Music is one of the most wonderful aspects of the Christmas season. The songs of hope, joy and love span centuries and countries, and when we sing these words or listen to these carols, we join with other believers who in other times and in other places worshiped God with the same music. “Lo, How […]
“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 […]
“In The Bleak Midwinter” is a lovely Christmas carol written by Christina Rossetti. Our God, heaven cannot hold him, Nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away When he comes to reign; In the bleak midwinter A stable place sufficed The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. In the two videos below the words are […]
“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14 (KJV) – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! is one of the oldest songs heard during the Advent season. The roots of the music of go back to the 15th century.1 […]
The libretto of Messiah is taken from numerous books of the Bible: Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Lamentations, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Luke, John, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, Hebrews and Revelation. If you’re not familiar with the passages selected by Jennens, you can read them at the above link. The first five verses of Isaiah […]
Many people know that Handel wrote the music for Messiah, however, the man who chose the Bible passages for its libretto and gave them to Handel is hardly known at all. His name was Charles Jennens, and Messiah was born out of a tragic event in his life. Dr. Al Mohler, President of The Southern […]
Two years ago I read a mystery by George Bellairs that opens on Christmas Eve 1940 as Detective-Inspector Littlejohn is traveling to meet his wife who has evacuated to Yorkshire after their London flat was destroyed in the Blitz. On Christmas night they visit the Methodist church in a small village to hear the choir […]
‘For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well…. ‘You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from […]
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene *came early to the tomb, while it *was still dark, and *saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she *ran and *came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and *said to them, “They have taken away the […]