God's Love

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in 1 John 4:7-8: 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 

Oh my dear friends, I will never forget preaching the Gospel in Wales many years ago, the country that sings. Even when they speak, they are singing. They have such a beautiful accent. I was down in the south speaking to over a thousand farmers and their wives and children. We were talking about the love of God and reminiscing on the great revival that took place in Wales in 1904 and 1905 amongst the Welsh coal miners. These men would come out of the pits after they knocked off, black with soot from the coal dust and go straight to the halls where they would worship God. They would have white stripes down their faces where they had been weeping in the presence of God. 

The police had no work to do, and the pubs closed. There was a great revival. Many great songs came out of this revival. The Welsh people know how to sing. When you go to an international rugby match, those men start singing, and the opposing team must cringe when they see what they have to put up with. I remember one particular song, “Here is Love, Vast as the Ocean”, these farmers and their wives and children started to sing it in Gaelic. It made me cry, and I could hardly preach. It went something like this:

Here is love, vast as the ocean,
loving-kindness as the flood,
when the Prince of Life, my Ransom,
shed for me His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He shall never be forgotten
through heav’n’s everlasting days.

On the mount of crucifixion
fountains opened deep and wide;
through the floodgates of God’s mercy
flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
poured incessant from above,
and heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
kissed a guilty world in love.

Let me, all Thy love accepting,
Love Thee, ever all my days;
Let me seek Thy kingdom only,
And my life be to Thy praise;
Thou alone shalt be my glory,
Nothing in the world I see;
Thou hast cleansed and sanctified me,
Thou Thyself hast set me free.

In Thy truth Thou dost direct me
By Thy Spirit through Thy Word;
And Thy grace my need is meeting,
As I trust in Thee, my Lord.
Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring
Thy great love and pow’r on me,
Without measure, full and boundless,
As I yield myself to Thee.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. God loves you!
Goodbye.