Soldiers of Christ, Arise – Charles Wesley

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes (Ephesians 6:11) What can one say about Charles Wesley, who filled volumes to express himself? Universities, seminaries, conferences, and hospitals are named after him, and his name is in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. If that doesn’t tell you enough about him, you can even read his journal online (see the address below). So, there’s no excuse for not knowing something about Charles Wesley. Pick up a songbook, find a Charles Wesley song...most of them are probably familiar, so it’s hard to imagine never having sung a Wesley tune, either. This Anglican and ‘first Methodist’ was prolific, producing by many estimates over 6,000 hymns.

It’s not surprising that a Methodist, a creature of obedience and godly habits, should turn out so many hymns. Charles Wesley’s adherence to a systematic lifestyle of worship and study earned him the name ‘Methodist’ in 1729. Like a disciplined soldier, following the orders of his commander, Wesley’s life-song mirrors what we can sing in his composition ‘Soldiers of Christ, Arise’. The song Wesley has given us was written in 1749. It’s said that Wesley wrote it with the original title “The Whole Armor of God”, and used it to confirm new converts. The song’s martial message is impossible to miss. Charles and his brother John, as notable a preacher as Charles was a hymn-writer, are jointly considered the founders of the Methodist movement, one which its followers joined in spite of its accompanying danger. Beginning in 1739, Methodists routinely experienced persecution because its ministers preached without being formally ordained or licensed by the Anglican Church. Many people were stoned, beaten, or threatened, and their homes vandalized. After a decade of this, Charles Wesley’s song shows how he must have steeled himself for the onslaught. Its 24 verses tell us the fight we’re in is lengthy, even exhausting (see them all in the link I’ve listed below).

How do I endure injustice? Do I arise and face my tormentors with resolve, with spiritual confidence in God’s providence? I must admit, I gripe too often. I’d rather not have troubles, and when I do, I have lots of venom to deliver to the nearest person, even if its an innocent bystander. I seem to need to vent my spleen. Wesley’s song reminds me that I need to be strong, that my faith is not about having an easy time. If I’m feeling vulnerable, and I yell ‘Ouch!’ a lot, maybe I need to reexamine my toolkit, the things God has given me for my protection. Is your armor on? Is God’s panoply at your disposal, through prayer and study? Do you lean on your fellow soldiers for advice and support? All these are yours and mine. I think I’ll go re-read Ephesians 6, and remind myself what a soldier should be doing…

Charles Wesely’s journal: http://wesley.nnu.edu/charles_wesley/journal/index.htm

All 24 verses of ‘Soldiers of Christ, Arise’ are at the following website: http://nethymnal.org/htm/s/o/soldiers.htm

brief biographies of Charles and John Wesely: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wesley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley

longer biographies: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorpcwesley.html

information about the song: http://songsandhymns.org/hymns/detail/soldiers-of-christ-arise

“The Complete Book of Hymns: Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Nobody Fills My Heart Like Jesus – Dennis Jernigan

Dennis Jernigan is a living example of a fresh start. He willingly lives, composes, sings, and retells his story for literally thousands and even millions of people. If you haven’t heard his testimony, find one of the websites or a book listed at the end of this entry…they tell it much better than I can write about it here. Look at one of his songs, “Nobody Fills My Heart Like Jesus”, with me for a few minutes, and his life experience and how he has reacted to God’s influence jumps, and even dances right off the music score.
He cannot help celebrating God’s mercy and grace. It’s a message that we can take to others whom our culture misleads, to people trapped in lifestyles that our holy and compassionate God can help them escape. Do you know someone, maybe even several people, who need that, people who feel hopeless? Read just a little of Jernigan’s story here, and pass it along.

Dennis Jernigan came out of a life of homosexuality in 1981 when he graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU), a graduation in his life in more than one way. Although raised as a churchgoer , and schooled by his grandmother to play the piano – a skill which he honed at the church – Jernigan says he had became unbalanced in trying to please everyone, including his own father. He felt rejected by his father, which Jernigan says was the root of his gay lifestyle, even though his father’s (and his mother’s also) actions were not unlike most other parents of the time. Jernigan’s escape from homosexuality began shortly after his OBU graduation, when he went to a concert by the group Second Chapter of Acts. Jernigan was attracted to the group’s message, which he says was more genuine than what he had seen in other Christian entertainers. The group’s message was that God is real, and that He can lift burdens, even those we haven’t shared with another soul. Perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised Jernigan – after all, he was a musician - but the music’s words articulated something that he wanted deeply - - God’s love and hope. Other events turned Jernigan’s life around, in fact 180 degrees around (see the websites or books below), so that today Dennis and Melinda (his wife) have been married for 26 years and have nine children.

