Come Down, Lord!

While spending time in the hospital again and facing a number of unknowns, I found myself reflecting on the lyrics of the hymn Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me . I thought I’d share a few thoughts I jotted down during that time.* A. “What gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer.” I don’t know what you are facing today, and none of us can know what we may face tomorrow. We do know the Lord gives and the Lord takes away (Job 1:21). And we also know that we ought to be able to say with Eli: “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good (1 Samuel 3:18).” Sometimes we find ourselves saying these things in the midst of what some call “dark providences.” And truly, some things do feel dark. When our bodies fail, when death looms ahead, when loved ones are taken from us - the grief, fear, and pain can be palpable. But as believers, we are not called to stoicism. Even now, we may “put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3). Even now - in this night season - God c...

  When the two blind men cried out saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David, Jesus stood still (Matthew 20:30-32).  Though the multitude rebuked them, as if Jesus had more important and pressing matters to attend to, He still took time for them.  He stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you (Matthew 20:32)?  Hugh Martin says that in the biography of Jesus “we have the very Christ himself - the living Saviour - still speaking to us as never man spake, still going about doing good.”  As Martin puts it, when we read the Bible we deal with Him, and He with us.  He says, “The true and living Christ, present with you - secretly and subjectively present in you by his Spirit - deals with you.  And you in the Spirit deal with the true and living Christ, present with you - ostensibly and objectively present with you - in his own holy word and history.”  He added, “Jesus is here as he was there; here now, as...