During a church service on TV one Sunday morning, the congregation honored one of its senior pastors who had been retired for many years. He was 92 at that time, and it was amazing that the church considered asking the old gentleman to preach at that age.
After a warm welcome and introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gait to the podium. Without notes or paper of any kind, he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly began to speak….
“When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my fifty-odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me… the only thing that would comfort was this verse I learned as a child…
“Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
We are weak but He is strong,
Yes, Jesus loves me…
Yes, Jesus loves me…
Yes, Jesus loves me…
The Bible tells me so.”
The elderly pastor added, “I always noticed that it was the adults who chose the children’s hymn Jesus Loves Me—for the children of course—during a hymn-sing, and it was the adults who sang the loudest because I could see they knew that song the best.”
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The original words were written by Anna Warner at the request of her sister. Susan, who needed a poem to console a dying child in her 1860 novel Say and Seal. The two women, who never married and were devoted to each other and shared their literary talent, had begun writing for publication in 1849. They ultimately published 106 novels and children’s books.
The original verses in the novel were these:
Jesus loves me—this I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to him belong,—
They are weak, but he is strong.
Jesus loves me—loves me still,
Though I’m very weak and ill;
From his shining throne on high,
Comes to watch me where I lie.
Jesus loves me—he will stay,
Close beside me all the way.
Then his little child will take,
Up to heaven for his dear sake.”
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The choirmaster of New York’s Baptist Tabernacle, William Batchelder Bradbury, first encountered the poem in 1862. He was a composer and publisher of such hymns as “Saviour, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”, “He Leadeth Me” and “Just as I Am.”
Bradbury loved the sound of children’s choirs, and when he read Anna’s poem, decided to put it to a simple tune suitable for children.
He also added the now-familiar chorus: “Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so.”
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While the song is usually taught to a child to learn and sing, there has now been a Senior Version written of Jesus Loves Me as follows:
Jesus loves me, this I know,
Though my hair is white as snow
Though my sight is growing dim,
Still He bids me trust in Him.
(CHORUS)
YES, JESUS LOVES ME… YES, JESUS LOVES ME…
YES, JESUS LOVES ME, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.
Though my steps are oh, so slow,
With my hand in His I’ll go
On through life, let come what may,
He’ll be there to lead the way.
(CHORUS)
When the nights are dark and long,
In my heart He puts a song
Telling me in words so clear,
“Have no fear, for I am near.”
(CHORUS)
When my work on earth is done,
And life’s victories have been won.
He will take me home above,
Then I’ll understand His love.
(CHORUS)
I love Jesus, does He know?
Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus loves to hear me say,
That I love Him every day.
(CHORUS)
— Author Unknown
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God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 1 John 4:9 NLT
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 NLT
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 1 John 4:16 NLT
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV
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