Sunday, October 12, 2008

The "This I Know People Are Well"

What on earth are we to do when the global financial world crumbles?

Pray and move as God directs.

Anna and Susan Warner found themselves with their whole world crashing as their prosperous lawyer father lost heavily in the panic of 1837. The Wall Street meltdown took everything they owned but their summer home on Constitution Island in the Hudson River. Soon after his financial losses Henry Warner died. These young women had been motherless since
their young years. Their father, had privately educated them and both women were published authors.

The sisters, eager to do something to earn money so they could go on living in their home on the island, turned to writing. They had had some pieces published. They prayed for enough money from their writing to keep their home.Anna's real interest in life was writing hymns. "Jesus Loves Me" actually first appeared in the novel Say and Seal, authored by Susan.
Susan developed this novel around a dying little boy. In his last hours his Sunday School teacher sang the lyrics of Jesus Loves Me as he rocked the boy.

A hymn writer and publisher, William Bradbury read the novel and realised he had finally discovered the lyrics he had been praying for. The missionaries in China were frustrated with other hymns being so difficult for the Chinese to sing. He had developed a tune that would work, but he had not been able to develop lyrics that worked with the tune. When you see this hymn in a hymnal the tune is listed as CHINA. Most times it is capitalized.This is undoubtedly the best known hymn in the world. It has been translated into more languages than any other song. Missionaries have found it one of their best means of explaining the gospel in a clear simple way to those who speak a very different language.

When Mao Tse-tung founded the People's Republic in 1949, the church in China went through severe persecution. Friends in America received scarcely any news from the Chinese Christan's, but in 1972 came a message with this unusual sentence, "The 'This I Know' people are well."
Crossway Publishers, Great Christian Hymn Writers, By Jane Stuart Smith, Betty Carlson p. 163-164

As Paul Harvey says, come back tomorrow for the "rest of the story." Anna and Susan Warner's miracle story from God just gets better and better.


Remember Jesus Loves Me...
He Loves You..
The Bible Tells Us So.

4 comments:

sailorcross said...

I love this song, but never knew the background. Thanks for teaching me something new today--I love to learn something new everyday!!

I'll be back to read "the rest of the story".

Beth

Dorothy Champagne said...

I love learning about the history of hymns - and I have never heard this one - I'll try not to google it before you write tomorrow :)

Nicole said...

Yes, Jesus loves me!!! The Lord has been showing me the depth of his love this last year or so and wow is Jesus's love sooo deep for us all! I have come to appreciate this song so much lately!

I believe many of us have lies that we believe that have distorted the truth of Jesus's love for us. We have placed our belief system on experiences and Satan has got a foothold. How wide and how deep is the love of Christ! Amen?!?

Another great hymn is Amazing Grace...oh how simple these songs are but isn't that what the gospel is about...simplicity. All too often we can complicate things in our humaness.

Thanks for this post and the reminder of Jesus's love. I can never be reminded too many times of the beautiful love that my Savior has for me and us all!!!

Love,
Nicole

Kay Martin said...

Great comments from all of you. Nicole, I have thought often of these 2 hymns: Amazing Grace and Jesus Loves Me. Rarely do I find anyone that doesn't know these songs whether they are Christians or not...ever been in a church, etc. The movies and the secular entertainment world has gravitated to Amazing Grace for movies etc. Tomorrow I will share some things I have learned on the universal knowledge of Jesus Loves Me.

I agree about the peace that comes in singing Jesus Loves Me.

© 2008 Kay Martin

Thrive In Christ

Who I Am In Christ by Neil Anderson

For several months we will center on this book to pursue Thriving in our Christian journey.

Neil challenges us with: "Do you know who you are in God's eyes? We are no longer products of our past. We are primarily products of Christ's work on the cross. Who we are determines what we do.

You are not who you are in Christ because of the things you have done, you are in Christ because of what He has done. He died and rose again so that you and I could live in the FREEDOM of His love."

That's just the introduction. More to follow.