Worship Devotional LXXXI
Originally posted to the Facebook group on 7/17/2021.
Worship Devotional for 7/18/21
By God's grace, through faith in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, we who have believed have been set free from sin and from death. We deserve to be punished under the righteous wrath of God for our rebellion and wickedness, for we all stand guilty before a holy God. Yet for some reason, we are now called justified in God's sight. For some reason, we have hope and not despair. For some reason, we have a place where we belong, a true and eternal home in heaven, and a family of believers, since we have somehow been reborn and called children of God and received adoption into His everlasting kingdom. For reasons which none of us can fully comprehend, we are free and no longer enslaved to sin, alive and no longer ruled by death, justified and no longer condemned, loved and no longer rejected. The reason for all this is God's love.
Why would the one true and living God, who is perfect and holy and righteous and just, choose to make a way for wicked and sinful people to be saved, healed, redeemed, and given freedom and life and joy? Why would the one sovereign and eternal God even create us in the first place, knowing the pain and devastation we would bring upon ourselves by our rebellion towards Him? The answer is love. He loved us, He loves us, and He will love us forevermore, because that's just who He is! He chose to create us is His own image and for His glory even though we would fall, knowing in advance the sacrifice that He would have to make for us to be saved so that we could spend eternity with Him in the glory of His presence, because of His great and everlasting love. This week we are rejoicing in the love of God, praising Him for who He is and giving thanks for what He has done for us. His love is eternal, faithful, and true.
John 3:16-18:
"For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God."
Songs:
1) See His Love by Tom Lockley
Romans 5:6-11:
"For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person — thought 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! Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him."
1 John 4:7-12:
"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 Song into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us."
2) The Love Of God by Frederick M. Lehman and Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai
This hymn, written in part (the third verse) by a Jewish rabbi in the 11th century, declares with poetic finesse how powerful, incomprehensible, and great the love of God is. Whatever you may be going through in your life right now, remember that God's love never fails or ends. His love for us is so much greater than we can imagine. His love is forever. May this hymn awaken our hearts to praise our God who loves us.
3) You're Love O Lord by Third Day
Psalm 36:
"An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked person: There is no dread of God before his eyes, for in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to discover and hate his sin. The words of his mouth are malicious and deceptive; he has stopped acting wisely and doing good. Even on his bed he makes malicious plans. He sets himself on a path that is not good and does not reject evil.
Lord, Your faithful love reaches to heaven, Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments, like the deepest sea. Lord, You preserve man and beast. God, Your faithful love is so valuable that people take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They are filled from the abundance of Your house; You let them drink from Your refreshing stream, for with You is life's fountain. In Your light we will see light.
Spread Your faithful love over those who know You, and Your righteousness over the upright in heart. Do not let the foot of the arrogant man come near me or the hand of the wicked one drive me away. There the evildoers fall; they have been thrown down and cannot rise."
4) Nothing Ever (Could Separate Us) by Citizen Way
Romans 8:31-39:
"What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God's elect? God is the One who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. 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!"
Theme(s): God's Love
Scripture references:
Psalms 36, 108, 136
John 3:16-21
Romans 5-8
Ephesians 1-2
1 John (esp. 4:7-19)