Daily Word of Grace # 243 (May 18, 2021)
In 1927 legendary blues guitarist Blind Willie Johnson recorded the song, “In My Time of Dying”, which was later covered by Bob Dylan on his 1962 debut album (Dylan used the lipstick case of girlfriend Suze Rotolo as a guitar slide on this recording—how cool is that?). This song was later by Led Zeppelin on their 1975 album Physical Graffiti, as Robert plant sings: “In my time of dying, want nobody to mourn. All I want for you to do is take my body home…Jesus gonna make up my dying bed…I know it’s got to be real. Oh Lord, deliver me all from all the wrong I’ve done. You can deliver me, Lord.” Jesus’ death and resurrection has indeed delivered us from all the wrong we’ve done, and ensures both our forgiveness and eternal life—as Jesus told a Pharisee named Nicodemus: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17). This unconditional love of God gives us hope not only in our time of dying, but also in our time of living—now and evermore.
Love and Prayers,
Dave