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Before the lyrics were added, the song’s title was “Do The New Thing”, possibly referencing Tony Banks’ opening keyboard notes, which are heard again in the bridge. According to the behind-the-scenes documentary Genesis: No Admittance, the first lyric Phil Collins wrote out of improvisation was the chorus line “Jesus, he knows me, and he knows I’m right”. Following up that lyric logically took him to the idea of manic/fanatic Christians who believe that they are ‘in touch’ with the Almighty, which was best personified by televangelists, many of whom finance their lavish lifestyles by conning believers out of charitable donations. Banks commented that while he likes the song, it’s a bit more cynical than Collins’s usual style of songwriting.

“Jesus He Knows Me” was featured in the 1996 Belgian film Le huitième jour by Jaco Van Dormael. The song was originally intended to be used in the 1995 The Simpsons episode “Bart Sells His Soul”, but as the producers could not obtain the rights to use it, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly was used instead.In the video near the 1:40 mark people can be seen holding a sign reading “Genesis 3:25,” referring not to the Bible’s Book of Genesis but to the fact that the band had been together for twenty-five years and had had three members for most of that time. Like all the singles from We Can’t Dance, “Jesus He Knows Me” was released on two CDs as well as on vinyl editions. All formats featured the non-album track “Hearts on Fire” (later included on Genesis Archive No. 2 1976–1992) as the primary B-side, while both CDs included an exclusive track. The accompanying music video for “Jesus He Knows Me” features Phil Collins as an unscrupulous televangelist who lives like a millionaire thanks to donations from his followers. Collins has admitted that he was specifically parodying Ernest Angley in the video. According to Collins on the BBC show Room 101, Angley was flattered by the parody and did not realize that his very occupation was being skewered. The opening monologue, which has been mistaken for a fictional scenario for the video clip, is based on an actual story Angley had told earlier in his career and which he recounted again in 2013. The comedic video also features band members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford dressed as fellow evangelists. Collins, outfitted in an orange suit, tries to have his viewers raise $18,000,000 in one weekend because “the Lord told it to him.” In the final minute on the video, money is thrown by parishioners and also rains down on the set of the fake program. As the toteboard reaches his goal, the amount of money shown increases to $18,000,000. As the song fades out, Collins continues to preach before being dragged off the set by Rutherford and Banks, a reference to the ending of the video for “I Can’t Dance”.

The first CD contains “The Other Mix” of “I Can’t Dance” (a remix by Ben Liebrand) and the second includes the rehearsal version of “Land of Confusion”. “The Other Mix” is named as such because another version, the “Sex Mix,” had been released some months before on the “I Can’t Dance” CD single. The second CD was the fifth disc in “The Invisible Series,” a collection of Genesis CDs which featured live recordings as extra tracks. The single mix of “Jesus He Knows Me” has a louder chorus than the album version, making it more suitable for radio play.In the original version of the video, the “toll-free number” referred to in the lyrics was shown as 1-555-GEN-ESIS. This was covered up by a scroll bar in later edits of the video. (The 555 area code actually does not prefix any known toll-free telephone numbers.)The song was performed live on the 1992 We Can’t Dance tour, although it was originally not going to be played because the band thought the live visuals were mocking religion. The band eventually decided to perform “Jesus He Knows Me” instead of “Living Forever,” which was in the setlist at the time. Touring guitarist Daryl Stuermer played lead guitar, including a solo towards the end, while Mike Rutherford played bass.

The music is written in Greek vocal notation. It is entirely diatonic, with an ambitus of exactly an octave from F to F an octave above, and a final nominally on G (assuming a key signature without sharps or flats). The notation is Hypolydian, and employs the rhythmic symbols macron (diseme), leimma + macron, stigme, hyphen, and colon. The text is largely set syllabically, with a few short melismas. The hymn’s meter is essentially anapaestic, though there are some irregularities.

The Phos Hilaron and the Oxyrhynchus hymn constitute the earliest extant Christian Greek hymn texts reasonably certain to have been used in Christian worship, but are neither drawn from the Bible nor modeled on Biblical passages.

