Everlasting Love “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17) “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3) Here we have an everlasting thought of God, "in the beginning, before ever the earth was." Believer, travel back in imagination to the ages of the past. Before the trance of eternity was broken by any visible manifestation of power — before one temple was erected in space, before one angel waved his wing, or one note was heard of seraph's song — when God inhabited alone, these sublime solitudes — then there was a thought of you — and that thought was — Love! Think of the sovereignty of that love. He says not, 'You have loved Me with your poor earthly love — therefore, have I drawn you.' No, no! It is from nothing in you — no foreseen goodness on your part. Grace is the reason for all He has done, "God who is rich in mercy for His great love with which He loved us." "I will have mercy," is His own declaration— on whom I will have mercy!" "Jacob," (that cunning, scheming, crafty youth) "Jacob I loved — but Esau I hated!" Manasseh, (that miserable man who has defiled his crown, dishonored his throne, and deluged Jerusalem with blood) "I have loved." That dying thief — fresh from a life of infamy, breathing out his blasphemies on a felon's cross, "I have loved." And why, let each of us ask, am I not a Cain or a Judas? Why am I not a wrecked and stranded vessel, like thousands before me? Here is the reason; "Yes, I have loved you." Before you had one thought of Me, yes, when your thoughts were those of hatred, rebellion, and enmity — My thoughts towards you were thoughts of love! And that Sovereign love, as it is from everlasting, so is it to everlasting — endless in duration — enduring as eternity. The love of the creature is but of yesterday — it may be gone tomorrow — dried like a summer-brook when most needed. But the love of God is fed from the glacier summits — the everlasting hills. We may estimate its intensity, when the Savior could utter regarding it such a prayer as this, "That the love with which You have loved Me — may be in them." Oh, amid the often misgivings of my own doubting heart, with its frames and feelings as vacillating (not resolute; wavering; indecisive) as the shifting sand, let me delight to ponder this precious thought — the long line of unbroken love — every link love — connecting the eternity that is past with the eternity to come — God thinking of me before the birth of time — even then mapping out all my future happiness and heavenly bliss — and standing now, with the hoarded love of that eternity in His heart, seeking therewith to "draw" me! It is "the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus" — which is the moral gravitation-power of the cross, by which His true people have ever been drawn. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth — will draw all men unto Myself!" Draw me, Lord — and I will run after You. Show me Your loving-kindness thus enshrined and manifested in Your dear Son. Constrain me to love You in Him, because You have first loved, and so loved, me! "How priceless is Your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings." --John MacDuff 1818-1895
God Never Changes The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich today and poor tomorrow; he may be sickly today and well tomorrow; he may be in happiness today and tomorrow be in distress; but THERE IS NO CHANGE WITH REGARD TO HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. If He loved me yesterday, He loves me today. I am neither better nor worse in God than I ever was. Let prospects be blighted, let hopes be blasted, let joy be withered, let mildews destroy everything; I HAVE LOST NOTHING OF WHAT I HAVE IN GOD! – C.H. Spurgeon
Glory to God Tune to “At The Cross” Words By Isaac Watts, 1709
1. Let them neglect Thy glory Lord, Who never knew Thy grace, But our loud songs shall still record The wonders of Thy praise.
2. We raise our shouts, 0 God, to Thee, And send them to Thy throne, All glory to the united Three, The undivided One.
3. Twas He, and we'll adore His Name, That formed us by a word, ‘Tis He restores our ruined frame, Salvation to the Lord!
4. Hosanna! Let the earth and skies Repeat the joyful sound, Rock, hills, and vales reflect the voice In one eternal round.
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