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.
For a moment, let's play "Name that Hymn." Can you do it? Some of you reading these words will recognize them from the F. M Lehman hymn, "The Love of God." Some of you (like me) cannot see them or hear them without thinking of George Beverly Shea singing them on Billy Graham's crusades. It was Shea's signature song.
Lehman wrote the song in 1917 while he was at work. In idle moments during the day he wrote it on scrap pieces of paper pressed against a wall using a stub pencil. He did it all while sitting on an empty lemon crate. It all goes to prove that the message of the love of God can reach you anywhere, at any time. You may also remember these words from the 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.
This third stanza was not original to Lehman though. It came from the translation of a Jewish poem that a Rabbi wrote during a time of severe persecution in Germany in the 11th century. More centuries later, it was found written on the wall of a cell in an insane asylum after the occupant had passed away. Somehow someone who was described as rarely in their right mind was able to remember the ancient Aramaic poem and write down those beautiful, powerful words. God's love did reach the deepest hell. Lehman was aware of that story and it fit in perfectly with what he was writing.
God's love can reach us anywhere and change anyone in any situation. Is it changing us in His church today? If it is not, it is not the fault of the love of God. Sunday, we will start with this question, "Who has taught you the most about the love of God?" OK, I see those hands and I hear the standard Sunday School answer, "Jesus." Yes, he did, and does still, but what other person in your life, not in the Bible, has taught you the most about the love of God? That is something for all of us to mark in our lives. Someday in the future, will anyone answer that question with your name?
Showing posts with label Crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crisis. Show all posts
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, October 25, 2013
10/23/83
Why do I remember that date? It happens to be the day 30 years ago when 241 U. S. Marines died when a truck bomb struck their barracks at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon. A tragic event, but there is also another connection with that day. On October 23, 1983 I was with a group of Middle Eastern - mainly Lebanese - international students on a Christian retreat in New Mexico.
I was working at the Baptist Student Ministry at Texas Tech at the time and one of my responsibilities was to work with International students. The event was big enough that the camp director came and told us.
The news devastating to them. They were more upset than we Americans were. I was baffled. When I asked one of the students to explain their reaction, he said, "After this day, there will be no more Lebanon. Not like I know it." It turns out he was right. The United States and other peace keeping nations pulled out of Lebanon and the bloody civil war they were supposed to try and stop, surged out of control. The Lebanon that has emerged is said to be nothing like the Lebanon these young men called home.
These students, Christian and Muslim, knew that everything had changed for them. I wonder how many of them had to return home? If they did, how many were sucked into the conflict? How many of them died in it?
I look back on that day and see how huge a day that was for them, how little I really understood it and how poorly I was prepared to handle a crisis like that. As I reflected on that day, I was reminded that though I can do nothing about the past, I can still pray. Pray for those students, now grown and thirty years older - if they are still alive. I can also pray for myself, that I will be ready to minister to people, even when I cannot fully grasp their pain or understand their plight.
We too often think of prayer as a last resort. On that day it was - and on this day it is - the most powerful thing we can do.
for the journey...
Tim
I was working at the Baptist Student Ministry at Texas Tech at the time and one of my responsibilities was to work with International students. The event was big enough that the camp director came and told us.
The news devastating to them. They were more upset than we Americans were. I was baffled. When I asked one of the students to explain their reaction, he said, "After this day, there will be no more Lebanon. Not like I know it." It turns out he was right. The United States and other peace keeping nations pulled out of Lebanon and the bloody civil war they were supposed to try and stop, surged out of control. The Lebanon that has emerged is said to be nothing like the Lebanon these young men called home.
These students, Christian and Muslim, knew that everything had changed for them. I wonder how many of them had to return home? If they did, how many were sucked into the conflict? How many of them died in it?
I look back on that day and see how huge a day that was for them, how little I really understood it and how poorly I was prepared to handle a crisis like that. As I reflected on that day, I was reminded that though I can do nothing about the past, I can still pray. Pray for those students, now grown and thirty years older - if they are still alive. I can also pray for myself, that I will be ready to minister to people, even when I cannot fully grasp their pain or understand their plight.
We too often think of prayer as a last resort. On that day it was - and on this day it is - the most powerful thing we can do.
for the journey...
Tim
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