Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
By Sharon W. Betters
TODAY’S TREASURE
"You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to You."
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love."
Forever etched in my soul is the sound of the congregation opening Mark’s Coronation service with O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus. All the lights were on but I felt wrapped in a blanket of darkness. Over twelve hundred men, women and young people filled the sanctuary, yet I heard only the full, deep voices of men singing in a minor key this little known hymn. I pictured monks, holding lanterns, processing to the altar. I began to weep. Chuck put his arm around me, leaned his head to my ear, and whispered, "Just listen." These are the words my husband tenderly spoke into my ears and ultimately into my heart:
O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free.
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To thy glorious rest above!
O, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth
Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches, O'er His loved ones
Died to call them all His own
How for them He intercedeth
Watcheth o'er from the throne!
O, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Love of every love the best!
Tis an ocean full of blessing
Tis a haven giving rest!
O, the deep, deep love of Jesus -
Tis a heaven of heavens to me -
And it lifts me up to glory
For it lifts me up to Thee!
I cannot think of a more intimate moment than when Chuck’s voice reminded me of that deep, deep love of our Savior in the darkness of our midnight. Our musician son, Chuck, had initially questioned my request that we sing this song because it is sung in a minor key and is not well known. I wanted us to sing it because we needed God’s truth about His love and the deep, deep love of Jesus to soothe our wounded hearts. This song is a broken hallelujah when sung by people clinging to the promises of God’s love, presence, and restoration.
Better than this song, though, is what the Bible tells us about the deep, deep love of our God and His Son, Jesus. Take time to slowly read these Scriptures. Undergirding all of God’s interactions with us is His love, demonstrated by the perfect love that Jesus extends to us through His willing sacrifice on the Cross.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Ask the Lord to push the truth of His love and the overwhelming love of Jesus into your heart in such a way that it rolls over you like a mighty ocean, equipping you for this day.
From the Old Testament
"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations."
"How precious is Your unfailing love, O God!"
"You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to You."
"But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."
"Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever."
"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love;
He will exult over you with loud singing."
From the New Testament
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."
"As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved You. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another."
"God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved."
"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him."
"In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
For more from Daily Treasure please visit MARKINC.ORG.
Originally published Saturday, 16 September 2023.
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