Saturday, June 16, 2001

The Pain Of A Father's Love

Read: Matthew 27:27-50

They crucified Him. -- Matthew 27:35

Bible In One Year: Psalm 67-69

In 1968, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. took command of the American naval forces 
in Vietnam. In an effort to reduce US casualties, he ordered the waterways 
sprayed with the chemical defoliant Agent Orange. It was a move designed to 
push back the jungle and make it harder for North Vietnamese to ambush Navy 
river patrol boats at point-blank range.

  One of those boats was commanded by his 21-year-old son, Lieutenant Elmo 
Zumwalt III, who died of cancer in 1988. The admiral believed that Agent 
Orange killed his son. What a heartbreaking story of a father who made a 
decision that resulted in great suffering for his own son!

  How much greater was the heartbreak of God the Father when He provided 
salvation for us! He made a decision that resulted in immeasurable agony 
for His only Son. Think of how God must have felt as He watched His Son 
suffer the mockery of the crowd, the lashes of the whip, the pain of the 
nails through His hands and feet, the inexpressible weight and humiliation 
of our sins, and the indescribable agony of isolation and abandonment.

  Father, forgive us for adding to your pain by our lack of gratitude. 
Please help us to live in a way that will honour Your Son, who defeated sin 
and death -- for us. -- MRDII

The Father's heart was deeply pained
When Jesus hung upon that tree,
Yet in His sacrifice He gained
Our pardon, peace, and victory. -- D. De Haan

The truest measure of God's love is that He loves without measure.

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