(Part 1/3 – A summary of the Sunday morning teaching on 06-Sep-15, in AFT Church, English service. From the series The Foundation For Victorious Living)
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
Psalm 139:13-18 (New King James Version)
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.
our thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
Psalm 139:17-22 (The Message)
Last week, we deciphered the amazing love of God which is packed in the most famous Bible verse – John 3:16
Today, we are going to compare the love of God to the love of an expectant parent for his or her baby.
PREPARATION
In college I had an American friend. He’d been married for about five years and didn’t have any children. I came from a background where if a married couple didn’t have children even after two years of marriage, people would wonder if they had some medical problem. So I asked my friend if that was the case with him and his wife. To my surprise he replied that they had no medical issue and that they’d made a conscious decision to wait for a while before having a baby. He explained that being a student, he couldn’t afford to pay for the medical expenses and insurance for the baby. He wanted to wait and have a good source of income so that he could provide well for his baby.
I was amazed at the fact that even though my friend hadn’t yet seen the face of his child, he had already given a lot of thought and consideration to how he wanted to prepare for his child. Well, then again, it’s no wonder that we human beings would care so much for our children. After all, we have been made in the image and likeness of our God! The love that we have for our children is an inherited love.
CONGRATS! YOU’RE HAVING A BABY!
Imagine the exhilaration of a couple when a pregnancy is confirmed! Suddenly everything in life takes on a whole new meaning. Conversations, dreams and plans are all centered on the new baby. There is so much love that pours out of the couple for their unborn child. In fact, it is just like the love that God has for His children.
Let’s look at greater detail this love of God that began even before we were born.
…to be continued…
