good"!  "The Jews" we're ultimately credited with crucifying JESUS on Calvary's tree!  Don't get caught up in classifying people because of where they were born or what their parents do.  JESUS said in Matthew 7:20 "you will recognize them by THEIR fruits."

These particular "scribes and Pharisees" were identified by JESUS (GOD's Son) as being of "your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires"!  In John 8:38 JESUS said rather plainly "I speak of what I have seen with my "FATHER", and you do what you have heard from your father".  Unless we are "born again" and supernaturally gain a new "FATHER", we can never exhibit Godly characteristics, and we will never enter into heaven to see the "FATHER".  We can't do that because it is not in us.  We can attempt to imitate it, we can "pretend" to be something we are not, but unless we allow HIM to do the work in our lives for us we are doomed to what we deserve!

My sons are relatively good young men, husbands, and "FATHERs", but I know they have faults, simply because they are my sons.  Whether a person is Jewish, Arab, or just a southern red-neck like me, unless they have been "born again" by the sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST they cannot see the "FATHER"!  Who is your "FATHER"???