I Belong to Jesus – Dennis Jernigan

If someone told you one of his favorite “Christian” songs was similar in some ways to Chuck Berry’s rock-n-roll classic “Johnny B. Goode”, or maybe to a jazz\boogie-woogie or swing tune, what would you think? Rock-n-Roll and Christianity? Jazz and God? Time was when they were considered mutually exclusive, right? Hrrrumph…God doesn’t boogie – isn’t that what grandma said? Dennis Jernigan composed something in “I Belong to Jesus” that tests that presumption, although his real message is in the song’s words. The message is potent, overflowing with energy, one that can turn a life on its head. So, what kind of revolutionary music would be appropriate for such a song? Jernigan must have been wondering the same thing when he composed it.

Jernigan has a lot of life to tell in his music – maybe that’s why he’s written over 2,000 songs. His story of delivery from the gay (homosexual) lifestyle is stirring (one can read about it in many places – see them listed below). He tells the story readily, including a brief segment on a video in which he calls the song his personal declaration of what Christ has done for him. The Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians about becoming a new creation ring in Dennis Jernigan’s ears. He shares that he’s been ‘signed, sealed, and delivered…His’. There’s few issues in human culture that are as powerful as those surrounding sex, agreed? You can hear how dangerous sexual sin is in Jernigan’s words that he borrows from another Apostle (Peter) in the song’s first verse…Satan is a roaring lion, hungry to devour me and you (1 Peter 5:8). You can sense he knows the risk, given his former lifestyle. And, grace is not a license for a return to sin, but a gift that should make us want to not sin all the more, he says. Though Satan is to be feared, I just need to believe in ‘the truth’ that God has communicated to me – I belong to Him, not Satan. And, He was tempted by Satan, just as I am (see the picture above).

The magnet that draws my physical being toward evil is overpowered by Jesus. That’s the song’s theme. If that tension between the world of right (Jesus) and of evil (Satan) suggests a conflict is ongoing, maybe that’s what Jernigan’s musical accompaniment in the song intends to convey. It’s jumpy, exciting stuff. It reminds me that the Christian life is not for docile, couch potato-types. Jesus could not be tamed. When you hear the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection, set to Jernigan’s music, who wouldn’t want to join Him? Begin 2011 knowing and being confident in what Dennis Jernigan has you sing in “I Belong to Jesus” – you’re free !

Some biographical information on Dennis Jernigan: websites: http://www.dennisjernigan.com/

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

A video and testimony for the song “I Belong to Jesus”, by the composer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-JUa0Ux0mU

And, see this book: Giant Killers: Crushing Strongholds , Securing Freedom in Your Life, by Dennis Jernigan. WaterBrook Press, 2005.

The Heart of Worship – Matt Redman

Jesus. That about says it all, according to Matt Redman. It was in the late 1990s, and Redman says “The Heart of Worship” was his reflection on what the pastor and the rest of that church discovered when they turned off the technology, and essentially became “unplugged”, with no microphones, no magnified sound from instruments.


I suppose I could ask myself ‘Is He on my mind on Monday morning, as I wade through work assignments?’ But, according to Redman, the challenge that his Watford, England church’s pastor issued was not about the other six days of the week, but really Sunday. Sundays had apparently become an exercise in consumption, not offering. Apathy prevailed. Does that say something about the human psyche, about my nature as I reach out to Him in worship? Redman’s words say ‘yes’. I cannot watch, certainly, and no one can do this for me. But, even if I mouth the words myself, without musical accompaniment, it’s empty if the heart’s not engaged. Heart disease is one of the most common physical maladies, often treated with something called a bypass. Redman’s song suggests the spiritual dimension of this ailment can be cured too, but it’s not a bypass. It’s more like …what would you call it?

What’s inside? Deep down, stuff that maybe only a diary knows. Sharing one’s heart is intense, because you’re vulnerable. You can be wounded so easily. Sound familiar? Maybe that’s what makes worship so tricky. Sometimes my human relationships injure me, frankly, and so I’m conditioned to be cautious. ‘I might get stomped on’, I tell myself. What about God’s heart? His was wounded too. Did He do this, this exposing of His great heart, I wonder, because He knew the same would be hard for me? And so, my weak, timid, little heart reaches out for His. I need His courage. Everyone around me has the same affliction, I can remind my spirit, even as I cower. My heart to His heart, not a bypass, but a booster shot of the divine. Feel that? That’s worship. That’s the cure for apathy on Earth.

The entire story of the song “The Heart of Worship” is at: http://www.crosswalk.com/1253122/

