Category Archives: Prayers and Pleas

Christ Be All

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This song was written by contemporary worship group Grace Music. When Kevin King, a worship leader, read the book Humility by Andrew Murray, he came across a poem in the final chapter of the book – this poem became the first verse of Christ Be All, written in 20191.

Oh, to be empty and lowly
Meek and unnoticed and unknown
And to God, a vessel Holy
Filled with Christ, and Christ alone

How great is God?
His grandeur endless
How frail I come before His throne
I am lost in love relentless
That Christ be all, and I his own

Refrain:
May Christ be all, and I be nothing
His glory shines in the vessels weak
May Christ be all, and I be nothing
This is my hope
Not I, but Christ in me
This is my hope
Not I, but Christ in me

I am poor, and I have nothing
All my deeds cannot avail
But Christ endured the Father’s crushing
He bowed His head as mercy bled
Peace to prevail
He bowed His head as mercy bled
Peace to prevail

Refrain

Bring me low, my heart lower still
That Your grace my pride relieves
May these words resound loud until
Every tribe and tongue believes

Bring me low, my heart lower still
That Your grace my pride relieves
May these words resound loud until
Every tribe and tongue can sing

Refrain

On golden shores of sure salvation
I will run to meet my King
Free from shame and all accusation
He’ll give Himself
Nothing I’ll bring
He’ll give Himself
Nothing I’ll bring

Chris Be All – Grace Music

1youtube.com/watch?v=7wfL6uEGtVc – accessed 1 October

Jesus, I Come

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The text was written by William True Sleeper, who was born in New Hampshire, on Feb. 9, 1819. Educated at Phillips-Exeter Academy, the University of Vermont, and Andover Theological Seminary, he became a Congregational minister following his graduation1. It’s said he wrote the words for ‘Jesus, I Come’, sending them to his friend George Stebbins for the accompanying music. It wasn’t the first time the two had collaborated – Stebbins had asked Sleeper some years earlier for words to match a tune he had in mind to invite seekers to commit to God. So, when William had the same idea years later (perhaps when he was in his late 60s), he knew who had the God-given talent to bring his poem to fruition in a song. William was still inviting people to come inside, out of many things obstructing their lives – the message we can imagine he spoke and then underscored in song2.

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to thee.
Out of my sickness into thy health,
Out of my want and into thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into thyself,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of thy cross,
Jesus, I come to thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to thee.
Out of my self to dwell in thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the joy and light of thy home,
Jesus, I come to thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of thy sheltering fold,
Ever thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Jesus, I Come – Shelly Moore Band
Jesus I Come – Indelible Grace Music

1hymnstudiesblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/jesus-i-come/

2songscoops.blogspot.com/2018/10/jesus-i-come-william-true-sleeper.htm

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

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In 1752, a young Robert Robinson attended an evangelical meeting to heckle the believers and make fun of the proceedings. Instead, he listened in awe to the words of the great preacher George Whitefield, and in 1755, at the age of twenty, Robinson responded to the call he felt three years earlier and became a Christian. Another three years later, when preparing a sermon for his church in Norfolk, England, he penned the words that have become one of the church’s most-loved hymns: “Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace”1. Yet, he was an unstable man; impulsive, eccentric, and one whose heart often strayed from the Lord. But the God Who had saved him, called him, and longed after him, was the God who restored him, by his own hymn!2. The version I have linked is a beautiful version by Celtic Worship.

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it
mount of God’s redeeming love.

Here I find my greatest treasure;
hither by thy help I’ve come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
bought me with his precious blood.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.

1https://hymnary.org/text/come_thou_fount_of_every_blessing

2‘https://truthandtidings.com/2016/03/our-heritage-come-thou-fount/