Come Unto Jesus -- Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker, Laura Story, Jesus

 

This song has many writers, but it must begin with the One who first spoke the words that no human being could disparage. What Jesus said about wanting to give people rest from their burdens should reverberate within every one of us, for who doesn’t want to be relieved of trouble? No one wants anxiety, and yet it comes, coaxing us to listen closely to the God-Son’s promise. The text of Matthew chapter 11 begins by saying that Jesus went through the region of Galilee (see the map-graphic here that shows that area in about 50 AD) teaching and preaching, and the chapter ends (vv. 28-30) with Him saying something that Thomas Moore and Thomas Hastings, along with the tune-writer Samuel Webbe, highlighted in a 19^th Century hymn, Come, Ye Disconsolate. That hymn underscored what Jesus said, and then spoke lyrically once more to three 21^st Century songwriters -- Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker, and Laura Story – in Come Unto Jesus. It is evidence that what Jesus said is still relevant, and always will be to those of us who need what He offers.

 

Laura Story says that Come Unto Jesus is a modern hymn for today (the song was published in 2023), and yet its roots are in something that Jesus wanted all of us to know 2,000 years ago. She reminds us of what Jesus’ words mean – that we don’t have to fix ourselves before coming to Him for relief. It’s a fallacy that our culture tries to get us to accept, that we cannot admit weakness, cannot be anything but complete, and certainly cannot have a mess in our lives when we approach Him. Laura says that she and her two collaborators, Jordan and Matt, asked themselves what the people in our world needed to be reminded of most when they sat down to think and write Come Unto Jesus.  Busyness and distraction were apparent, they said, impeding the worship atmosphere they felt they needed to foster in the songs they would bring before the church. What the ancient writer Matthew remembered that Jesus said in the region of Galilee came to them, and provided the foundation for what they wanted to say. Their lyrics also leaned heavily upon their 19^th Century musical ancestors, Thomas Moore and Thomas Hastings, to reemphasize what those two evidently felt was plaguing their own era – the same thing that is still around in the 21^st Century. Weary people have all sorts of problems and turmoil, and may become the refuse of the culture, the ones society has shoved aside because of the chaos that is so pervasive in their lives. Laura points to what another writer, Paul, had to say regarding the peace that Jesus translates to us that is beyond all understanding (Philippians 4:7). People who have descended into a pit so deep that they cannot even recall how the mayhem actually began need something equally as powerful and transcendent to resurrect themselves. That is Jesus.  

 

Laura says another ancestor spoke words that still mean something today, because they also lean on this axiom – that Jesus is the only source of lasting peace. “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” Saint Augustine of Hippo reminded people of his own era (4^th/5^th Century A.D.) with those words, so what does that communicate? If you are one that thinks you can help yourself, if you are a ‘pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps’ type of person, then reconsider that mindset. Yes, everyone needs to have some abilities to function in the world, to make civil society possible. But wars, disease, prisons and the criminal activity that puts people in them, and the strains of just daily living – financially, relationally, emotionally, and otherwise – can make you and me crack under the pressure so easily. I cannot handle all of myself, and cannot even contemplate controlling everyone and everything else within view. It all is a recipe for trouble in a place I cannot escape, except by death. Jesus offers something that even overcomes that terminal option. Don’t try the death part before you give Him a shot, OK?   

 

Read about the song’s story here: https://www.leadworshipwell.com/behind-the-song/laura-story-come-unto-jesus

 

This site indicates the song’s publishing year: https://hymnary.org/tune/come_unto_jesus_kauflin

 

See information about the 19^th Century hymn here:  http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/y/d/i/cydiscon.htm

 

See information on the map-graphic here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Galilee.jpg... The author died in 1934, 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 80 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, 1930. The image can be found inside this document: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilee 

As For Me -- Chris Tomlin, Jason Ingram, Pat Barrett, and Joshua

 

Control and Choice. That in a very succinct way describes what Pat Barrett, Jason Ingram, and Chris Tomlin were discussing one day in 2020. Their joint thinking process led one of them to recall something he’d read, and as they all talked about the episode when Joshua challenged the people (Joshua 24:14-15) (see the map-graphic here that shows Shechem, where Joshua issued what some might say was a dare), a song emerged that used this ancient leader’s own words “As For Me”. Pat especially thought a lot about what Joshua’s words meant, and what effects that should have for his family and himself. It is rather incongruous, seemingly, that the Almighty God, the Creator and Guide and Protector, the One who brought the people through the wilderness, would then prompt Joshua to say that the people had to right to choose, that they did possess some control. What would a people or an individual do with that? Why would God take a risk on people who could turn away? Take one more look at Him before you do.

 

Perhaps that was what Pat Barrett and his two musical collaborators did, and what they saw that Joshua also modeled some 3,300 years ago as he told the people to exercise their memories and then choose. He told them all about their ancestors’ days since the time of Abraham, right up until that moment, so they were thinking about all that God had meant to them jointly in their history. So how could they say anything else but ‘Yes, we will follow Him!’. Joshua told them ‘As for me…’, and the people essentially responded, ‘we too…we’re with you’. Pat said in an interview 33 centuries later what all the choice for God has meant for him, in a similar way that really echoes what those Israelites must have considered as well. Pat said it’s really stunning to understand that you and I have a say in how our lives proceed, but that this kind of control certainly doesn’t extend to everything we see and touch. No one can make you serve God, Pat remembered, and so lots of people do not, unfortunately. And, to underscore this point, the world turned and seemed very chaotic in 2020, and Pat recalled a feeling of helplessness was very present. And yet, we can all make a contribution, even if each of us thinks of himself as insignificant and really incapacitated when it comes to everything around us. But, when it comes to one’s own family and what goes on inside your home’s four walls, you can make choices about what values will prevail in that space. Pat (and his wife, Megan?) decided that that was a principle to guide their family, and he says that the song’s bridge helped remind him that choosing God should permeate ‘…every room, [and be on] every wall, and door’, so to speak. A Christian’s lifestyle doesn’t have to be ‘flashy’, he said, but one’s own family can decide how to be around others, including those who might enter their home; so, being ‘present’, and ‘gracious’, ‘generous’, ‘hospitable’, holding to the ‘truth’, and ‘forgiving’ others, and also capable of having the ‘hard conversations’…in short, being all of the things that are ‘Godly and good’, as Pat put it, is someone making the decision to exercise control and make a choice in one’s own life.