Dennis Jernigan could have believed our culture’s lie, that homosexuality is OK, that God made him that way. Instead, Jernigan is now one of the most vivid examples of God’s power to change a distorted life into a fruitful, exuberant existence. “Nobody Fills My Heart Like Jesus”, written in 1991, was one of Jernigan’s first songs in a recording career that was launched the same year with his first two albums. The song’s first few words ‘..from the start…’ hint that Jernigan was still celebrating his emergence into a new life. Although the precise origin of the song is not known, its words underscore his feelings of redemption about which he writes and speaks freely. His book Giant Killers echoes what we sing in the chorus-refrain, when he writes ‘Relationship with God fills our hearts and precludes relationship with any evil…’ (p. 134). It’s a very personal statement Jernigan makes in the song’s 2nd verse, which he also expresses in Giant Killers, proclaiming that God loves us even when we’re wrong, and that we can cry out to him, calling upon him and asking to hear what he says about us (p. 111).

 Other Jernigan songs communicate the message about his life reversal, and now celebration, too, so there may be other stories are out there to discover. Looking back, it might seem that even while Dennis Jernigan was in bondage, the Lord was preparing him to spread a message. That’s hope for even the hopeless, a place where Dennis Jernigan saw himself once.


Information on Dennis Jernigan obtained from the following: websites: http://www.dennisjernigan.com/

http://www.okbu.edu/news/2006-10-27/dennis-jernigan-speaks-at-obu-beyond-the-hill-chapel

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


books: Giant Killers: Crushing Strongholds , Securing Freedom in Your Life, by Dennis Jernigan. WaterBrook Press, 2005. The Complete Book of Hymns: Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006.

As the Deer - Marty Nystrom

Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. (Psalm 42:7)


Marty Nystrom has courage. He’s also human. Why? He admits that the song “As the Deer” he wrote in 1981 sprang from an incident in his life in which he was not spiritually motivated…at least not at its beginning. His song’s words make us think ‘this composer must have really been close to God’, as we sing of panting and longing for Him. But, this is where knowing the song story really helps me get in touch with how I, like others before me, can draw close to the Lord. It begins in a desert, in which I’m pretty distant from the Holy One. That’s where I must begin? That’s what Nystrom’s experience suggests. The Psalm he read (Psalm 42) that helped him vocalize his journey to draw closer is a “maskil”, a further lesson for us believers who hear his story and compare it to other ‘maskil’ Psalms. In short, from a pit where we may find ourselves, God can perhaps use us most effectively.


Marty Nystrom travelled to Dallas, Texas in the summer of 1981, because he was chasing…God? No, a girl. And, when his heart was broken over her, he bemoaned where he was stuck. It was a hot time of year (when is summertime in Dallas not hot?!), and he admits he might have gone home, except that “I didn’t have a ticket.” Amazingly, he took a friend’s advice to fast, to consume nothing but water as a way to draw himself back toward God. After 19 days Nystrom was in a pit, physically, not completely unlike what other Psalmists must have felt when they wrote ‘maskils’ (like Psalms 32, 42, 44-45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88-89, and 142). It’s a cry out to God. Now, Nystrom’s hurt over a girl might not seem as serious as some of the life-threatening episodes in the maskils we can read. But, if you’ve ever been in his shoes, you know what it’s like to be in a dump, emotionally. That’s where Marty Nystrom was in the early summer of 1981, and then later, after being nourished for many days with only water and the Spirit, he sat at a piano and read the words of Psalm 42. Nystrom’s song story has another twist. The words and the melody that he composed, though he couldn’t have known this, resonate in a special way with people on the opposite side of the globe from the song’s birthplace. In Korea, for instance, a worship conference that Nystrom attended in the 1990s began with 100,000 Koreans singing “As the Deer”. Amazing, or just routine when God has someone’s attention in a pit?


Marty Nystrom’s experience shows me again that God, when he’s trying to speak to me, takes away things that distract me. He won’t shout above the noise in my life, which might even be another person that I think He’s directed my way. But, if I can isolate myself from my surroundings, even if it hurts, that’s where He is. It might be tough on this planet with billions of people, but Nystrom’s chronicle tells me solitude is a valuable, even sacred goal. Perhaps that’s what 100,000 Koreans were hearing in this Texas desert tune.


