Come Jesus Come -- Stephen and Tara McWhirter, Hank Bentley, Bryan Fowler

 

He just let the Word dwell inside himself for a few moments, until something so completely saturated his being, that Stephen McWhirter sensed a message germinating inside that was a calling, and not just a song. Perhaps most people avoid reading the bible’s last book – Revelation – because the imagery is so, well, bizarre and terrifying. But Stephen, and just about all of planet Earth, were stuck in a rather frightening space in time in early 2020 anyway, so perhaps reading and hearing the “Come Jesus, Come” voice speaking to him was just what he needed that day. Another believer in God, one named John, saw what must have rattled him right down to his bones also, perhaps something like the image shown here (See the mid-19^th Century work of art by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld  [1794–1872], Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern", 1860.), one artist’s conception of what this great apostle experienced. Stephen set out to study and worship a little that day, in a personal way, and he found something that he just couldn’t keep to himself. Blessedly, John was not able to forget his vision, and neither was Stephen.  

   

COVID-19…not a time that many of us want to remember, but it did bring Stephen McWhirter and his collaborators (his wife Tara, and friends Hank Bentley and Bryan Fowler) something special, perhaps because of its origin. Stephen was at the very last page of his bible, in Revelation 22:17-20, and so he must have known where to look when he was trying to offer God authentic worship, even if his world was at the beginning of the pandemic (2020). Who wouldn’t be awed and properly prostrated before your Creator and Healer while seeing what John saw, after all? Stephen was really captivated by the Spirit and the Bride (the church) imploring Jesus to come, and that this is something God wants us to do. Stephen acknowledged the longing within himself to see Jesus, this King and also personal friend, and that until that moment would become reality, he was called to love people better in his life. He just felt convicted that he needed to do something meaningful until Jesus comes in all His glory. And so, Stephen, apparently with some help from Tara, Hank, and Bryan, took up this Godly vision’s entreaty – ask Jesus to come. Perhaps they felt that earth’s inhabitants were in no better place than during a global health emergency to hear and join with them in this plea. I’m about to ‘break’ (v.1), so please don’t wait to heal our ‘every hurt’ and fix ‘every wrong’ (refrain). With the song’s last two verses, Stephen and his co-writers take up Revelation’s apocalyptically hopeful and inspiring bottom-line – that in celestial war, in which you and I alone could never hope to prevail, is the means of my rescue, through Jesus. He’s the Faithful and True, the rider on the white horse waging war against the enemy, in a battle that’s already been won (Revelation 19). These songwriters are therefore waiting expectantly for ‘war’ and ‘chains’ (v.2) to vanish with Jesus’ return, an arrival that would awe everyone with its ‘power’, no matter whether you are ’weak’ or ‘strong’ (v.2). We’ll all be washed clean in His ‘rivers of grace’, standing ‘face-to-face’ with this Savior, so there’s ‘no need to wait’ (v.3) for this mind-blowing moment. Take hold of it now!

 

Stephen and company really manage to capture with their music some of the passion of Revelation (see the link below to the rendition with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir). It’s like they were still riding a wave of imagining what John could only have marveled at when he described it for us. Take heart and don’t be frightened, John says in so many words. Your entry into His presence is already secured, if you have completely given yourself over to Him. Let Him put His mark on your head, and revel in the assurance that you’re on His triumphant side. Who would want to be with the losers – the beast, the serpent, the prostitute, and their minions who occupy Babylon? Come, Jesus! We’ll keep telling others, and raise a hallelujah, and shout louder still, as we try to sound like those roaring waters of your multitude who see You coming. Let your spirit unite with His Spirit, and see what John saw!     

 

 

Watch the story of the song here: Stephen McWhirter Shares the Story Behind his Song, "Come Jesus Come" (youtube.com)

 

See a moving rendition of the song by the principal songwriter and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-kZ4Eb3XXg

 

See information on the image of Christ in John’s Revelation vision here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860_236.png... 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-US}} – US work that is in the public domain in the US for an unspecified reason, but presumably because it was published in the US before 1929.  

