Daily Devotion

June 20, 2006

Psalms 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

What a wonderful God who has so much love and compassion that He sacrifices the life of His own Son to gain His people!  

I have traveled the world over.  I have lived with people who hold to many different religious practices. I have debated politics, theology and sociology with them.  I have discussed life, past, present and future.  I have pondered fate, divinity, peace and the principles of love with them.  And lo and behold, here is what I have discovered.  

During the time of King Solomon, two women gave birth to a child on the same day in the same household.  During the night, one of the babies died.  Its mother, unscrupulously exchanged her dead baby with the live baby of her roommate.  When morning came, the roommate realized what had transpired during the night but no matter what she could say, the unscrupulous mother did not confess to her evil deed.  The case went to the court of King Solomon who was faced with making the decision to identify the truth and bring justice to the true mother (1 King 3:16-23).

In the Bible’s narration, this was Solomon’s response:
1 Kings 3:24-27  And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.  (25)  And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.  (26)  Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.  (27)  Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.

Allow me now if you please to put myself in the shoes of the wise judge.  Let me look at the various powers vying for the allegiance of your soul, at all those who claim to be its creators and benefactors.  Let me now by the means of truth and virtue  discover who has true God-ordained ownership of humanity?  The true beneficiary of our lives needs not to revert to low trickeries. Truth is His motto. He needs not to revert to force and coercion, His love is His law; He needs not to use bribery, prizes and empty promises to win us, because our love, within the majesty of our free will is His drawing power.  Only the LORD Jehovah has “thoughts to-us wards” more that can be numbered.  His  “bowels” yearn for us; He wins us through His love, even at the cost of the personal loss.

He is the true one with the heart of the true Father.

John 10:11-15  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.  (12)  But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.  (13)  The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.  (14)  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.  (15)  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:17-18  Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.  (18)  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Patrick Lumbroso
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