August 3

MY JESUS, AS THOU WILT!
Benjamin Schmolck, 1672–1737
Translated by Jane L. Borthwick, 1813–1897
I desire to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart. (Psalm 40:8)
My will is not my own till Thou has made it Thine; if it would reach the monarch’s throne it must its crown resign. It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife, till on Thy bosom it has leant and found in Thee its life.
—George Matheson
Following the decision to accept God’s provision for salvation, our next most important decision is to do God’s will, regardless of what the future may bring. Often, however, we have difficulty in discerning God’s will. George Mueller, one of the great men of prayer, has given these insights from his own life regarding this matter:
• Seek to get your heart in such a condition that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Do not depend upon feelings or impressions.
• Seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God.
• Take into account providential circumstances.
• Ask God in prayer to reveal His will clearly.
Thus, through prayer to God, the study of His Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. I have found this method always effective.
“My Jesus, As Thou Wilt!” first appeared in a German hymnal in 1704. Later it was translated into English by Jane Borthwick and appeared in the collection Hymns from the Land of Luther, published in 1820. These words have since reminded believers that it is only as we yield our wills to God that He can empower us for living victoriously for Him:
My Jesus, as Thou wilt! O may Thy will be mine! Into Thy hand of love I would my all resign. Through sorrow or through joy, conduct me as Thine own; and help me still to say, “My Lord, Thy will be done.”
My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Though seen through many a tear, let not my star of hope grow dim or disappear. Since Thou on earth hast wept, and sorrowed oft alone, if I must weep with Thee, My Lord, Thy will be done.
My Jesus, as Thou wilt! All shall be well for me; each changing future scene I gladly trust with Thee. Straight to my home above I travel calmly on, and sing, in life or death, “My Lord, Thy will be done.”

    For Today: Matthew 6:10; Ephesians 5:17; Colossians 1:9; Hebrews 13:21; 1 John 2:17

How do you try to discern God’s will for your life? Are you willing to accept and do whatever He may reveal to you? Use this hymn to help in your reflection—

Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933), Grandfather of Gospel Music

CHARLES ALBERT TINDLEY
born July 7, 1851, Berlin, Maryland
died July 26, 1933, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
buried Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

It is Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993), composer of “Precious Lord” and “There Will Be Peace in the Valley,” who is known as the “Father of Gospel Music.” But if that is true, then Charles Albert Tindley is the “Grandfather of Gospel Music,” for it was Tindley who virtually invented the style a generation before Dorsey began composing, and it was Dorsey’s hearing Tindley’s hymns at an annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention in Philadelphia that led Dorsey to begin writing religious music. Dorsey had previously been a successful jazz and blues musician who often made use of bawdy and brash lyrics. While Dorsey went on to successfully blend the sacred spirituals and hymns with the secular style of blues and jazz, he always acknowledged his debt to Tindley.

Tindley was born fourteen years before the end of the American Civil War, the son of slave parents. By age five, both of his parents had died. By age seventeen he had taught himself how to read. He moved to Philadelphia and found employment as the janitor for the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church. He took night classes and later correspondence courses from Boston University, eventually being ordained in the Methodist ministry, serving appointments in South Wilmington, Odessa, Ezion, Wilmington, Delaware, and May, New Jersey. From 1899-1902 he served as presiding elder of the Wilmington district.

In 1902 Tindley was appointed pastor of the Calvary Methodist Church, the church that had employed him thirty years earlier as its janitor. This was to be his position until his death in 1933. During his appointment at Calvary, the church experienced great growth in numbers and ministry, growing to over 7,000 members that included African Americans, Europeans, Jews, and Hispanics. Upon building a new church building, the congregation changed its name over Tindley’s protest to Tindley Temple Methodist Church.