 

Read a little about the principal songwriter here: Stephen McWhirter Artist Profile | Biography And Discography | NewReleaseToday   and here: The Side B Stories - Stephen McWhirter's Story - C.S. Lewis Institute (cslewisinstitute.org)

Jesus, We Love You -- Paul and Hannah McClure, Kalley Heiligenthal

 

It must have helped them feel more confident, as they approached parenthood for the first time. That’s what you might say, when you hear what Paul McClure remembers about how he felt -- and the comforting resolution he also experienced -- when he and his wife Hannah were pregnant in November 2013. This approaching fatherhood was a bit scary for him, and then he thought that if he and his family could just say “Jesus, We Love You”, things would be OK; he could handle being a dad, and Hannah would feel no anxiety at being a mom. This Redding, California couple dwelt on, and finally rested in the assurance that the presence of God’s Son would undergird their role as parents to their own son. Things were going to be different for them in one respect, but in another way, the unchanging nature of their most important relationship was something that gave them a firm foundation – a cornerstone (v.1). As they pondered their situation, and the circular nature of Him and what He provides, and how that gets reflected back and forth between us and Him – these thoughts really made these new parents feel His security anew.    

 

You can hear the McClures song story, in their own words (see the YouTube link below), a story that unfolds all the different reactions they had to bringing a new life into the world; it was a time when they were praying even as they made the music. Kalley Heiligenthal evidently also had some thoughts that translated into lyrics for the song the McClures initially crafted; Kalley’s own heartbreaking loss as a parent (she lost her daughter in 2019), and her expression of trust in Him while in the midst of her loss, suggests she and the McClures had voiced something unshakeable in 2013-2014 that was from deep inside all three of them. (See also Kalley’s video interview on another YouTube link below.) In short, to whom else can anyone turn for instructions about life, except to the One who creates life? The McClures felt their son’s (Ezra’s) life would be OK if he was nurtured with the love that both Paul and Hannah had first received from Him. Paul calls it ‘the big…explosive moment’ he wanted to capture in the song, when they would sing the song’s title words. Hannah adds that His love, and how we receive it and redirect it back to Him, was what gave her the lyrics for the song’s bridge section; ‘our affection…devotion’ is given back to Him who first gave it to us --‘for all that you’ve done…’ here’s the appreciation, our anthem to say we are beholden to You. Paul declares that his response to Him ultimately is not only thankfulness, but also adoration and surrender. In Paul’s estimation, realizing and appreciating all that Jesus is makes it easy to follow Him, even when life is hard. The simplicity of loving Jesus…that’s what Paul says is at the heart of the song.

 

Hear some parents talk about the birth of a child…maybe that’s when it hits the human most, that there must be a God who loves. This intricate, little, living person is His idea. ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ – that’s a pretty common phrase that God issues at various points in His creative enterprise on earth (from Genesis to Hosea, in the Old Testament). Where would I be if two people had ignored these words (in the early 1960s)? Is it an accident that living emerges from loving? Change just one letter in either word, and the meaning is transformed. But, is the source changed? What do you think Paul and Hannah thought? Did Kalley change her basic beliefs when her youngster died? These three spoke their answers, and also sang them. You and I can, too.            

   

 

See/hear the story of the song shared here (appx two-minute video) by the songwriters: Jesus We Love You (Song Story) - Paul McClure | We Will Not Be Shaken (youtube.com)

 

Read about two of the songwriters here: The McClures - Wikipedia

 

See a potent video re: a heartbreaking episode in one of the songwriter’s lives here: Kalley Heiligenthal: Learning to Live After Heartbreaking Loss | Better Together TV (youtube.com)

 

See information on the image of the Redding seal here: File:Seal of Redding, California.png - Wikimedia Commons. This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.

