I Surrender All

Dan and I felt led to support several students who have sent us support letters in the past couple of months. We usually lose the letters or just can't support at the time, but we have some money we can send and decided to help these students we have known for so long. And as I was thinking about them and re-reading their letters and seeing what they were all going to be doing in the next few months, I thought of this song. They are leaving their comfort zones and going to places most likely unfamiliar to them. They are giving up their luxuries to take the Gospel to others. Daniel said: I plan to ... be the "beautiful...feet...who bring(s) good news of good things!" (Rom. 10:15)

These notes about the authors of the hymn were found on cyberhymnal.org. 

Words: Jud­son W. Van De­Vent­er, 1896:

The song was writ­ten while I was con­duct­ing a meet­ing at East Pal­es­tine, Ohio, in the home of George Seb­ring (found­er of the Seb­ring Camp­meet­ing Bi­ble Con­fer­ence in Seb­ring, Ohio, and lat­er de­vel­op­er of the town of Seb­ring, Flor­i­da). For some time, I had strug­gled be­tween de­vel­op­ing my tal­ents in the field of art and go­ing into full-time evan­gel­is­tic work. At last the pi­vot­al hour of my life came, and I sur­ren­dered all. A new day was ushered in­to my life. I became an evang­el­ist and dis­cov­ered down deep in my soul a tal­ent hi­ther­to un­known to me. God had hid­den a song in my heart, and touch­ing a ten­der chord, He caused me to sing.

Music: Win­field S. Weed­en, 1896 Weeden pub­lished a num­ber of books of re­li­gious mu­sic, but this song must have been one of his fa­vo­rites: its ti­tle was on his tomb­stone.

Pray with me for these students: Josie, Julianna, Cameron, Daniel, Evelyn and Gretchen. Pray for strength each day, for God to guide their words and their steps as they minister to other students and other people of different cultures. Pray for their teams to stay safe and healthy. But most of all pray that the Gospel is heard and accepted and that God is glorified. I'm excited for these students and am glad to be able to have a part in their ministries, even if just through prayer. I can't wait to hear how God uses them and works in their different areas.