http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5:8&version=NIV1984
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208:35-39&version=NIV1984
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| Source: livewithallyouvegot |
There is song that I have been playing recently for Youth Worship. It’s entitled How He Loves. A lot of the teens like it. It is a song that was made popular by The David Crowder Band. It appeared on the WOW Hits 2010 worship CD. The song talks about how much God loves us. Always a timely theme. What I didn’t realize about the song until recently was its history.
The author is John Mark McMillan. McMillan was best friends with Stephen Coffey. They had grown up together. Been baptized together. While McMillan was pursuing a career as a song writer, Coffey was a youth pastor. On November 1, 2002, Coffey prayed out loud at a church prayer meeting, “I’d give my life today if it would shake the youth of the nation.” A sincere prayer for sure. Just not exactly the kind of prayer that one normally hears. Later that night, Coffey and two others were involved in a multi-car accident. Soon after, MacMillan’s father called to tell him that Stephen had died. Naturally, MacMillan was in a state of shock. The next day MacMillan penned the words to the song, How He Loves. Afterwards, MacMillan said, “I sat down to have a dialogue with God and, really, He ended up having a dialogue with me. It’s like He was speaking to me through the song.”
Knowing the background to the song helps to put it in perspective. Today a lot of young people sing it as this upbeat, feel-good worship song. But when you understand the circumstances of how and why it was written, you get a whole new appreciation for it. MacMillan was able to write about tragedy without becoming bitter or cynical. He was able to bring the Sovereignty of God into perspective. That what appeared as a tragedy was also a display of God’s love. Isn’t that so true? In our deepest, darkest hours God still continues to love us. And the events that He allows in our lives is also filtered through His love. Accurate for sure. Difficult to see at times. And understand.
So I’ve included the words below. As well as a link to Crowder’s performance of it. Enjoy. Let God minister to you through it.
HOW HE LOVES
He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy,
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
I realize just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so, oh how He loves us, how He loves us so.
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking,
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way that He loves us.
Oh, how He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves,
Yeah, He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves.
Lord, I live in the midst of a fallen, sinful, evil world. A world where bad things happen. Even to good people. Help me to understand how deep Your love is for me. To experience it. To be confident in it. Even when circumstances might tell me otherwise. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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