We’re in Kentucky this weekend, and attended a great worship service earlier today. We drove down last Wednesday (16 hours!) to witness Bryce’s graduation from Army Basic Training on Friday, but decided to stick around for the weekend because this is such a neat place. To me Kentucky is kinda like the Black Hills, only stretched out over a larger area, and the hills flattened out a bit. Lots of touristey things to do and multiple-days worth of gorgeous scenery to take in. I could stay a lot longer, but I’d probably want to leave when the temps start climbing as the summer progresses.<\/p>\n
Since it was Sunday, we went along with friend to the church he & his family attend, and it was an awesome time. The church itself — Southeast Christian Church<\/a> in Louisville — is amazing in its scale, with weekend attendance topping 15,000, a 100 acre campus, and a 9,300 seat worship center. They also have a youth complex that’s bigger than most churches I’ve attended, and a youth outreach program that is to be envied, and I’m sure is imitated in a lot of places.<\/p>\n They do church well at Southeast. The worship leaders were top-notch singers, and it was evident that considerable time, thought & prayer was put into the music selection to tie in with the sermon. Communion was served at Southeast today, and the song that was sung while the elements were passed — How Deep The Father’s Love For Us<\/em> — moved me deeply, as that song usually does. <\/p>\n The song’s lyrics talk about the great sacrifice God made on our behalf, while we were still sinners. “That he should give His only Son, To make a wretch His treasure.”<\/em> I did nothing to deserve God’s mercy and his love, but he extends them to me, and to all; His gifts are there for the taking, but take (or accept) we must or they can’t be ours, for He will not force those gifts on us. <\/p>\n Here is a recording of that song by Fernando Ortega<\/a>, one of my favorite artists, and the lyrics below that. <\/p>\n