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And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:18-19)
Most of us learned our ABCs from songs. We learn basic concepts and create lasting memories with songs in our head. Gordon Fee once said, “Show me a church’s songs, and I’ll show you their theology.” I love the worship we have at Central-Franklin does such a fantastic job of weaving the songs and the images to point us to Jesus. For the next few weeks-in my article-I’d like to look at some of the songs we sing. Some might be hymns, some might be from the Praise Team…but all are showing the theology of Central Christian and remind us of basic concepts in our theology and lasting memories of what God is doing in our lives!
Frederick M. Lehman was a Pasadena, California businessman whose business suffered a drastic decline and he lost everything. He resorted to manual labor — packing oranges and lemons into wooden crates & moving 30 tons each DAY. Lehman was also a Christian who attended church and found joy in his salvation. A Sunday evening sermon on the love of God moved him deeply and the next morning, as he drove to work, words came to him for a song about God’s love.
After the day’s work, he returned home and sat at his piano. He began to put the words he had been contemplating to music. He quickly completed two stanzas, but by the standards of his day, three were needed. So, he tried to find the words for a third but could think of none. Then he remembered a poem on a bookmark he’d been given. The words were about God’s love and on the bottom of the card was information about their source.
The poem he read was:
“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.”
Lehman added the words to his song as the third stanza. They were a perfect fit with the melody and perfect for the third stanza. The words had been scratched into the walls of a mental asylum…possibly during a moment of sanity. When it was being remodeled, painters were moved by the poem and wrote it down.
Years later, a man named Alfred B. Smith found more information on the poem’s origin. It was written in Hebrew around the year 1000 by Rabbi Ben Issac Nehoria, a Jewish Rabbi. God preserved his words, and hundreds of years later, an imprisoned man translated the Rabbi’s words into English. Someone put the words on a bookmark, and someone gave that bookmark to Frederick Lehman, who included them in his beautiful song “The Love of God is Greater Far.” Thus, these words from 1000 AD have been preserved for you and me!
Oranges, a Mental Asylum, and a Sunday Hymn…all come together to create a powerful memory. And these lyrics declare the theology of our Church Family-The love of our God is rich and pure-it’s MEASURELESS and it is STRONG! I pray you are REMINDED of these things! Just like our ABCs songs, we need to keep these memories and concepts on repeat!
May God’s Peace and His LOVE rest on your home and your family today-SHALOM!
In His Love, Don
AMP, Sunday Night!
JH and HS, 5 – 6:30 pm
This week we are having Nacho Pile-Ups!
If you can bring toppings or dessert, please contact Jennifer (505) 331-8593.
LADIES CLASS Starts Monday!
The Ladies Class is going to deep-dive into the life and story of Jonah! It’s only 4 chapters…but WOW, is there a lot to this prophet! This is a Priscilla Shirer study-with video and some homework. You can order your books from Amazon or Lifeway (we will not have any here) and be ready for a POWERFUL study! Mondays at 6:30 with Suzanne, Michelle, Samantha and Carolyn-you won’t be disappointed! (And yes, there IS childcare!)
SPECTRUM IS BACK!!
With FREE FOOD at 6:30, and BIBLE STUDY at 7:00… you now know how your Tuesday night looks!! Wes Weems is teaching this semester, so bring your Bible and dig into Ephesians with us!! Grab a Friend and be a part! You do NOT have to be a student at ENMU to attend! We have people from Cannon AFB, from the work force, even seniors in High School! Come on out…you won’t regret it!
Thank you to everyone who volunteered to provide meals!
Just as a reminder, here is a list of the this month’s meal volunteers!
Sept 12 David Green
Sept 19 Jena Wilbanks
Sept 26 Ellen Peacock
Drinks, Plates and Utensils are already there!
Please have the food there and ready to serve by 6:30 pm.
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