Archives at Zinester: [Morning by Morning] Romans 8:15. Morning by Morning. Religion

To give 'Morning By Morning' to a friend, click here.

Good morning! It's very early in the first morning of Holy Week, and I'm glad to spend these quiet moments with God and with you. I know that coming on in the next few days is much work and I want to go into all of it from a time of resting with my Father and you brothers and sisters.

It's good to think for a moment about Abba, about Dad, about Father!

15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

We've been considering how the Holy Spirit gives us the conviction of sin and the sense that we are in bondage so that we can wake up to those things that are enslaving us. Now Paul wants us to move to the positive, the hugely positive side of things. The Holy Spirit awakens us to the adoption God has worked out for us. We are given the relationship of brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ Himself and a standing before God as adopted sons and daughters.

Some memories --

Picnics on Fish Creek, where I could float with the gentle current past cliffs in the shade on a hot summer's day, and look over and see Dad grilling steaks for us all. He could cook.

The birthday -- 13 -- with my twin when we went with Dad on the excursion train all the way to New York and watched the Yankees play the Red Sox. My dad told us to pay attention, for it was Ted Williams last at bat at Yankee Stadium. Seeing tears well up in his eyes as the Splendid Splinter actually hit a home run for us with his final swing that September night of 1958. Falling asleep on Dad's shoulder as the train rumbled along during the long ride home.

Christmas eve, in the farmhouse, with the wind howling just outside. We're smaller and he is in the barrel armchair we got from his dad. Three of us are in his lap, the others on the floor near him. He is reading, as he did each year, Lincoln Stephen's "A Miserable Merry Christmas" about the boy getting a horse on Christmas morning. All is well.

Sometimes we would cry, "Dad! Watch me swim!" Sometimes he would go on a trip and then suddenly be driving up that long driveway and we would holler, "Dad!" because he was home again. And I remember as a four year old falling off the dock into Fourth Lake and screaming "Daddy!" He saved me.

Think with me of some of the times Jesus cries out -- "Abba!" as He prays to His Father. There's the time outside of Lazarus's tomb where His praise just bubbles up "I thank you, my Abba, that you have revealed yourself to these kids instead of to the wise and officially pious ones!" And then there's the moment of agony in the Garden when he cries "Abba, if this cup pass not from me except I drink it, Your will be done." There's the way He teaches us to pray, "Abba, you're in heaven. Praised be your name!" There's the scream from the cross, "Abba! why have you forsaken me!" There's the word to Mary Magdalene on Easter -- "Mary, don't hold me so tight. I'm returning to Abba."

To know God as Abba, to cry out to Him as "Dad!" is very nearly the whole deal. Look beside you. Who's that? It's your brother, the One who brings you to Abba. His name is jesus. The Holy Spirit's work is a mighty thing, isn't it?

The Holy Spirit's work is indeed a mighty thing.