 Information on Marty Nystrom’s story obtained from “Our God Reigns: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs”, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2000. A shorter version of Nystrom’s song story is in “The Complete Book of Hymns: Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Victory in Jesus – Eugene M. Bartlett

Eugene Monroe Bartlett was a very well-known gospel hymnist in the early 20th Century in the South. Besides teaching and writing music for several decades, he also founded the Hartford Music Company in 1918, in Sebastian County, Arkansas. Along with the company that published music , Bartlett formed the Hartford Music Institute that taught voice, piano, piano tuning, rudiments, harmony, and stringed instruments to students all over the South. One of Bartlett’s main objectives was to teach worshippers to sight read a song by using “shape” notes, a debt that many of us still owe him today. (An assigned shape for each tone on an eight-note scale makes it easier for the common person to “read” the music.) Check out many song books, and you’ll still see them with triangles, diamonds, half-moons, etc. dotting the music scores on the pages. Perhaps that legacy was one of the main reasons that Bartlett was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 2000. When you examine Bartlett’s composition “Victory in Jesus” however, you see he was more tuned into joining another association when he wrote this song in 1939. 

 

 

 In 1939, Bartlett’s health suffered a serious blow when he had a major stroke. He spent much of the last two years of his life bed-ridden, so it’s surprising that he wrote his most well-known song “Victory in Jesus” at that time. Or is it? It’s said that Bartlett missed travelling and teaching, but he could still study the Bible, a study from which he gave us this song, his last. Is it an accident that Bartlett wrote about ‘victory’ in 1939? What was going on then? While much of the earth sat on the brink of World War II, Bartlett looked beyond that, to a victory none of us can know on earth. Though he could see an end to his life approaching, he also noticed something else about ends. Has it occurred to you that victory, though it’s something we strive for in all kinds of venues, can only be reached at the end of something here? A team never wins the game at its start, nor the championship during the season’s first few games. So, if you live for the competition, to play the game, then the end is bittersweet, even if it culminates in triumph and a trophy. Bartlett must have experienced some depression, if he was human like all of us. In fact, it’d be quite impossible to be as productive as Bartlett was, and not miss the life one has lived. But another part must have seen his physical descent as just a temporary blip, a normal part of the human condition.

 

 

 Though an earthly victory comes at the finish line, Bartlett’s 1st and 2nd song verses tell us that he had already experienced his eternal victory well before his earthly end approached. And, thank God that is the one that endures! Do you think Bartlett is now flashing the victory sign with two fingers, like a president we remember? Maybe he teaches shape notes in heaven, whaddya think? It wouldn’t be a surprise, since this method seemed to work here. Still, the only things we know of heaven are in John’s Revelation. He tells me that I’ll sing a new song (Rev. 5 + 14), a Moses song, and that I, as a winner -- a victor -- get to sing it (Rev. 15:2-4). It’s gonna be grand seeing Eugene Bartlett and so many other God-worshippers, with exquisite, perfect, musical bodies given by God, pouring out melodies and harmonies forever. Now that’s a hall of fame I want to be part of…how about you? 

 

 

Information on Eugene Bartlett was obtained from “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs” by William J. and Ardythe Petersen , Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2006 

 

Additional information on Eugene Bartlett found at the following website: http://www.musicscribe.com/2005/08/eugene-bartlett-biography.html 

 

 Information on the Hartford Music Company is available at the following website: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2661

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross – Fanny Crosby and William Doane

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Cor. 12:9)

Awesome! Have you ever read someone’s biography and had this reaction? That’s what draws me most often when I read…a great life. Try on some of these names: Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela…what would it have been like for the Great Emancipator to meet the first black South African president? Or how about Clara Barton, or Florence Nightingale….great humanitarians, and did you know they were contemporaries (Florence, 1820-1910; and Clara, 1821-1912) ? And of course, Jesus Christ, the most amazing life ever. How about Sally Smith…or Victoria Sterling…or James Black? Nope? Well, what about Frances Crosby? If this name still has no spark, maybe it’s because she’s more commonly known as Fanny Crosby, or ‘Aunt Fanny’ to some. Did you know that she was also Victoria Sterling, Sally Smith, and even James Black? She used many fake names, or pseudonyms, at least 100 in her hymn-writing career.

