“DO YOU THINK THAT I’LL EVER FIND GOD?"

 A Story Worth Sharing

Ribai was a student of theology.  The professor who taught the subject of FAITH noted and assumed Ribai’s shabby appearance and hair-style were nothing more than just common fashions of the time. The professor reminded himself within of the proverbial phrases:  “DON’T   JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER” and “it is not what is ON his head BUT what is IN it that counts”.

Soon the professor found out “who” Ribai was (an atheist) as he persistently laughed and mocked about the spiritual truth of Father-God’s unconditional love and Trinitarian.

"Prof. Do you think I'll ever find God?" Ribai cynically said to the professor on the last day during the class on Theology of Faith.

With a little shock therapy Professor replied. "NO!" 

Ribai replied empathically: "Why not?"  

Professor said: “Ribai, I don't think you'll ever find Him. But I’m absolutely certain GOD SHALL FIND YOU!”

Some years after the graduation, Ribai called to drop by to see the professor. When Ribai entered his office, the professor noticed Ribai’s body was very badly wasted. He was ‘bald-head’. His long hair had all fallen out due to chemotherapy treatment, but his eyes were bright and his voice was firm.

Ribai said: “I’ve been very sick ...with lung cancer ... it is now a matter of time ....”

The professor asked: “Tell me what it is like throughout your illness... especially so when you know that you‘re going to leave this world very soon.....”

With deep sigh of regret Ribai said tearfully: “Well.... being just over fifty  (years) I’ve no values or ideals than thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real biggies in life... In fact my coming to drop by to see you to tell you the GOSPEL TRUTH ...You answered me ‘NO’ when I asked you ‘IF I WOULD EVER FIND GOD’.... and to which you also added: ‘GOD WOULD FIND ME’ ... I thought intensely about that ...and the purpose of life in this world........"

The professor asked: “Ribai ! Have you found the purpose(s) in your life?”.

Ribai replied: “With my sufferings and pains from the illusions and frustrations generated by worldly pleasures ...and with malignant cancer, I grew serious about locating God’s presence.... I banged my fists against the ‘bronze doors of heaven’ .......God did not come out. I just quit... I didn't care to find God and what would be life after death. I  DECIDED to spend my remaining time doing something more profitable on remembering what you said in one of the classes: ‘The essential sadness is to go through life without loving’. I also found out that ‘it would be equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them’.....”

In his keenness to know more, the professor asked: “What did you do then...?”

Ribai continued: “I began with the hardest task by asking my father if he could sacrifice his newspaper-reading time to talk with me ... I said him that I wanted him to know that I love him...nad I asked him to forgive me for all the hurts and shames I cause him....The newspaper he held fluttered to the floor...

He cried and hugged me.. forgiving..reconciling... saying real nice things to each other....We talked all night in spite of his early tiredness to take rest and refresh for work early in the morning.... It was easier with my mother and even much easier with my little brother and sister....I shared the things I’d been keeping secret for so many years...I was only sorry about one thing that I had waited so long..... It was the beginning of my turnaround day. Though I couldn’t see Him the most important thing for me was that in time of need God was near me. I could experience His engulfing and consoling presence of love...forgiveness, and reconciliation...

GOD FOUND ME WHEN I STOPPED LOOKING FOR HIM... Some of the verses from the Bible came to me lively in meanings for example the Apostle John said that...He said: "God is love, and anyone who lives in love is   living with God and God is living in him.''

The professor was deeply touched and requested Ribai to testify to new students in his theological class of faith to which Ribai gladly agreed. Just one day before the scheduled testimony, the professor was asked to visit Ribai in the hospital.

Surrounded by his parents and siblings, Ribai said faintly: “Prof ... I’m very sorry ... I may not make it to testify in your class as scheduled tomorrow... ... I know for sure now that Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life... I’m leaving to be with Him....Will you tell your students and the church how my FAITH guided me to God’s loving and forgiving presence and how I found life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.”

.

Ribai made the great step forward from FAITH into VISION.

********************

THEOLOGICALLY JOLTING QUESTION

 “...Why do you call God ‘Father’.......?”

Last Saturday Muskogee (not his real name) went and met with Jordge (not his real name) at Yeo Kee Kpoitiam in keeping-up with their occasional mid-morning fellowshipping over “kopi-o-kaw” with toasted ‘butter-kaya’ bread. He (Muskogee) was accompanied by his colleague known as Benyamin (not his real name - who was a foreign student studying in a local institution of higher learning downtown). It was the first time Jordge and Benyamin met one another. When the conversation touched the recent televised religious situations in Egypt and Europe, Benyamin politely posed one question: “Why do you call God Father.......?” The question was most unexpected. It was theologically jolting.

