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SURPRISES FROM A PREDICTABLE GOD #4
HE LOVES ME — HE LOVES ME NOT
"My feelings for you have changed."
You know, that is one STINKER of a way for a letter
to begin. And how many of us have received just such a notice in the mail
from someone we THOUGHT loved us? Only now they DIDN'T love us any longer.
Have you had that experience? You go out on a date — or maybe even on
several dates with this person. And things are going great: holding hands
at the opera or at the park, maybe even a kiss or two by the fireplace.
There's a romantic falling-in-love tingle in the air. And all of a sudden,
when you call their apartment, they're not there. Three days in a row
— not there. And when you finally get through, you can immediately tell
that something is wrong. Something has changed. Someone's ATTITUDE is
abruptly different.
Why does it happen that way? Why does love die? Maybe you've been on the
SENDING end of that letter. And you yourself didn't know quite WHY love
had gone south; you just knew that the feelings were gone and that it
was all over. And really, all you could do was to say so and move on.
HUMAN emotions are flighty, aren't they? Our feelings and thoughts and
attitudes are like feathers in the breeze; the slightest influence can
blow them away.
In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 9, I find this very descriptive
diagnosis, which isn't EXACTLY on this very point — but it's close. Listen:
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond
cure. Who can understand it?
In the King James:
Who can KNOW it?
In other words, we're a mass of confusion . . . and
it's DECEPTIVE confusion, DEADLY confusion. We don't know our own minds,
do we?
You know, I've sometimes come into meetings with a certain thought or
conviction in my mind. And sometimes twenty minutes later, my preconceived
opinions have been blown away. Someone else says, "Lonnie, what about
this? What about that?" Something I hadn't ever thought about. And
I have to bow my head and say, "You're right. I stand corrected."
Friend, here again is where I have to THANK GOD for the way God is. Thank
God we have a God who is UNCHANGING. As we've been exploring this week,
HE never changes. His
PLANS don't change. His RULES don't change. And today
we really come upon one of the greatest discoveries of all: His THOUGHTS
and ATTITUDES never change. You will NEVER get a letter from God saying,
"My feelings for you have changed."
As I just mentioned, you and I sometimes have our opinions change when
new information comes into our data bank. We learn something new, and
it changes our feelings and our attitudes and our plans. Sometimes we
get frustrated with our senators and our representatives and our president
when they do the very same thing. They get new information or receive
intelligence briefings on the latest situation in Bosnia or the Middle
East . . . and then it looks to us like they're changing their minds.
But sometimes changing circumstances and a growing body of evidence or
knowledge DICTATES that change — frustrating or wishy-washy though it
may seem to us back home.
But friend, GOD doesn't need to be briefed, does He? I was so grateful
for the insights shared by theologian A. W. Tozer back on Monday, from
the chapter, "The Immutability of God." And in the very next
chapter, "The Divine Omniscience," he adds this:
"The Scriptures teach that God has never
learned from anyone. `Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being
His counsellor has taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed
Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment?'"
That's from Isaiah, of course. Here's a bit more:
"Could God at any time or in any manner
receive into His mind knowledge that He did not possess and had not possessed
from eternity, He would be imperfect and less than Himself. To think of
a God who must sit at the feet of a teacher, even though that teacher
be an archangel or seraph, is to think of someone OTHER than the Most
High God, maker of heaven and earth."
Well, we already covered the biblical truth that God
Himself DOESN'T CHANGE. His store of knowledge doesn't change; He knows
all and He's ALWAYS known all. But it's what that MEANS that I find so
thrilling here during our study.
First of all, GOD IS ALWAYS PREPARED. Because He's armed with all information,
because He's fully briefed at every moment in time, He stands ready with
every solution. And friend, He also stands ready with every solution that
YOU need.
Maybe you've just received that "Dear John" or "Dear Jane"
letter and your heart is breaking. God already knows; He knows what you've
put into that relationship. He knows what your feelings are; He knows
your thoughts of bitterness and inadequacy more completely than
YOU'RE even aware of them. He knows your loneliness
and your fear of the future.
