For All You've Done -- Reuben Morgan

 

Just celebrate. Or, with emphasis on a biblical word – Hallelujah! That was evidently what Reuben Morgan and the other members of the Hillsong Church were telling the worshippers to do in 2004 at that year’s conference at this Australian church in Sydney. (See the Hillsong Convention Center here.) And why? The reasons were clear in the few words they sang, summed up by saying “For All You’ve Done”, ‘we praise you and celebrate you, God’. It was a direct address to the One who made it all possible. He came, died, and rose again, with a great purpose to take everyone with Him to safety. It doesn’t take a lot more explanation than that, though all that He did and will do for believers is packed with meaning. The elemental nature of these few thoughts that Reuben wanted to convey was such that it couldn’t be contained in just one song, and perhaps why it was also the title song for that year’s album of 15 songs. How many more songs could also be tied to this idea, that He’s to be thanked for all He’s done? ‘Just keep writing them’, someone says to the songwriters!

 

No other details about the song or the album ‘For All You’ve Done’ are known, but it must have been a weighty discussion between Reuben and the other worship leaders (like Darlene Zshech) at Hillsong that led to 2004’s album by the same name. Fourteen other songs were recorded for that live album, and just seeing the titles of those songs tells one that they build upon the praise and celebration that ‘For All…’ begins. Perhaps you, like me, have never thought of being in a ‘miry clay’, but that’s how Reuben thought of his condition in his first verse’s lyrics. The rest of the song flows from the sense of being rescued by the One Reuben calls ‘Savior’, ‘Redeemer’, and ‘Almighty’ in the opening lines. Reuben felt transformed, and coaxed the rest of those hearing and singing --’the world’ -- ‘to ‘live again’. He came from the ‘everlasting’ to the ‘world we live (in)’ of His own choice, and we may never truly grasp why, except to say that He wants us and that we live more fully in the praise He inspires. His praise helps the emotionally downtrodden overcome. If you attended the live worship at which this album was recorded, you could probably testify to this, but it doesn’t take much imagination to say that the opening song spurred those present forward to worship with the following 14 melodies and lyrics that mingled to lift God’s name in a variety of ways. ‘Hallelujah’ offers Reuben, especially that ‘(He) lived…died…and rose again on high’, and then says something metaphorically: a door (Jesus) has ‘opened the way’ to a new existence. Those who join in the song that Reuben wrote can think about being saved, and of going to spend eternity in His presence. But, believers – like those who attended the Hillsong conference in 2004 -- can also get a bit of foretaste by joining in the ‘Hallelujah’ that we get to say now, by being assured that His promises are certain, and doing our celebrating with a crowd to imitate how it will be on the everlasting day. Doing it with others is great!

 

Many songs and hymns for centuries have vocalized the same thoughts as ‘For All…’, so what’s so different in Reuben Morgan’s version of the gospel? It’s really just another flavor of the same message, like a different spice added to food that creates a new taste experience. It may strike even just one or a few people in a novel, startling way, but that just says every song written for Him is noteworthy. After all, if all of the songs were the same, why would we want to sing them? Have you ever felt like you’re in a ‘miry clay’, as Reuben describes it? Maybe it’s felt like quicksand, or an unscalable mountain, or a prison for you. Evidently for Reuben, the metaphor of a miry clay meant he felt nearly immobilized, with a muck that stuck to him no matter how often he washed. Once Reuben got rid of that, the rest of his song is about God, and what He’s done. He’ll lift you out of that sloppy stuff. Just pay attention to Him, Reuben seems to say.  

 

Read here about the author-composer: Reuben Morgan - Wikipedia

 

See here for information on the song and the album on which it appears: For All You've Done - Wikipedia

 

See Hillsong Convention Centre image information here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hillsong_Convention_Centre.jpg   This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Tatie2189. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Tatie2189 grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

At the Cross -- Reuben Morgan and Darlene Zschech

It was months before the 2006 Hillsong Conference in Sydney, Australia (see a picture of the Hillsong church’s convention center here), and Reuben Morgan and Darlene Zschech were deeply engaged in music-making for the upcoming live album that would commemorate that time. It’s not hard to guess what they were thinking, as the various titles of some of the songs and especially the title song of the album provide a window into that time. “At the Cross” was their joint idea, part of the album’s “Mighty to Save” message that Reuben and Darlene wanted to convey to Christian celebrants that year. His saving act is an historically pivotal moment for all of earth’s inhabitants – in the past, the present, and the future – so it’s impossible to exaggerate its significance, as well as God’s authority as Creator and Savior. He’s the holy and sovereign ruler of all, and yet Reuben and Darlene were also acknowledging Him in a very personal way, too. He died His death for me. That’s what these two songwriters wanted to say.

 

Perhaps it was the idea of Easter that first captured the imaginations of Reuben and Darlene, and how meaningful that was to each of them. In fact, the two have not shared what precisely motivated their lyrics and notes, but perhaps they’ve already said enough through the song. They wanted what He has done for the believer to be very personal, as one can see in their abundant use of the pronouns ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘my’ – some 38 times throughout the verses and chorus. I can know Him, and He certainly knows all about me – He's ‘searched me’ (v.1), is ‘surrounding me’ (v.2), and as Darlene and Reuben say repeatedly, He ‘love(s) me’. He ‘go(es) before me’, ‘shield(s) me, and ‘uphold(s) me’ (v.3), and this songwriting duo makes it clear how He accomplishes this. ‘At the cross’, ‘blood…shed’, and ‘overcom(ing) the grave’ in the song’s chorus make the Easter connection unmistakable, but to underscore their message even further, they capture the image of Christ’s sacrificial act initiating the ‘tor(n) veil’ that opened ‘the way’ for us who are not Jewish priests to enter the Most Holy Place. It was His day when He died, but He didn’t forget us when He ripped apart that temple curtain separating us from our heavenly father. To say that event was  radical is a theological mouthful, for this idea that man could not approach or even look upon God had been His regulation since at least the days of Jacob, when he spent the night wrestling with Him (see Genesis 32:30) and yet ‘was spared’ at Peniel – almost 2,000 years before Jesus’ crucifixion. He still has a ‘holy presence’ (v.2) that should awe me, but He will also ‘stand before me’ (v.4) in eternity, as Reuben and Darlene remind me. I can regard Him with astonishment and love, all at the same time.

