I have just finished listening to a remix of, “I Know a Name” with Brandon Lake and CeCe Winans. It is a powerful song and from the first note, it had me and whisked me into the throne room of God. I lose sight of myself and can only see Jesus and when the song is done, I play it again and again and again. I am marinating in this song and it is transforming who I am and what the Holy Spirit wants me to impart to others. You might ask yourself what this has to do with Deacon Yopp.

Deacon Yopp was an elderly man in the church I attended as a child. I attended Third Baptist Church (I think that it was possibly the third Baptist church built in Youngstown, Ohio, but it’s only a guess). Deacon Yopp was a humble, simplistic man. He had no teeth, but that did not stop him from greeting people with a ready smile. I can see him, even now, waving and greeting people with a loud friendly voice, “gumming” his greetings to everyone who arrived. I did not understand that this man had the Joy of the Lord and I did not understand how powerful it was.

To my shame, I thought he was ridiculous. 1 Corinthians 13:11. My friends and I thought he was a “joke” and we would role our eyes and/or snicker when the pastor asked him if he had a song to share before he collected the offering. OF COURSE HE DID! It was always the same song. You would think I would remember the song, but we kids made it a mission to forget it. What I couldn’t forget was how he sung it. Deacon Yopp would lift his head up, looking at the ceiling. He would sing acapella. He had a homely voice and he would “gum” his way through the song. He would begin to weep (it is only now that I realize that they were not tears of sorrow, nor was it for dramatic effect. They were tears of gratitude. It was as if only he and the Lord he loved were in the room).

I was born in a generation where “children were to be seen, but not heard”. Unlike now where the children and adults feel that the child should be “free” to interrupt adult conversations and give unasked for advice. Communication is a wonderful thing, but for all the “freedom” there is still no better understanding between the generations, in fact it is worse. Can you say, “Balance.”

Deacon Yopp knew the name of Jesus and he lived the name of Jesus. He was either born before or at the turn of the twentieth century and he had endured what most black people endured at that time and yet he transcended all of that in Jesus Christ , his Lord and Savior and his Song.

The Holy Spirit showed me that the love I have for vertical songs of praise and worship started with a humble man with just one song. I wish I could go back in time and thank him, but I will get a chance when I get to heaven. Meanwhile, without apology, I will play/sing the songs God places on my heart until I am filled to overflowing to all who will listen and to some who will understand in the future what God was communicating to them. This not the song that Deacon Yopp sung, but I am sharing this in honor of his heart before God.

Blessed Assurance

1. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
2. Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
3. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love. Chorus: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.