On May 13, 1987, the Lord gave me one of my personal favorite songs of intimate worship. That song is called No Other Love. I think it is very appropriate that this blog came out the week following St. Valentine’s Day. Here’s the story behind this song:
My whole life, it seems, is one of searching for intimacy. When I first realized I could have an intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I began to use music to communicate my prayers to Him. “No Other Love” came as I simply bared my most honest feelings and impressions about the One I have come to know.
I have known true love and I have known perverse love. One leads to death. The other is to paint a picture of Christ’s love for the church, but both fall short of what I have come to see as the love of God. I always thought I had to jump through so many hoops to please God, yet when I came to realize that the blood of Christ had truly cleansed me and changed my identity, I suddenly came to the realization that my God was pleased with who I am. So I began to relate to Him in a whole new way. One of those first attempts at intimate worship was this song.
As the song was being born, I reflected on one of my favorite scenes from the film, Chariots of Fire, where Eric Liddell is trying out for the 1924 Olympics. Someone asked him why he ran. His response? “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”
God made me with a purpose…to worship Him…and when I worship Him, I feel His pleasure. He also created you with a purpose…to worship Him. Let’s worship Him. Let’s lean into Him right now.
The LORD appeared to him from afar, [saying,] "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” Jeremiah 31:3 NASB
There is no other love like the love of God. 1 John 4:7-21 says it like this:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we 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. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son [to be] the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 1 John 4:7-21 NASB
Need to feel God’s pleasure today? Lean into His love. Need to face your fears today? Lean into His love. Need to find rest for your weary soul today? Lean into His love. It is His love that led me to repentance. That is amazing love…and there is no other like it. Lean into God’s love today.
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to hear the song, No Other Love, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/no-other-love/
Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/03/30/20/33/heart-700141_1280.jpg