Send The Light

There’s a call comes ringing o’er the restless wave,
“Send the light! Send the light!”
There are souls to rescue, there are souls to save,
Send the light! Send the light!

Refrain:
Send the light, the blessed Gospel light;
Let it shine from shore to shore!
Send the light, the blessed Gospel light;
Let it shine forevermore!

We have heard the Macedonian call today,
“Send the light! Send the light!”
And a golden off’ring at the cross we lay,
Send the light! Send the light!

Let us pray that grace may everywhere abound,
“Send the light! Send the light!”
And a Christlike spirit everywhere be found,
Send the light! Send the light!

Let us not grow weary in the work of love,
“Send the light! Send the light!”
Let us gather jewels for a crown above,
Send the light! Send the light!

Written by Charles Gabriel in the early 1900’s, you will find this great song in a couple of my favorite hymnals – the “Red-back hymnal” and the “Hymns of the Spirit.”  In my opinion, this hymn provides an interesting take on the spreading of the Gospel message.  Rather than a command to “Be the light” or “shine your light,”  the author encourages us to “send the light.”  Jesus said “You are the light of the world” in Matthew 5.  He also told us in that same chapter “so let your light shine before me.”  So is this hymn encouraging us to be “passive” in the spreading of the Gospel message?  To just send someone else to do the work of proclaiming the Good news?  No, I don’t believe so.  What I do believe is that the author is encouraging us to do two specific things:  (1) to do what God did – to mirror His example.  God sent the light to the world.  God sent His only begotten Son into the world.  We are called to be a “going, telling people,” but we are also called to be a “sending” people.  We are to invest in the lives of others and send them around the world that the Gospel message might be carried from shore to shore.  (2) I believe the words echo the prayer of the “Macedonia” man found in Acts 16.  His prayer was for help – Please send the light!! That is what I believe the author is trying to encourage us to do.  To heed the call for help from around the world and to send the light.  I pray these great words found in a song written almost 100 years ago will encourage you today to send your light.

• “The Macedonian Call” – As I have said before, one of the great things about hymns is that the point us back to Scripture so many times.  When you read this lyric, the question may have popped in your head “What is the Macedonian call?”  Well, here’s what Acts Chapter 16 says. “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”  What a great story!!  God giving Paul a vision of a man.  A man crying out for help.  Paul responded immediately to that call.  I believe today God can still give us a vision and a burden for certain people.  It may be thousands of miles away, and it may be in your own neighborhood.  But God can speak to your heart with a burden to send the light to someone you have never met before.  The question is how will we respond to the hearing of that Macedonian Call in our life?

• “Golden offering at the cross we lay” – I am a believer that God truly wants our heart, our passion, and our life offered in service to Him.  That is the theme of great songs like “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee.”  But I also believe that God requires an offering that is valuable and costly to us personally.  An offering that truly is a sacrifice to Him.  An offering where we have given up a material blessing as a sign of our commitment to Him.  The author here writes about a “golden offering.”  An offering that is materially valuable.  An offering of worth.  In the song “Take my life” that author says “Take my silver and my gold.  Not a mite would I withhold.”  It is not just an offering in heaven one day – a laying down of our crowns at His feet.  But also an offering that we give while walking this earth, that can be used to “send the light” around the world.

This past week, a man named Felix Baumgartner parachuted from space and broke the sound barrier and was traveling over 800 miles per hour on his decent back to earth.  His nickname is “Fearless Felix” because of what he did.  I saw some of the video and know for a fact that God has not called me to follow in Felix’s footsteps, and I won’t be jumping out of a plane or spacecraft anytime soon.

But this event also made me think about the speed of light.  A man has to fall 800+ mph hour to break sound barrier.  That’s pretty fast.  But how much faster is the speed of light?  I went on Google and found out that light travels at 186,000 miles per second.  That’s right – per second.  It is impossible to fathom how fast light truly is.  But even faster than “visible light” is “spiritual light.”  Light that breaks through darkness.  Light that can instantaneously change someone from the inside out.  Light that travels all across the globe.  But we have to remember.  God has chosen us to be vessels of His light.  So some questions worth contemplating today are:

“Will you be the light?”

“Will you shine your light?”

“Will you, as this great hymn says, send the light?”

I pray today that the Lord gives you a burden for lost souls and that you will answer His call to send to the light.