What that means is this: you can cast yourself into His arms KNOWING that
He knows! God has never been blindsided by an army or by a political coup
or even by a person's breaking heart. He's never had an unexpected event
happen to Him; even your most abrupt tragedy is something He's fully prepared
to deal with.
You know, we get letters here at the Voice of Prophecy
every single day of the year . . . and I have to tell you something: some
of them are REAL SURPRISES to US! We hear stories that quite literally
blow us away. I stand there with tears in my eyes some Thursday mornings.
Humankind is capable of tremendous cruelty, and on the receiving end,
the human heart is subjected to unbelievable pain. We read descriptions
we've never read before, and sometimes, shaking our heads, all we can
do is fall to our knees, and say, "Lord, we're STUNNED by this .
. . but we know that You're ready for it. Lord, please do for this person
what You already know is the best thing to do." What a comfort to
know that our unchanging God is fully armed for every battle! His arsenal
is never depleted.
But the second bit of news is even greater, so if you're
in your car, tighten your seatbelt a little bit tighter. Friend, God is
unchanging in His ATTITUDES and His FEELINGS toward you.
Do you believe that? CAN you believe that?
I want to open my heart to you right now. I KNOW that
every day when we close the program, I say something like, "This
is Lonnie Melashenko, reminding you that it's always true, God . . . loves
. . . you." And yes, those last three words do appear on the script
sheets that we bring here into the studio.
But friend, those three words, "God loves you," aren't just
eleven letters typed on a script. Those words are the truth! Let me just
set down our program sheets and lean into the microphone and say to you
as personally as I can right now, August 10, GOD REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.
That is truth that is eternal and unchanging. God always HAS loved you;
God always WILL love you. And it's a love more real, more intense, more
tangible and lasting than words on a radio script sheet can ever convey.
What a surprise to be loved like that — just ONCE to be loved like that!
You know, it's impossible for God's love for you to grow. That's a strange
kind of thought, isn't it? We're used to the idea that love grows, and
that our affections for someone grow in strength and sweetness as the
years go by. The longer we love someone, the more we love them.
Not so with God. He can't love you more — because He has ALWAYS loved
you to the fullest of His divine capacity. He can't love you MORE and
He can't love you LESS because He loves you, and always HAS loved you,
with ALL of His heart. His feelings for you are UNCHANGING. Again in the
book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, we find these unfailing words:
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward
you," saith the Lord, "thoughts of peace, and not of evil."
In the New International Version:
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give
you hope and a future."
Just turn over one page to chapter 31:
"I have loved you with an everlasting love."
In fact, as I go down a concordance list under the
heading "everlasting," I find God talking about His everlasting
MERCY, His everlasting SALVATION, His promise of everlasting JOY. And
all of these attributes, these attitudes, are UNCHANGING ones. They're
not subject to any half-price "attitude adjustment hour" in
a restaurant bar.
You know, let me close today with this brief point. Have you ever signed
up to go on a long vacation trip with somebody — and while you were out
on the road with them, you began to discover that these people weren't
what you thought? Instead of friendly, now they're pushy. Their cheerfulness
had turned into silly, irritating bubble-headedness. What you thought
was an admirable kind of decisiveness is now close to bossiness or even
tyranny. They order you around like a cocker spaniel. These people are
turning into monsters right in front of your eyes! This is a National
Lampoon nightmare starring Chevy Chase. You can't wait for this vacation
to end!
And here you and I are promised an ETERNITY with God.
Not two weeks but forever! A million years, a billion years with God!
What if He slowly turns into a cruel tyrant? What if He evolves into a
sadistic spy, running and ruining your life? What if heaven slowly turns
into hell as God become the devil?
Friend, aren't you glad that God NEVER CHANGES? The God who loves you,
the God who INVITES you — doesn't evolve! He doesn't DE-volve! He doesn't
change at all. For all of eternity, He's going to love you just as He
does right now.
Charles Wesley put it better than I ever could:
"And all things as THEY change proclaim,
the Lord eternally the same."
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