Love me Tender

The Lord is…  A Series from the Psalms

Psalm 103

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20103&version=NIV;NLT

 

How much does the Lord love you?

 

This past week my grandson lost his first tooth. He wiggled it right out of his mouth as Nonna, (the name my wife is called by the grandkids), was bringing him to our house for dinner. He could barely contain his excitement. In fact, he hardly ate anything because he couldn’t wait to tell his parents.

 

When we got him home, his Mom had scarcely opened the door when he shouted, “I lost my tooth Mommy”! Without missing a beat, and with just as much excitement, she shouted, “That is so great Buddy”, and wrapped her arms around him. It was a tender moment of a Mom loving her son.

 

In this Psalm, David wrote about all the things the sovereign Lord had done for him personally, as well as for Israel as a nation. But the main focus of the psalm is the eternal love of the Lord. It gives context and meaning to all that He does.

 

¹⁷ But Lord, your endless love stretches
from one eternity to the other,
unbroken and unrelenting toward those who fear you
and those who bow face down in awe before you.
Your faithfulness to keep every gracious promise you’ve made
passes from parents, to children, to grandchildren, and beyond.     TPT

 

Because my grandson is five years old, and because this was his first tooth to come out, he thought the tooth fairy should leave him a $5 bill. Of course, the tooth isn’t worth $5; but the tender love that his mother showed him was priceless. The Lord loves us in the same way.

 

¹³ The same way a loving father feels toward his children—
that’s but a sample of your tender feelings toward us,
your beloved children, who live in awe of you.             TPT

 

Let us respond to the tender love of our Heavenly Father in the same way that David began and ended this psalm.

 

¹ Let all that I am praise the Lord;
    with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.               NLT

 

 

 

 

 

An Elvis Sighting

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

 

 

I saw Elvis Pressley… alive! Really! Of course it was 1962 at the Seattle World’s Fair, and he was in a golf cart with a crowd of people surrounding him. But I did see him.

 

However, as we know, Elvis died on August 16, 1977. Since then, thousands of people have claimed to see him alive. There is even an Elvis Sighting Society. No doubt many fans wished that Elvis had never died; but wishful thinking doesn’t make it true.

 

If you get a chance to see the movie Risen, you should go. It is the story of a tribune who is assigned by Pilate to find the body of Jesus so that his

followers can’t claim that he has risen from the dead. The tribune approaches his task much like a modern day CSI TV detective, analyzing and evaluating all the evidence. As a result, his life is changed forever.

 

^3 “I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; ⁴ that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; ⁵ that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all he appeared also to me—even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal”.                GNT

 

Like the fictitious tribune in Risen, hundreds of people saw the resurrected Jesus shortly after his crucifixion. As a result, not only were their lives changed, but the world was changed forever.

 

Elvis was known as the King, but Jesus is known as the King of Kings. Unlike Elvis, the King of Kings continues to appear to people today through the lives of believers. This is not like an Elvis sighting based on wishful thinking. It is the movement and the presence of the Living God. Nothing else can explain it.

 

 

He is risen…

…He is risen indeed.