Heaven Is In My Heart -- Graham Kendrick

 

Graham Kendrick wanted the gathered to feel something, and respond. That, simply put, was how Graham could imagine people answering, by saying “Heaven Is In My Heart”, when prompted to explain why they were marching in a parade-like atmosphere. While Kendrick certainly understood what God on earth was saying when a group of learned people asked him to describe His kingdom, Graham didn’t really envision the same thing as Jesus did when He answered. Graham wanted people to make the kingdom visible, an exuberant expression that would demonstrate something to the world. He and others might have started with a vision for how this would look in Britain, but it didn’t stop there. And, it certainly didn’t remain confined inside each person, as someone might conclude when reading the Master’s words.

 

"Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17: 20-21, New International Version). Now, when Graham Kendrick read those words, he might have easily said that we cannot say what the kingdom looks like, and we’re not going to contradict the Lord. Instead, as Graham and others talked about their joint venture called March for Jesus, they felt that those participating should exhibit something – an expression in one’s words that testify to what is going on inside. If someone knew he or she was made for eternity with Him, how would that look and sound? In short, Graham wanted onlookers to see an unquenchable joy among people singing ‘Heaven Is In My Heart’, as they marched and unashamedly told the world what He does right now, and plans to do in the future. Graham says that while it’s part of the ‘kingdom is now and not yet’ explanation that Jesus told followers more than two millennia ago, the message that he’s conveying focuses on an outgrowth from the ‘not yet’ part – that we have hope, even as we live in the ‘not yet’ time. The organizers of March for Jesus, which was first planned in London in 1987, thought believers from various denominations could fix their attention, and of those watching, on Jesus. He is Lord, and will come to take us home – unquestionably the greatest source of an ‘Amen’ in the believer’s life. The thoughts of his majesty and holiness (v.1); his all-powerful sacrifice that purchases certain redemption for all (v.2); and the presence of Him in us now and for all times (v.3), are enough to make Graham’s song’s title words leap from the spirit of the worshipper in every other line of the song. Because of the way Graham’s song words flow, heaven is unambiguously a place of never-ending ecstasy. Who couldn’t march for that!  

 

After London, the March for Jesus took off in many other places, and is continuing to spread and be celebrated today. It stretched across the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, and to Brazil, where millions took part in 1993. There’s March for Jesus times scheduled for the United States in all 50 states and more in 2022, according to the website for the event. But, you and I don’t need to wait until next year to do what Graham Kendrick has given us opportunity to do already, today. Let it show in my words, in my attitude, in my behavior, and on my face. Graham and the others who organized the first march must have thought that what we have is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. Eternity, now and in the next phase of existence, is big and beautiful, with our God present to crown our faith. What could be better!  

 

See here for author biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Kendrick

See here for the song’s brief story: https://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk/stories-behind-the-songs/stories-behind-the-song/heaven-is-in-my-heart

Here is the description of the event for which the song was developed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_for_Jesus

See the official site of the event that the author and others organize across the world: https://themarchforjesus.org/

We Declare that the Kingdom of God Is Here -- Graham Kendrick

Sometime during 36-year-old Graham Kendrick’s life in the mid-1980s he felt a need to celebrate. So, he did this the way only a songwriter can do – by writing enough songs to fill an album. It was no accident that his inspiration came from a bible, where he read about another celebration centuries earlier, when something was first uttered, and then repeated later, as if a whole chorus had joined in to say “We Declare that the Kingdom of God Is Here”. Some might think it odd that he could say that in 1980s England (see picture of the nation’s coat of arms here), where he was born, lived, and still resides, because of the secularist movement in the nation, and indeed among many places in the world. How would one answer skeptics who scoff at God and at faith in a being one cannot physically see?   

