By:Cleavant Derricks · Source Recording: Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys (1991)
I once was lost in sin but Jesus took me in
And then a little light from heaven filled my soul
It bathed my heart in love and it wrote my name above
And just a little talk with Jesus made me whole
(Now let us) Have a little talk with Jesus
(Let us) Tell him all about our troubles
(He will) Hear our faintest cry
(He will) Answer by and by
(When you) Feel a little prayer wheel turnin'
(And you) Know a little fire is burnin'
(You will) Find a little talk with Jesus makes it right
Sometimes the path seems drear without a ray of cheer
And then the clouds of doubt may hide the light of day
The mist of sin may rise and hide the starry skies
And just a little talk with Jesus clears the way
I may have doubts and fears, my eyes may fill with tears
But Jesus is a friend who watches day and night
I go to him in prayer, he knows my every care
And just a little talk with Jesus makes it right
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By:Cleavant Derricks · Source Recording:Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys (1991)
“Just a Little Talk With Jesus” is a gospel song written by the Reverend Cleavant Derricks, a Black Baptist minister and songwriter from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Derricks wrote it during the Depression years and, by a much-repeated account, sold it to the Stamps-Baxter publishing company in exchange for fifty songbooks, which he then sold himself for a dime apiece.
The song may draw on older, anonymous gospel and spiritual material, but it was Derricks’s version, published in the late 1930s, that took hold. Its message is direct and comforting — that prayer, a little talk with Jesus, sets troubles right — and its bright, call-and-response chorus made it a favorite of gospel quartets.
The song became a standard across gospel, country, and bluegrass; a recording by the Oak Ridge Boys later won a Grammy.
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