Hymns With A Message: I AM SO GLAD THAT JESUS LOVES ME

Sunday, January 10, 2021

I AM SO GLAD THAT JESUS LOVES ME

What a wonderful thing it is to know that somebody really loves you. And the Bible makes it so clear that God loves us. As we know from John 3:16, "He so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." And Romans 5:8 shares " But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." It certainly is amazing to realize that God does love us.

There have been many hymns written attempting to describe this special relationship. One of these, written by Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876) in 1870, has always been a favorite of mine because it conveys this truth in such an upbeat method. Bliss left his home in Clearfield County, PA, as a young boy to make a living by working on farms and in lumber camps, all while trying to continue his schooling. He was converted at a revival meeting at age twelve. He became an itinerant music teacher, making house calls on horseback during the winter. During the summer he attended the Normal Academy of Music in Genesco, New York. His first song was published in 1864, and in 1868 Dwight L. Moody advised him to become a singing evangelist. For the last two years of his life Bliss traveled with Major D. W. Whittle and led the music at revival meetings. Bliss's tragic death at the age of thirty-eight happened in 1876. when he and his wife were traveling to Chicago to sing for evangelistic services led by Whittle at Dwight L. Moody's Tabernacle. But a train wreck and fire en route claimed their lives.

In June, 1870 Mrs. Bliss came down for breakfast and said that her husband had been singing a tune that had come to him overnight. They couldn't get it out of their minds and she predicted that it would live and be one of the most used that he had ever written. His ideas in writing it was that the peace and comfort of a Christian were not founded upon his loving Christ but upon Christ's love to him and that to occupy the mind with Christ's love would produce love and consecration. And over the years God has used this song to lead many sinners and doubting Christians to look away to Jesus who loved them. Bliss said the song was suggested to him by hearing the chorus of the hymn "Oh How I Love Jesus" repeated very frequently in a meeting he had attended. After joining in the chorus a number of times the thought came to him, "have I not been singing enough about my poor love for Jesus and shall I not rather sing of His great love for me?"

As we sing this song this week, may we be reminded of God's great love for us. And may our song throughout our loves and all eternity be, "Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me!".

1. I am so glad that our Father in Heav'n

Tells of His love in the Book He has giv'n;

Wonderful things in the Bible I see,

This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.

I am so glad that Jesus loves me,

Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me;

I am so glad that Jesus loves me,

Jesus loves even me.

2. If I forget Him and wander away,

Still He doth love me wherever I stray;

Back to His dear loving arms would I flee,

When I remember that Jesus loves me