Today's Scripture Reading (October 6, 2024): Genesis 25
The hymn "O Love that Will
Not Let Me Go" was written by the great Scots preacher George Matheson, who was
going through a difficult period in his life. George was going blind, and his
fiancée had told him she would not marry him because of his handicap. George
was devastated. But God chose to use the physical limitation and the hurt he
was feeling, in combination with his faith, to use him in an extraordinary way
to show God's love to those with whom he came in contact.
Consider the
impact of the words of the hymn when we realize the depth of the pain in George's
life that brought them into being.
O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in Thee
I give Thee back the life I owe
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
Lloyd Ogilvie
tells a story about going to a service in Edinburgh, Scotland, and sitting in
the balcony of the Holyrood Abbey Church where he had received two messages: one
from the sermon being preached and another from a radiant young woman seated a few pews in front of him.
In the concluding
moments of the service, they rose to sing the Matheson hymn. The woman rose and
sang the hymn with great enthusiasm. It was then that Ogilvie noticed that she
was singing from a large, oddly shaped hymnal. Instead of looking down at the
page, she was tracing her fingers across the page. Ogilvie realized she was
blind and was using a Braille hymnbook.
Ogilvie says
he was moved to tears as he watched this blind woman who could only see Christ
with the eyes of her heart as she sang a hymn written by a blind Scottish
poet-preacher about a love that endures despite life's setbacks and
difficulties. Ogilvie wondered whether he loved Christ that much.
When the
service ended, he went over to the young woman and told her how her radiant
worship had impacted him through the service. Her reply was, "Thank you,
sir. I have prayed that his love would shine through me. Unlike you, I can't
see my own face in the mirror, but I can see Jesus with different eyes. I asked
Him for some sign that He was getting through me to others. What you said is
His answer. Thank you again."
It shouldn't
surprise us that God chose Jacob. It wasn't because of all the fantastic
characteristics that he had or because of his compelling personality because
Jacob had neither. Jacob was a finagler, a deceiver, who lived without much in
the way of friends. If we could have stood these two brothers up beside each
other, Esau is the one with whom we would have wanted to be around. He was the
one who seemed to have the personality and the ease of life. Jacob was hard to
get along with, someone you wouldn't want to trust with anything important.
And yet it is
the younger brother, Jacob, who is chosen to be an essential link in God's plan
to bring Salvation to the earth. While we might have been tempted to leave this
deceiver out of our family tree, God proudly proclaims himself as the God of
Jacob even before the boys were born.
One of the
biggest complaints that I hear about the church is that we are full of
hypocrites, but that is what happens when God takes those who are the weak
among us and sets them on a path of redemption and leadership. God's plan has
always been to take the world's leftovers and make them into the leaders of his
church. I know because it is the story of my life. I am the one who rebelled, who
took Jacob's path around what God wanted to do in my life. Whenever we talk
about the God of Jacob, we remind ourselves of how God chooses fools, seconds,
the less gifted, and leftovers like us to do what he needs to do so that God's
work might
be displayed in our lives.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Genesis 26
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