JESUS, MY SAVIOR DEAR

JESUS, MY SAVIOR DEAR

Spring has finally arrived, the sun is shining brightly and the air is warm.  It is so refreshing after such a long cold winter.  Just a few weeks ago we celebrated the Easter season and we turned our eyes to the events that marked the last week in our Lord’s earthly life.  We turned our eyes to Palm Sunday as He made His entrance into Jerusalem.  The people thought He was going to proclaim Himself an earthly king.  But our Lord was on His way to the cross to die for you and for me.  But “Sunday was coming” and His glorious resurrection, and because He lives we shall live also.  Oh, Praise the Lord!  And someday He will come back as our Conquering King, bringing peace at last to this world.

How can we not love our Savior dear?  He has brought us salvation, forgiven our sins.  What words can describe our Glorious Lord, our Savior dear. 

“But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings: and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves” Malachi 4:2.

Here is another wonderful hymn story.  Oh, how I love these stories and am able to share with others the stories of the hymns.  Our old hymns each have a message and I long to impart these stories to you that you may be blessed in your walk with the Lord.  I was recently able to share hymn stories at a retreat in fellowship around the table and also at a volunteer breakfast.  This one is called “Sun of My Soul, Thou Savior Dear.”

“When someone asked Alfred, Lord Tennyson what Jesus Christ meant to him, he pointed to an open flower and responded, “What the sun is to that flower, Jesus Christ is to my soul.  He is the Sun of my soul.”  The prophet Malachi called the Messiah the Sun of Righteousness, who would rise with healing in His wings.

So John Keble was using a familiar title for Jesus when He wrote this poem.  Keble first published “Sun of my Soul, Thou Savior Dear” in a book called “The Christian Year, which included poems to be used by believers for worship throughout the church year.  An extremely modest man, Keble published this book anonymously.  He used the proceeds from the sale of his book to maintain the small village church near Oxford in which he served for more than three decades.

Throughout his ministry, Keble was known as an outstanding preacher and a careful Bible scholar.  This hymn was inspired by Luke 24:29, where two disciples on their way to Emmaus were met by Jesus.  They begged him to say with them because it was getting late.  Maybe it was getting late, but if the “Sun of my soul” was with them, it would never get dark.

SUN OF MY SOUL, THOU SAVIOR DEAR

Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear, it is not night if Thou be near; O may no earthborn cloud arise to hide Thee from Thy servant’s eyes.

When the soft dews of kindly sleep my wearied eyelids gently steep, be my last thought, how sweet to rest forever on my Savior’s breast.

Abide with me from morn till eve, for without Thee I cannot live; abide with me when night is nigh, for without Thee I dare not die.

Come near and bless us when we wake, ere through the world our way we take; till, in the ocean of Thy love, we lose ourselves in heaven above.  (John Keble, 1792-1866)

Oh, what a message the Lord has for us this day.  The sun is shining, the skies are blue and we rejoice in another day to serve Him.  And the prayer is that nothing in this world, no trial, no sorrow or tears will hide our Blessed Lord from our eyes.  No matter what comes our way, may we always keep our eyes on Jesus.  And it is hard sometimes as we feel we just can’t go on, but He is our “Savior Dear.”

And my our last thoughts at night before we close our eyes in sleep is the promise that someday we will be able to rest forever on our Savior’s breast.  I know of several  people right now who are ready to take that final rest with Jesus.

And I praise Him that He never leaves me, and that I don’t know how I could live without Him.  And if you don’t know Jesus, don’t live another day without Him.  We don’t know what the night will hold, or the next day or even the next hour.  You dare not die without Him!  As I have said before, “Life has many choices, but eternity has only two choices.”  When you close your eyes in sleep tonight, search your heart and ask yourself if you are ready to meet Jesus.

So as we walk through our days in this world of ours, we long to lose ourselves in His love.  His love is like an ocean, rolling and rolling over us, guiding and protecting us until that day when we walk into eternity with Jesus forever!  He is indeed, “Jesus, My Savior Dear.”

In His Precious Name,

Pastor Sharon