Question 8

    We have finished our BSF study of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, their perpetual idolatry, and eventual captivity in Assyria and Babylon. We spent 29 lessons going through 15 books of the Old Testament to get to this unhappy ending. . . although this is not the end. The happy ending is yet to come. Lesson 29 was a recap of our study of Israel and Judah's history, kings, and prophets until the time of the exile. My one sentence summary of this whole year is--God relentlessly pursues His unworthy children so He can restore our relationship. That encourages me because I am one of those unworthy children He relentlessly pursued, and eventually caught.

    Question 8 on this week's BSF lesson was, "Write a sentence or two praising God for His mercy and grace toward needy and rebellious people." I was having a hard time finding the words, which seemed odd because words are sort of my main thing. (As you can tell by the goodly wording of the previous sentence.) But I discovered why I was having a problem putting words on paper--my answer wanted to be written as a poem. I learned in BSF that most prophecy is written in poetic form because the messages are too grand for prose. For me, these aspects of God's love for the unworthy, are poem worthy, so I wrote the following:  

 

                                            Question and Answer  

                                                                       

What foreign love is this

that chooses such as I,

lets lifelong sinners live,

but lets His own Son die,

to pay the cost that we could not,

and did not know we owed.

How inexplicable the love

our suffering Savior showed.