Worship Devotional LX
Originally posted to the Facebook group on 2/13/2021.
Worship Devotional for 2/14/21
~ Valentine's Day ~
This Sunday is Valentine's Day, a day when we celebrate love and marriage — what a beautiful, deep, and glorious mystery to reflect on! The last few weeks we have been singing about faith and hope and how each of those involve waiting on the Lord to fulfill everything He has promised. We believe that what God has said is true and that He will fulfill it all, and we hope for the Day when it is fulfilled at last, trusting completely in Him and relying on His word. Faith and hope will remain even when all the things we know in this world fade away. However, there is one more thing that will remain; it gives meaning to faith and hope and is greatest of the things that remain forever: love.
1 Corinthians 13:
"If I speak human or angelic languages but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
There are different kinds or levels of love, such as love for things, love for our neighbors, love for friends, love for family, love for a spouse, and love for God. In other languages such as Hebrew, there are different words that are used to express the different types of love. In the English language, we usually just use the word love in different ways. Some are obviously greater than others; when I say I love God, I'm talking about a greater and deeper love than when I say I love a good meal. Or when we talk about loving our families, we mean something a little different than when we talk about loving our neighbors. Jesus told his disciples what the greatest kind of love looks like in John 15:9-14:
"As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commands and remain in His love. I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you."
And John continues to reveal the greatest love in 1 John 4:7-9:
"Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him."
So we see that the greatest love is that of God which Christ revealed to and for us when He gave His life for us on the cross.
Romans 5:6-8:
"For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!"
So if Valentine's Day is about love, and the greatest love is the love of God shown to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, then what about marriage? We celebrate the love between husband and wife knowing that it is a good thing which God created (See Genesis 1:26-31 and 2:15-25). So how do we focus on both our love and His love? Check out Ephesians 5:22-33:
"Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of His body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband."
We see that as believers in Christ and members of His church, our marriages are meant to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church. We look forward with faith and hope to the day when the marriage of the Lamb spoken of in Revelation 19 finally arrives. The greatest love is the love which Jesus has for His bride, the church! This week we are singing about that marriage and love which is the ultimate meaning of our marriages and love that we know now and celebrate on Valentine's Day.
Here are the songs:
1) O The Deep Deep Love Of Jesus by Samuel Trevor Francis and Thomas John Williams
How deep and great is the love God has for us! As the psalmist declared in Psalm 63:3:
"My lips will glorify You because Your faithful love is better than life."
His love is deeper and stronger than anything we face, and it is leading us closer to Him and onward toward our true home which is with Him in heaven.
Romans 8:38-39:
"For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!"
Ephesians 3:14-21:
"For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit, and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love, and to know the Messiah's love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us — to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
2) New Jerusalem by Vertical Worship
Revelation 21:1-4:
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: 'Look! God's dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.'"
3) More Than Ashes by Tim Reimherr
It can be a difficult thing to wrap our minds around at times, but if we are believers in Christ, then we are members of God's church. And if we are members of His church, then we are His bride. As we sing these songs, let's reflect on who we are in Jesus and who He is to us. Let's sing in faith and love knowing that His love is true for each one of us who believe in Him.
4) Psalm 45 (Fairest Of All) by Shane & Shane
Psalm 45:
"My heart is moved by a noble theme as I recite my verse to the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer. You are the most handsome of men; grace flows from your lips. Therefore God has blessed you forever.
Mighty warrior, strap your sword at your side. In your majesty and splendor — in your splendor ride triumphantly in the cause of truth, humility, and justice. May your right hand show your awe-inspiring acts. Your arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies; the peoples fall under you.
Your throne, God, is forever and ever; the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of justice. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy more than your companions. Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume all your garments; from ivory palaces harps bring you joy. Kings' daughters are among your honored women; the queen, adorned with gold from Ophir, stands at your right hand.
Listen, daughter, pay attention and consider: forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Bow down to him, for he is your lord. The daughter of Tyre, the wealthy people, will seek your favor with gifts.
In her chamber, the royal daughter is all glorious, her clothing embroidered with gold. In colorful garments she is led to the king; after her, the virgins, her companions, are brought to you. They are led in with gladness and rejoicing; they enter the king's palace.
Your sons will succeed your ancestors; you will make them princes throughout the land. I will cause your name to be remembered for all generations; therefore the peoples will praise you forever and ever."
Mark 13:32-37:
"Now concerning that day or hour no one knows — neither the angels in heaven nor the Son — except the Father. Watch! Be alert! For you don't know when the time is coming. It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his slaves, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert. Therefore be alert, since you don't know when the master of the house is coming — whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. Otherwise, he might come suddenly and find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!"
Luke 12:35-40:
"Be ready for service and have your lamps lit. You must be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. Those slaves the master will find alert when he comes will be blessed. I assure you: He will get ready, have them recline at the table, then come and serve them. If he comes in the middle of the night, or even near dawn, and finds them alert, those slaves will be blessed. But know this: If the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect."
The meaning of our waiting is that there is a better kingdom — a heavenly one — and a hope that is so glorious it is beyond anything we can imagine. There is life without pain or fear or sorrow or sin, where death no longer rules and where evil has no place. There is a true and living God who reigns on high and who loves His people and gives them eternal life. This world does not satisfy or fulfill what God put deep in the human heart — only God can. Let our lives on this earth bear witness to everyone around us that Jesus Christ our Lord is the way, the truth, and the life! May we as His church, His people, His bride be found alert and ready when He comes.
Theme(s): Love, Marriage
Scripture references:
Genesis 1:26-31, 2:15-25
Psalm 45, 63, 95-99, 126, 132
Song Of Songs
Isaiah 55-66
Hosea 1-2
Matthew 9:14-17, 22:1-14, 24:36-44, 25:1-13
Mark 13
Luke 12:35-48
John 14:1-6, 15:9-17
Romans 5:1-11, 7-8
1 Corinthians 13
Ephesians 3:14-21, 5:22-33
1 Thessalonians 5
Hebrews 10:19-25, 11:6-16, 12:1-2, 13:1-4
1 Peter 2:9-10, 4:7-8
2 Peter 3
1 John 3:16-24, 4:7-21
Revelation 1:1-8, 5, 7:9-17, 19, 21-22