Written by Anna B. Warner
Published 1860
Language English
Form Christian hymn
Jesus Loves Me is a Christian hymn written by Anna B. Warner. The lyrics first appeared as a poem in the context of a novel called Say and Seal, written by Susan Warner and published in 1860. The tune was added in 1862 by William Batchelder Bradbury who found the text of "Jesus Loves Me" in a book, in which the words were spoken as a comforting poem to a dying child. Along with his tune, Bradbury added his own chorus "Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus Loves me..." After publication the song became one of the most popular Christian hymns in churches around the world.
Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
Chorus:
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me! This I know,
As He loved so long ago,
Taking children on His knee,
Saying, “Let them come to Me.”
Chorus
Jesus loves me when I'm good,
When I do the things I should,
Jesus loves me when I'm bad,
Though it makes Him very sad.
Chorus
Jesus loves me still today,
Walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give
Light and love to all who live.
Chorus
Jesus loves me! He who died
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.
Chorus
Jesus loves me! Loves me still
Tho' I'm very weak and ill;
That I might from sin be free
Bled and died upon the tree.
Chorus
Jesus loves me! He will stay
Close beside me all the way;
Thou hast bled and died for me,
I will henceforth live for Thee.
Chorus
******
In one of my earlier posting, "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do", quoted Micheal Sandel from the first of 12 lectures given at Harvard; lectures on philosophy, different models of reasoning, and how they relate to current events.
"Philosophy doesn't teach you something you don't already know. It takes what you already know and presents it in a way that makes it seen different, almost strange."
Here go my attempt:
I want to first start off saying that Jesus was Jewish. Practiced the Jewish faith right up to his crucifixion. In other words, never stopped being Jewish.
That Mary and Jesus are also in the Islamic Koran.
In the Shi'a context, imam has a meaning more central to belief, referring to leaders of the community. Twelver and Ismaili Shi'a believe that these Imams are chosen by God to be perfect examples for the faithful and to lead all humanity in all aspects of life. They also believe that all the Imams chosen are free from committing any sin, infallibility which is called ismah. These leaders must be followed since they are appointed by God.
Now!
Imagine....
that Jesus, instead of dying and risen from the dead, he just went into a coma for all these years. You know....Rip Van Winkle like! When Jesus awoke, he finds himself on the border between Gaza and Israel as warplanes and gunfire were furiously laying destruction to one side of him, while the other side is relatively quiet with the shy line of a modern city not too far away.
From a Christian's perspective of Jesus, in which direction would he most likely start walking? From a Jewish perspective (Jesus as one of their own)? A Muslim's perspective (Jesus as Prophet in the shadows of Mohammad)? How about from an atheist's perspective (Jesus as just a man, a product of years of polishing by the conservative media....both perspectives......the gossiping channel)?
The Jesus I was raised to know would have immediately started walking in the direction of the destruction without giving any thought as to who they were or why they were being punished.
If you found yourself there alone with a man who claimed to be Jesus, even looked like Jesus, and that man started walking in the direction of all that hell, would you follow him? Would the Pope or any preacher? A Catholic bleeding heart liberal? A firebrand Imam? A global warming skeptic? A Sheik? A small business owner? A farmer? A neoconservative? A conservative pundit? A secular Palestinian? A Red Cross volunteer? A United Nations employee? A Red Crescent volunteer? An African American Muslim? A Log Cabin Republican? A nun who advocates condoms uses? An anti-taxation Tea Party member? A christian Blue Dog Democrat? An atheist volunteer with Meals on Wheels? A "Muslim" community organizer fresh out of Harvard?
I'm not taking sides here. As a flawed primate, would have walked to the side of least destruction enemy or not; at least until the fighting is over. Think all of us would have; then, most of us would have jumped to side of their family, history; anything familiar. But there are a few remarkable people who risk their lives to help the less fortunate regardless of why. Who understand that neither side can claim to be totally innocent.
Jesus as I've come to believe him now, a middle eastern man of long, long ago,not one of the poor, not one of the elite, who preached a message of hope, of humility, of an inner peace that comes with giving and forgiving unconditionally......a liberal really.....a socialist.
One that got a Messiah award for a bunch of speeches; didn't do anything. One with a birth certificate that we never saw. One who's mother gets all the credit; father stayed out of sight. One who claimed to be Jewish but believed by everyone to be Christian. One who was baptised by his beaten competitor, John the Baptist, to keep the movement intact. One who lost an election to a Jewish murderer of a Roman soldier, crucified.
All due to an angry crowd...... his own people .........too impatient to wait for the reward that comes with sacrifice.
*****
Rip Van Winkel
The story of Rip Van Winkle is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. Rip Van Winkle, a villager of Dutch descent, lives in a nice village at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains. An amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect, he is loved by all but his wife.
One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains. There he encounters strangely dressed men, rumored to be the ghosts of Henry Hudson's crew, who are playing nine-pins. After drinking some of their liquor, he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes and returns to his village, where he finds twenty years have passed. He finds out that his wife has died and that his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else. He immediately gets into trouble when he proclaims himself a loyal subject of King George III, not knowing that the American Revolution has taken place.
An old local recognizes him, however, and Rip's now grown daughter takes him in. Rip resumes his habitual idleness, and his tale is solemnly believed by the old Dutch settlers, with certain hen-pecked husbands wishing they shared Rip's good luck.
Someone who has remained oblivious to social and political changes over an extended period can be said to be 'Rip-Van-Winkleish'.
A similar story is told of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, Christian saints who fall asleep in a cave while avoiding Roman persecution and awake more than a century later to find that Christianity has become the official religion of the Empire.
The story is also similar to the ancient Jewish story about Honi M'agel who falls asleep after asking a man why he is planting a carob tree which traditionally takes 70 years to mature, making it virtually impossible to ever benefit from the tree's fruit. After this exchange, he falls asleep on the ground and is miraculously covered by a rock and remains out of sight for 70 years. When he awakens, he finds a fully mature tree and that he has a grandson. When nobody believes that he is Honi, he prays to God and God takes him from this world.
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