I Can't Begin To Fathom . . . » Reasons for Hope* Jesus

Daily Bread

Daily Devotions with Pastor Chuck

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It will always be special to me, the new morning. Our God is so longsuffering, is He not? Each new morning causes me to pause, to wonder when His Day is coming . . . each new morning I actually think about this . . . and then maybe somewhere within the day, I hear or maybe I read somewhere, “Someone came to know Christ.”

I read an interesting verse from the book of Isaiah,

“An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:3 – NASB)

I cant’ begin to fathom at times how it is that God deals with “people” as He does, in such magnificent lovingkindness! This text that speaks to “Israel” speaks to the nations! It speaks to our nation!

My oh my! The Father sent His Son to the world, the Son who Himself was very God, the Creator! He sent Him that the world might be saved through Him, the Son of God, the One by whom all things came into being and by Whom all things hold together . . . He willingly came and gave His life a ransom for a sinful “people,” for a lost and dying world, a world of “people” headed for judgment!

Yet here we are, as we consider our text, reading, the “ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger. but Israel,” and for that matter every nation, including America, “does not know” its Savior, its Redeemer, its Maker!

Here in our own nation, a supposedly intelligent society of “people,” we arduously labor in explaining away God, explaining away Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Creator. I can’t begin to fathom how it must grieve the heart of God that every single day the “people” of America and the “people” of the world reject His Son; reject the greatest act of love that this world has ever known, or will ever “know.”

Do you see where I’m going with this? Think upon it, ponder it . . . what is the reaction of a father or mother whose son or daughter has given their life in defense of their country? And this consideration that I ask of you, it is so much of a smaller thing than what God has done in Christ. Think of it . . . and see if you do not arrive at what I have titled this devotion . . . I can’t begin to fathom . . .

Someone has said of this verse, “The indictment against Israel could be lodged with even greater justification against America today.” Yet . . . . . God’s love continues to speak out to America and the world through His Word and His people,

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him . . . But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:10, 12 – NASB)

The refrain of the old hymn, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain,” says it well . . . “Amazing love, how can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldest die for me?” Those words are from Charles Wesley in 1738 and to this day they are sung in the old hymn and a new contemporary song that borrow’s Wesley’s words for the refrain.

Have a good day brethren . . . and I challenge you to take some time along the way in your day and for a period of time to think upon what this nation has done and continues to do, and then think upon what God has done and continues to do . . . and be in awe!

Take a minute now to reflect on the Amazing Love that we can’t begin to fathom.