Tindley composed forty-seven hymns, some of which are still protected by US copyright law. Tindley’s hymns formed the basis of the black gospel hymn style for all who came after. They were based on the spiritual and the blues and included elements from white gospel style. Tindley wrote his hymns within the older tradition of African American worship and music that included distinctive preaching and singing styles, lining-out, shouting, hand-clapping, improvised melodies, rhythmic keyboard accompaniments, and congregational interjections of hallelujahs and amens. The congregation would often sing along with the choir or soloist. Later in the twentieth century the style included the addition of the electronic organ, especially the early Hammond organs, and percussion instruments. Tindley’s lyrics are a reflection of the daily lives of African Americans of the time, and speak of poverty, discrimination, suffering, with deliverance, freedom, and a better day coming.

There are five Tindley hymns in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989):

•  no. 373, “Nothing Between My Soul and My Savior” (NOTHING BETWEEN)
•  no. 512, “When the Storms of Life Are Raging” (STAND BY ME)
•  no. 522, “If the World from You Withhold” (LEAVE IT THERE)
•  no. 524, “Beams of Heaven As I Go” (SOMEDAY)
•  no. 525, “We Are Tossed and Driven” (BY AND BY)

There are other Tindley hymns available onthis site, with others to follow:

•  “Heaven’s Christmas Tree”
•  “I’ll Overcome Someday”

“I’ll Overcome Someday” is the hymn that was transformed into the greatest of all the civil rights era’s freedom songs, “We Shall Overcome” (The United Methodist Hymnal, no. 533).

Tindley’s published hymns include:

1.  After a While
2.  Better Day Is Coming By and By, A
3.  Better Home, A
4.  Christ is the Way
5.  Consolation
6.  From Youth to Old Age
7.  Go Talk with Jesus about It
8.  Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream
9.  Have You Crossed the Line?
10.  Heaven’s Christmas Tree
11.  Here Am I, Send Me
12.  He’ll Take You Through
13.  Heavenly Union, The
14.  Home of the Soul, The
15.  I Believe It
16.  I Have Found at Last a Savior
17.  I Know the Lord Will Make a Way
18.  I Will Go, if My Father Holds My Hand
19.  I’ll Be Satisfied
20.  I’ll Overcome Some Day
21.  I’m Going to Die with My Staff in My Hand
22.  I’m Going There
23.  In Me
24.  It May Be the Best for Me
25.  Joyous Anticipation
26.  Just Today
27.  Leave It There
28.  Let Jesus Fix It for You
29.  Lord, I’ve Tried
30.  Lord Will Make the Way, The
31.  Mountain Top Dwelling
32.  My Secret of Joy
33.  Nothing Between
34.  Our Suffering Jesus
35.  Pilgrim’s Song, The
36.  Saved and Satisfied
37.  Some Day
38.  Someone Is Waiting for Me
39.  Spiritual Spring Time
40.  Stand by Me
41.  Storm Is Passing Over, The
42.  Stranger Cut the Rope, A
43.  Today
44.  We’ll Understand It Better By and By
45.  What Are They Doing in Heaven?
46.  Will You Be There?
47.  Your Faith Has Saved You

August 2

NOTHING BETWEEN
Words and music by Charles A. Tindley, 1851–1933
If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. (1 John 3:21, 22)
Born to slave parents and separated from them when only five years of age, Charles Tindley was a most remarkable individual. He learned to read and write on his own at the age of 17, attended night school, completed seminary training through correspondence, and was ordained to the Methodist ministry. While attending evening school, young Tindley supported himself as the janitor of the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. In 1902, Charles Tindley was called to pastor this prestigious church where he had once been the janitor. The Calvary Methodist Church prospered greatly under his leadership. Eventually several larger sanctuaries had to be built to accommodate the crowds of all races that came to hear this humble preacher. In 1924, in spite of Tindley’s protests, the new church building was renamed the Tindley Temple Methodist Church.
Charles Tindley expresses a concern in this hymn for many of the practices and attitudes that must be rejected if Christians are to be pleasing to their Lord. The hymn reminds us that we must watch out for those allurements and temptations that can easily disrupt our spiritual courses: “Delusive dreams, sinful-worldly pleasures, habits, pride, self or friends.” The Bible teaches that we are not to be conformed to this world but should know the transforming power of a spiritually renewed mind (Romans 12:1, 2).
Nothing between my soul and the Savior, naught of this world’s delusive dream: I have renounced all sinful pleasure—Jesus is mine! There’s nothing between.
Nothing between, like worldly pleasure! Habits of life, tho harmless they seem, must not my heart from Him ever sever—He is my all! There’s nothing between.
Nothing between, like pride or station: Self or friends shall not intervene; tho it may cost me much tribulation, I am resolved! There’s nothing between.
Nothing between, e’en many hard trials, tho the whole world against me convene; watching with prayer and much self denial—Triumph at last, with nothing between!
Chorus: Nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of His favor: Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

