Daily Devotional – Sept 14, 2020

To you. How was your weekend? I hope it was a good one, that you were able to worship together with God's people in the Lord's house yesterday, or maybe by live stream if you weren't able to get to church and worship together.

Nevertheless, I hope it was a good day, and God blessed you richly through his word. Well, several years ago when I was a freshman in college, so here's how long ago that was. The only means of communication back in those dark ages were either through a telephone on a wall or through letter writing.

And in my particular case where I was at college, our dorm room had one telephone for, get this, there were five guys in our room that freshman year of college. And so having communications on telephones was, for one thing, hard to find some privacy.

I learned that in trying to call my girlfriend back home, but more than that, it was expensive. And in our case in the college where I was, the only way to make a long distance phone call was to call collect.

So rarely did that. And so the other option was writing a letter. I mean, you know, sit down, pen, paper, write, hand write a letter, or get out a typewriter and put some paper in it and type. And I was not a typist, so I had to write, if I was going to communicate, I had to write letters or telephone.

Well, I needed to write a letter to my parents. I wasn't the model teenager, as not too many are, I suppose, but I had a few years of rebellion and living for myself and not really respect, not respecting my parents well at all.

And I really got under conviction about how I had treated them through some of those years of my junior high and high school. And I never really dealt with that, with them. I mean, they knew I made some changes in my life.

I was heading in a different direction than where I was going, but I never really personally communicated to them that I treated them badly and that I was sorry for the way I treated them. So I sat down and wrote this letter to my mom and my dad and basically just bared my soul and said, I treated you terribly.

I didn't respect you as I should have. I have a lot to apologize for. And I did and said, I am sorry. Will you please forgive me? Put it in an envelope, put on a stamp of, I don't know how much it was back then, 13 cents to mail that letter and off it went.

Well, it was about a week later that I got a typewritten from his office. But it wasn't a formal letter. It was probably the kindest, most tender of any communication that I had received from my dad. Now, that is the background.

The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

This week, we're going to hear some quotes from a book by Dane Ortland entitled, Gentle and Lowly, The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. I highly recommend the book. I'm about halfway through it, but I just find a plethora of good stuff in every chapter.

And the book itself is based on what Jesus said in Matthew 11, verses 28 to 30, when he said this. He said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

And here's the key. For I am gentle and lowly in heart. Gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus, in speaking of himself, of his own heart towards sinners and sufferers, he says, I am gentle and lowly.

Now, Ortland takes a whole book to develop that theme. And this week, I just want to do some sound bites, if you will, from some of those chapters. So today, just ponder this statement. He says this, quote, what elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin, but whether the sinner comes to him.

Did you get that? What elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin, but whether the sinner comes to him. Remember, I said the tenderest letter that I received from my dad was a letter in response to my coming to him, my confessing to him and bearing my heart to him, to them, my mom and my dad.

And he responded, not with harshness or anger or yeah, you shoulda or anything like that, but with tenderness. Now, Jesus is perfect in that. What elicits tenderness from him is not how severe the sin is, if it's too severe or not severe or whatever, but whether or not we come to him.

I don't suppose there's any more poignant story that illustrates that tenderness of Jesus toward the sinner that comes to him than the parable that Jesus told of the prodigal son. You remember that parable, right?

The father had two sons and the older son worked the farm, stayed with his dad and all the rest of that. But the younger son said, give me what's mine, I'm out of here. And off he went. And he squandered everything.

He lived in riotous living, rebellious, not respectful or honorable toward his father at all. And yet he came to a place, hit the wall, he hit the wall, ran out of all his money, there's a famine, he has nothing to eat, he has nowhere to live, he's eating pig food.

And in the middle of that despair, he thinks back of home. And he thinks of how the servants in his father's household are cared for. And he comes to his senses and says, I'm going to go back home and I'm going to tell my dad, I'm not worthy to be your son, just make me one of your make me one of your slave, make me one of your household servants, just just let me go, let me go to work for you.

I'm not worthy to be your son. And so off he goes, goes back home. And he's on the road, just down the road from the house where his father lives, the property where the family has their farm. And his father sees his son coming up the road.

And he runs to the son. He doesn't even wait till the son gets to the house. He runs to the son, and he embraces his son. And about the time the son gets the words out, I'm not worthy to be your son. And he can't even ask for a job.

The father says, let's get the robe on you. Let's have a party. You're home. What expression of love and tenderness. What elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin, but whether the sinner comes to him.

So maybe you need to come to him today. Well, you'll find tenderness. You'll find, you'll not find harshness. You'll not find a finger wagging, you know, condescending attitude. Jesus said, come to me.

I'm gentle and lowly in heart. So Father, on this first day of the week, as we begin the new work week with all the responsibilities and so forth we have with it, maybe some of us today are reflecting on recent events and behaviors or whatever in our lives.

And we grieve over how we have behaved, what we have done, what we have thought, what we have said. And Father, help us to realize that with Christ, there is great tenderness when we come to him. May we come.

May we come. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, may the beginning of your week get off to a good start. And may it start with the Lord. Find the tenderness of our Savior. He is indeed gentle and lowly in heart.

Have a good day. God bless.