Come Into the Holy of Holies – John Sellers

John Sellers wouldn’t be surprised if you think about what it’s like to be in a Temple (see the picture of a Temple room) when you listen to or sing the song “Come Into the Holy of Holies” that he wrote in 1984. He might also approve if you think about your commitment as a believer in ways you haven’t considered before. Both of these themes helped trigger his creativity as he wrote the song. Like another composer decades before himself, an experience in an army also played a part in Sellers’ makeup and the development of the song he wanted to express as a turn in his faith. Like George Bennard (composer of “The Old Rugged Cross” – see this blog’s March 7, 2009 post, or click here http://songscoops.blogspot.com/search/label/Bennard) decades earlier, John Sellers’ early Christian experience was with the Salvation Army. He learned the basics of music there, while his parents were officers in the organization. Later in life, Sellers found he wanted to experience more, and he discovered a church that worshipped more energetically than he had experienced before. A personal connection with the Lord was also a stirring idea to which Sellers was introduced at the same time. His creativity in music was stimulated, while he was concurrently studying about the ancient temple practices versus what Jesus’ death did – ripping the temple veil. Soon, the words to “Come Into the Holy of Holies” were spawned. The revolution in the human-to-God relationship had jumped off the pages of Sellers’ bible, and onto the musical score he wrote. When was the last revolution in your life? No, not the rebellious kind, not one that made you abandon wisdom and good sense. But one in which you knew viscerally that something was missing, and you needed a new beginning. John Sellers felt this, and it led eventually to his writing this song with a revolutionary invitation. Maybe the old rules and methods have become ends, rather than means, blurring the true objective. What if you disregarded time-worn, accepted, stale standards, and threw caution to the winds? Be sure, someone or group nearby would surely sound the alarm - - you’ve certainly lost your mind! Can you imagine if someone had walked into Jerusalem in 33 A.D. and said ‘Hey, let’s just walk into the Holy of Holies, whaddya say’? Someone did. But, the way He took down the veil hiding that room was most unsettling. His method doesn’t allow the easy, safe turnaround. If I decide to link myself to His example, I accept this fact, this potentially hazardous duty. Has God’s seminal act that ‘Good Friday’ touched me the way it did John Sellers? If it does, I join Him for the adventure, the ride of a lifetime. It leads me places I wouldn’t otherwise go…including heaven. The source for John Sellers “Come Into the Holy of Holies” song story is the book “Celebrate Jesus: The Stories Behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs”, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2003. Also see “The Complete Book of Hymns-Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. ,2006.

Had It Not Been – Debbie Dorman

“If the LORD had not been on our side…” (Psalm 124)

Debbie Dorman learned something from some street kids at a youth retreat in 1991. (See her website link below.) She saw in them the Lord’s word come to life, when they related how they had been rescued by Him – from certain death to a spiritual life. Being from tough neighborhoods, many of today’s inner-city kids are probably not strangers to seeing someone, maybe even themselves or some of their friends, in handcuffs. Physical danger for these kids is perhaps not new, much as it hadn’t been for the Psalmist David who fled from enemies and friends, and even family members at times. But Dorman says Psalm 124 was brand new when she thought about what those children had said, and it spawned the song “Had It Not Been”.

From her home in Austin, Texas, Dorman ministers to the Hope Chapel, producing music on an album that promotes the same theme as the church - hope. The songs, like the one based on Psalm 124, are evidently inspired by real-life events within the lives of the church’s members. What events in yours or my life might inspire songs, making hope not just a concept but a reality? King David, if indeed he did author Psalm 124, knew physical danger – from his predecessor Saul, from the Philistines, and from Absalom, his own son. Spiritual danger also leapt at him from his own idleness and the resulting sin with Bathsheba. Alternatively, many scholars believe that Psalm 124 may have come from the hand of a writer experiencing the return from exile, long after King David. Those Israelites would have had reason to sing about ‘escaping from the snare’ too. Come forward two or three millennia, and think about the street kids Dorman met. While physical danger – from gangs and drugs – are obvious in the ‘hood’s blighted culture, its inhabitants also face boredom and poverty, an insidious combination. What ones do you and I face?

I had to think about this one, frankly. My physical life has never been threatened by someone else, and I’ve never even encountered a violent criminal act in my presence, as I recall. So, has God been shielding me with a hedge, ala Job, as Satan once challenged the Lord? I was a farm kid from Ohio, so physical danger for me was working around lots of machinery and large animals as a teenager and coming away with few scars, despite driving a tractor with bad brakes and getting a hand caught in a machine when I was 18. I’ve also been in three car accidents in the last 20 years, two of which either totaled or nearly totaled the car I was in, yet I walked away from these unharmed. From these I surmise that God must have been on my side, although someone else might say I was just lucky. Airplane trips for me have also been relatively uneventful. A routine fact of 20th and 21st Century life, you say? Yes, but I still pray for His protection every time I’m on the jet screaming down the airstrip. I also see His hand in my inner life too. Where would I be without His body, and the many friends I can depend on to keep me pointed heavenward? I could think of my personal physical and spiritual fortunes as just that – fortunes, without a source. It’s really a question of who gets the credit. Who gets it in your life – luck or God?

See Debbie Dorman’s site at : http://www.debdorman.com/songs-of-hope/had-it-not-been-psalm-124/

A Mighty Fortress – Martin Luther

The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 46:7)

There's not much one could add to the story of Martin Luther, and his great hymn "A Mighty Fortress". It's said that it's based upon Psalm 46, which many believe Luther sang often with his compatriot Philipp Melancthon when they felt their cause was in great distress. There's four theories regarding exactly when Luther wrote the song -- all were when Luther and his fellow strugglers faced a test, a confrontation with the government, or were remembering those who gave the supreme sacrifice in the struggle to reform the church. See the websites below…they will inspire and inform you. And, the next time you sing Luther’s hymn, thank God that his servant Luther stood firm, that he was girded by God’s promises – that our God is a ROCK. 

(Dec. 2019 update): Another possibility is that the deaths in the summer of 1527 of three people close to Luther prompted the hymn’s composition, those three people being Leo Kaiser (a martyr for expressing his evangelical faith), and Hanna Bugenhagen (who died from the Plauge) and her daughter who was stillborn.  
 

See the following websites for lotsa history on Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress”:

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

http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Poetry/A-Mighty-Fortress.html

Also see the biography entitled “Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World”, by Eric Metaxas, Penguin Books, 2017, p. 386 for discussion of the triple deaths that affected Luther in 1527.