I Will Change Your Name -- D.J. Butler

 

Could he have been reading what the prophet Isaiah once recorded about names changing? Were some of his own emotional and spiritual struggles rooted in what D.J. Butler penned in 1987, when he entitled a song “I Will Change Your Name”? Perhaps it was a struggle with God that he remembered changed Jacob’s life’s trajectory (see the 19^th Century artistry by Leon Bonnat here, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, which depicts this). Whatever were the circumstances, D.J. didn’t need to say much with his poetry to get across his point – actually, it really was God’s point. It’s a message to the hurting, the depressed who have lost themselves in life’s maelstrom, a feeling that you’re being sucked downward by something that has you in its power. D.J.’s message comes straight from God Himself. Don’t give up the struggle, and see if He will not change your outlook, the way He did so long ago for some others.

 

It is rather ironic that a song about changing one’s name is written by a fellow whose background seems so obscured. D.J.’s name is known, but really nothing else besides the few lines of poetry that he used as the foundation for ‘I Will Change Your Name’. But that’s fine, because what he has to say is so universally true. It is a God-message, one which the patriarchs heard in the beginning pages of what God has provided for us today to see how He has related to mankind. His effect wasn’t just a onetime episode. Abram (exalted father) became Abraham (father of many, Genesis 17:5), and his grandson Jacob became Israel (Gen. 32:28; 35:10-11) after he struggled with God (through His angel) all night and pretty much demanded a blessing. God told both of these patriarchs that many nations would be their progeny. Has anyone else in history had so much impact as father and grandfather?! Jacob’s name would no longer be associated with deception (Jacob, the heel-grasper), but instead as Israel (one who struggles with God). That’s quite a reversal. God wasn’t quite through, however. He took so many ordinary people in history and empowered them – Moses, all the prophets, the judges, kings like David, later Paul the apostle; the list goes on and on, including many in the Hebrews 11 chorus. Perhaps Isaiah says it best in his prophecy (Isaiah 62:1-5), as God spun some poetry to lift a nation’s outlook, to a people who felt ‘desolate’ and ‘deserted’ (v. 4), but who would become God’s delight as if they were married to Him. In the New Testament, this same God takes it to another plane through two ‘ordinary men’ (Peter and John, Acts 4:13) with the extraordinary courage to tell the Sanhedrin that the crucified Jesus was not the rejected building stone, but the capstone/cornerstone. Not crushed and crumbled into dust, but glowing and whole after being enshrined as Everlasting King.

 

He did the amazing for His Messiah-Son, but do you think He’s through? It seems that He has – through Jesus – given us the ultimate model, and D.J. has reminded us that others may view us as ‘wounded’, ‘outcast’, ‘lonely’, and ‘afraid’, but you and I don’t need to remain in that desolate state (in Isaiah’s words). In D.J.’s words, I can acquire more names on the mountaintop than I had in my emotional valley. I get six new names -- confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one, faithfulness, friend of God, one who seeks my face – versus the four that I thought were permanently branded on me. And, as I read the bible He’s preserved for me, I see other examples of transformation, of individuals who were completely human, and yet look what happened. Keep reading. Do you feel ‘ordinary’ or worse? Get the courage injection that they did in Acts 4. Meet Jesus. He says that He might even change your name.  

   

Check out this article by a professor-author on this subject: » “I Will Change Your Name” John Mark Hicks

 

See information on the image here: File:Jacob Wrestling with the Angel by Leon Bonnat.jpg - Wikimedia Commons…The author died in 1922, 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.  {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.

I Am the Vine -- Knowles Shaw

 

He was deep inside a monologue that had captured his attention, perhaps one that he intended to use to address a crowd. That much we could say about Knowles Shaw. He took seriously the words “I Am the Vine” that his God had spoken, and must have thought that his own were unworthy to accompany those of Deity, though he most likely had sung these words, perhaps even before he preached them to others. Knowles knew what stirred a crowd to belief and commitment, since he had been instrumental in thousands of conversions in his travels. And so, the methods he chose were well-considered. He must have felt a certain peace and confidence in his life’s purpose, something that he reportedly voiced in his last words, on an occasion when others in that position might have cried out in agony. Not Knowles Shaw.