Let Us Adore – Anonymous

 

Was this prayer first on Joshua’s lips during a crucial period when the people were returning to the land God had pledged to them? (They began to retake Canaan around 1400 B.C., when they conquered Jericho -- see the reproduction here of the 15^th Century artist Jean Fouquet’s painting, depicting Jericho and Israelites blowing trumpets to spark its fall.) That was certainly one of many episodes in which the leader standing at the head of God’s people could have directed them to pray “Let Us Adore” Him, the one true God. Could the prayer have also been voiced initially, perhaps some ten centuries later, by a group of prophets, teachers, and other wise men -- known collectively as the Great Assembly -- as a part of the routine worship practices in the rebuilt temple (the second one, constructed after the Israelites returned from exile)? The prayer’s specific origin remains a mystery, yet people living some 2,500 years after that post-exilic experience are still lifting up this prayer, still saying that He is God. This monotheistic expression, which was originally of Jewish birth, has evolved into one that even Christians use today.      

 

It is known today as Aleinu – literally, ‘it is upon us’, or ‘is our duty to praise God’. And so, the first few words forming this song-prayer’s title are an imperative. ‘Let Us Adore’ is essentially a rephrasing of the 1^st of the 10 Commandments. If it was Joshua who spoke it first in song-prayer, was he using the letters of his childhood name (Hoshea; Numbers 13:16), in reverse order, to begin each of the first four verses? Or was it a group of prophets and other leaders (possibly including Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, Mordechai and Zerubbabel) who crafted this prayer to use in the Temple’s daily rituals? Other theories abound, but while the origin remains cloudy, this prayer has survived and has become part of what was known by the late 19^th Century (A.D.) as the Union Prayer Book; it’s a text that today helps guide many Jewish (Reformed) congregations in various ceremonies, but especially as they begin and end their synagogue worship services. ‘He is our God! There is no one else!’ exclaim the believers heavenward. We who sing the words of the first verse of Aleinu also acknowledge the Genesis account of this Creator forming ‘the heavens’, and ‘the earth’, and that His creation continues to make Him ‘manifest’. We, and all we can see, testify to His artistry, His unparalleled genius. In short, He’s awesome, a realization that the song’s present-day minor key (B-flat minor) helps provoke. Christianity has taken this same sensation, imprinted in this faith’s foundation that the God-Son came as the ultimate sacrifice ‘on a rugged tree’, onto another plane. This Creator-God is also Savior, the perfect lamb that Jews could never have offered themselves. But, it’s not a censure of the Jewish people and their faith’s articulation that Christians seek; rather, we just say that He, in the sending of His Son, communicates to us, in His divine and sovereign way – which only God can do – that He’s totally committed to us, and is willing to do everything in His power to rescue us from our shortcomings. Pretty awesome.

 

I am impure, but He’s willing to impute His perfection to me. He’s not a rulebook authoritarian, with His unrelenting fingers paging through Leviticus to find all my faults, so He can lord over me how much I fall short. I know it, if I examine myself honestly. I desperately need to find a way to bridge the imperfection gap – kinda like a terminal disease -- between Him and me. He’s got the remedy, and He’s inspired a letter-writer who’s done a pretty good job of spelling out just how all this works. Just crack a bible and turn to Hebrews – or, like I’ve just done, run a search on the word perfect in your bible app – and see all the various ways that Jesus achieves perfection for you and me (particularly, Hebrews chapter 7). Now go adore Him, even more.  

 

Read about this prayer-song here: Aleinu - Wikipedia

 

Also see here for Let Us Adore Union Prayer book song story - Search (bing.com)

 

Read about one episode where the prayer might have been first uttered: Battle of Jericho - Wikipedia

 

Read about a potential other source of the original prayer here: Great Assembly - Wikipedia

 

See information on the image of Jericho’s Fall here: File:Jean Fouquet 001.jpg - Wikipedia . 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-US}} – US work that is in the public domain in the US for an unspecified reason, but presumably because it was published in the US before 1929.