Posted on by Pastor Paul Yoder

How Is It With My Soul?

Today the U.S.A. has surpassed China and Italy in total numbers of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 and the statistical charts indicate our numbers will continue to climb exponentially for some time before they begin to level off and decline. Social media this morning is full of encouraging words from the Psalms, prayers, humor–oh, how we need a good laugh–and even word that the World Evangelical Council out of Deerfield, IL has called for a World Day of Prayer and Fasting for Sunday, March 29, 2020 (https://covid19.worldea.org/global-day-of-prayer-fasting/). As I contemplate helping lead on-line worship tomorrow (https://asburymadison.com/livestream) I am drawn once again to Horatio Spafford’s hymn When Peace Like a River.

I’ve always found great comfort in the words and melody of this hymn. My appreciation of this hymn only grew a few years ago when I learned of the inspiring story behind Mr. Spafford and how he came to write this hymn. Such stories are available with a quick search of the Internet with some variations among them but all of them inspiring. Here is one recommended source: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-it-is-well-with-my-soul.

Suffice it to say that Horatio Spafford, a wealthy real-estate financier and attorney in Chicago first suffered the death of his son, then lost his real estate investment in the Great Chicago Fire. But that was not the end of tragedy in his life. He subsequently lost his four daughters to the depths of the Atlantic when their ship collided with another and went down in twelve minutes. He sought to join his grief stricken wife who survived by following across in another ship and as it was near where his daughter’s ship had gone down, penned the words to this great hymn.

This coronavirus pandemic has and will yet visit death to many families here in America and around the globe. I doubt the world will be quite the same when this is over. If there ever was a time for International peace and unity it is now. Our knees should be tender from the extensive time we are on them in prayer for ourselves, our families, our neighbors, nation and for the world. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, fear is not our focus but our one-characteristic must be our peace in the abiding, comforting presence of our Lord, who has promised to never abandon us but to be right beside us eternally. That’s why I like the words of this modern day Psalm.

  1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
    When sorrows like sea billows roll;
    Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
    It is well, it is well with my soul.
    • Refrain:
      It is well with my soul,
      It is well, it is well with my soul.
  2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
    Let this blest assurance control,
    That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
    And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
  3. My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
    My sin, not in part but the whole,
    Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
    Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
  4. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
    If Jordan above me shall roll,
    No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
    Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
  5. But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
    The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
    Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
    Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
  6. And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
    The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
    The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
    Even so, it is well with my soul.

My prayer is these words will also speak to your soul today and forever. God bless.

Posted on by Pastor Paul Yoder

A Timely Reminder

Many days ago when this coronavirus pandemic began in earnest here in America, about the time we in Wisconsin had a limit of not more than ten gathered in any one place placed on us, the Wisconsin Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church began producing a daily reflection. (Find them under “Prayers and Reflections” on https://www.wisconsinumc.org/) They appear to be prepared daily by the Bishop, a Cabinet member or a Conference Employee. This morning’s post was by District Superintendent Forrest Wells of the Southeast District. Forrest wrote on Psalm 121–From Whence Does My Help Come.

It was a timely reminder to me of the first sermon I prepared in seminary. The professor asked us to prepare a message on a favorite Psalm. I suspected Psalm 23 might be a favorite of many and wanting to avoid that I chose Psalm 121 and promptly spent a good deal of time in the seminary library researching this Psalm. I was swiftly amazed at the many resources and commentaries available on this Psalm. I don’t remember my grade but do remember a comment my professor shared that I had chosen one of the more difficult Psalms since it provided opportunity for a variety of interpretations. Leave it to me to pick a challenging Psalm for a first sermon.

But isn’t our present quarantine with threat and fear from the coronavirus a perfect time to reflect on our source of help? Psalm 121 begins:


1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

One understanding of this Psalm is that it is written from the perspective of pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to observe one of the Jewish festivals. They travel on foot along pathways that often were mountainous and treacherous and so they had fear as to what lay ahead–not only fear of a foot slipping on the path plunging them to a disastrous fall or to thieves and robbers lying in wait to ambush them along the way. As they began their pilgrimage they firmly aligned their thoughts and prayers with God for guidance and safety.

