Scripture of the Week
Psalm 37:1-7 A Song of Wisdom (The Passion Translation)
37 Don’t follow after the wicked ones or be jealous of their wealth.
Don’t
think for a moment they’re better off than you.
2 They and their short-lived success
will
soon shrivel up and quickly fade away,
like
grass clippings in the hot sun.
3 Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in his
eyes.
Fix
your heart on the promises of God, and you will dwell in the land,
feasting
on his faithfulness.
4 Find your delight[b] and
true pleasure in Yahweh,
and
he will give you what you desire the most.
5 Give[c] God
the right to direct your life,
and
as you trust him along the way,
you’ll
find he pulled it off perfectly!
6 He will appear[d] as
your righteousness,
as
sure as the dawning of a new day.
He
will manifest as your justice,
as
sure and strong as the noonday sun.
7 Quiet your heart in his presence
and
wait[e] patiently
for Yahweh.
And
don’t think for a moment that the wicked, in their prosperity,
are
better off than you.
Footnotes
37:4 The
word delight means “to be soft or tender.”
37:5 The
Hebrew word used here can be translated “commit,” which means “to roll over
your burdens on the Lord.”
37:6 The
Hebrew verb found here is also used for giving birth. Perhaps this is a
reference to the birth of Christ, our righteousness.
37:7 The
root word of the word for “wait” can mean “to whirl” or “to be in labor [give
birth].” What an unusual concept for waiting on God. We may feel like we’re
being whirled around by our
circumstances, but in the end, our season of waiting gives birth to
greater things.
Bulletin Notes
So Send I You
So send I you to labor
unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved,
unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn
and scoffing-
So send I you to toil for Me
alone.
So send I you to bind the
bruised and broken,
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to
weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world
aweary-
So send I you to suffer for My
sake.
So send I you to
loneliness and longing,
With heart ahung’ring for the
loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred,
friend and dear one-
So send I you to know My love
alone.
So send I you to leave
your life’s ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will
resign,
To labor long, and love where
men revile you-
So send I you to lose your life
in Mine.
So send I you to hearts
made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they
will not see,
To spend, tho’ it be blood, to
spend and spare not-
So send I you to taste of
Calvary.
History
This hymn, So Send I You, has
been called the greatest missionary hymn of the twentieth century. The hymn has
been labelled by many evangelical leaders as the finest missionary hymn of the
twentieth century. It was first published in 1954 after having been written
sixteen years earlier by a Canadian school teacher, Margaret Clarkson.
“Margaret Clarkson, who was
born in 1915, was a teacher in a gold-mining camp in northern Ontario, Canada.
It was a lonely life for this woman, but she also knew that this is where God
wanted her to serve Him. She had a great desire to be a missionary on a foreign
field but because of her health was unable to go. One day she was reading again
the verse John 20:21, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so
send I you.” While meditating on this verse she wrote the words to a hymn that
has become a favorite during missionary conferences, “So Send I You.”
Stone Soup
by: Author Unknown
Many years ago three soldiers,
hungry and weary of battle, came upon a small village. The villagers, suffering
a meager harvest and the many years of war, quickly hid what little they had to
eat and met the three at the village square, wringing their hands and bemoaning
the lack of anything to eat.
The soldiers spoke quietly among
themselves and the first soldier then turned to the village elders. “Your tired
fields have left you nothing to share, so we will share what little we have:
the secret of how to make soup from stones.”
Naturally the villagers were
intrigued and soon a fire was put to the town’s greatest kettle as the soldiers
dropped in three smooth stones. “Now this will be a fine soup”, said the second
soldier; “but a pinch of salt and some parsley would make it wonderful!” Up
jumped a villager, crying “What luck! I’ve just remembered where some’s been
left!” And off she ran, returning with an apronful of parsley and a turnip. As
the kettle boiled on, the memory of the village improved: soon barley, carrots,
beef and cream had found their way into the great pot, and a cask of wine was
rolled into the square as all sat down to feast.
They ate and danced and
sang well into the night, refreshed by the feast and their new-found friends.
In the morning the three soldiers awoke to find the entire village standing
before them. At their feet lay a satchel of the village’s best breads and
cheese. “You have given us the greatest of gifts: the secret of how to make
soup from stones”, said an elder, “and we shall never forget.” The third
soldier turned to the crowd, and said: “There is no secret, but this is
certain: it is only by sharing that we may make a feast”. And off the soldiers
wandered, down the road.