Crosby (1820-1915), who was also a contemporary of Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, presents no small task to a blogger trying to sum up her life. A three-paragraph blog entry just doesn’t make it, really. Here’s some links if you want to read more about and appreciate her more. But, if you want the short version, read on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby http://nethymnal.org/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm One of the most loved of Aunt Fanny’s 8,000 hymns was “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross”, which she co-wrote with William Doane. Doane wrote the music first, and then Crosby penned the words we know so well. Her words show the familiarity she felt with her Lord: from the ‘beams’ around her (verse 2), to the cross’ ‘shadow’ over her (verse 3), senses that were sharpened as she pondered the sight she lacked here on earth, but would inherit to see Him in Eternity. Perhaps you’ve heard this quote attributed to her: "when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!" Her glad heart shows in the song she co-authored with Doane, in way I never noticed, until I delved into this song story. Doane gets the credit for the song’s music, which is in 6/8 time, or meter. Any musicologist will recognize this form as a waltz, made most popular by the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss (1825-99), who was also one of Crosby’s contemporaries. Think she or her collaborator William Doane might have heard a Strauss waltz? It’s an upbeat, happy occasion, a celebration when a waltz is played, usually. Isn’t it odd, that someone would celebrate a symbol of cruel death, a cross of crucifixion? Not for Fanny Crosby, whose life is an example of someone who turned conventional thinking on its head, who exuded a positive attitude, even in the face of trial. How on earth does a blind woman learn to play two instruments (she learned the guitar, piano, and singing while a student at the New York School for the Blind), become a teacher and speaker, and one of the most well-known women in America in the 19th Century? Most would not prescribe the way Fanny began, blinded at six-weeks old by a substitute physician whose remedy for her eye inflammation was tragic. But, could her experience have made her that much more prolific? She, indeed, epitomized what Paul writes to the Corinthians about human weakness versus Godly strength.

Yes, there’s more than meets the eye when one looks at this lifelong Methodist, who was raised by her mother and grandmother. Fanny Crosby amazed and inspired – still does. So, what’s that say about the Mighty One who strengthened her? He’s still at work today, if I’ll just look for Him, if I use Him as my eyes. Aunt Fanny may have been blind, but maybe that’s what it takes to see my world the way God does. There’s a 4th verse to this song that you may have not heard…I had not. Here it is: "Near the cross I’ll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever, till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river. "

See more information on the song discussed above in The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006. Also, see: Amazing Grace: 36 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.

Faithful Love - Ken Young

He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it." (Genesis 15:7) 

I’d trust that guy about as far as I could throw ‘em! I think I’ve heard myself mutter those words as I walked away from the car dealership, or some other shady business establishment that made me suspicious, haven’t you ? I usually gird myself by reading Consumer Reports, ‘cuz no one wants to get ripped off…no, you want to get your money’s worth, the best deal. And, am I not being a good steward of God’s blessings when I think like this? I’m so glad that God is more trustworthy-infinitely more trustworthy, in fact- than a car salesman! Otherwise, we might all be wise to try jumping off this spinning top planet Earth he created, huh? Even so, did Abraham react like he thought God was reliable, that the Creator was offering him a good deal when he moved from Ur? Did he consult Consumer Reports, or examine God’s business references? Ken Young and his family admit they too felt some uncertainty in 1993, when they planned to move-- from Irving to, of all places, the desert of Midland. Ken wrote the song “Faithful Love” to tell us his feelings about his Lord, even as he wondered what lay ahead.

 Ken doesn’t seem to fret about the uncertainty, about our faith being invisible (Hebrews 11:1)…you see, he says Faithful Love has a face (see His picture above). Ken describes “Faithful Love’s” beginning: “It was August of 1993. We had lived in Irving, TX for only three years, but we were making final plans to move to Mid­land. Hallal’s ministry (the Youngs’ musical enterprise for worship renewal in churches) had really taken root and God was opening new doors of influence each day. What we were not prepared for, however, was the spiritual warfare that would accompany the blessings. It became so brutal we considered leaving full-time ministry. After much prayer and testing, it be­came clear God had called our family to a ministry in wor­ship and we could not run away, even if it meant going through the fire. He also called us to the desert. When friends heard we were moving back to West Texas, they thought we had lost our minds. To be honest, there were days when we thought they might be right. But what God did through Hallal from the desert over the next decade exceeded our greatest dreams. He is so faithful! “Faithful Love” was written during that move from the Metro­plex (our Ur) to the desert.”

