O The Blood -- Thomas and Mary Beth Miller

 

What was it that they might have read that spurred Thomas and Mary Beth Miller onward, and especially as they thought about worship at the church where they lived in 2010? This couple was in Southlake, Texas (near Fort Worth, see here the map-graphic of Tarrant County in which Southlake resides), and thinking about “(O) The Blood” was probably a very fundamental idea for the Gateway Church whose focus was on the central figure of their lives, now and in the eternal future. Could it have been that they were reading and comparing the various episodes of animal sacrifice, especially of lambs, that the Hebrews practiced for many hundreds of years, especially in light of what happened in the 1^st Century? Two of the 1^st Century’s chief proponents of a very special lamb – The Lamb, in fact – wrote some letters that just may have influenced the Millers as they thought about the blood spilled by this one sheep. In fact, millions have believed in this lamb, and knowing His story is the most crucial piece of information in life, they would say. See what you think when you too hear it.  

 

Neither Thomas nor Mary Beth have indicated what inspired ‘O The Blood’, but that its basis in some pretty important scripture handed down to generations of Christian believers is certainly true. It began with a people who were trying to escape from Egypt, and with so many signs showing their God’s nature and purpose for them, they did not question why He required a lamb sacrifice, the use of its blood to secure their release from captivity (Exodus 12:7). The Levitical code He set up for them perpetuated this practice (Leviticus 14:25; many scriptures in Numbers), and throughout the rest of Jewish history (including 2 Chron. 29:22; 35:11; Isaiah 1:11 – even though God would say He had ‘no pleasure’ in this) the Hebrews continued dutifully to obey, though the practice could not render them clean for long. And then came One whose blood was enough, as two 1^st Century apostles would tell all succeeding generations (1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 7:14 and 12:11). The Lamb is the one to whom Thomas and Mary Beth Miller would point, some 20 centuries later. It’s ‘crimson love’ that purges ‘shameful sin’ that is ‘placed on Him’ (v.1). That’s because He’s the ‘Savior son’, ‘holy One’, and we all can ‘see the Lamb’ and simultaneously appreciate that He’s also ‘The great I Am’ (v.2). ‘O what love’, ‘no greater love’ in v. 3 initiates a question that the Millers ask for us all: How could ‘grace’, ‘that in my sin’, ‘yes even then’, compel Him to be the sacrifice? Their short, crisp phrases (mostly three- or four-syllables apiece) that describe this life-giving fluid’s power are all that the Millers needed to convey their message. It’s like a perfectly spotless mirror that reflects vividly Him and what He’s done. Not many words are needed. Just look at Him. Consider what He’s done.

 

Though not expressed, the Millers also hint at what anyone honestly looking at Jesus can expect to gain. ‘Hope’ (v.1), ‘victory’ and ‘saved…life’ (chorus), ‘so I can live’ (v.2) – how could any reasonable person not want these things? But what so many people seem to avoid is what the Millers’ words also require any mistake-ridden person – and that’s all of us – to acknowledge. It’s just a tiny three-letter word, but it’s mentioned in all three of their verses. Sin. Two of those times it is labeled as ‘my sin’. It’s a separation from the perfect, holy Creator, and I cannot purge it from my experience. I just am not perfect the way He is, despite being His image-bearer. I try to be good, but stuff happens. Are you any different? He’s got the answer, the only one that He’s said is acceptable. He’s the only God, among all the religions in practice on this planet, that has done what Jesus did to pave the path for humans. He became one of us, gave up His blood. What more can a God do?

 

Read about the primary songwriter here: Thomas Miller (pastor) - Wikipedia

 

See information about the map-graphic of Tarrant County here: File:Tarrant County Texas Incorporated Areas Southlake highlighted.svg - Wikimedia Commons…I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Beautiful Lamb – Gary Miller

 

Gary Miller really didn’t need to expound on why he chose to write some words about a rarely used name for the God-Son. At least, this name had been unusual – in fact, never-before used -- when one guy named John called Him the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36), and then another John called out this Lamb in a great vision over 25 times (see Revelation, chapters 5 through 21). Could that have persuaded Gary that a “Beautiful Lamb” was worthy of a song in 1996? He must have also been very familiar with any number of pieces of artwork (like this Agnus Dei painting, shown here, by 17^th Century Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran) that spoke in brushstrokes of this God sent to earth as a lamb-like sacrifice. Like a masterpiece artist, God presented His own Son in such a provocative way that His life would motivate the human race, and draw our attention not only as an innocent offering, but more importantly as the Almighty Creator who was willing to rescue those He made. He decided, all on His own, to transform my filth with His purity.

 

Gary Miller had been intimately involved with music for many years by the time he wrote ‘Beautiful Lamb’, as a veteran 45-year-old acapella singer/songwriter/producer/recording engineer. And though his precise circumstance and motivation for the song in 1996 are not common knowledge, Gary’s Christian life certainly was not a mystery. One might even say his life was in the Acapella Company and especially one of its offshoots, Vocal Union, wherein his testimony lives on through so many songs which his fingers and his heart touched. That he died at age 60 (on March 12, 2011) while in the midst of this active music career probably made his departure so affecting for those who knew him best and worked so closely with him. (See the link to the video tribute to him below.) Looking at the words of the song he wrote, and a description of his life by family and friends, one could really say that this fellow tried, as well as any of us, to mirror the God he served in his life. ‘Sweet and gentle…’ is how one of his closest friends (Keith Lancaster) eulogized him, not unlike how Gary saw the Lamb in the lyrics he wrote 15 years before his premature death. ‘Gentle and merciful’, and ‘guiltless and pure’ (v.1) are the qualities of Jesus that stood out in Gary’s poetry, characteristics that played out in this Lamb’s actions – in ‘redeem(ing) us with His blood’, by ‘suffering great pain’ through His ‘wounds’ (v.2); all to ‘take our sins away’ (v.3). This gentle and sweet musician was a kindred spirit with the Savior whose personality so resonated with his own. One can imagine that Gary’s words must have flowed effortlessly, huh?

