He Is Mine And I Am His

I love the song He Is Mine And I Am His by G. T. Speer. Maybe it is just me, but I have always felt it was a good combination of “old school” and “new school” styles.

A recent mention of this song by a friend brought to mind an incident that happened in the 1980s. This was at what we Texans call a “little book” singing (“new book” for some others). We had a Saturday night singing that rotated between several churches. One night we were at an old church called ____ ____. Most of the singing was class/congregational, though “specials” were allowed. A large group from “off summers” were present. (Not far off, but only peripherally connected to the churches that hosted the singing rotation; somebody was kin to somebody at ____ ____.) At some point fairly early in the singing, a person from that group was called by the chair to lead a song. Afterward, that person (not the chair) called another of their people to come up and sing, and then they did this again, and again, and again… This went on probably 15 or 20 minutes, or perhaps the discomfort of the situation made it seem longer than it was. THE singing had become THEIR singing. The chair did not want to be the “bad guy” and put a stop to this, but finally he sensed (and felt) enough discontent in the class that he finally told them, “One more, and that’s all.” They got mad and went outside. They stayed around outside for a good while, vocally complaining about how they had been “mistreated” (even though they were the ones who had infiltrated and changed the format of the singing). I had the grand good fortune of being the next leader called to follow all this disorder!! I led He Is Mine And I Am His.

1. God’s amazing grace, sent down from heaven,
Rescued me from death and from shame;
Opened up my eyes and brought salvation,
Now I’m his, praise his holy name!

2. ’Tis so sweet to know I have Jesus with me,
He will keep me from sin and from strife;
He delivered me from condemnation,
Now I have eternal life!

Chorus:
Now I know (I know) that he is mine (he’s mine)
And I’m his (I’m his forever),
He is leading (leading) me along life’s way (along life’s way);
He’ll be holding (holding) to my hand (my hand)
When I cross death’s river (crossing death’s river),
He will take (he’ll take) the sting of death away (death’s sting away).