 God told us that even a mustard seed-like faith has power (Matthew 17:20), so maybe that’s what Ken Young and his clan had going for them. Their experience suggests human faith grows as we draw upon the Holy One’s faith – allowing Him to change us, as the song’s words declare. If you check it out, “Faithful Love” has been like that – starting out small, and blossoming into more, from being the song of a stricken family in Kay Evans’ book, “A Song for Your Honor”, to going to distant lands like France and Costa Rica. Hallal’s growth, however, is probably less about Ken and his family, and instead more about God and the intimacy we can have with Him when we sing the words of the song Ken composed. When I take the words of “Faithful Love” to heart, I fathom God’s faith toward me with more confidence. You can sense that buoyant attitude from the Youngs, who’ve been taking steps out from Ur…to Tennessee in 2003, as well as to places around the globe. So, am I still hanging around in Ur? Are you? How might our mustard seeds sprout, if we just let Him blow them where he wants?

The above information gathered from the Hallal website: http://hallalmusic.com/, and a Hallal newsletter that was posted at the same website in October 2007.

Thank You, Lord - Gary Mabry

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)


What’s your favorite holiday? Lot’s of people say Christmas, because of the gift-giving, or maybe because of the spirit it engenders. Others pick Halloween, especially if they like handing out candy to kids standing at the door in adorable costumes. Maybe it’s one of the patriotic days, and the holiday from work that you really relish. I know I like holidays because it’s then that I get to do what I like – sleep in a little and skip the traffic! How would it work, though, if you were ordered to take a holiday to do something you don’t really like to do, or told to do something you’re not good at? Consider Ebenezer Scrooge, that thankless Christmas-time curmudgeon who was finally compelled to be kind. We think of him usually just in December, but maybe his story would also fit well at Thanksgiving, whaddya think? The ultimate complainer converted at Thanksgiving…yeh, that would be poetic justice, right?  I have to admit, I have lots of reasons to be happy and grateful, but too often I’m forgetful about expressing my thanks sincerely…I’m Scrooge. If that’s you too, Gary Mabry has written us a song to remind us of gratitude, to draw this emotion out of us. He also shares how he came to compose this tune, and how God uses unlikely people to teach us profound truth.

Gary Mabry spent his high school and college-age years in Abilene, Texas, where he met Stanley Shipp, a Christian missionary who became a link to Gary and the song “Thank You, Lord”, though probably neither of them suspected how this would come about in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After his conversion to Christ, Mabry continued to grow in the Lord’s work at his local church in Abilene, becoming a song leader and then youth director through Stanley Shipp’s encouragement. Although Shipp moved to St. Louis to start a campus ministry, he and Mabry kept in touch. Gary sometimes was the song leader during National Youth Outreach Campaigns that Shipp organized, and on one trek to St. Louis Mabry began to write “Thank You, Lord”. In Mabry’s own words …” One of the men from Abilene who moved to St. Louis to work with Stanley Shipp was a cerebral palsy victim (although he never considered himself to be a “victim”) by the name of Robert Reid. … I drove Robert from Abilene to St. Louis as he relocated. He was such a positive, fun and funny person….His spirit gave new meaning to thankfulness to God. …I began to have an idea for a song and jotted down the words and melody on a pad I kept close by. Robert was the first person to hear it…” If he didn’t know it before, perhaps Mabry had discovered something about how God translates a song to a composer. Could it be that the Creator places special people – like Robert Reid - in one’s way to spur and craft something unique, something extraordinary and long-lasting?

God is bountiful. However, sometimes, given my circumstances, I could easily curse and wonder ‘where’s God’s blessings in my life?’Robert Reid could have brought gloom, but instead he brought cheer to others – was that providential? Mabry’s first verse in the song tells me to thank God for “making me whole”. It must have been something to hear Robert sing those words, and know he counted on God to make them true. Mabry’s song and its story remind me that our Father’s “whole” gift comes in heaven, and in an unexpected way here on earth too. I need to find people who have little, seemingly, but who still manage to smile. They have what I often lack, although to the secular world the opposite appears true. “Thank You, Lord” communicates something elemental about my God and me. If I dwell on the essentials – Godly love, His blessings, and the full life He promises here and in Eternity – I have all I need. My frown turns upside down, I cast off Scrooge, as I think upon the song’s message, and let its music indwell me. Thank the Lord for Gary Mabry, for Robert Reid and Stanley Shipp, and the musical Spirit that collaborated on this song!

The above story was acquired via an e:mail with Gary Mabry on 3/31/2009, and through his association with the University of Texas at San Antonio gary.mabry@utsa.edu.