    For Today: Psalm 51:10; 2 Timothy 2:15; Hebrews 13:6; 1 John 3:18–24

Reflect on this truth: “The price of spiritual power is a purity of heart.” Ask God to reveal anything that might hinder His flow of power in your life.

August 1

I AM THINE, O LORD
Fanny J. Crosby, 1820–1915
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. (Hebrews 10:22)
Each new day requires a fresh renewal of our dedication to the Lord. The strongest of Christians can be drawn away by the pressures of daily living. And we are vulnerable to the lusts of the flesh and the eyes as well as the subtle temptations that constitute the “pride of life” (1 John 2:16). The warning of Scripture is clear: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). God must always have His rightful place on the throne of the heart. Nothing in life—not job, not recreation, not even family—should have the top priority of our daily concerns. Anything that replaces the Lordship of Christ can become idolatrous and cause us to be susceptible to a spiritual disaster. We must each day say, “I am Thine, O Lord.”
Fanny Crosby wrote this consecration hymn while visiting in the home of the composer of the music, William H. Doane, in Cincinnati. The family’s conversation that night centered around the blessedness of enjoying the nearness of God. Suddenly in a moment of inspiration, Fanny started giving the words of the hymn—line by line, verse by verse, and then the chorus. Soon after Doane supplied the music, and another of the more than 8,000 Fanny Crosby hymns was born. Since that day in 1875, these moving lines have ministered to and challenged countless numbers of God’s people to keep their lives dedicated to their Lord:
I am Thine, O Lord—I have heard Thy voice, and it told Thy love to me; but I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee.
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, by the pow’r of grace divine; let my soul look up with a steadfast hope and my will be lost in Thine.
O the pure delight of a single hour that before Thy throne I spend, when I kneel in pray’r and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend.
There are depths of love that I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea; there are heights of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee.
Chorus: Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died; draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious, bleeding side.

    For Today: Psalm 16:11; 73:28; Romans 12:1, 2; 1 Corinthians 7:22–24; Hebrews 12:28

Begin this new day, with all of its unknown pressures and temptations, with this musical prayer upon your lips—

August

• Consecration • Commitment • Dedication of Life

1.
I Am Thine, O Lord
2.
Nothing Between
3.
My Jesus, As Thou Wilt!
4.
Break Thou the Bread of Life
5.
Open My Eyes, That I May See
6.
I Would Be Like Jesus
7.
I Want a Principle Within
8.
Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord
9.
Take the World, But Give Me Jesus
10.
Nearer, Still Nearer
11.
Thy Word Have I Hid in My Heart
12.
Deeper and Deeper
13.
Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken
14.
Take Time to Be Holy
15.
Have Thine Own Way, Lord
16.
Nearer, My God, to Thee
17.
I Need Thee Every Hour
18.
May the Mind of Christ, My Savior
19.
O for a Closer Walk With God
20.
Cleanse Me
21.
More About Jesus
22.
Whiter Than Snow
23.
Sitting at the Feet of Jesus
24.
O to Be Like Thee!
25.
Take My Life and Let It Be
26.
Living for Jesus
27.
Lord, I Want to Be a Christian
28.
All the Way My Savior Leads Me
29.
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
30.
I Surrender All
31.
Only One Life