A Father's Love

The Word of the Lord to Jeremiah:

I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul. (Jeremiah 32:37-41)

SITUATION Jeremiah did not just preach doom and gloom. He told the people to hope in God, who would restore them.

OBSERVATION Christians must never lose all hope. Our belief in Jesus Christ gives us hope for the future.

INSPIRATION For thousand of years, using his wit and charm, man had tired to be friends with God. And for thousand of years he had let God down more than he had lifted him up. He's done the very thing he promised he'd never do. It was a fiasco. Even the holiest of the hero's sometimes forgot whose side they were on. Some of the scenarios in the Bible look more like the adventures of Sinbad the sailor than stories for vacation Bible school Remember these characters?

Aaron, Right-hand man to Moses. Witness of the plagues. Member of the "Red Sea riverbed Expedition." Holy priest of God. But if he was so saintly, what is he doing leading the Israelites in fireside aerobics in front of the golden calf?

The sons of Jacob. The fathers of the tribes of Israel. Great-grandson of Abraham. Yet; if they were so special why were they gagging their younger brother and sending him to Egypt?

David. The man after God's own heart. The King's king. The giant-slayer and song-writer. He's also the guy whose glasses got steamy as a result of a barn on a roof. Unfortunately, the water wasn't his, nor was the woman he was watching.

And Samson. Swooning on Deliah's couch, drunk on the wine, perfume, and soft lights. He's thinking. She's putting on something more comfortable. She's thinking, I know I put those shears in here somewhere.

Adam adorned in fig leaves and stains of forbidden fruit. Moses throwing both a staff and temper tantrum. King Saul looking into a crystal ball for the will of God. Noah , drunk and naked in his own tent.

These are the chosen ones of God? This is the royal lineage of the King? These are the one who were to carry out God's mission?

It's easy to see the absurdity.

Why didn't he give up? Why didn't he let the globe spin off its axis?

Even after generations of people had spit in his face, he stilled loved them. After a nation of chosen ones had stripped him naked and ripped his incarnated flesh, he still died for them. And even today, after billions have chosen to prostitute themselves before the pimps of power, fame, and wealth, he still waits for them.

It is inexplicable. It doesn't have a drop of logic nor a tread of rationality.

And yet, it is that very irrationality that gives the gospel its greatest defense. For only God could love like that. (From God Came Near by Max Lucado)

APPLICATION Do this project with someone close to you: spend an hour on your own making a list of all God has done for you. Then share together and rejoice in his goodness and faithfulness.

EXPLORATION Hope --Proverbs 13:123; Isaiah 40:31; Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 15:13; Hebrews 11:1.

The Devotional Bible - Experiencing the Heart of Jesus; Max Lucado General Editor; New Century Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers.