JESUS CALLS US O'ER THE TUMULT

          Do you ever feel that you just don't have enough time to get everything done?  I think that is common feeling among many of us today.  And why should that be in this day and age when we have so much technology to speed up our work?  The internet, smart phones, e-mails, software, aps, texting and so much more should enable us to get our work done so much more quickly and efficiently.  But they are really taking more of our time.  

          Just watch folks walking around with their phones texting and talking.  Think about the hours folks are now spending browsing on the internet. And what usually suffers?  Usually our time reading God's Word, our time praying, our time serving the Lord, and even our church attendance.  Maybe we need the message of this week's hymn.  "Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea; day by day his sweet voice soundeth, saying "Christian, follow me"."  

          As a small girl Cecil Frances Humphries  (1818-1895) wrote poetry. Her father was stern, strict, and very rich. One day, he discovered his daughter's secret writings. The family expected him to punish the young child, but instead he gave her a pretty box in which to keep her scribblings and he invited her to read them aloud to the family every Saturday evening.  With this encouragement, the young poet was off and running. As a young woman, she wrote verses to enhance the Bible lessons she taught her Sunday school students.  In 1846, at the age of twenty-eight, she published a collection, Verses For Holy Seasons. Two years later she published another collection, Hymns for Little Children, which included three of her most beloved compositions: "Once in Royal David's City," "All Things Bright and Beautiful," and "There Is a Green Hill Far Away".  

          Her more than four hundred hymn texts were published in Verses from the Holy Scripture (1846), Hymns for Little Children (1848), and Hymns Descriptive and Devotional (1858). Perhaps she was thinking of the contradictions inherent in being a comfortable Christian when she penned the verses to "Jesus Calls Us" one autumn evening in 1852. Her husband had spent the day writing his sermon for Sunday. Over dinner they discussed the scripture, Matthew 4: 18-20, in which Jesus called out "Follow me!" to two brothers fishing in the Sea of Galilee. At once, Andrew and Simon Peter dropped their nets and followed Jesus. Inspired by this conversation, Mrs. Alexander wrote this hymn of discipleship. It was read to the congregation that Sunday following the sermon.  

          Jesus calls us. Us? Yes! we are also called from our obsession with "the vain world's golden store." Jesus is motioning to us, calling us to follow him, challenging us, "Christian, love me more than these" . Will we respond to His challenge as He calls us o'er the tumult of our busy lives?

1   Jesus calls us o'er the tumult

of our life's wild, restless sea;

day by day his sweet voice soundeth,

saying "Christian, follow me."

2   As, of old, apostles heard it

by the Galilean lake,

turned from home and toil and kindred,

leaving all for his dear sake.

3   Jesus calls us from the worship

of the vain world's golden store,

from each idol that would keep us,

saying "Christian, love me more."

4   In our joys and in our sorrows,

days of toil and hours of ease,

still he calls, in cares and pleasures,

"Christian, love me more than these."

5   Jesus calls us; by thy mercies,

Savior, may we hear thy call,

give our hearts to thine obedience,

serve and love thee best of all.

Listen to it here.  TUMULT