Gregg DeMey 0:07
Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose of the word of God. It's Friday, August 5 and Sunday's coming. This is Gregg DeMey and I serve as Lead Pastor at ECRC. In this week, we will conclude our Sunday morning worship service with an invitation to experience the sacrament of communion at Jesus table. And as we receive Communion, we'll be singing a classic hymn together: "Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling."
Gregg DeMey 0:32
This hymn was written in the late 1800s by a composer named Will Lamartine Thompson, who is a close friend of the great Chicago evangelist Dwight L. Moody of Moody Bible Institute and Moody Church fame. Dwight Moody spoke to his friend Will Thompson as he was dying - and after Moody's extraordinary life traveling the world, starting institutions, planting churches, successfully witnessing for Jesus - Moody said this on his deathbed: "Will, I'd rather have written one verse of your hymn 'Softly and Tenderly' than anything else I've done in my whole life." That's quite high praise indeed for a song.
Gregg DeMey 1:10
This hymn has been recorded by artists such as Amy Grant, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, Kelly Clarkson, Johnny Cash and Alan Jackson in recent years. The hymn was also used during the memorial service for Martin Luther King Jr. on April 8, 1968. You can listen to the Johnny Cash version by clicking on the link in the show notes. The reason this song is so spiritually powerful - in my opinion - is because it's tied to the standing invitation that Jesus offers in Matthew 11: come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Gregg DeMey 1:48
Here are the lyrics from verse two. Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading, pleading for you and for me? Why should we linger? And heed not his mercies mercies for you and for me. Come home, come home, all you who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling, oh sinner, come home.
Gregg DeMey 2:14
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I do hear you calling today softly and tenderly. That you desire even a sinner like me to come home to your presence. I say yes, that's exactly where I want to be. With you, in your presence, Lord. Amen.