Recently, in the modern worship service at my church, we have introduced a “new” song – How He Loves Us, by John Mark McMillan. Since it was on the new David Crowder Band album, I was familiar with the song, itself, and the lyrics, and thought they were quite moving. Playing the song (I am the keyboardist in our worship band), I think the most difficult thing with How He Loves Us is that the picture it paints of God and the way the final crescendo focuses on His love and grace, I really want it to keep on going (and going), but (as a musician in a band) I’ve got to stay with the other guys and bring it to an end.
Somehow, in times like that, I think about Moses. Not the Moses, leading the children of Israel. The Moses leading a bunch of sheep in the desert, coming across a burning bush and discovering the presence of God – in direct communication with Him. In his talk with God, Moses sounds so tentative and reluctant to carry our his mission, coming up with all sorts of excuses to stay out in the wilderness. And I wonder – was it all reluctance to do what he was asked, or was it partially a reluctance to leave the direct presence and communion with God, there with that burning bush?
And I think about John – the “disciple Jesus loved”. John, a kid who was probably only 15 or 16 when Jesus was crucified. John, whose Gospel did not just seek to recount the events of Jesus’ life, but whose Gospel stands apart from the other three – an attempt to theologically explain Jesus through a lens of intense devotion and love. John – the only disciple to die of old age. How he must have longed for his short time on earth with Jesus to have never ended.
Yet Moses and John both carried out their God-given missions, and from what we can tell, lived their lives fully “in the moment” with those around them, and not just as a temporary waiting station before spending an eternity in an ocean whose drops they had tasted first-hand, and then described to the world.
Last week, I heard the story behind the How He Loves Us, and it added just a little bit more to it for me.
John Mark McMillan tells the story of his friend, Steven, a youth pastor who came one morning to a prayer meeting with him (JMM was one of his students), and he prayed “Lord, if it would shake the youth of this nation, I would give my life for that. I would give my life today if it would help you reach these youth.”
That night, Steven was killed in a car accident.
JMM took a tune that he had been working on, and finished the lyrics and music, based on conversations he’d had with Steven about the love of God, and with a desire to be part of God’s answer to Steven’s prayer. How He Loves Us is that song.
Here is the DCB version:
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us allYeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…That He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us allYeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves…
Oh, how He loves us…
11 Comments(+Add)
What a difference between the religion of the prince of peace and the so-called religion of peace
PB – please see YMNBTSI #6.
This is not a thread on Islam.
#2 I am simply contrasting the Prince of Peace, the God who loves us and died for us, thus purchasing our salvation- based on repentance and faith in His finished work- and assuring us of the Kingdom of God now and into the future, the glorious Gospel- to the works- based, hate filled ‘religion of peace’.
Oh, how the true God loves us!
I like and have played this song a lot. I like the John Mark McMillan version better…if simply for the reason he left the line “sloppy wet kiss” in and didn’t replace it with “unforeseen kiss”. Also, there’s another verse where he talks about his friend’s death:
On the CD, JMM barely makes it through this verse.
Thanks Chris for the post. Crowder is awesome.
He’s so Emergent.
Who would have thought that the most complete revelation of His love is a battered and bruised and bloody human frame hanging dead, impaled upon a Roman instrument of death? The understanding of God’s redemptive love is not something that can be understood; it is something that can be experienced on a level that words have not found.
God’s unfathomable love reached out and saved Ingrid Schlueter. The only thought that is more confounding and amazing is that God reached out and saved me.
And I mean that sincerely.
even more confounding than that is that he reached out and saved me….
I am indeed the wretch the song refers to.
Thanks, Chris L, for an inspirational post and music uplifting even for a crone like me whose music tastes lean toward oldie goldies like “The Old Rugged Cross.”
Mrs. K -
I’m a fan of Old Rugged Cross, as well! I believe it was #33 in the hymnal in the church I grew up in (still remembering Sunday night services where folks called out song #’s to sing…)
#6
This is a comment for serious pondering. It’s just that lately I’ve been thinking that loving my enemies and loving my brothers and sisters in Christ have come down to the same thing. Or am I just being crotchety?
#9
Chris, what a memory! I think we might have used the same hymnal!