 

Jesus’ contemporaries seemed a bit skeptical the first couple of times that John the Baptist told others that this carpenter’s son named Jesus was the Lamb of God. In fact, only one of the four biblical biographers of Jesus (John) highlighted this naming episode for posterity, while the other three gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) seem to have forgotten it. Maybe they just didn’t yet get it, that a lamb could be so robust, so mighty to take away all sin. Lambs that you and I see are cuddly and cute, and one might even say attractive, but still fragile and weak. This Lamb of God is completely different, making beauty not just something soft and harmless. This beauty has incredible power. Gary Miller apparently got it, for he says in his song’s last line, after lauding Him as beautiful, the following two words -- ‘But Jesus…’. You may look upon Jesus and admire any number of his visible qualities, but His beauty goes deeper than that. This beauty saves, a beauty that Gary is fully understanding today.   

 

See  a 21-minute tribute to the composer at this link, including text in the first 20 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf7I8RSo0jQ       

 

Another brief obituary of the author-composer is here: https://christianchronicle.org/a-cappella-recording-artist-gary-miller-dies-at-60/

 

Read here some about the Acapella group and Gary’s membership in it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acappella_(group)

 

Read some about Gary Miller here also: https://www.acappella.org/about-the-artists/vocal-union/

 

See information about the painting here: File:Francisco de Zurbarán 006.jpg - Wikimedia Commons …The author died in 1664, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King -- Thomas Miller, Robert Robinson

 

He liked the original so much, that he wanted more. That’s probably the very shortest way to tell the story of why Thomas Miller came to write “Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King”; the where was most likely a church called Gateway, in a northeast Texas place called Southlake (see map).  Perhaps the story of the hymnist from two and a half centuries earlier struck him in a way that made Thomas yearn for more, as he thought about the old hymn’s and its creator’s message. This must have been one of Thomas’ favorite methods for song development, one that he would use again in a few years. It helped connect him to his musical predecessors, in a way that underscored and lifted the contribution of his ancestors in the faith, while drawing a contemporary audience into the relationship with the One to whom all people of all eras can sing. Thomas’ words, added to Robert Robinson’s 250-year-old words, also imagined a future that we can celebrate today in expectation.

 

Although Thomas Miller doesn’t share what precisely motivated his 21^st Century version of ‘Come Thou Fount…’, there are several clues that draw the attention of someone who chooses to investigate. Miller tells just a few years beyond 2005 what spurred his re-casting of another old hymn (see Tom Miller's version of Doxology in 2008), so we could guess that his method was similar in both episodes. If it was an insightful moment in personal worship and reflection that helped Thomas reimagine Robinson’s classic hymn, then that would be consistent with what happened three years later (in New Doxology). Thomas evidently wanted to capture the theme of Robinson’s poetry, and really his life-experience too. Robinson called himself a wanderer; he admits as much in one of his verses, which Thomas repeats (in v.3 of the 21^st century version of the hymn). So, don’t try to hurry past that dirty linen, that ugly secret, Thomas reasons. Let that admission of weakness blossom into a new verse (verse 2), which Thomas describes as ‘utter darkness’, a place where he was ‘bound…by sin’. It’s the pit from where’s he’s lifted that allows Thomas to exult in a ‘new song’, never again to ‘be alone’.  It’s also from there that Thomas launches into a refrain that addresses God in many synonyms – ‘Fount’, ‘King’, and ‘Prince of Peace’. But, it’s the way that Thomas sees himself and his fellow believers that really captures the song’s heart, the emotion that Robinson seemed to have, but did not say quite as explicitly. Thomas says we Christians are His ‘bride’, His love object. This ‘bride’ is undoubtedly wedded only to Him, in a monogamous relationship. Perhaps that expression also helped spawn the title of the live performance album Living for You (2006), on which ‘Come Thou Fount…’ appears. It’s like Thomas is inviting all who sing his version of the old hymn to feel as if they’re reciting a vow, and putting a ring on one finger. Was Thomas also reading about the husband of which Paul spoke (1 Cor. 11:2), or how about John’s revelation upon seeing a bride (Revelation chapters 18, 19, 21, and 22)?

 

What other words could speak more intimately and powerfully to the lost person, to someone who feels beaten and unwanted? If you’ve felt the sting of rejection, or you feel like an emotional amputee in the wake a spouse’s death, Thomas’ words are for you. Our earthly marriages are often lauded in television commercials. Remember the one for a diamond ring, which concludes with the wife choking back tears because she’s been loved so deeply by her husband? What if that marriage didn’t last – the husband died? There is a realm in which this happens, but then the husband miraculously comes back to take his beloved bride, because He treasures her so much. Would you want such a marriage? That marriage would be ‘Oh, so divine’, as some commercials might say. He’s waiting at the altar.      

 

 

 

See biography of the author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Miller_(pastor)

 

See here the 11/20/2011 song scoop of the classic hymn on which the new hymn is based: https://songscoops.blogspot.com/search/label/Robinson

 

See here a 2011 video of a live performance of the song at the church where the song was created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhd5dUVxOJ8