****SO SEND I YOU

Most of you are familiar with the missionary hymn, SO SEND I YOU.   But what you may not know is that the author wrote two different versions. 

(But first, I want to announce that you may obtain your own FREE copies of our hymnbook, from the table at the side entrance of our auditorium.)   

Now, for "The Rest of the Story." -

Margaret Clarkson always hoped that God would call her to serve on the mission field.  In her younger days, she spent seven years working in a mining camp in northern Ontario, Canada.  She was alone with no church or Christian friends.  

One day, while reading her bible, she read John 20:21, "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so, send I you."

She believed that God must have wanted her in that place for a purpose.  And that’s when she began to write a poem that expresses the miseries and hardships of a missionary’s life.

The poem describes a calling that is unappreciated, underpaid, unloved, rebuked, scorned, scoffed, and burdensome; a life of suffering and loneliness.  She had sacrificed all her personal desires and ambitions to show God's love to hard-hearted people who reviled and hated her.

And that is the background for, and the subject of the hymn that has been called the finest missionary hymn of the 20th century.

Except for ..."The Rest of the Story!"

According to Margaret Clarkson, “...twenty-some years later, after more life-experience and contact with real missionaries, I realized that the poem was really very one-sided; it told only of the sorrows and privations of the missionary call and none of its triumphs. [So,] I wrote another song, in the same rhythm, that sets forth the glory and the hope of the missionary calling.  Above all, I wish to be a biblical writer, and the second hymn is the more biblical one.”

Her first hymn wasn't wrong; it was just self-centered.  It emphasized the failures and frustrations of someone who was striving to do God's work in her own strength.  

Unfortunately, the original hymn was already widely known and accepted before Margaret wrote the revised text that she much preferred.  Both versions are published, side by side, in our hymnbook on pages 310 and 311.  If you were to compare them, you would see how 20 years of serving God had changed her heart.  Now, with self out of the way, she was seeing God's work from a whole new perspective.

   

SO SEND I YOU (with its new subtitle, By Grace Made Strong), declares the great grace of a mighty God who is our strength, our peace, our comfort, and our joy.  He never promised an easy, comfortable life but He does promise that He is with us and will lead us through all our trials and tribulations.  And He uses weak and imperfect people to accomplish His work by His power and for His manifest glory. 

And with my apologies to Paul Harvey, 

now you know "The Rest of the Story."

****JESUS SAVES

If you have lived here in So. California for any length of time, you’ve probably seen this historic landmark.  It is one of two giant red neon signs over Los Angeles that say, “JESUS SAVES.”

They were first installed on the downtown campus of The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, (BIOLA) in 1935 by the congregation of the Church of the Open Door under the pastorate of Dr. Louis Talbot.

In 1959, during the pastorate of Dr. J. Vernon McGee, BIOLA was relocated to La Mirada.  The original location of the Church of the Open Door was taken over by Gene Scott, the arrogant, obnoxious, cigar-smoking pastor known as “The Cussing Preacher of Faith Church.”  The facility was torn down in 1988.

Gene Scott salvaged the signs and installed them on his newly acquired location in the former United Artists Theatre on Broadway.  After he died, his widow assumed his pastorate and moved one of the signs to her relocated facility in Glendale.  The other sign still shines from its current location on top of the United Artists’ newly renovated Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

In 1954, Pricilla Owens wrote the song, JESUS SAVES, for a missionary service in her church, in Baltimore.

That phrase, JESUS SAVES, is the heart of the Gospel.  Salvation is a gift from God.  You cannot be saved by your good works, your church membership, or your sacrificial offerings.  (Eph. 2:8,9)

 “…for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12

And Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.” John 14:6

The first stanza of the hymn alludes to Jesus’ instructions to “go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mk. 16:15).

In the second stanza is a reference to the Year of Jubilee.  In the Mosaic Law, every 50th year, slaves were set free.  Spiritually speaking, that’s what happens where the Gospel is preached; sinners are set free from the bondage of sin.

If I tried to summarize the Gospel in just two words, I doubt that I could do better than the message of those neon signs.  And today, nearly eighty years later and despite an obnoxious preacher and a giant Hollywood corporation’s upscale hotel, the message, “JESUS SAVES,” is still boldly proclaimed in bright red neon lights over Los Angeles every night.