Both Muskogee and Jordge were aware there was no mention in the Bible to say that God married and biologically fathered a child. Both gentlemen understood Benyamin’s misunderstanding about Christians’ concept of “God as Father”. By Benyamin, it was incomprehensible (or “memeng tidak masuk akal”) according to his religious beliefs. In their attempts to explain the matter, both Muskogee and Jordge saw it was deemed necessary to make few theological cross-references of comparative values.

THE EXPLANATIONS

Muskogee: In Christianity God was not known and called  as “Father” until Jesus came to earth and revealed Him as such. In Matthew 6:9 Jesus taught His disciples and believers how to pray by calling God as “Our Father who art in heaven...” “Our Father” is one topic or subject by itself about the fatherly nature or characters of God toward mankind. Jesus introduced God as “Our Father” to us. In His prayer to His Father, Jesus also said, “And I have declared to them Your Name (Father God in heaven), and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26).

Jordge: "Father" is a metaphor used to describe the divine nature or character of God as ‘Spiritual Father’ (the “First God-head”) in Christians’ Trinitarian Concept of God.  WHY called ‘God Father’? Because God is the Creator, Life-giver, Authority, Law-giver, and powerful Protector.  In Torah (Law of Moses or Taurat Musa) in the book of Deuteronomy 32:6, it is written: “Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?" 

In the New Testament, God is being called Father 245 times because of the Father-Son relationship revealed through Jesus Christ for the same reasons already mentioned above. There is no other designation would do what this metaphor does to reveal God as the Sovereign Creator.   To call God "Father" is to use the Abrahamic covenant language when Moses spoke to Pharoah to let God’s sons (Israelites) go out of Egypt (Exodus 4.22-23)

Muskogee: “God is being addressed as Father by Christians because of God’s active interests in human affairs and welfare, in the same manner as a human father takes keen interests in the affairs and welfare of in his children - who depend on him as their father and who acts in the best interests of the children.... To call God Father is to speak of Him as the absolutely sovereign God of creation.

At times, God also punishes or disciplines wrongdoers (sinners) like earthly father punishes his children for wrongdoings for good purposes as explained in the New Testament (Hebrew 12:8)..... In the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament) Isaiah 63:16 says: "Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is thy name." This verse speaks of God’s fatherly roles and His attribute as protector. God is called the Father of the poor, of the orphan and the widow, their guarantor of justice.

Jordge: “In al-Kitab, Abraham was called or was given the title of ‘Father of all nations” although he fathered only his own children biologically..... The New Testament also teaches believers about the very concept or idea of family of believers or spiritual  ‘Family of God” with God as Father. (Eph 3:15). Within the concept, there is a deeper meaning of ‘God as Father’ by which Christians believe they are made co-participants in the “Family of God” as adopted children of God through the eternal Father-and-Son Relationship, through Jesus Christ. Galatians 4:4-7 says:  “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ”.

Muskogee: “Intimacy is one of the hallmarks of using the title “Father” for God by Jesus and by the early and modern day church.  For us (Christians) to call God “our heavenly Father”, it is an expression of our deepest and highest individual and inner-most “spiritual reverence” for God as sovereign and holy Elohim other than revering Him  as God of love...; most merciful; most forgiving (Father of Compassion - 2 Corinthians 1:3); "Father of glory" (Eph. 1:17); and “Holy Father” (John 17:11).

If I may for example refer to your (Benyamin’s) belief whereby God is known by 99 names in Arabic starting with: (1) Ar-Rahmaan which means ‘The Exceedingly Compassionate, The Exceedingly Beneficent, The Exceedingly Gracious’; (2) Ar-Rahim or ‘The Exceedingly Merciful’;..................(11)Al-Khaliq which means  ‘The creator’.....lastly (99) As-Sabur or "The Timeless, The Patient'.....”.

CONCLUSION

As and when we pray and truly believe that God is “Our Father in heaven..,” the metaphoric-key-word automatically opens the door for us to enter God’s spiritual family and kingdom. We know good deeds or works by our own alone without Christ including reliance on religious traditions and legalisms do not and cannot “save” us. We are saved by our faith (Christ in us) and by the grace of God (Eph. 2:8). For us (Christians) to call God ‘Our Father’ is to fully affirm our close personal and direct relationship with God in His love. It is also an affirmation that we have been born and adopted into the ‘Family of God’. We are joint heirs with Christ in the Family and Kingdom of God (Galatians 4:4-7). By this, we belong to God as sons  and daughters being loved by Father God with assurance that we will have our dwelling places with "Our Father in heaven". AMEN !