 

It's also clear that Reuben and Darlene expected the picture of the sacrificing God at the cross would be transformative. How could anyone look upon someone dying in such a way and not be affected? Some of us may still feel that God is distant and far-removed from what goes on in daily life here on planet Earth, but these songwriters ask you and me to not forget the bit of history that Jesus was remaking on that day. He ‘tore the veil’, and ‘made a way’ that wasn’t there before. The veil and the separation it created had been the norm for thousands of years. Imagine something so true, seemingly forever, and then it is eliminated. It’s a comparatively weak analogy, but remember when the Berlin Wall was breached (1989), and the utter jubilation that residents there felt that day? Remember the goosebumps, as you saw it on the TV screens? (Check out the video link below.) Watch, and multiply that – how many X times? – to get what Jesus did.

 

Information about one of the composer-authors: Darlene Zschech - Wikipedia

Information about one of the composer-authors: Reuben Morgan - Wikipedia

A link to the information about the album on which the song first appeared: Mighty to Save (Hillsong album) - Wikipedia

 

See a stirring video of the day the Berlin Wall fell here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmRPP2WXX0U

 

See Hillsong Convention Centre image information here: File:Hillsong Convention Centre.jpg - Wikimedia Commons.  This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Tatie2189. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Tatie2189 grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

 

Never Gonna Let Me Go -- Jason Ingram and Kristian Stanfill

‘Take it all.’ That seemed like a key phrase that two songwriters settled upon when they thought about what they wanted to say for a song on this album that they and others helped put together in 2014. In order for someone to really mean what he says with those three short words, he would have to offer himself totally – an act of unreserved and complete sacrifice. That would be Passion – unlike what anyone else has ever lived, or died, to demonstrate. And so, when Jason Ingram and Kristian Stanfill were reflecting on Jesus’ passion – His great sacrifice for everyone – they must have thought about how he did that because of His unswerving devotion to those He created, that He was “Never Gonna Let (You and) Me Go”. (See the 16^th Century painting Christ Carrying the Cross here by El Greco.) We didn’t hear Him say so, but can you imagine what it was like when Jesus spoke to our enemy, with utter conviction--‘You cannot have them, Satan. They are mine!’? This day is passion’s culmination – Friday – when Jesus gave it all. Do you feel His grip?

 

The album’s name is Passion: Take It All, and that was the foundation upon which the Atlanta-Houston Passion Conference in 2014 built its message to young Christians that year. Jason and Kristian wrote, either individually or collaboratively with others or each other, four songs for the album, including ‘Never Gonna…’, with a very upbeat, celebratory kind of tune that testifies to how the saved can feel when they appreciate how much He’s done to complete our victory. And, that His hold on you and me is certain, results in an outpouring of thanks in its lyrics. Love is the engine, according to Jason and Kristian. His ‘love break(s) through..stone’…’breathes (into) my bones’…’reach(es) out to my soul’. This love also is‘calling…’, ‘making me new’, and ‘lifting me’. Is it any surprise that the Almighty God says He is love, through one of His apostles (1 John 4:8,16), and that this love can do so much? Just listen to what Jason and Kristian say this love overcomes: a ‘lost’ and ‘blind’ condition, ‘darkness wandering’, where ‘no life’ and ‘no hope’ permeate the environment (v.1). Medical doctors have no cure for a blind person, and have only limited abilities to revive the dead; and psychiatrists and psychologists can do only so much for the person who’s lost emotionally, someone without hope. But the Great Physician has the answer! That exclamation point is what Jason and Kristian might add if a musical note to express this existed. But, what they do instead is underscore with their lyrics the pivotal nature of love, by singing this four-letter word repeatedly in its various roles. Thirty times – is that enough to tell just how important this God-infused condition is? And, it’s so crucial to us understanding Him, that the word is not a passive noun in the song’s language. It is a verb, with potent action. Indeed, it’s so potent and alive, that it defied the death march that Jesus walked, and the cross upon which He hung, that passion Friday.

 

Jesus’ passion needs no more exposition from this blogger. What He’s done stands firmly all on its own. The only thing left for you and me is how to respond. He wants to give me an abundant life, one ‘to the full’ (John 10:10), and so it was no mere execution, no tragic accident that Jesus gave it all. Jesus Himself was preparing to execute the capital criminal that was menacing and killing the human soul. He’s knocked him out cold, condemning him to the Abyss, and finally to the fiery lake (Revelation 17 and 20). The match is over in this spiritual battle. The Bible’s last book says we win, if we join the love-natured, and Almighty Lamb. You can sing about never being let go, with the rest of us. Do you wanna be on the winning side?       

 

  

 

See here for information about one of the songwriters: Kristian Stanfill - Wikipedia

 

See here for biographic information on the other songwriter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Ingram

 

See here for information about the album on which the song appears: Passion: Take It All - Wikipedia

 

See here for information on the painting shown here, and its public domain status: File:Christ Carrying the Cross 1580.jpg - Wikimedia Commons.  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.