by David Dodd

He built his ministry on God’s Word, and from the time Jeremy Camp recorded his first song, it was clear the foundation of his music would always be supported by the powerful Word of Our Lord. 

“Psalm 127:1 says, Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder’s labor is in vain, Camp says from his home in Indiana.  “That’s the foundation for this whole thing that I’m doing; I’m learning constantly that He has to be the foundation,” Jeremy tells Apostles That Rock.

His first record was birthed in part by a lot of personal pain, but during that time of trauma and challenges, Jeremy knew exactly where to go for strength.

“When I first started this,” he recalls, “I was so broken, you know, and I said, ‘Lord here I am, I don’t know what else to give, I don’t know what else to offer, but here I am.’  I remember Him just saying, ‘Perfect, now I can use you,’ because He was the one that built this and I want to continue to keep that as the foundation because the Word of God when I went to Bible college was huge to me.  That was what broke me down and taught me so much, and it’s really presented in all of the songs that came out of my life.”

One of Jeremy’s life verses is Acts 20:24:

“That is, that is what God called me to do and that’s where I am today and what God’s still teaching me.” 

One of his favorite songs on his latest record is Feels Like, which still brings laughter to him when he recalls the situation when God offered it to him. 

“I’m telling you, that song…I can’t even explain to you how it came about other than I was on my face and I remember just reading these Scriptures in Romans 8.  When I write songs, it’s usually of out those times of reading Scripture or being on my face praying and there is so much joy and so many tears shed just thinking of that amazing time when we’re going to stand before the Lord. 

I just felt this amazing emotion of joy that God’s just like, ‘You’re going to be able to stand before Me and I’m going to wipe your tears away.’   

That’s the joy I receive when I think about all He’s done for me, and all that I could express from that at the end of the song as you hear, is just,  Hallelujah, Hallelujah.   For me it’s one of things where there’s just so many things involved in that song, so many emotions and feelings and Scripture that were all in that song and at the end when I kept writing and singing what I was writing, what came out was for me to drop everything and worship Him by singing Hallelujah at the end.”  

Jeremy’s latest release reflects the past year of his life where he was challenged with both the good and the bad.  With a whirlwind of touring, recording and the business element of future projects, God it made very clear to him where his attention should be directed.

“It was so easy for me to be focused on one thing which is, ‘keep going, keep going, keep going’, instead of just sitting down and looking around at what was happening around me.”

“I feel that God took me to a place where I was in a fog for a little while because I was so busy even though I was enjoying my family and enjoying everything that was going on, but I was also stressed and I knew that I was holding on to getting things done on my own instead of letting God take over. 

He spoke to me in that small, still voice and He finally broke me down until the fog began to disappear.” 

“The song Beyond Measure was written from the moment when I was on my face because God revealed to me all the amazing things He was doing in my life.  I wasn’t sitting at His feet just enjoying what He was doing, I was trying and trying to do things on my own, nothing bad in that sense, but it was distracting me and caused me to be more stressed about things I shouldn’t have been stressed about.  He made it very clear to me that I needed to let go and let God take care of it.” 

So much has happened to Camp since the death of his wife Melissa, who went to be with the Lord when she was 21, when she and Jeremy were married for only four months. 

That in itself gave Jeremy an unshakable faith although he often challenged it when he first lost Melissa.  More than four years later, after marrying and having two beautiful little girls, Jeremy has witnessed the God’s perfect plan for his life. 

I faced a great tragedy, but I’ve seen the works of what You bring

A display of faith that You give.

I don’t know if I would ever understand the depth of what it is You’ve done inside,

But I know I wont find any worth apart from You.

There’s an underlying theme in his latest new project where it relates to his testimony and what God has done through that time and through the new chapter of his life. 

“I don’t often talk about my testimony a lot anymore, but when I was doing an interview, I got to the part where I said if one person accepted Jesus Christ it would be worth it.  My wife Melissa said that right before she died, and at that moment it really hit me.   Ephesians 3:20 says:

“I realized early on in the writing process that I need to write all these songs to Him and for Him.  He made that very clear to me.  All of these songs are for Him and celebrate Him.” 

Show me what it means to live my life a sacrifice.

If only I would realize how much it took to pay the price,

I know I’d always give everything to You.

                                                                                       - What it Means

“The whole purpose of this song is Romans 12:1,

“That was once again another picture realizing that I have to be submitted 100% and I don’t really understand that, I keep falling on my face making mistakes.  But I continue to ask, ‘please Lord, show me what it means to live my life as a sacrifice.’  There are times that we hold back and I think if we really understood we shouldn’t hold back, we should continue to press on every single day.  I think if we really understood the fullness of what He did, we would be sold out like that, it would be a sold out world.  The fact is we make mistakes and His grace covers that, and that’s what’s amazing about Our Father.” 

Jeremy ends the record with an old hymn, Give Me Jesus.

“I’ve never done anything like that before.  It’s a song that hit me so hard when I heard it I was weeping.  It affected me so much that I wanted to get it across, the idea is you have the whole world but give me Jesus and that’s what I want this ministry to put forth. 

What we’re all about is Christ and giving people Jesus.  That sums up the whole record.”