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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion March 14, 2006 The awe of God Granting a Covenant |
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Frontline Devotion for Tuesday, March 14, 2006 by Gary Shaffer
"I am the Lord God. I am merciful and very patient with my people. I show great love, and I can be trusted. I keep my promises to my people forever,...” verses 6, 7
I have lately been experiencing the pain and joy that can enter our lives during a "faith crisis" - a period of stronger than normal doubting or awakening or both in our walk of faith. I have been blessed with using a text in leading an adult Sunday School class that has brought powerful, new insights into very familiar scripture passages with which I had become way too comfortable. I am grateful for the growth that has resulted from some rather unsettling and challenging presentations of some very familiar stories. Today's passage comes out of one collection of very familiar stories, which might be referred to under the all-encompassing title of "The Ten Commandments."
In reading this passage I kept thinking of what may seem at first to be the totally unrelated parable from Luke's gospel, referred to most commonly in my youth as the Parable of the Prodigal Son and now increasingly called The Parable of the Forgiving Father. Found in Luke 15: 11 - 32, this is one of Jesus most powerful stories about the nature of God's love and the extent of God's grace. In preparing for leading my class, the text I was using made this parable far more meaningful to me than it has ever been previously. The story is a story of the promise of God's love and grace, plain and simple. The prodigal son may have intended to repent and beg forgiveness. He may or may not have even been sincere in his repentance. We do not know because the father never gives him a chance to really repent. The love and forgiveness are offered immediately upon his return, with great rejoicing. We don't even know if the repentant son does truly change his ways. We're not told. It isn't important. We also don't know if the embittered brother ever accepts his father's gracious welcome of his wayward brother. We aren't told. It isn't important. This is a story of the love and faithfulness and grace of God, the father, plain and simple.
I am painfully humbled when I read the parable of the "prodigal" and I am even more humbled when I read in awe of God granting the Covenant in Exodus. The verses I have quoted from the contemporary English version of The Learning Bible say it so plainly, so simply, so powerfully:
I am the Lord God
I am merciful and very patient with my people
I show great love
I can be trusted
I keep my promises to my people.
Plain and simple, God has promised to love us and God keeps his promises. I stand in awe of a love and promise offered by God that I cannot begin to fully comprehend. I try to respond with my own very humble acts of love, mercy, kindness, faithfulness, and gratitude. Not always easy, but God has promised and I can certainly try.
Dear Lord God for your promise of faithful love, I give you thanks. For my failure to be completely faithful in my love for you, I ask for forgiveness. Embrace me in your powerful love and increase in me an acceptance and understanding of your overwhelming grace.
Amen
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