The Love of God

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?

Beach Reach

There have been a lot of ugly stories about college students recently - the racist frat chant at OU, the nude pictures from Penn State, the problem frat at U of H.  The list could go on, the sad thing is that it will go on.  College students will make some bad decisions. What about some good news about college students on spring break on South Padre Island?  Yes, that is possible.  A student on spring break on the beach can make a good decision - a life changing decision.

My friend, Brenda Sanders, who has continued to work in student work all these years let me know about this story.  I am including a link below and it is well worth the read.  A word of explanation:  Beach Reach is a ministry of Baptist Student Ministries to students on spring break at South Padre. 

Our former and future Student Intern at Northside Dante Williams has been a part of that work. This story comes from that work.  While our mission trip team was experiencing God at work in the colonia at Penitas, a few miles away God was also working on the heart of a college student on the beach.  Read and be reminded of the lengths God will go to reach someone.

http://txb.life/article/beach-reach-god-would-have-to-grant-me-faith


By the way Beach Reach is a three week effort on South Padre.  Here are the results of week 2:
- 56 new believers, 6,444 gospel conversations, 32 recommitted their lives to Christ
- 3,484 Spring Breakers were prayed with and 12,986 Spring Breakers were given safe, free rides
- 12 Students were baptized

That is good news.

for the journey...

Tim