The Oxyrhynchus hymn is the only surviving fragment of notated Christian Greek music from the first four hundred years of the Christian period, although historian and musician Kenneth Levy has argued that the Sanctus melody best preserved in the Western medieval Requiem mass dates from around the fourth century. Modern recordings of the hymn have been included on a number of releases of Ancient Greek music.

This song is so inspiring and I love it and I’ve been knowing this song since I was little girl I am age 49 now and it still touches my heart and I love my grandma when she use to take me and my brothers and sister to Sunday School and it was such a blessing every time we went and song this song. 🙌🤗The well-known chorus of a gospel song says, “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.” If we speak the fact that we are in the spirit, our story and song will be that we are in spirit. All day long we may praise the Savior that, because the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are now in the spirit. This will be a very effective inoculation against all the “bugs” sent by the enemy to trouble us in the Christian life.

Now we need to consider the way to have a group meeting. Ephesians 5:18 tells us to be filled in spirit. We believers who love the Lord Jesus, who are seeking His purpose, and who are burdened for His recovery should be persons filled in our spirit all day long. We should be filled with the Triune God, who is today the all-inclusive Spirit to us. When we are filled within, surely we will utter something out from our spirit. Ephesians 5 tells us to be filled, speaking and singing. Our speaking and singing are not in common language. We may speak or sing a psalm, which is a long piece of poetry. It may be like Psalm 119, which has one hundred seventy-six verses. There are twenty-two sections with eight verses in each section. Twenty-two is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each section of Psalm 119 is according to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We may speak or sing a hymn, which is somewhat shorter than a psalm, or we may speak or sing a spiritual song, which is shorter still.We need to speak and sing these psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs long before coming to the meeting. Even in our home, it is very good to be speaking and singing. The husband may say, “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior….” Then the wife may respond with, “All the day long” (see Hymns, #308). Or she may say, “I have passed the riven veil. Here the glories never fail.” Then the husband responds with, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I am living in the presence of the King” (see Hymns, #551). If we are filled in spirit, we will have something to utter. The small group meeting may begin at 7:30 p.m., but if a couple begins to sing at dinnertime, around 6:00 p.m., the small group meeting will have already begun. Such a meeting can continue as they drive together to the meeting with the other saints.What a Blessed song to wake up to this morning the enemy Wass telling me I didn’t measure up, but my Lord drop this song in my heart and oh what a fore taste of glory divine praise God

We also need to live a rejoicing life, a happy life. We all have to be “hallelujah people,” who rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4). Sometimes the most restful thing is to sing a hymn. Singing a hymn fills us with joy and helps us to enjoy Christ as our rest. The chorus of Hymns, #308 says: “This is my story, this is my song,/Praising my Savior all the day long.” A rejoicing life is a life of enjoying God in Christ as everything; this enjoyment makes us happy and causes us to exult all the day. The Christian life should be a rejoicing life.I was sick for 3 days and decided on going to the ER. I went to two that wouldn’t accept me unless I paid $100 deposit. All my cards have been demagnetized and I had no cash. Do I came to a Bigger Hospital so now in the hospital headed to get a Cat Scan. On my way there this song came to my mind, confirming that I am Blessed and he (God) has Assured me of it, every day as I rise.

As we read the Word of God, we should not only pray, but also sing to the Lord. This is to read the Word by psalming. (In ancient times the Psalms were sung and not merely read or spoken.) Praying requires more exercise of the spirit than speaking, and singing requires even more exercise than praying. By singing we can truly get into our spirit. We need more singing both in the meetings and in our daily life.The chorus of the well-known hymn ‘Blessed Assurance’ says:This is my story, this is my song,Praising my Savior all the day long.This is my story, this is my song,Praising my Savior all the day long.Many Christians have sung this hymn, but not many praise their Savior all the day long. What do you think would happen if we praised the Lord all day long? No doubt, we would be utterly immersed in the Lord.

