I spent this passed weekend with my friends, who are now family, at the Louisa United Methodist Church participating in their Jesus Jam 2009 summer celebration. In addition to a concert and leading worship all weekend I was also blessed to be able to bring a message each night. The theme they chose for our time together was “I love you…ask me why.” My messages centered around the matchless love of God and how when we maintain a proper perspective on Christ’s sacrifice, encouraging each other to “evangelize” won’t be necessary. In fact, it will be hard to keep us from telling others about so great a salvation.
To summarize C.S. Lewis, it is not that we over amplify the world and it’s pleasures, it is that we so drastically under glorify the matchless love of Christ and the eternal pleasures that are to be found in Him. Our theme song for Jesus Jam was the contemporary worship song “Indescribable.” However, the more I sang the new song the more I was reminded of one of my favorite hymns and works of poetry, “The Love of God.” It is a brilliant reminder of just how indescribable the love of God really is.
The Love of God
Frederick M. Lehman ~ 1917The Love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell,
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave his Son to win,
His erring Child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure,
The saints and angels song.
When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race-
The saints and angels song.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure,
The saints and angels song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure,
The saints and angels song.
Hey Erik!!
So how is everything going?
Hey Reece! Good to hear from you. Things are great! I’m still trying to catch up on sleep though….you guys wore me out!
Thanks for posting the hymn “The Love of God.” Today is the 141st anniversary of the birth of the author–of all except the last stanza. That is centuries older.
When I did a bit of a blog search, I was saddened to find that those words, “the love of God” were far more often used as careless profanity, as in “For the…” Too many in our world have never experienced the love of the Saviour.
Thanks again for your blog. And God bless.
Have you recorded, “The Love of God?”