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Happy To Welcome You To The Hallelujah Chorus

I will exalt you my God, the King, I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you and exalt your name forever and ever. Psalm 145:1-2

Monday, August 16, 2010

TENDERHEARTED FATHER

I suppose many well meaning people have a difficult time seeing God as tenderhearted or compassionate. There is certainly enough biblical and extra biblical evidence to support such an assumption if that is what one looks for. However, taken on balance, the totality of evidence easily tips the scale in favor of Gods tender fatherhood of those who love and serve him.
David wrote, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear (respect & trust) him, for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103:13-14 NIV
There probably isn't a man or woman alive today who experienced a deeper sadness over the destruction of all they held dear than Jeremiah. Following the absolute destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah walked amid the rubble of his once beautiful city and cried out to God in abject distress. He fully understood why this had happened, that it was all about God's judgment of the evil of his people and their refusal to repent of their idolatry. But in the midst of his grief, he saw through the sadness and wrote, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him." Lamentations 3:23-26,28 NIV
The word "tender" may not be one of the favorite descriptions we hear of God, but he is portrayed that way throughout the Bible and his tenderness is seen everywhere even in our world today. To be sure, his judgment and discipline are prominent in the ancient words of his prophets and the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles, however if you just keep reading and looking, you will see his tenderness toward all he has made.
So, please don't allow man's igNOrance of God's love and judgment discourage your faith. His anger at our sin is always tempered by his tenderhearted love for his children. As a father myself, I get that! HALLELUJAH!

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