We all need to say happily, triumphantly, and rejoicingly—”Jesus is mine!” We all know the familiar hymn that says, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!” The chorus of this hymn says, “This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long” (Hymns, #308). We are not praising the Lord all the day long for a good house, for an expensive car, or for a heavenly mansion with golden streets and pearly gates. We are praising the Lord all the day long for the fact that Jesus is ours. We are those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is both theirs and ours. To fully understand 1 Corinthians 1:2, you need John 1:1, 14, and 17, John 3:16 and 34, and John 15:26. Also, 1 Corinthians 1:9 tells us that we have been called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The Greek word for fellowship means joint participation, common participation. God has called us into the participation in His Son. We could even say that God has called us into the enjoyment of His Son.Formerly we were busy planning. Now we are serenely trusting. Formerly there were constant sorrow and frustration. Now we are like a weaned child, who rests in his mother’s bosom. Formerly we were filled with our own thoughts and had many cravings and ambitions. Now we consider God’s will as the best and rest in Him. Indeed, “Perfect submission, perfect delight,” and “Perfect submission, all is at rest” [Hymns, #308]. Ephesians 6:6 says more or less the same thing: “As slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul.” No longer do we do God’s will by the soul, which is self-assurance. Now we are doing God’s will from the soul, which means carrying out His will practically and wholeheartedly. The soul-life which once rebelled against God’s will is now brought into full submission to His will through the work of the cross and is willing to do His will wholeheartedly. Formerly everything was outward; we either walked according to our self-will, or we tried to do God’s will according to our self-will. But now, in everything, we have become one mind with God.

The only thing I could think was to base it on the eternal theme of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The verses came in a fairly linear way, but as the third verse developed, I was getting pretty excited as I thought about the amazing implications of Christ’s finished work on the cross. I wanted to write a fourth verse that was about us – but not just as an emotional response, but as a undeniable statement of the power of Christ to sustain us in this life.Keith and I are overwhelmed with the response this song has had, and we are just grateful to God that He should use it to build up His church in this way.Then a few days later the CD arrived. And the first melody on it really hit me – it was tuneful and memorable, and yet had gravitas and real emotion. And I began to feel the pressure to write lyrics that were of a comparable standard!

By 1973, Jesus music was receiving enough attention inside the mainstream media that an industry began to emerge. By the mid-1970s, the phrase “contemporary Christian music” (CCM) had been coined by Ron Moore and the first edition of CCM Magazine was published in July 1977. CCM now was a combination of traditional gospel music, Southern gospel music, Jesus music artists, and in some cases a style of big-band music with Christian lyrics. By 1976, it was apparent that a new generation of performers who had grown up in the church wanted to play non-secular pop and rock music for other Christians. By the end of the 1970s the term “Jesus music” fell out of use as the movement was replaced by the industry.Despite the message, the music was described by many as worldly at best or as “the Devil’s music” in the worst case. This latter position was held by conservatives such as Bill Gothard as taught in his Basic Youth Conflicts Seminars. These were some of the main factors that caused many U.S. churches to largely reject the movement and these artists at the time. This suited many artists as they wanted to bring Jesus to non-Christians, not only to church youth. Larry Norman addressed this culture clash in his 1972 song, “Why Should The Devil Have All the Good Music?” In addition to the basic message of salvation, the lyrics often reflected the expectation of the imminent Second Coming of Christ prominent in evangelical circles at the time, reflected and heightened by the publication of The Late, Great Planet Earth. Larry Norman voiced this in his song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready,” singing “There’s no time to change your mind/The Son has come and you’ve been left behind.” Initially, the music tended to be relatively simple, as it drew largely on guitar-based folk and folk-rock influences. The message also seemed to be relatively simple, as the songwriters attempted to present the value of a Christ-centered spiritual experience without evoking the vocabulary or other trappings of ecclesiastical religion. Rather than quoting religious cliches or King James Bible verses, they used storytelling, allegory, imagery, and complex metaphors, often with a colloquial language that flustered conservatives.

Much of the music was a blend of folk music and folk rock (Children of the Day, Paul Clark, Nancy Honeytree, Mark Heard, Noel Paul Stookey, Karen Lafferty, Debby Kerner & Ernie Rettino), soft rock (Chuck Girard, Tom Howard, Phil Keaggy, Scott Wesley Brown, Kelly Willard), R&B (Andraé Crouch (and the Disciples)), soul music/jazz fusion (Sweet Comfort Band), country rock (Bethlehem, Daniel Amos, Gentle Faith, The Talbot Brothers: John Michael and Terry Talbot, The Way), and hard rock (Agape, All Saved Freak Band, Petra, Resurrection Band, Servant).