As we too travel unknown paths through this threat to our physical well being as well as our economic status we too would do well to keep our eyes and minds lifted heaven-word from whence comes our ultimate care and salvation, no matter what. And further, we are not only traveling through this time of quarantine but through life to our ultimate destination. While we look forward to a return to “normal times” at the end of this quarantine surely it will be a new normal as we go forward.

My prayer is not only for God’s compassionate provision through these troubled days but that our nation–and indeed, our world–will “come to Jesus” and those who already claim to be followers of Christ will have had a time of revival and we will all be in a much better place–one in Jesus Christ as Lord. May this not just be an old man dreaming dreams. (Acts 2:17)

Please take a moment to read for yourself Psalm 121. Its only eight verses.

Posted on by Pastor Paul Yoder

Quiet! Be Still?

In Mark 4:36-41 Jesus instructs his disciples to climb into a boat with him to travel “to the other side” of the lake.  While they do so a great windstorm blows up so that the disciples become extremely frightened while Jesus calmly sleeps on a cushion in the back of the boat.  As the boat is taking on water the disciples wake Jesus and ask him: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”  Jesus proceeds to rebuke the wind and the rain so there is suddenly a dead calm upon the waters.  He turns to his stunned disciples who are wondering, “who is He that even the wind and the rain obey him?” Jesus asks them,  “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”

Today across the land we are hungered down in fear of the coronavirus. We are well-advised to avoid crowds and unnecessary travel to not only protect ourselves from the virus, but, more importantly to avoid our becoming carriers and unknowingly spread this contagion to others, particularly those whose health is compromised making them more vulnerable to Covid-19.

But, is it rational for the Christian to be in panic, in absolute fear of this disease?

Jesus asks, “Why are we afraid? Have we no faith?” Jesus calmed the storm on the sea and he can calm this storm in our lives today. He is the ultimate peace in the storm and that same peace is available to us when we take our eyes from the chaos and storms surrounding us and focus them instead on our Lord Christ.

Just as we’ve observed how fear and panic are just as contagious—if not even more contagious than the coronavirus itself and can lead us to irrational behaviors such as hoarding toilet paper, so, I submit can the peace and calm assurance of the Christian in the midst of the storms of life spread that same peace and calm through faith in Christ across the land.

May it be our lot, brothers and sisters in Christ, to be agents of peace and calm In this and whatever storms may follow as we rest safe and secure in the abiding presence of Jesus. Our eternal home is with Christ, today is but a temporary residence as we prepare for our journey home.

Peace be yours, in the name of Christ. Amen.

Posted on by Pastor Paul Yoder

Jesus in the boat

In Mark 4:36-41 Jesus instructs his disciples to climb into a boat with him to travel “to the other side” of the lake.  While they do so a great windstorm blows up so that the disciples become extremely frightened while Jesus calmly sleeps on a cushion in the back of the boat.  As the boat is taking on water the disciples wake Jesus asking him if he doesn’t care that they are perishing.  Jesus proceeds to rebuke the wind and the rain so there is a dead calm upon the waters.  He then turns to his stunned disciples-“who is He that even the wind and the rain obey him?”-and asks, “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”

A good question.  So why are we still afraid?  Have we no faith?  Many decades ago I threw in my lot with Jesus giving my life to him.  That meant my future, all my days, whatever they might be were now devoted to serving him to his glory.  I fully trusted his promise and commitment to never leave me, never abandon me—to always be with me even to the end of the age.  (Matthew 28:20)  So basically I have thrown in with Jesus, we’re in the boat of life together.  In a real sense we are in the boat of eternity together.  So what do I have to fear?  ALL my days, my moments—my eternal future—is secure with Jesus right alongside me.  I find this frees me.  It liberates me from anything in this present age that would attempt to thwart me from being all that Christ is calling me to be in him.  Nothing should intimidate me or even slow me down in giving all of me to the work I am called to do in his Kingdom.  Jesus and me—and you—we’re in the boat together.  So what do we have to fear?