We Shall Assemble – Twila Paris

What famous people have you met, or seen close up? Were you nervous? Did your voice crack or fumble for words? Those would all be natural reactions to meeting the President, or maybe a movie star, a celebrity whose picture we’ve seen only on screen before. I wonder, how come they don’t get sweaty palms as they come near me? After all, we’re both red-blooded, covered with skin and bones, and ridden with imperfection. A giddy, nervous, or apprehensive response would logically be more appropriate at the sight of an alien, something unfamiliar and potentially dangerous. Maybe that’s what Twila Paris was thinking in 1991 as she wrote “We Shall Assemble”, an expectant, hope-filled encounter with an alien, a being unlike us – God.


Twila Paris has a lot to share about morality and her relationship to God. Both in her music and in her spoken words, you can tell she reveres Him, with her life and her avocation. What she composes for us to sing also shows she has hope, although it long ago might have been considered heresy, not reverence. You see, saying that believers, who are mere humans compared to our divine creator, will be on a mountain with Him would have been unthinkable, even terrifying once upon a time. In scripture, it’s often called a ‘holy’ mountain (Psalm 48:1), a place the average worshipper wouldn’t dare ascend. It was a death sentence to approach and see God’s face. Yet, Twila has us thinking and singing about this very thing. She’s written a book (with co-author Robert Webber) titled “In This Sanctuary: An Invitation to Worship the Savior”, and the album (also called “Sanctuary”) on which “We Shall Assemble” appears also reminds us of our privileged position, compared to our spiritual forefathers. Her thoughts resonate with believers, a fact also borne out in the Gospel Music Association’s award of praise and worship album of the year in 1991 for “Sanctuary”. Her message of an encounter with the Divine One doesn’t stop with the song or her book, either.


Twila Paris tries to live her life in the shadow of the holiness she has observed in the song we sing. You can read on her website that she lives by a moral compass, including when she steps in the voting booth on election day. In her words “Human beings are imperfect. We make mistakes. It’s who we are. We’re not going to find one of us who has all the answers. The only one who has all the answers is the One who created and sustains humankind and the world in which we live. So the most important issue in any election … Do I honor God and acknowledge His authority in my life? … As God’s people, we must continually fall to our knees and find our collective voice.” Falling on our knees will probably be par for the course on the mountain. And, her message for daily living here on earth is one for any believer, not just for one who writes songs. Her music makes me ask myself, ‘Will I be on that mountain with the way I lived this week? Was I the right example today?’ Sure, I have the promise that I will be on high with God, but I need Twila’s reminder, and my Bible, to tell me that God’s home is HOLY. I hope that as I draw closer to home, my trembles will be from anticipation, not foreboding. What’s causing your goosebumps today?


 Information on Twila Paris available at the following website:http://www.twilaparis.com/

Just As I Am – Charlotte Elliott

I am just like you before God; I too have been taken from clay (Job 33:6) Charlotte Elliott was angry. ‘Carefree Charlotte’ was 30 years old, and loved her life in Clapham and Brighton, England in the 18th and 19th centuries as a gifted artist and writer. So why did she get sick and become invalid for the remainder of her life? We’d understand, if that’s what went through her mind, wouldn’t we? Her body made her miserable, so lashing out at a Swiss minister, Caesar Milan, was understandable when he told her she needed God’s peace. As she mulled over the minister’s visit, she later relented, and asked him how she could fix her life and come to God. Milan answered ‘Just come as you are.” She did. And, Milan’s words stuck with her for another 14 years, until 1835 when she finally composed the words of this simple, but memorable song, “Just As I Am”. This song’s history is a microcosm for each of us who sing it. Its words, first spoken by a minister to an angry, distant unbeliever, somehow stuck with her until she wrote seven verses many years later. That music still sticks with us 175 years later. Some of us, like Charlotte, will get sick and maybe even invalid at 30 years of age. Or, we’ll make mistakes, hurting people around us. We’ll be distant from God occasionally, and probably angry when some well-meaning observer tells us the truth. Yet, the song tells us that those things ultimately don’t matter. Consider the word that Charlotte chose to use over and over again. Just. Such a short word, isn’t it? I’m just human, and I’ll never be good enough for a holy God. I cannot escape Him, nor the capricious nature of my own heart. That’s the bottom line of this song, and of this life I live. I’m just me, and that’s all I can offer Him. But, God is just Himself, too. And, He’s a just -- a fair and justice-seeking – God. He cannot help being who He is, too. Is that why people still respond to “Just As I Am” in stadium crusades today, 175 years later? It’s a simple proposition… just me to a just God. You got a better deal somewhere else? Stories of Charlotte Elliot can be found at the following website: http://www.stempublishing.com/hymns/biographies/elliott.html http://www.workersforjesus.com/just.htm A version of Charlotte Elliott’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.

The Lord Bless You and Keep You – Peter C. Lutkin

Priest: someone who administers religious rites in the church, who makes sacrifices to God as an official of the church. I have hardly ever though of myself in that way, have you? That’s the role I invoke as I sing Peter C. Lutkin’s song “The Lord Bless You and Keep You”, a scary proposition when I think about it. I don’t put on a robe, nor sprinkle holy water, but I do stand before God to make an appeal to Him to bless someone. A sincere appeal, a desire so pressing that I call out God’s name three times in this brief invocation. And this is something a body of people, not just one individual to another, has done for others, traditionally. Perhaps that’s why it taps into our emotions as believers, as we together call out our plea to Him. It’s a very basic, moving prayer, an expression of care and love among family. This was not discovered by Lutkin when he composed the song, but instead draws upon words believers have known for three millennia, first used by Aaron and his sons. Did they sing it? We can, because of Peter Lutkin.

 Peter Lutkin was born and educated in the American Midwest, although he also studied some in Europe. He began as an organist while a child in an Episcopal church in Chicago, and also sang and studied choral music. He became well-known as professor and dean of the Northwestern University’s Conservatory of Music in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and was primarily engaged in church and choral music throughout his life. Lutkin is credited with reviving the university’s music school, which had declined and was in danger of discontinuing by the last decade of the 19th Century. He was perhaps best known for organizing and leading the A Cappella Choir in 1906 at Northwestern, the first permanent organization of its kind in America, and many of his musical compositions were created for this group to perform. He composed “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” in 1900, originally for four-part vocal harmony, without accompaniment, which is traditionally sung as a closing benediction in churches, and especially at the closing of a wedding, prayer response, or as a communion hymn. One of Lutkin's most noteworthy endeavors also was the North Shore Music Festival, which began in 1910 and became internationally famous under his leadership.

 It’s June, the time of year when couples are making marital vows. Lots of teenagers and young men and women are also at turning points – graduation. So, it wouldn’t be surprising if Peter Lutkin composed this benediction as he watched students graduating from Northwestern. As we celebrate these occasions, Lutkin’s inspiration helps us link back to a centuries-old practice. I still have a hard time thinking of myself as a priest, but it never gets old to look people in the eye and say ‘take care, be blessed by Him’.

A short biography on the composer is available in the following publication: Favorite Wedding Classics for Solo Singers, by Patrick Liebergen, Alfred Publishing, publication date unknown. More information on Peter C. Lutkin was found at the website:http://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/fedora/get/inu:inu-ead-nua-19-1-1/inu:EADbDef11/getEntireFindingAidHTML

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