 

‘As for me’ means seeing who He is and has been for you, and making the choice to stay with Him. Pat ended the interview by saying that ‘as for me’ has been a daily selection, and a way that spurs him to reflect each day about whom he’s serving. Be honest with yourself, Pat said. Have there been other gods elbowing their way into my space, coaxing me to look in their direction? In Pat’s life, he’s had to watch out for popularity (as a performer), but also fear. Do those have control, and steer one’s course? You can be a pastor’s/minister’s/elder’s kid, and have Joshua’s words at Shechem on your lips, but does that itself become a risk, something that becomes too familiar? Pat hinted that that was something he’d thought about too (since he was a pastor’s kid). Does my Creator see me essentially as a part of my family’s lineage – as many of Joshua’s day, and later also, might have thought? I – me, myself, and I -- make my way with Him, or I don’t. No one else can do it for me. Jesus opened the door, certainly. Will you walk through it?  

 

See/hear the song story here (at 3:05 – 11:22) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWT5StJU2XU

 

See information on the map image here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechem and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechem#/media/File:Nablus_and_Balata_in_the_Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.11_(cropped).jpg …This file is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason: 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 70 years or fewer. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.

Your Presence Is Heaven to Me -- Israel Houghton and Micah Massey

 

How many of us Earth-ers have wished that the Righteous Judge would make a physical appearance at one time or another? Could that have been what Israel Houghton and Micah Massey were also mulling over, as so many of us do on a particularly tough day? But rather than bemoaning the state of terrestrial affairs, Israel and Micah saw themselves in contact, in awe, and at least momentarily transported to an unblemished vision, when they exclaimed that “Your Presence Is Heaven to Me”. Perhaps that’s what three of His Apostles also experienced – that they were seeing a piece of Heaven when they saw Jesus transfigured with two other famous people (Moses and Elijah) of their heritage (see the 19^th Century artwork, The Transfiguration of Christ, by Carl Bloch here). Suspend the limits that your five senses coax you to accept, and imagine what it’s like to be with Him, as you and I hope and believe we will be in that never-ending place. It’s called heaven, and as Israel and Micah remind us, His presence is here now.

 

These two writers don’t share explicitly what spurred their song’s lyrics and music (which were published in 2012), but any number of scriptures might have contributed to the insights of Israel and Micah regarding His presence. ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…on earth as it is in heaven’, as Jesus was once teaching a group of disciples to pray (Matthew 6:10). Or how about ^‘I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life’ (1 John 5:13). In both cases, believers seem to be told that His kingdom, and the eternity that comes with it, is available already. Try on these also, as they help convey something of the song lyrics’ meaning (as pointed out in one of the links below): Psalm 16:11; Exodus 33:14; Psalm 27:4; Psalm 42:1-2; Matthew 18:20. God’s presence is not some distant uncertainty, but a trustworthy promise. He answers and provides, even by giving people other mortals with whom they can share and count on His abiding presence. That’s a present-tense assurance that Isaiah and Micah realized when they wrote ‘Your Presence Is Heaven to Me’. Is…not will be, as they have us sing some 21 times in the song that they wrote. That is their main thought, that the believer should capture the moment one senses Him spiritually, and hold on to that. There is so much that comes with pondering Him and what He means. ‘Love’, ‘beauty’, and ‘worth’ (v.1) are what we can behold in Him, and He’s the bottomless ‘cup that won’t run dry’. The ‘treasure’ that He is overcomes my ‘weakness’ and ‘wrongs’, because he is ‘merciful’, the ‘Redeemer’ – the ‘Holder of my future’ (v.2). It’s not a wonder that Isaiah and Micah don’t try to enumerate more – the above are plenty for you and me to acknowledge with an Amen, as we sing repeatedly the song’s title words!

 

Put yourself in the shoes of Peter, James, and John as they saw Jesus in all of His glory. Look at that image up at the top of this entry for a few moments, or close your eyes if that’s more effective. When has He been real for you? When you were in dire straits, medically, financially, emotionally, or relationally? He doesn’t play favorites, but He does seem to want us to acknowledge our need and exercise some bit of faith in Him, even a mustard-seed size type of faith (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6). None of us measure up to His standard, and I expect to be terrified, at least initially, when I actually am before Him. Look at how his three closest disciples reacted to Him (in the picture), including in many other episodes in which He showed His power. They were petrified, and yet He embraced them, and wants us to draw near despite our insides telling us to withdraw and hide. He cannot help being divine, and thereby alarming us. But, He is also gentle (Matthew 11:29; 21:5). What I need is not to be hidden and safe from a power that I admittedly cannot comprehend, but to see my need for His cure. There’s no other way out of my problems. He made me, so I think I can trust that He knows what I need. Seek out His presence.      

 

Read about one of the composers here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Houghton

 

Read about one of the composers here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micah_Massey

 

Watch/listen to a performance by one of the composers here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aff5lPzKQIo

 

Read some comments about the song’s meaning here: https://sifalyrics.com/israel-houghton-israel-new-breed-your-presence-is-heaven-lyrics

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transfigurationbloch.jpg …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 1930. The image may be found inside the article at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus