"Be to the helpless a helper indeed."

"Be to the helpless a helper indeed."

Hymn: “Make Me a Blessing” – Ira B. Wilson (1880-1950)
Tune: SCHULER

Gospel songs like this one which sound a little more like a skating rink or an amusement park carousel than Sunday morning worship must have been quite popular in the 1950’s because we sang this one a lot. It was sort of a ‘go-to’ song… maybe like “Shine, Jesus, Shine” has been for the past few years.

For me, this song takes me back to Pigeon Forge First Baptist Church and the carefree singing of a text about people who are “weary and sad.” Fortunately, there wasn’t a disconnect there when I was a child; but the words stuck in my mind… and hopefully in my actions!

A lot is said about churches that spend more time on the social gospel than they spend on the evangelistic gospel. Anyone who knows me will have heard me say that the church should reach up (in worship), reach in (through fellowship/discipleship) and reach out (with missions and ministry). I compare it to a three-legged stool like Ma Huff used to sit on to milk the cows; the three legs kept her stable and flexible. The healthiest churches are those who cover all three of those areas fairly equally… neglecting none of them.

A part of the third ‘leg’ is helping those in need. This hymnline is succinct in its call to us: “Be to the helpless a helper indeed.” It may remind you of an oath made by a Boy Scout, but it is definitely a call to those of us who have decided to follow Jesus.

Quite honestly, it is easier to help those who have not yet totally reached rock bottom. Helping the truly helpless – that requires our humbling ourselves and arriving at the servant-place to which Christ was willing to stoop in order to conquer.

Want to really minister? We probably need to be on the lookout for the truly helpless… and they are legion! When we discover these types, let’s not just refer some local ministry to follow up on them with food, shelter or counseling. Let’s take time out to share our life with them – not in order to report our adventure to our Christian compadres, but to BE Christ to those who have no one else to go to bat for them.

We won’t have to look far.

This hymn beautifully sung by a young girl… without this stanza, however!

"Love is the theme, eternal theme."

"Love is the theme, eternal theme."
Hymn: “Love Is the Theme” – Words & Music Albert C. Fisher (1886-1946)
Tune: FISHER

This is a rollicking gospel song. I admit it sounds more like a skating rink song than a church-hymn. It doesn’t appear in many hymnals anymore, but it has a need-to-hear message for all of us - both as individuals and as congregants.

For today’s hymnline, I’m using the full text of the refrain:
    Love is the theme.
    Love is supreme.
    Sweeter it grows,
    Glory bestows.
    Bright as the sun,
    Ever it glows!
    Love is the theme,
    Eternal theme!

If you took out the phrase “glory bestows,” this could be a fine description of just about any kind of love, couldn’t it?

What a difference it would make in our personal lives if indeed, love were our theme – love which exhibits acceptance, grace, forgiveness… all those Jesus-qualities. What a difference it would make in our churches if love were INDEED our theme, not just some decorative addition to our mission statement or a word printed on our church letterhead.

Too many studies show that seekers are not as attracted to the preaching/teaching or the music style of a church as they are drawn to places where they feel love and un-qualified acceptance. So why don’t we listen better to those kinds of studies? I guess it’s easier to hire the best platform staff than it is to put ourselves out there in loving ways.

We’ve all had experiences like this, but while in North Carolina, Carlita and I drove to a nearby town to hear Cynthia Clawson in concert (which we are often prone to do) on a Sunday evening. We got there early and found our place in one of the pews in the beautifully-appointed sanctuary. As the church members began to arrive, it became obvious that we were in someone else’s pew. A group of about twelve people surrounded us and basically wedged us into the middle of their pew… and not one of them welcomed us or made us feel remotely loved. Would we have ventured back to that building if we had been looking for a church home? I doubt it seriously, in spite of their reputation for great preaching and music.

Another little hymn says: “Jesus was a loving teacher, helping people… know the love of God our Father, teaching them to love…” We need to stop whatever we are doing and let Jesus teach us once again to be loving by nature – to make love the REAL theme of our weekday lives and to let that theme wash over into Sunday!

Couldn’t find anyone singing this one online, but here it is being played!

"Take the task God gives you gladly. Let his work your pleasure be."

"Take the task God gives you gladly. Let his work your pleasure be."
Hymn: “Hark, the Voice of Jesus Calling” – Daniel March (1816-1909)
Set to Many Tunes. Commonly set to Mozart's ELLESDIE tune.

Don’t you love it when you thank someone, and their sincere response is, “It was my pleasure”?

In the work-world, those who truly enjoy their jobs usually are the best at them; those who are prepared and enthusiastic seem to be the most successful. They certainly look forward to getting up and going to work - and are productive once they get there. In the church-world, it’s pretty much like that, too.

Those of us who were professional ministers (I hate that term, but I think you know what I mean) are likely to talk about being “called of God” to a life-long task. That’s well and good, but God is in the business of calling people out for service – paid and volunteer… and many more of the latter!

This hymnline underscores the need for folks who hear the call of God to get up and do something, even if it is outside their comfort zone. Upon understanding that urging as being actually from God’s heart to theirs, they without a beat agree to follow that lead. They accept the task un-begrudgingly… yeah, even gladly.

Service can be one of the most pleasurable experiences available to Christian people if, as the text says, we LET that happen.

In most of my churches in my 40-plus career with various congregations, I taught an adult Sunday School class during the hour before I served as worship-leader. One of the main reasons I did so was that I wanted to do something for which I was not paid; it was my volunteer job, done alongside other volunteers. (I am after all from Tennessee!) I took that task seriously and gladly, and many Sundays those discussions brought me more spiritual pleasure than all the hymns, anthems and handbell pieces which followed.

Although usually considered a missions hymn, this hymn is about listening for the voice of God singling us out for specific duties to enrich the kingdom… wherever we are, whatever we’re doing. Today’s hymnline compels us to accept the task gladly and to let it be a real pleasure. Let it be, let it be!

This Hymn Played - ELLESDIE Tune

"I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies."

"I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies.
"Hymn: “Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart” – George Croly (1841-1860)
Typical Tune: MORECAMBE


While the hymn centers around the request of God’s presence to hover over us and fall upon us, this hymnline says what we’re not wanting:
    I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
    No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
    No angel visitant, no opening skies.
    But take the dimness of my soul away.

Don’t you love that?! I do! With this hymn-writer, I don’t ask for some grand vision or to be caught up in some enraptured ecstasy. I don’t desire stigmata or other openings in my epidermis in order to prove that the Spirit of God is active within me. I don’t anticipate one of God’s messengers to suddenly appear at the foot of my bed at midnight. A rolling back of the clouds to reveal the heavens behind them is un-necessary.

I’d be fine with the removal of the dull, blurry, indistinct places in my soul – those vague, even ambiguous places that tend to un-brighten the corners of who I am. Yes, I too want to have light restored to my darkness – the darkness brought on my lack of trust, my fear… even my disbelief.

So come down, Holy Spirit. Work on my in-most being. No miracles required.

Congregational Singing of This Hymn
(Again, I had trouble finding an online example that included this pivotal stanza!)

"Things I would ask him to tell me if he were here."

"Things I would ask him to tell me if he were here."
Hymn: “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” – William H. Parker (1845-1929)
Tune: STORIES OF JESUS

Often considered a children’s song, this simple hymn can message us no matter how old we are, especially those of us whose entire life has been inquisitive at best… nosy at worst!

It seems as if this is worded like early elementary students might speak when sitting on the floor in their Sunday School class or gathered in a family setting. It may be simple-speak that makes this such an appealing hymn, familiar to most Christian denominations. I’m pretty sure it’s the simple-speak that appeals to me!

There are so many questions I have to ask Jesus when face to face I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky. I would write them all in composition books if I thought we could take them with us on that journey. I want to know why boys and girls couldn’t swim together at youth camp when I was a teenager – why sometimes they even had separate pools! Or why my home pastor mowed the parsonage yard in his white shirt and tie. Or why did God allow someone to invent shrink-wrap that makes everything (especially CD’s) so hard to get into. Obviously, it’s the spiritual answers I’m after!

However, THIS hymn is our asking another human with more knowledge of the Bible to fill us in on the details of the earthly life of God’s Son. But we all have questions about our faith that seem to have been redacted from the Canon. Those are the things I’d like to ask Jesus if he were here. I won’t list my own queries; I’ll let you fill in those blanks for yourself. We all want to know more than we’ve been told… but THAT is part of the holy mystery of the faith. If we had all the answers, we would become arrogant and even snobbier than we are! We’d be singing that playground ditty, “I know something you don’t know” as we bully our way through life.

I agree with Paul here: “I want to know Christ.” (Philippians 3:10) The more I know about his life, the more likely I am to get to know him personally – just like it is with all my closest relationships.


So tell me everything you can about Jesus. Inquiring minds want to know!


This hymn sung beautifully by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir