A Child of the King! Part 2

by John Lowe
(Laurens SC, USA)

There’s a little song that expresses this thought very well:
How thou canst think so well of us
Yet be the God thou art,
Is darkness to my intellect
And sunshine to my heart.

He said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”
I can’t tell you how long “everlasting” is, but I heard a pretty good explanation by a little boy.
He said, “I reckon it’s a pretty long time.”
The only explanation I have for why God loves us is that it’s not because of anything He sees in us, but it’s because of who He is.
John wrote, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us…”
God loves you and me, and I really can’t tell you why.
I found this story about a man’s love for his daughter that I’ll share with you—
Bruce Reynolds died quietly in a small, New York town.
At his memorial service, people became aware of an incredible secret.
Twenty-five years before his death, Bruce’s first wife left him for another man and took his only child, a girl named Ivah.
Bruce financially supported his daughter with monthly checks even though that expense prevented him from visiting her in Florida.
His inability to see her did not keep him from telling her about his love.
Every week for twenty-five years Bruce wrote his daughter.
Ivah seldom wrote back but it didn’t stop Bruce from communicating his love.
Even after a series of strokes that made it impossible for him to write, Bruce dictated the weekly letter to his second wife, Belle.
He did that until the day he died.
Some thirteen hundred times, from 1964 to 1989, Bruce Reynolds used the modest resources of pen and paper to relay a message of unfailing love for his only child.
Stories like that really touch my heart, and they make remember the love of God that was made known to us in Jesus Christ.
I am overwhelmed by the love of God.
If He were to change His mind about us tomorrow, I would be eternally lost, and so would you.
But He says that His love is everlasting, and that’s a pretty long time.
The last point I want to make is that—
My Father desires a relationship with me that is real and personal.
In John 14:23 we are told that Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Jesus is saying that if a person truly loves the Lord, he will want to keep all of His teachings, not just certain ones.
The Father loves those who are willing to obey His Son without questions or reservations.
Both Father and Son are especially near to such loving and obedient hearts.
In fact, He says, “…we will come to him and make our home with him.”
And how is it that He makes His home with us?
He does it when He places His spirit within us, and we become a Child of the King.
I read this story about relationships that I want to share with you.
It seems that a single woman was shocked by the response she received from a personal ad she had placed in the local newspaper.
Her ad simply defined who she was and then ended with a straightforward appeal: “I’m actively looking for a husband.”
Several ladies responded to this woman’s ad by writing, “You can have mine!”
That strikes me as funny.
But that’s not the type of relationship that God wants to have with us.
The King of Glory wants to be our heavenly Father, so we can say, “I'm A Child of the King.”
There’s a song with that title and it says pretty much the same as I have been talking about.
It goes like this:
My Father is rich in houses and lands; He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands. Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold, His coffers are full- He has riches untold.
My Father's on Son- the Savior of men- Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them. But now He is reigning forever on high and will give me a home in heaven by and by.
I once was an outcast stranger on earth, a sinner by choice and an alien by birth. But I've been adopted, my name's written down- an heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.
A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They're building a palace for me over there. Tho' exiled from home, yet still, I may sing: "All GLORY TO GOD, I'm a child of the King!"
I'm a child of the King, A child of the King! With JESUS my SAVIOR, I'm a child of the King!
What could be better than that?
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer now, and thank Him for adopting us into His family.
Amen.