Truth For The Heart
I first heard Mary, Did You Know? sung by a small 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 call you to meet and to know the Lord Jesus. The song’s bridge contains the words that caught me then and […]
Read MoreMusic 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 […]
Read More“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 […]
Read More“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 these two videos the words are sung […]
Read More“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) – The roots of the music of Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel! go back to the 15th century.1 The Messianic titles in the lyrics, called the O Antiphons, […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreMany people know that Handel wrote the music for Messiah. But what about, Charles Jennens, the man who chose the Bible passages for its libretto? Messiah was born of a personal tragedy. In his 2010 commencement address, For the Mouth of the Lord Hath Spoken It, Dr. Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, […]
Read MoreWhen I was growing up we attended a church with a large music program, and I first sang in a choir as a young child. In December our minister of music would have all the choirs sing the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s Messiah. The adult choir was at the front of the church, while the […]
Read MoreNow 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 […]
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Kindling for Candles 