Wednesday, May 19, 2010
While preparing for my sermon this Sunday, I was reacquainted with the words of the hymn "The Love of God". It was written by German born Fredrick M. Lehman in 1917. Lehman gave his life to Christ when he was eleven years old. He eventually entered into the ministry and pastored many churches in the Midwest. Fredrick loved gospel music and compiled five songbooks and published hundreds of songs.
In 1917, he found himself working in a packing house in Pasadena, Ca. His life had taken a turn for the worse. Nearly broke, he began thinking about the limitlessness of God's love. During breaks at the packing house he would write down words that would soon form a hymn. However, he only had two stanzas. He wasn't satisfied because every gospel hymn had three stanzas. He remembered some lines he had recently heard in a sermon. The words were composed on the wall of an insane asylum by an unknown inmate. These words became stanza three of Lehman's hymn:
In 1917, he found himself working in a packing house in Pasadena, Ca. His life had taken a turn for the worse. Nearly broke, he began thinking about the limitlessness of God's love. During breaks at the packing house he would write down words that would soon form a hymn. However, he only had two stanzas. He wasn't satisfied because every gospel hymn had three stanzas. He remembered some lines he had recently heard in a sermon. The words were composed on the wall of an insane asylum by an unknown inmate. These words became stanza three of Lehman's hymn:
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.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)
Pastor Tim
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