Messiah!

When I was growing up we attended a church with a large music program, and I first sang in a choir as a young child. Our minister of music frequently had us sing the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s Messiah during December. The adult choir was at the front of the church behind the ministers, while […]

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Talking On A Sunday

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. […]

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Scattered On A Saturday

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’” Matthew 26:31 – Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that […]

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Love On A Friday

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown; O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine! Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine. What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain; Mine, mine was […]

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Comfort & Joy

God rest ye merry, gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ our Saviour Was born on Christmas day, To save us all from Satan’s power When we were gone astray: O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. – The angel to Zacharias: And an angel of the […]

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“Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour”

– For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9 – The lyrics of “Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour” were written in China by Frank Houghton, an Englishman.  […]

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“I Wonder As I Wander”

“I Wonder As I Wander” is an American Christmas carol with words and melody by John Jacob Niles. He based it on a few snatches of song he heard on July 16, 1933, in the small Appalachian town of Murphy, North Carolina: A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached […]

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“Mary, Did You Know?”

There are some songs with words and music so personally significant, I still remember the first time I heard them. I heard Mary, Did You Know? sung by a small vocal ensemble at the water’s edge of a town harbor during an outdoor Christmas celebration over ten years ago. The lyrics and music throughout the song […]

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“Joy to the World!”

“Joy to the World” with its exuberant music and words of celebration is one of my favorite Christmas carols. The words are based on Psalm 98, and it is one of the more than 600 hymns written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748).1 He wrote the hymn, however, not of the First Advent of Christ, but of […]

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