Many years ago, a man who wrote many hymns, named Philip Bliss, wrote a simple song which soon became popular and which has been a favorite of many children ever since. Perhaps you know it:
I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of His love in the Book He has given;
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.
If I forget Him and wander away,
Still He does love me wherever I stray;
Back to His dear loving arms would I flee,
When I remember that Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves me, and I know I love Him;
Love brought Him down my poor soul to redeem;
Yes, it was love made Him die on the tree;
Oh, I am certain that Jesus loves me!
Philip Bliss lived in Chicago when he wrote this song. He knew another man in Chicago called Ira D. Sankey, who was a well-known singer of Christian songs at the time.
About a year after this song was introduced, the fire called “The Great Chicago Fire” took place, and a large part of that city was destroyed. Many people were left homeless.
Ira D. Sankey was one of many who worked to help those who had been hurt by the fire. He had a large Sunday school where he taught the song “I am so glad that Jesus loves me” to many children. Among those who came to his Sunday school was a girl named Emily. She lived with her family in some houses the city had built for the homeless after the fire.
During the winter after the great fire in Chicago, a mother sent for Ira one day to visit her sick little girl, who was one of his Sunday school students. It was Emily. He remembered her quite well and was glad to go. Finding that she was so sick she was not going to get well, Ira asked how it was with her.
“It is all well with me,” she replied, “but I wish you would speak to father and mother.”
It was clear that she loved Jesus, and Ira asked her when she became a Christian. “Don’t you remember last Thursday,” she said, “when we had the children’s meeting, and you sang ‘I am so glad that Jesus loves me,’ and don’t you remember how you told us that if we would give our hearts to Him, He would love us? It was that day that I gave myself to Jesus. And now I am going to be with Him, for the doctors say that I will die today.”
Yes, Emily had been saved! She knew she was going to heaven, and she was looking forward to going to heaven, to be with Jesus, that very day. Now, if you had been in Emily’s place, about to die, would you have been as happy as she was?
The Lord Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-31Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1‑3)).
Every one of us will someday come before God. But Jesus was telling those who knew Him that when they came to heaven, it would be like coming home ... it would be to God the Father’s house. He assured them that they would be there and that He would personally bring them there. Will He bring you there? Are you sure? Jesus wanted His disciples to know for sure, and He wants the same for you. Later, one of His disciples wrote, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:1313These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)).
Messages of God’s Love 2/7//2021