Glorious Day -- Kristian Stanfill, Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, Sean Curran

It is passion…pure, unabashed, and fully grown, at least as much as can be acquired here in our mortal forms. That’s what you hear coming from Kristian Stanfill and Sean Curran as they share the exhilaration they’ve experienced in the “Glorious Day” that they and their two friends, Jason Ingram and Jonathan Smith, wrote and sang a few years ago for the first time. Perhaps their energy is not too unlike what David the King and poet did himself in unashamed joy before God and all people to see (2 Samuel 6:5, 14-15). In fact, ‘Passion’ is the name and the intent of the worship experience these fellows and many others have promoted in Atlanta and around the world. It’s an annual event geared for young adults (college age), but when you really let the words of their song fill you, it won’t matter what age you are. See if you don’t feel like jumping out of your seat and flying, just like the winged creature in this seal of Atlanta!

 

A video (see its link below) shows Kristian Stanfill and Sean Curran telling viewers about the unforgettable moment when they first heard the unfinished work – the initial words of one verse and a chorus – that their friends Jason and Jonathan had sent them. It must have had the impact that Jason and Jonathan expected, for another two verses and a bridge section eventually emerged from that introductory copy of ‘Glorious Day’ that they heard. It’s a good thing that Jason was driving the car in which Kristian was riding, because it might have veered erratically or caused an accident, because Kristian said he thought he was going to go through the car’s roof when he heard it. They are dynamic words that describe something in all believers’ future that will be revolutionary and electric – when you and I will ‘(run) out of that grave.’ (It should be an exclamation mark, not just a period that concludes that phrase!) Kristian says he could envision what those words would do, how they would electrify a crowd of worshipers at the annual Passion worship experience-conference when they heard it. Sean says he crafted the song’s bridge, by appreciating that God ‘didn’t stop at saving us’ and that we sing the bridge’s words to celebrate all the things He’s allowed us to overcome. Just imagine that future, Sean says, one that is almost unimaginably bright. Sean could see that we’ll all be able to look behind ourselves, and see that each of us ‘needed rescue…shelter’, because we were weighed down with our own burdens; we’re ‘orphan(s)’ who needed ‘healing’, and yet God did not just watch and weep, but broke ‘chains’, made us ‘citizen(s) of heaven’, and lets us breathe His ‘love’ as our ‘air’. These songwriters’ words tell me ‘my tomb’ is something I can already be sure I will escape, even now. They invite each of us to rejoice that He has already ‘called my name’. It’s as if the ‘Glorious Day’ has already dawned, obliterating ‘the darkness’ for the crowd who sings it in the video with Kristian and the others.

 

Kristian sums up the song’s message by saying that it communicates something universally true for everyone who trusts in God. We’re ‘chosen’, he says. Kristian must have implicitly understood the bible writers’ words – that all men die (Job 30:23; Acts 17:31; Ecclesiastes 3:2 and 9:5), a truism that’s described as an unyielding appointment at the end of life. But, Kristian and his three 21^st Century songwriters want there to be no misunderstanding: Death is not the end, and darkness won’t envelope you and me forever, not if we connect to the One of eternal ‘marvelous light’. Imagine coming back to life, to live forever! All will die, but the sequel is greater, with a never-ending joy. The song at the end of this movie just doesn’t end. That’s worth a hallelujah, at least a skip in my step, and many fist-pumps!

 

 

See comments by authors here re: song’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTAvmRZplvc or here: https://freeccm.com/2017/02/28/behind-the-song-passion-shares-the-heart-behind-their-song-glorious-day/ 

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus -- Charles Wesley

Thirty-seven-year-old Charles Wesley read his bible, as the remembrance of Deity’s arrival in-the-flesh approached one year in 18^th Century England (see its flag here). Lots of prophets had given clues for centuries about this singular event, and so Charles leaned on those to craft his poetry, while also quite possibly borrowing the thoughts of a century-old philosopher’s inspirational words about how God uniquely works in the human heart. The circumstances of many of the orphaned children in the surrounding English community were apparently also on his mind, so Charles borrowed the words of a prayer that he felt expressed his sense of how one special child’s life could raise the lives of others who were not so fortunate. Whether Charles or some other anonymous person first uttered this prayer, it speaks for all of us.

 

Charles Wesley authored at least 18 Christmas songs that were collected into one publication (Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord and New Year’s Day, 1745), including ‘Come…Jesus’, a prayer-poem that Charles used to celebrate not just the arrival of the Jesus-babe, but also to create expectation for His return someday. Especially what Haggai (2:7) had to say about the ‘desire of nations’ helped spur Charles’ poetry. But, he was likely reading lots of Isaiah’s, and Micah’s, and Matthew’s, and Luke’s writings, also, among others. Was Ecclesiastes (3:11) in there too, as he mentions humanity finding ‘rest in thee’? It’s thought that Wesley might have read something from the philosopher Blaine Pascal, who said a century earlier that ‘There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person that cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator’…was Pascal thus also aware of what the preacher said in Ecclesiastes? Verse two of Charles’ poem is a prayer, uttered by either himself or someone in his time, and is worth repeating here: ‘Born Your people to deliver, born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever, now Your gracious kingdom bring. By Your own eternal Spirit, rule in all our hearts alone; by Your all sufficient merit, raise us to Your glorious throne. Amen.’ Finally, Wesley was said to be dismayed by the state of orphans in his community, and also by the rift between classes of people of his time, and that this prayer resonated with him as he thought about a time and place where all peoples would be lifted above earth’s trials. Nothing hurts in a human life more than to experience want or conflict on a holiday that is supposed to embody joy. Seems like Charles understood that, huh?

 

Jesus arrived, some might say unexpectedly. He was anticipated by prophets, and yet He took most people by surprise because of the venue He chose. And, that He is supposed to be returning creates even more hope, at least for those who want Him to recreate everything again. What will it be like, this New Heaven and New Earth (Isaiah 65-66; 2 Peter 3; Revelation 21)?  It’s almost beyond imagination’s power, and certainly cannot be adequately described, even with scores of adjectives. It will have to be seen and experienced. Jesus said the time is known by only His Father (Mark 13:32), so there will be something about it that takes everyone by surprise. You and I need not fret about that time and its uncertainty, for the good that He created in the beginning will be His to remake in ‘imperishable’ and ‘immortal’ fashion (1 Cor. 15:53-54), in a flash (v.52). In one sense He will be expected, but I long to be thrilled, flabbergasted, swallowed up, and speechless at seeing His amazing return. Are you ready to be astonished?   

   

   

   

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.