 

He was first a musician, but then a preacher who merged this gift with a passion to tell others about the One who came to earth as the God-Man. Though Knowles Shaw lived only into his 44^th year and died in a tragic train accident (on June 7, 1878), his time was well-spent, without a hint of self-regret when he departed from mortal life. He’d already spent countless hours, probably travelled thousands and miles, and spoken to a like number of people by the time he authored “I Am the Vine”, borrowing the very words of the One he served. That all of the verses and the refrain that Knowles wrote were words or paraphrases of what Jesus said to his closest disciples in His last days before his execution underscore how deeply committed this author was to presenting the Christ as an unvarnished person to those who would listen. Knowles didn’t need to add anything to what Jesus said, he must have concluded. Just repeat to listeners what He told others when His most troubled hours approached. Put to music, Knowles may have personally felt what Jesus had said was even more memorable. Otherwise, why would he have paired the words with music? Since he was an evangelist, one can imagine that this song was preceded with a stirring message from the biblical text (John 15), as Knowles tried to capture the hearts of listeners and spur their devotion toward God. Though we know not the detailed circumstances of its incubation and emergence, we can imagine that ‘I Am…’ must have been used many times to great effect, perhaps with Knowles actually guiding the singing of what he had crafted. Knowles was reportedly a gifted speaker, able to readily connect with an audience when delivering a message, and then further captivate them with his singing voice. Knowles may have concluded, as he too read Jesus’ gentle but firm words about allegiance to Him, that this God’s special moments with friends as He prepared to leave them would impact hearers, even centuries later. Perhaps in Knowles’ King James bible (most likely the version he would have used in the mid-to-late 19^th Century), these were red-letter words, as they still are in many bibles today.     

 

Knowles Shaw, according to one account, in his last words on earth exclaimed how great was his honor to bring people to the feet of Christ. What he wrote in ‘I Am…’ showed that he had internalized what he was here to do long before he was at the moment of death. ‘Put God’s words out there in front – that’s my banner’, might have been Shaw’s life motto, if what he did with this song is indicative of his life. He was indeed prepared to receive his eternal inheritance, to be with God. That’s the kind of resolution that can stem the tide of anguish, even when one is lying in a train wreck with life slipping away. His words are all that really matter. He used them to create everything (Genesis 1), and He will use them at the end (Revelation 22). Are you ready to hear Him?  

 

See an account of the author’s untimely death here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/h/a/w/shaw_k.htm

 

See a very short biography of the author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowles_Shaw

 

See more here: https://hymnary.org/text/i_am_the_vine_and_ye_are_the_branches

 

O Heart Bowed Down -- Franklin E. Belden

Was he dejected about something, or perhaps knew someone who was? That is the impression one might have upon reading what Franklin Edson Belden wrote in a poem-song “O Heart Bowed Down” during his mid-30s, though he turned toward his faith and what he read in his bible to confront this feeling. Was he actively engaged while listening to a message from a pulpit when the words came to him? Was the music right alongside during this episode? He authored nearly four hundred hymns over his four-score and seven years, so Franklin had a well-honed method, apparently, that he had used since first composing as a youngster. Just an unusually precocious child, or someone touched by the Spirit – which would best describe Franklin Belden?      

Franklin had returned to his roots by the time that he wrote “O Heart Bowed Down” when he was 37 years old. It was 1895, and he was living in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he had been born and lived until he was eight. But, he evidently picked up his childhood song-writing habit just after his family moved to California; before returning to lower Michigan, he also lived for a time in Colorado. Seventh-Day Adventism was part of his family roots, probably one of the spurs that induced Belden’s return to Michigan. It was in Battle Creek, Michigan that Franklin worked with the Review and Herald Publishing Association, and where we can presume he was also active among the Adventist church, which was a sponsor of the publishing house and its music. Franklin’s family heritage was also deep in this church, as his Aunt Ellen (Ellen Harmon White) was one of its founders. With this backdrop, Franklin’s hymn-writing was a natural and a professional outgrowth; many of his musical concoctions were reportedly the result of his innate ability to craft something while under the influence of an ongoing sermon. “O Heart Bowed Down” may thus have been the consequence of one of his regular Saturday worship days at the church. Was the speaker sermonizing upon what Jesus promised about Himself, particularly for those people who might be downcast (Matthew 11:28-29)? The Messiah’s words are used verbatim in the refrain of Belden’s poem-hymn, hinting that the origin of Franklin’s inspiration was indeed what he heard and appreciated at a deep level one Saturday during worship. Two of the verses he penned indicate someone—perhaps even himself?—was suffering from a gloomy spirit and needed a lift (verses 1 and 3). He found it, and published it.   

Franklin’s advice might have also included words like ‘don’t wallow in your despair’. Unload that disappointment, or perhaps it’s just lethargy that’s grown out of control. Franklin Belden knew where he needed to be to manage these feelings, and it wasn’t somewhere ‘pulling up his own bootstraps’, though popular thought might advise this. No, he was in a church often enough when poetry gestated in his spirit to know that’s where he ought to be. It wasn’t just advantageous for his music-writing business. That was where his heart business also could be managed effectively. How’s business going for you today?    

See following site for short biography of the author/composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/e/l/belden_fe.htm

See following site also for all four original verses: https://hymnary.org/tune/o_heart_bowed_down_with_sorrow_belden

See this site for information on the church of which the author-composer was a part: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh-day_Adventist_Church