Sins of a Father

When I first arrived to Newberry county, I visited a church to thank them for a donation. I wrote about this earlier on in my blog, but was holding back how it affected me, and possibily unknowingly, everyone in that room. It would have been the first time I had been to a church service in a very very long time. I didn’t want to go, but not only was it the right thing to do, its why I was here in the first place. 

The minister knew I was going to share my testimony - which included abuse within the church, and try to explain what I was trying to do within the community. Upon arriving he shook my hand, thanked me for being there and asked if I wanted to speak before or after the guest speaker/preacher. Of course, this was his show, I asked him to do what he needed to do.

I take my seat near the back entrance and focus on my breathing and finger taps. The worship concludes and the guest speaker starts his sermon. His sermon is based on slavery. Exodus 21. So when he brings his 9…10 year old son up to the podium and asks his son to bend down and put his head on the podium… and then takes a pen and makes the illusion that he pierces his son’s ear (a willing servant - but by what deception) and saying to the congregation, ‘Now he is my servant for all time…’ The spiritual abuse… the unknowing harm and harmful message that father was teaching his child, that could echo for generations, and a small room full of people with their own children... 

How could I follow that? The inner shaking I felt… the sadness I felt… I wanted to run up and grab that young man and tell him… BUT, YOU WERE BORN OF A FREE WOMAN… I could barely speak. I cried all the way through what I was trying to relay. I felt like evil that had infiltraited a father’s heart and beat me to the punch. As much as I tried to find the right words for correction, trauma, sadness and a paralyzing anger took over. I chose tears that Sunday instead of anger… but now, in the mist of even more deception over a year later, I feel I need to add what correction I can. 

We should never represent our Father as the control freak. He loved us enough to allow us to experience life without being a machine. Its the power of this world, who lies, covets, and deceives, that makes us, children of a free woman…

Sons and Heirs

1What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he is the owner of everything. 2He is subject to guardians and trustees until the date set by his father.

3So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world. 4But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.




Freedom vs. Slavery 


Romans 8:15-17

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” / The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. / And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Genesis 16:15-16

And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. / Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Genesis 21:10-12

and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!” / Now this matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son Ishmael. / But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.

Romans 9:7-8

Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” / So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

John 8:35-36

A slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever. / So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Galatians 5:1,13
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage…

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