Graham Kendrick must have been well-prepared by 1986 to defend his faith, following a childhood upbringing and an already multi-decade career writing Christian songs. He’s the son of a Baptist pastor, from which his faith roots must have been dug deep, spawning his own career as a public man of faith, through songwriting, by the late 1960s. By 1987, Kendrick and some international collaborators had bred something called the March for Jesus, including one through London in 1987. Was it possible that Kendrick and his fellow believers at the time were troubled by the secularism they observed, including in England where nonbelievers were prevalent, including the author Richard Dawkins who penned The Blind Watchmaker in 1986? One can imagine these circumstances in which Kendrick lived, and see him reading prophecy and Jesus’ preaching in his bible (Isaiah 61:1-3, Matthew 4:17) as he considered how to respond to cynics of religious faith. Kendrick’s album Make Way for The King of Kings - A Carnival of Praise, in the same year as Dawkins’ book may indeed have been Kendrick’s way to answer the cynic. His words were not his own in “We Declare…”, one of the album’s songs, but instead were akin to how Jesus responded to Satan in the wilderness – with scripture. It must have made any criticism easier for Graham to endure, knowing that he was following a well-worn path in 1986 made by the one he still follows today.  

                       

What might Graham say today is the best way to say what he did in 1986? Taking a page out of Jesus’ way to declare His kingdom – with healing and care for the needy – Graham has been promoting something called Compassion International. By tackling poverty, especially among children worldwide, Kendrick says that over 127,000 children became believers via Compassion International’s efforts in the last year. How is the kingdom of God near, you say? It’s through us who believe, and put that faith out there for others to grab onto. Graham’s song is one of action, not just words. It’s a celebration of how He’s helped us poor beggars to help others. Amen.   

Composer’s biography here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Kendrick

Composer’s official website: http://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk/

Link shows the album theme on which song appears: http://www.invubu.com/music/show/song/Graham-Kendrick/We-Declare.html

See link here to a movement the composer and others organized in the mid-to-late 1980s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_for_Jesus

A counter-faith movement was part of the era in which the composer operated in mid-1980s England, represented by a book at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Watchmaker

Shine Jesus Shine -- Graham Kendrick

Graham Kendrick was thinking about what it would be like to see something spread in 1987. Not just for a few yards or even a few miles. Not just temporarily, either. “Shine, Jesus, Shine” was his dream for his homeland in the British Isles. It ended up perhaps travelling more broadly than he expected, and it’s still being sung, so who knows how long it will endure. Its development wasn’t just a one-stop effort either, coming in fact over a months-long period. What’s that say about Him and me, and about how His purposes might be accomplished?

Graham Kendrick was born and lives in Britain’s Croydon, in South London, and has much more on his resume about evangelism than one song. The movement known as March for Jesus began in 1987, coinciding with the origin of “Shine, Jesus, Shine”. So, if one really wants to know about the song, look into this march. It began in just one place in the United Kingdom – London -- through the collaboration of three church groups. It was a modest beginning, with the first one called City March. If Kendrick’s song was written then, that should tell us that his vision for the march was rather confined, at least until maybe the song spoke of something more.  The song really is a prayer, asking the God-Son to do something only He can do. Kendrick says the three original verses were written first, with the chorus coming several months later. Look into the verses, versus the chorus, and something sticks out that suggests Kendrick’s vision, though limited at first, must have grown over that several month span. From a ‘City March’-type beginning, the song’s chorus mushrooms the evangelism into ‘nations’ where the message and person of Jesus could travel. By 1994, the march to spread Jesus’ name had gone into 170 nations, across all time zones, to millions of people. And, the song is widely used in hymnals throughout the world.

Shine, Jesus. He listens when someone asks Him to do that, but perhaps not the way we might expect. Graham Kendrick’s experience writing the song and organizing the March for Jesus tells a story. His light may be like the light He places in the sky. At dawn, I can look at it easily, without shades. It doesn’t seem like very much, and there may even still be shadows and dimness…turn on those headlights. But it grows, gradually, inexorably, so that its brilliant presence cannot be avoided. It might even burn you. Or, it can bring blessed warmth on a chilled day. That’s like Him. He will shine, if I ask Him to, just not all at once. Keep asking, and watch what He does!  

  

  

Information on the song was obtained from“The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006. Also see the story in the book “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008.

See the following sites for information on the composer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Kendrick

http://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk/

Also see the following, for background on the movement that perhaps inspired the song, or vice versa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_for_Jesus

The song’s verses are here: http://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk/songs/lyrics/shine.php