'In Times Like These'

As my wife and I watched a recent 6:30 p.m. newscast, I thought about that beloved old song “In Times Like These.”

With unemployment rising and a trillion-dollar “stimulus package” proposed for our hard-hit U.S. economy and with Israel at war with Hamas in Gaza and with numerous other concerns on my mind, why wouldn’t lyrics from Ruth Caye Jones’ classic hymn run through my head?

Here are some words from that famous song:

“In times like these you need a Savior / In times like these you need an anchor / Be very sure, be very sure / Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

(Chorus) “This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He's the One / This Rock is Jesus, the only One! / Be very sure, be very sure / Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!”

Ruth Caye Jones, known as “Mother Jones,” reportedly found inspiration to write “In Times Like These” during World War II when she was moved by reading the words of 2 Timothy 3:1: “This know also that in the last days perilous times will come.” As she read those words, inspiration for the song came, and she jotted lyrics on a small notepad she had in her apron pocket.

As the mother of five children and wife of a busy pastor (a Church of the Nazarene pastor, I believe), Jones’ life was full. She never aspired to do something “great” or “famous” and had no formal music training. But God took her song and sent it around the world to bless many. When Jones watched George Beverly Shea sing her song on a Billy Graham telecast, tears came to her eyes and she said, “I can’t believe I had any part in writing this song. I just feel that God gave it to me, and I gave it to the world.” She had written 15 other songs, but “In Times Like These” became her best known.

The story goes that Jones’ old family clock on the mantel (a wedding present) had been broken, but 15 years after “In Times Like These” had been written and the clock finally repaired, Jones realized that the first four notes of her song and the first notes of the clock’s “Westminster chime” were the same. She had used some notes from a clock that chimed to accompany words to a song about “time.” Jones died in Erie, Pennsylvania, on August 18, 1972, following a short bout with cancer.

Jones wrote her acclaimed hymn during stressful World War II days, and her message remains timeless.

The first verse of “In Times Like These” affirms our need for Jesus as Savior. Without Jesus, we’ll find no safe harbor from fears, worries and “the times we live in.” Jesus, “the Cornerstone,” is our Solid Rock. As hymn writer Edward Mote wrote, “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

In her song, Jones says to “be very sure your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock.” Is your faith placed totally in Christ’s death and resurrection? Are you mistakenly trusting in your good deeds to try to get into heaven or wrongfully adding your “works” to what Christ has done for you? Even older Christians need to recall these words (from the song “Rock of Ages”) penned by Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778): “Not the labors of my hands / Can fulfill Thy Law’s demands / Could my zeal no respite know / Could my tears forever flow / All for sin could not atone / Thou must save, and Thou alone / …In my hand no price I bring / Simply to Thy Cross I cling.”

The second verse of “In Times Like These” points to God’s written revelation to us: “In times like these you need the Bible.”

Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

Jones also tells us, “In times like these, O be not idle.” Jesus said, “I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

When hearing news of wars and troubles, I find comfort in affirming the words found in the last verse of Ruth Caye Jones’ famous song: “In times like these I have a Savior / In times like these I have an anchor / I’m very sure, I’m very sure / My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!”

Give, and It Shall Be Given to You

Did you hear about the visiting preacher who spoke one wintry Sunday morning at a small country church?

The story goes that the young preacher left his wife at home with a sick baby and took their 6-year-old son to his scheduled service. Arriving early, father and son entered the foyer of the white clapboard church and spied a rectangular-shaped, stained-wood box sitting on a pedestal near the door that opened into the church sanctuary. Hand-lettered on the side of that box was this word: “OFFERINGS.”

The young minister, wanting to be an example for his son and thinking he’d plant some “seed-faith,” took out his billfold, fished out a five dollar bill and five ones and slid them through the slot in the box. The church’s pastor arrived and “had a word of prayer” with the visiting speaker. The on-fire young preacher worked up a sweat delivering his best sermon to a handful of people.

After folk left and the church pastor, the young preacher and his son stood in the foyer, the pastor lifted the lid on the offering box, took out the five dollar bill and five ones and said, “Well, it’s not much, but here’s your offering for today.”

As the young preacher thanked the older man, his 6-year-old son said, “Dad, if you’d have put more in, you’d have got more out.”

That old saying “If you put more into something, you’ll get more out” sounds a bit like Jesus’ statement, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom (put in your lap)” (Luke 6:38).

Jesus also noted that whatever measure (yardstick) you use to determine the amount you give will be used to measure what you get back.

I often hear someone say “What goes around comes around.” Perhaps that is a paraphrase of Jesus’ statement “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” The Bible is clear – whatever you give (good or bad) will be given back to you, and you usually get back more than you sow.

“If you give out grief, strife, anger, insult, then that is what will be returned to you, only pressed down, shaken together, and your cup will run over,” says writer Tim Edwards. “God promised Noah that as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest will remain…Be nice...it will come back to you, many times over.”

In “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan wrote, “A man there was, though some did count him mad, / The more he cast away the more he had.”

“Freely ye have received, freely give,” Jesus said.

I often think about people’s expectations of churches. I heard of a lady who phoned a pastor and asked, “What does your church have to offer?” Perhaps she was looking for a youth group for her child or for a singles ministry. Maybe many of us tend to “shop” churches like we do grocery stores.

President John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” Maybe we church members should “Ask not what our church can do for us – ask what we can do for our church.” When we truly give of ourselves, we will receive from the Lord.

When I was a young husband and father, Carol and I attended an Assembly of God church where I helped with youth and participated in music. I grew a bit weary with what appeared to me to have become “routine church.” I met with our gray-haired minister, the now-late Lyman Richardson, and said, “Pastor, I’m just not getting much out of church services.”

The Rev. Richardson, who played drums as a young man before he accepted Christ, looked at me through silver-rimmed spectacles and said, “‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.’”

His words, quoted from Matthew 20:28, penetrated my weariness, and I felt a release, the kind of release that comes after hearing and receiving truth that sets one free.

My old pastor explained that as a person “grows in Christ,” he will not be satisfied by simply hearing the Word – he will hunger for the spiritual satisfaction found in ministering to others. Christianity (Christ conforming believers to His Image) is a work in progress, a work that involves receiving God’s grace and giving of ourselves to others.