Graduation Speech Part IV

Graduation Speech Part IV

One final thing. There's at attribute of God's love that we don't talk about much: lovingkindness. In Hosea God defines His holy love and one of the characteristics is "lovingkindness." There are some psalms in the Bible where the second half of every verse ends with "for His lovingkindness is everlasting." What is lovingkindness? Put simply it means "loyal love." God's holy love for us is a loyal love. We, then, must love with a loyal love. An example: Caleb. You know one of the spies who came back and exclaimed, "The land is just as God promised! And there are giants in the land! God has promised us victory over giants--let's go!" And the people responded, "Caleb, sit down and shut up." But he wouldn't. "Trust in God. Believe His promises--the land is ours for the taking with His help." Response: "Caleb, shut up or we will kill you." At that point, God intervened with their punishment for not trusting Him--forty years in the wilderness until you die. And guess what? Caleb had to wander in the wilderness too. Think of it--he had been faithful, defended God, was eager to trust in His promises, risked his life for God--and forty years in the wilderness still. I confess, I would be wondering if it's really worth it to follow God? In today's world--I'd be thinking of changing churches. But not Caleb. After the forty years and a few more years of warfare, the people gathered to give each person his inheritance in the land. And God said, "Caleb for your faithfulness, you get first choice." What an opportunity! All those places already conquered--his for the asking. But what did he ask for? With his arm around his nephew Othniel (no doubt his father had died in the wilderness, and Caleb had raised him), he told Joshua, "there's this hill country over here inhabited by giants, that's the land I want. With God's help will drive them out--just like He promised." He had been waiting for over forty years to get his hands on those giants--to "prove" the faithfulness of God's promises. He loved his God with a loyal love--with lovingkindness. God making him wander for those forty years unfair? No, he trusted His Lord to give him the victory when the time was right. And He did. And he taught his nephew to be loyal to God as well. Guess who was the first judge after Joshua died? And a good judge he was. Love with a loyal love!