I don’t have the original song by the original artist (Billy and Sarah Gaines) to share with you, but I did find a pretty nice rendition of “How Great His Heart Must Be” on YouTube. The pianist’s voice is amazing. Not a great quality video, but the song has always been meaningful.
I guess I’m sharing this as I’m thinking through some of our interactions in the house church. One couple we’ve been studying with always amazes me. That’s not because they’re doing so well, or that they’re growing in the Lord with amazing leaps and bounds, but that they just seem to be struggling with it all. They always keep trying. They really struggle with life. They’ve got three little boys, and since coming to Christ, they realize that they don’t really know how to be good parents. They don’t know how to raise godly children. They’re struggling just to believe and walk in faith. They’re struggling with how to be godly themselves. They believe they’ve been saved by the grace of God, but they are just hanging on to faith…to God…and wondering if they’ll “make it.”
This week as the four of us sat around their kitchen table (a square card table) on their four folding chairs that we gave them (the only chairs they own), they were anxious to get back to our study of the Christian life. We’d been away for 2 weeks, so things were falling apart a bit spiritually. After getting about one sentence into the study, a neighbor girl lifted the screen on the kitchen window and just started asking a question about some little piece of business. As soon as she left, the baby was grabbing everything in sight on the table and we tried to keep our paper copies of the study and all our Bibles intact. Then the 2 year old came in and wanted something. Then the 6 year old came in and was asking for something. Then the neighbor girl reappeared at the window. A moment later a neighbor woman showed up at the other window! And somewhere in all of that there was a woman at the door selling tortillas, and a man selling bottled water who showed up as well. The interruptions couldn’t have been orchestrated any better…either by God or the Devil or both. I really don’t know which it was!
Voices began to rise…restrained irritation led into a flash of anger and a terse response…to the woman…to the boy…to the toddler. HEY, WE’RE BUSY…WE’RE TRYING TO STUDY GOD’S WORD!!!
And thus began a lesson on what it means to be richly indwelt by the Word of God. Isn’t that just perfectly flawed?!?
So, when we finally were able to get in a word, I suggested we start again, but this time with prayer, and we’d ask God to control the interruptions and to teach us His Word and perhaps some patience as well!
The study went really well even though they still struggle greatly with reading and with finding the books and grasping the concept that in the reference Col. 3:16…the “big 3” means “chapter” and the “little 16” means the verse…and that Romans and John and 1 John and Galatians and Ephesians and Colossians are all found in the New Testament…and that means they’re all located in the last portion of the Bible, not way up in the front…just where they were located a couple weeks ago and every week before that!
After nearly all was said and done, they said, “You know…just reading the Bible on Sunday morning and for our Wednesday study isn’t enough, is it?” What a beautiful conclusion to make!
And we closed with prayer. And they were calm. And there was peace in their voices, and in their eyes, and in their hugs as we left their 2 room home.
And God is love! And oh how much He cares for you! And oh how much He cares for me! And oh how great His love, how great His heart must be!
How many snowflakes fall in valleys deep, on mountains tall?
Would I understand if I count them all?
How great are His thoughts toward me
No human mind can know the full extent of the love God shows
He reached so far, He stooped so low to give all His love for me
And oh, how much He cares for me, Oh how great His heart must be
There’s no number high enough to count the Father’s thoughts of love
More than all the grains of sand or stars above
How much He cares for you, how much He cares for me
How great His love, how great His heart must be
My burdens great or small are His concern, He sees them all
He hastens to my faintest call, how great is His love for me
Though millions may pray to Him, still He answers each of them
The youngest child, the oldest man are precious before His eyes
And oh, how much He cares for me, Oh how great His heart must be
There’s no number high enough to count the Father’s thoughts of love
More than all the grains of sand or stars above
How much He cares for you, how much He cares for me
How great His love, how great His heart must be
And oh, how much He cares for me, Oh how great His heart must be
There’s no number high enough to count the Father’s thoughts of love
More than all the grains of sand or stars above
How much He cares for you, how much He cares for me
How great His love, how great His heart must be
How great His love, how great His heart must be
Knowing Your ABCDs 