Just Pondering

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Rick Branan

           

          I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.

John 12:46 (CSBBible)

 

          For the first seventeen years of his life Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (b. Wilton, IA, 1856; d. Los Angeles, CA, 1932) lived on an Iowa farm, where friends and neighbors often gathered to sing. Gabriel accompanied them on the family reed organ he had taught himself to play. At the age of sixteen he began teaching singing in schools (following in his father's footsteps) and soon was acclaimed as a fine teacher and composer. He moved to California in 1887 and served as Sunday school music director at the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. After moving to Chicago in 1892, Gabriel edited numerous collections of anthems, cantatas, and a large number of songbooks for the Homer Rodeheaver, Hope, and E. O. Excell publishing companies. He composed hundreds of tunes and texts, at times using pseudonyms such as Charlotte G. Homer. The total number of his compositions is estimated at about seven thousand. Gabriel's gospel songs became widely circulated through the Billy Sunday­-Homer Rodeheaver urban crusades.

Bert Polman

Send the Light

 There’s a call comes ringing o’er the restless wave:
“Send the light! Send the light!”
There are souls to rescue, there are souls to save.
Send the light! Send the light!

Send the light, the blessed gospel light.
Let it shine from shore to shore.
Send the light, the blessed Gospel light.
Let it shine forevermore.

We have heard the Macedonian call today:
“Send the light! Send the light!”
And a golden off'ring at the cross we lay,
Send the light! Send the light!

Let us pray that grace may ev'rywhere abound;
Send the light! Send the light!
And a Christ-like spirit ev'rywhere be found.
Send the light! Send the light!

Let us not grow weary in the work of love.
Send the light! Send the light!
Let us gather jewels for a crown above.
Send the light! Send the light!

           Written by Charles Gabriel

          How important is light?  In our world, we use light all the time.  It helps us see when it is dark.  When we don’t have light, that’s when we really miss it.  The contradiction of light and darkness is a constant theme in scripture.  In the Old Testament light was created in Genesis.  In the New Testament, John calls Jesus the Light.  In our passage from John, Christ refers to Himself as Light to chase away darkness.  He also declares himself the “Light of the world” in John 8.  In an ancient world, light was not taken for granted.  Jesus as the Light was a fantastic picture of who He was and what His mission was. 

          In the Sermon on the mount, Jesus commands us to be the light to the world.  In his hymn, Charles Gabriel, shouts over and over, “Send the light!”  That light is Jesus, but we have to take the Light to the world.  Remember the children’s chorus, “This Little Light?”  We can’t hide it, we must let it shine.

          So, I have two questions.  Have you seen the Light?  Is that Light shining through you?  Folks, be sure you know the Light personally and then shine all over your world.

Just pondering . . . Bro. Rick