"Which Father?"

  "Be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you..." we are taught in Eph. 5:1-2. Imitators of God! Beloved children! Just as Christ! Those are profound words. They are spoken to the heart of His beloved children and are expected to be heeded.

  While a teen, I remember my dad telling me to watch myself because I wore the family name and he wanted the family name to worn with dignity and honor. I rebelled. It hurt my mom and dad. It cost me dearly in some situations. I could have spared a lot of heartache if I had only walked as a beloved child.

  We are in Christ. Jesus is Lord! That's easy to say but much different to believe to change your life. We were adopted into this heavenly family through Jesus Christ. Jesus brought us before His Father, the Father acquitted us of all charges based on the death of Jesus and His name was placed in us. Imitate God! How? By walking in love as Christ loved you! How did He love you? To death! Yet here we find ourselves, calling God our Father but little imitation of Him at times. Too many imitate the wrong father. I wonder how our heavenly Father feels when those illigitiment children call Him theirs while they walk opposite of His love? But one thing about it, God doesn't recognize those who aren't His. His children walk in His love just as Christ loved them because the nature of God is seen in His children just as the nature of the other father is seen in his children. The apostle John wrote: "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." (I John 3:10)

  We imitate one of two fathers. It's not what you say, it's how you walk. When God is our Father, we will imitate His ways. It's not what you speak, it's how you live both daily and in love. Examine yourself. Where is your life patterened?