Here We Are – Stories Behind the Songs

I was doing an interview at a radio station in Carlinville, Illinois and in the course of the interview the disc jockey stopped and asked me what seemed to be a pretty simple and turned out to be a pretty profound question. He asked, “where did music come from?”

In my mind I’m thinking back to Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson – that’s where it started for me. I started going further back and said, “It has it’s eternal foundation,” and he said, “Right, that being the case, what should be the purpose of music?”

He was kind leading me down a path, I still don’t know why, it was a wonderful moment. I said, “Best I can figure the original intent and purpose of music was to bring glory and honor to the Lord.” He had a little twinkle in his eye that said, “Yep, you got it.”

We went off the interview, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “I really hit on something here.” That was before what we now know as contemporary praise and worship. Now it’s a very big item, but that wasn’t the case back then. I don’t guess I had ever written a song that was directed towards the Lord. A lot of my songs were testimonies and stories – but this was the first time I wrote what we would call a worship song.

Here we are in your presence
Lifting holy hands to You
Here we are praising Jesus
For the things He’s brought us through.

I don’t have the words to tell You how I feel,
I just don’t know what I can say
I’m not worthy to speak Your Holy Name,
Yet You tell me You love me just the same.

Here we are in Your presence
Lifting holy hands to You
Here we are praising Jesus
For the things He’s brought us through.

I never thought that it could be this way,
And I never thought I’d be the one,
But You found me dying in my sin.
And You looked at me with love that took me in.

Here we are in Your presence
Lifting holy hands to You
Here we are praising Jesus
For the things He’s brought us through.
For the things He’s brought us through.

I think for me, the favorite part of the song is the second verse. That is a testimony of a time in my life when I wanted nothing to do with the Lord. I didn’t want to be around Christians and I wanted to check out of that whole thing. That may be you as well. I would encourage you, in faith – that’s what it’s all based on, by faith – just reach out and give it a shot.

I remember when I came to Jesus back in  1965, in the back of my mind I thought, “If this doesn’t work out I can just go back to what I came from.” It has worked out just fine. He did change my life, transformed my life. Absolutely best thing I ever did. If you’re in the same quandary that I was as to what to do, wondering if it’s for you – it is for you. He died for you, he loves you, and he can transform your life just as well.