44 thoughts on “GOH: Just As I Am”

    2. Wow! The first First since Darrell’s move! You should get a solid gold butt cushion for that achievement!

  3. Third! (I hope)
    Hey, you made it, and apparently in one piece, judging from the new post. 😎
    I remember “Just As I Am”, from various revivals at my old high school. And you’re right, this is a version that is enjoyable to hear, not just yank at the heartstrings. 🙂

  4. PRAISE GOD!

    Theology and talent! The combination matters! 😆

    Christian Socialist

  6. When I smell campfire and insense, I get some nostalgic feelings about my past. I have to imagine that this song does the same to all of you who escaped fundyland.

  7. Not bad. I like that.

    Thanks for sharing it on a day you are supposed to take off and unpack.

  9. That was the most beautiful rendition of that hymn that i have ever heard. Do tell me that was filmed in the 80s.

  11. We sing a “reimagined” version at church that is nice and all, but it still makes me twitchy. I think it’ll take a long time to tone that one down.

    1. Oh, Lamb of God I come, I come!

      Appreciate you coming, but uhh, you didn’t make the cut, you’re not on the pre-select list!

      1. One of the most precious verses in the Bible to me: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” John 6:37

        1. Indeed a beautiful verse! I’ve always loved the passage (hard to pick just one favorite) in John 3:14-18:

          Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that EVERYONE who believes in Him may have eternal life. 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to CONDEMN the world, but to SAVE the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s One and Only Son.”

          “..Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” Rev 22:17

        3. Not really, but no one said a word, when it was initiated, by someone else, on the thread celebrating SFL’s 4-yr anniversary!

        4. A sightly different emphasis…

          Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who BELIEVES in Him may have eternal life. 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to SAVE the world through Him. Whoever BELIEVES in Him is not condemned, but whoever does NOT BELIEVE stands condemned already because he has not BELIEVED in the name of God’s One and Only Son.”

  13. The Glad album called Acapella Hymns is one of my favorites of all time. It ‘freshened up’ the Hymns that I’d grown weary of.

    I even started enjoying ‘Blessed Assurance’ again. And growing up in a fundy church, that’s saying something!

    2. It took me hearing Third Day’s live version of “Blessed Assurance” for me to really listen and grasp the words and promises of that song.

    4. There’s a Glad Pandora Radio Station? There’s a Glad Hymns album? This post has truly made my day. I-Tunes is about to make a sale.

      1. There are more than one Glad Hymns Albums I believe. Their A Capella stuff is pretty awesome, and I don’t think it has really aged much, its a very unique sound.

        this is one of my favorites.

        1. Clearly you did not read my rant below, Cap’n. 🙂 I only remember having that one cassette though. I agree the music hasn’t aged, as in it’s not dated, those awesome outfits though…
          Where I live they do a lot of A Capella folk singing in the streets and I love to hear the men especially; there is something about the voice as instrument that’s fascinating.

          Possibly because I’ve blocked out being forced to only hear WLFJ on the radio and Christian music growing up, I’d forgotten about Glad. For Fundies it’s hymns for mixed Fundagelicals CCM can cause twitches. Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, DC Talk, Petra, Whiteheart, Twila Paris… NO for me.

          A couple of years ago I found Jeff Wooldrige’s A Capella stuff on sermonindex.com and actually wanted more. This Glad post feels like finding something you didn’t know you’d lost.

  14. It sounds kind of quasi-Renaissance; I think using a cathedral as a backdrop helps make that impression.

    1. Psy’s Gangnam Style is pretty awesome. A little weak theologically, but not necessarily worse than some of the Fundy songs Darrell’s featured here. :mrgreen:

  16. I have their Acapella Project CDs…love ’em. Their arrangement of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” is amazing.

  17. I had Glad’s “Acapella Project, Vol. 1” in 1988, when I was 10 and still remember the colorful cover. My mom only allowed “Christian” music in the house, we were allowed CCM. There was some terrible music in that mix and if it was supposed to be theologically helpful, it wasn’t. I still can’t listen to most “Christian” music and the style today with the whispery male voice and pseudo indie thing KILLS me but I still love Acapella. Had completely forgotten about Glad, thanks for the reminder, Darrell.

  19. I, too, had come to loathe this song. Glad helped me to be able to hear the text again. And then I read a comment from a woman, something along these lines:

    “I would go into prisons and play the piano for the female inmates. Once, I asked for requests. A lady asked me to play ‘Just As I Am.’ I cringed, since that song was so tired in my life. But to hear those prisoners sing the song – women who had stood, just as they were, without one plea, before a judge who had sentenced them to prison for their crimes – it brought tears to my eyes. These women understood the lyrics in a way that I never had understood them before.”

    I still get twitchy over this song, but I will never hear it again without remembering those women who requested that song because it reminded them that they might be imprisoned, temporarily condemned, but their souls had been set free, and they were no longer under condemnation.

  20. These guys are in concert at my church this Friday 12/7/12!!

    If any of you live in the Baltimore Metro area Grace Fellowship Church Shrewsbury is just a nice ride up I83 in Shrewsbury, PA.

    😀

  23. Enjoyed the a capella singing and the difference arragement.

    I always thought that the song itself was fine; it’s just the insistence that it MUST BE the ONLY Sunday AM invitation song EVER sung that made me “twitchy” about it.

    At one point in time, I started to just count how many verses were sung of Just As I Am. I think I got to 12; maybe 17 once. I know that some people can easily top this number.

    The traditional arragement of it still makes me think of the guilt-inducing days.

    1. At our last church, my husband was the youth and music minister, and I always enjoyed picking the invitation song. (Our pastor was gracious not pushy so a lot of times it was really more of a closing song than an invitation, but the altar was always open if anyone wanted it.)

      I liked choosing a song that both sounded in some way like an “invitation” or decision song but also tied in somehow with the message. I couldn’t always manage it, but I liked finding it. Usually while the pastor prayed, my husband would look my way and I’d hold up my fingers – two, five, eight for Hymn #258. Every once in a while, he’d veto my choice. 👿 😀

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