Many of our hymns have special stories associated with them. Some of these from the past have been recorded and passed on to us, like those of John Newton and Fanny Crosby. We are fortunate to have some from our own lifetime with writers still alive and sharing their testimonies, not only in the lyrics they have written, but also in video testimonies and occasionally even with dramatic documentaries were they tell their story in their own words.
Such is the case with Christian writer, performer, and recording artist Dennis L. Jernigan. He was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma in 1959 to Samuel Robert Jernigan and Peggy Yvonne Johnson Jernigan. Soon after his birth, his parents moved to the farm that his grandparents had built and where his father was raised, three miles from the small town of Boynton, Oklahoma. There he and his brothers attended school. When he was six or seven, his grandmother Jernigan moved back to the farm in a trailer next to the old farmhouse where they lived, and she taught him to play the piano by the time he was nine years old. Each day after school he could be found at his grandmother’s house practicing piano, even though he could not read music. The family attended First Baptist Church where his grandfather, Herman Everett Johnson, had been minister, where his parents had met, and where his father led singing.
Jernigan’s relationship with his parents was quite typical for that generation. As he recalls, they were not an affectionate family. While he did feel affection from his mother, he never remembered receiving physical affection from his father. Therefore, his erroneous feelings of being rejected and worthless led to his secretly engaging in a homosexual lifestyle, which continued through high school and his four years at Oklahoma Baptist University. He later wrote, “My problem was not my father. My problem was that I believed a lie. Once Satan got his foot in the door of my heart, any rejection, no matter how big or how small, was perceived as a lack of love from my dad (or whomever I felt rejected by at the time).”
He managed to keep his homosexual lifestyle a secret for years, but as a Christian he felt deep anguish, guilt, and embarrassment over his actions and attitudes. He very much wanted to be freed from that, but every effort only left him even more ensnared in his sin. At one point, a church leader who had invested significant time into spiritually mentoring Dennis won his respect to such a degree that one night, he felt safe and secure enough that he decided to confide in him to ask for his help in escaping his homosexual activity. To his utter horror, when the man heard Dennis’s confession, he sexually propositioned him. He was devastated. He finally got to the point where he felt that not only was his plight hopeless, but that the condemnation from the church led him to believe that God also hated him.
Upon his graduation from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1981, he went to a concert by a musical group called The Second Chapter of Acts in Norman, Oklahoma. When he heard their song “Mansion Builder,” he acknowledged the fact that he was totally helpless and turned everything in his life over to Jesus: thoughts, emotions, physical body, and his past, taking responsibility for his own sins and yielding everything that night to Jesus. It was an enormous turning point in his life. God powerfully turned him around, cleansing him from guilt and shame, giving him a new heart and the freedom from homosexual inclinations that he had so longed for.
Since then, Jernigan has married his wife Melinda in 1983, and they have nine children, living on a small farm. He enjoys telling people that no, they are not Mormon or Catholic and the children are not adopted, and yes, they know what causes that, and yes, they like it! A singer and songwriter of contemporary Christian music, he heads a music-based Christian ministry from his home in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The Jernigans decided a long time ago that Dennis’s first priority was that of husband and father so he never truly toured and they chose not to live in Nashville, the epicenter of contemporary Christian music. This was simply the Jernigan’s mandate from the Lord as they saw it. Perhaps that’s why some do not know who he is. And that’s just fine with him.
The life message of Dennis Jernigan can be summed up in one word. Freedom. That freedom has come with a price. Jernigan was born again through his faith in Jesus Christ, but the reality is that the battle for freedom from the lies of the enemy regarding his past identity has been ongoing. His greatest joy has come in seeking intimacy with Jesus Christ, and in the process, discovering greater depths of freedom than he ever realized. His ministry is based on his personal experience, which he shares at churches and other locations around the world. He also campaigned against a proposed Hate Crimes Bill, saying that the legislation’s passage would strip him of his right to speak freely about his self-identification as ex-gay, though he states that he does not wish to be labeled as “ex-gay,” but instead as “reborn” or as “[God’s] new creation.” Through the sharing of his story and the sharing of the stories behind the songs, Dennis Jernigan has watched literally thousands walk out of all manner of spiritual bondage and has watched literally thousands of desperate, wounded people find healing through intimacy with Jesus Christ.
Jernigan became a successful Christian singer-songwriter of contemporary Christian music. His primary instrument is the piano. He prefers not to think of himself as a songwriter, but rather as a “song receiver.” For many, his best-known song is “You Are My All in All,” which he wrote in 1992. It remains his most-often performed song today, of all the hundreds he has written. Others of his popular works include “We Will Worship the Lamb of Glory,” “Thank You,” “Great is the Lord Almighty,” “Who Can Satisfy My Soul” (There is a Fountain), “I Belong to Jesus,” and “Nobody Fills My Heart Like Jesus.”
“You Are My All in All” is a song in praise of Christ, for who Christ is and what he does. It is cast as a personal prayer to Jesus, describing those situations and attributes in rhymed couplets, all of which conclude with the proclamation, “You are my all in all.” It matches the theme that is so prominent in Paul’s testimony in Philippians, where the apostle described himself as a “one-thing-I-do” man.
“You Are My All in All” was copyrighted by Jernigan with two stanzas in 1991 (although one source gives the date of 1990) by Shepherd’s Heart Music. A third stanza was added in 1996 by Randall J. Harris. Another person has offered a fourth stanza. Throughout the text, the song presents Jesus as everything which we need.
In stanza 1, Jesus is said to be our strength. He is that because we can be strong in the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10). Then because He is our strength, He is like a treasure that we seek, like a pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46). And since He is such a precious jewel, to give up and turn away from Him would be foolish (2 Peter 2:20-22).
You are my strength when I am weak,
You are the treasure that I seek,
You are my all in all;
Seeking You as a precious jewel,
Lord, to give up I’d be a fool,
You are my all in all.
In stanza 2, Jesus is said to have taken our sin. In order to accomplish propitiation, He bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24). When we fall down, as we do far too often, He will lift us up (Psalm 40:2). When we are dry, as we are far too often, He will fill our cups to running over (Psalm 23:5).
Taking my sin, my cross, my shame,
Rising again I bless Your name,
You are my all in all;
When I fall down You pick me up,
When I am dry You fill my cup,
You are my all in all.
In stanza 3, Jesus is said to have brought victory. The “dark powers” likely refer to the spiritual hosts of wickedness which Satan uses to battle against us (Ephesians 6:12). However, Jesus brings victory over them and their curse (1 Corinthians 15:57). This is possible because death could not hold Him as He rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20-24).
When the dark powers had done their worst,
Jesus brought victory o’er their curse;
He is our all in all.
Death could not hold the King of Kings,
Now to His heirs new life He brings;
He is our all in all.
In stanza 4, Jesus is said to be coming again. The Bible promises that He will return (Acts 1:9-11). When He does appear, we shall rise up in the sky (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Then we shall tell this sinful world good-bye as it is destroyed and Christ ushers in the new heaven and earth (2 Peter 3:10-13).
Someday my Lord will come again;
I shall be Oh! so happy then,
He is my all in all.
Rising up in the vaulted sky,
Telling this sinful world good-bye,
He is my all in all.
The refrain praises Jesus as the Lamb of God who is worthy (Revelation 5:12).
Jesus, Lamb of God,
Worthy is Your name;
Jesus, Lamb of God,
Worthy is Your name.
Worthy is Your name.
© 1990, Shepherd’s Heart Music, Inc. (admin. PraiseCharts.com).
Here is a link to view his testimony, first hand.
Here us a documentary video about his story.
Here is a link to Dennis Jernigan singing his song.