The Love of God

The temperature when we left for church was 39.  Jessica said that was to be the high for the day!  We did see a little bit of snow this afternoon!  Fortunately, just a few sprinkles and no accumulation!

The Love of God

Frederick M. Lehman, 1917
v. 3 by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai, 1050
v. 3 tr. by Anonymous/Unknown

The 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.

Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary 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.

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.

Frederick Lehman tells us that verse 3 “had been found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum after he had been carried to his grave.” While it is only supposition that he was the one who adapted the Jewish author’s poem to leave us these well-known lines, if the account is true it shows in any case that he highly esteemed the message.

I would add to this that anyone who wrote V. 3 could NOT have been insane!  That was Tim's favorite verse!

Jessica's pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Lancaster, OH, Brother Matthew Nihiser, preached today on the love we are to have for and give to one another from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:

4 ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 ¶ Charity never faileth: .......

The love that is spoken of here is Agape love or divine love.  It is the kind of love God had for us sinners.  He gave knowing He would get nothing in return.  But, even more than that, He gave without expecting anything in return.  He gave out of love.

I give love, sometimes, because I want or expect something in return.  I don't always know that is what I'm doing, but I'm sure it happens.  That is not God's kind of love.  Verse 4 explains what love is and the rest of verse 4 through verse 6 explains what love isn't.

It IS:

1.  patient - passive - not retaliatory in nature but emotionally calm in provocation.

2.  kind - active - moves actively to bestow blessings

It ISN'T:

1.  envious - wanting what another person has (Proverbs 27:4 - Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?)

2.  boastful - self-display; show off

3.  arrogant - self-inflation or exaggeration of self

4.  rude - seek not to offend

5.  insisting on its own way - doesn't demand its own rights

6.  irritable - grumpy or crotchety

7.  resentful - doesn't keep a record of wrong-doing.  Can remember and still forgive.

8.  rejoicing in wrong-doing but in truth - not tolerating sin.  We don't rejoice when someone "gets what they deserve."

I was convicted that a lot of times, I don't have God's kind of love towards others!  Thank You, Father, for showing me some areas I need to work on!  I want to love the way Jesus loved!

Tonight was an evening of celebration for the church.  There was a meal before hand and then a time of watching a slide show of happenings throughout the year, followed by a time of testimony of what being a part of the Calvary Baptist church family meant to you as an individual.  That was followed by observing the Lord's Supper.

Watching the picture show from the past year.

Early to bed for everyone tonight!  Thank You, Lord, for the blessings of the day!