Jesus music, known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music that originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This musical genre developed in parallel to the Jesus movement. It outlasted the movement that spawned it and the Christian music industry began to eclipse it and absorb its musicians around 1975.In the UK, Parchment, Roger and Jan, Judy McKenzie, Malcolm and Alwyn, Garth Hewitt, Graham Kendrick, Dave and Dana, Len Magee, Adrian Snell, etc. were some of the most notable agents of the gospel beat.Jesus People USA is an intentional community and ministry, currently located on the North Side of Chicago. Two of the first influences of JPUSA were Cornerstone magazine and Resurrection Band. Jim Palosaari was one of Britain’s influential Jesus people and one of the founders of the group that became JPUSA, Servant’s Highway Ministries, and Greenbelt festival in England, the largest Christian rock festival in the world.On the West Coast of the United States, Jesus music festivals began to emerge in the summer months of the early 1970s, featuring many of the artists listed above. While the music was often loud and the venue similar to the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock, the atmosphere was decidedly different and attracted large crowds of camping families as well as teenagers and young adults.

…When we were in prison we sang almost every day because Christ was alive in us…they put chains on our hands and feet. They chained us to add to our grief. Yet we discovered that chains are splendid musical instruments!When we clanged them together in rhythm, we could sing, ‘This is the day (clink, clank), this is the day (clink, clank), which the Lord has made (clink, clank), which the Lord has made (clink, clank). (persecutionblog.com)We see the same thing in Colossians 3:13-16: the exhortation to sing comes on the heels of bearing with one another (v. 13a), forgiving one another (v. 13b), putting on love (v. 14), being at peace as one united body of Christ (v. 15), and teaching God’s Word to one another (v. 16).

When we do what the Bible says and sing together as a church family, we are hearing confessions of faith all around! We are hearing hundreds join with us and sing, “In Christ alone, my hope is found!” We are hearing hundreds of testimonies of faith all around us!Think of the impact on someone who doesn’t know Christ to hear those hundreds of testimonies, those hundreds of confessions of faith as we sing together! This is why Pastor Tim Keller says in his book Worship by the Book: “Good corporate worship will naturally be evangelistic” (219).

Tom Olson is the campus pastor at The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Barrington, Ill. He and his wife Kari have three children—Kettie, Tovie, and Tommy.

We see the same thing in Ephesians 5, the command to address one another in song comes right on the heels of “[make] the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).In Revelation 7:9-10, the Apostle John describes a glimpse of eternity with a great multitude of people from every tribe, peoples, and languages singing before the Lamb, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

If you struggle for joy…sing! If you are joyful…sing! In God’s perfect design and understanding of the human condition, he has bound joy and singing together for his people.As you study Scripture on this point, you’ll notice that sometimes singing gives birth to joy and sometimes joy gives birth to singing. But persistently in Scripture, joy, and singing are bound together. You can’t study one of those two biblical themes without encountering the other.

Have you ever wondered why God desires for his people to sing? What role should singing play in the life of a Christian? What is it about worshiping through song that is so important to God?

On that day, will you be one of the great multitude that no one can number, singing the song of the Lamb, singing his praises? I hope you’ll be there, singing the song of our Savior, Jesus Christ.C.J. Mahaney calls church singing “Take Home Theology” because the best songs we sing together serve as a 3-minute, easily memorizable, deeply biblical summary of important truths from Scripture. Take for example, “In Christ Alone.” There, in an easily memorizable form, you’ve got a thorough theology of the cross of Jesus Christ with clear and practical applications that you can use for your life this week!

Often times, we think only of singing when we’re happy and times are good, but singing bringing strength for trial comes out in Acts 16. Paul and Silas are unjustly imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel, and what do they do while they’re in prison? Sing! (Acts 16:25)Chances are you didn’t connect singing and warfare together, but it’s a theme visible in Scripture. In Colossians 3, Paul is challenging the Colossians to literally put sin to death in their lives, to kill sin. So all the commands to love and peace and forgiveness and teaching and singing are attitudes and habits of the believer that will kill sin!