Lord
of Love
“I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Jeremiah 31:3
In
his book, Future Shock, Alvin Toffler said that in a time of change
people
need what he called “islands of stability.”
He writes, “When the winds of change are
blowing everything away, and everything’s being uprooted, we need little rocks,
islands, spots of security, that we can hold onto, that we know are not going
to move, so we’re not blown away by the changes that occur.” With
earthquakes abounding over the last few days, we can all hold onto a sure
foundation. The first spot of security on which to hold is God’s love.
You can build your life on the fact
that no matter what happens, no matter what you do, no matter how you feel,
God’s love for you will never change. You say, “No matter even if I do the wrong
things?” Right. Why? Because His love is not based on what you
deserve. His love is based on His grace.
He loves you. He loves you not
because you keep up His standards…He loves you because He’s chosen to love
you…that’s grace. He loves you as much
on your bad days as your good days. He
loves you as much when you don’t feel it as when you do. You can build your
life on the fact that God’s love will never change.
Romans 8:31-39 tells us what it is
that makes God’s love permanent. I can realize that no matter what I do or who
I am or where I go, God’s love for me will never change. Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or
famine or nakedness or danger or sword…No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us. For
I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor demons nor things
present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Philip Yancey in his book What’s so Amazing about Grace tells the story of a
modern day girl prodigal. Yancey tells the story of a daughter who
grows up in Traverse City, Michigan. Disgusted with her old fashioned parents
who overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to, the length of her
skirts, she chooses to run away. She
ends up in Detroit where she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever
seen. The man with the big car – she
calls him “Boss” – recognizes that since she’s underage, men would pay a
premium for her. So she goes to work for him.
Things are good for a while. Life is good. But she gets sick for a few
days, and it amazes her how quickly the boss turns mean. Before she knows it,
she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple
of tricks a night, and all the money goes to support her drug habit. One night while sleeping on the metal grates
of the city, she began to feel less like a woman of the world and more like a
little girl. She begins to whimper. “God, why did I leave? My dog back home eats
better than I do now.” She knows that more than anything in the world,
she wants to go home. Three straight calls home get three straight connections
with the answering machine. Finally she leaves a message. “Mom, Dad, it’s me. I was
wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll
get there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, I‘ll understand.”
During the seven hour bus ride, she’s preparing a speech for
her father.
And when the bus comes to a stop in the Traverse City station, the driver
announces the fifteen-minute stop. Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She
walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. But not one of the thousand scenes that have
played out in her mind prepares her for what she sees. There in the bus
terminal in Traverse City, Michigan, stands a group of forty brothers and
sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and a
great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing
noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a
computer-generated banner that reads – Welcome Home! Out of the crowd of
well-wishers breaks her dad. She stares
out through the tears quivering in her eyes and begins her memorized speech. He
interrupts her. “Hush, child. We’ve got no time for that. No time for
apologies. We’ll be late. A big party is waiting for you at home.”
In Jesus “Prodigal Son” Story in
Luke 10, the response of the Father to the wayward son is very much the same.
No speeches, no lengthy conversations…just pure grace. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an
everlasting love.” It is permanent so you can build
your life on it. God’s love will never change.
God’s love can never be taken away from you. He says He will take care of you…He says He
will never leave you…He says He will never forsake you. You can sum it up very simply…GOD LOVES YOU!!!
And that, you can always count on.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1)
Recall a season where you were separated from God
2)
What demonstration of His love do you see most consistently?
Consider reading the Word today:
No comments:
Post a Comment