Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed was written by Isaac Watts. Watts was born on July 17, 1674 in Southampton, England. In 1702, he became a pastor and accepted a call to Abney Park, where he would make a home the remainder of his life. He wrote over two thousand hymns along with sermons, treatises and poems. Some of his […]
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Thomas Ken was born in 1637 Hertfordshire, England. He studied a Winchester College and became ordained in the Church of England in 1662. He is said to be “a man of conscience and independent mind who did not shirk from confrontations with royalty.” The story is told “when King Charles II came to visit Winchester, he took along his mistress, […]
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Children of the heavenly Father was written by Caroline W. Sandell Berg. She was born in 1832 Sweden and known as Lina Sandell, the “Fanny Crosby of Sweden.” “Lina”. She wrote hymns partly to cope with the fact that she witnessed her pastor father’s tragic death by drowning. She is said to have been very close to her father and […]
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Come down, O Love divine was written by Bianco da Siena an Italian poet and wool worker who was born at Anciolina, in the Val d’Arno around 1350. In 1367 he entered the Order of Jesuates, consisting of unordained men who followed the rule of St. Augustine. Little is known of Bianco beyond the fact that he is said to […]
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Blessed Jesus, at Thy word was written by Tobias Clausnitzer. He was born in 1619 Saxony. In 1644 he was appointed chaplain to a Swedish regiment. He preached the sermon at the accession of Christina as Queen of Sweden and the service for the conclusion of Peace at Westphalia in early 1649. In 1649, he was appointed first pastor at […]
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Christmas Canon is set to Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major. Paul O’Neill provided lyrics to Pachelbel’s music. The song is performed by Trans-Siberian Orchestra and a departure from their normal rock arrangements. The group is accompanied by a children’s choir and was released on the 1998 album The Christmas Attic. As on 2016, the song ranked 7th among the all-time […]
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The song originated as a spiritual The text was first published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in January 1891. The song appears in the middle of a story by Ruth McEnery Stuart and takes place at a place called Sucrier Plantation in Louisiana. It is believed Stuart transcribed the song from a real plantation song, rather than creating one herself. Stuart’s version was […]
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Mary’s Boy Child is a popular Christmas carol written in 1956 by Jester Hairston. Hairston roomed with a friend who asked him to write a song for a birthday party. He wrote the song with a calypso rhythm for the culture of those attending and titled the song “He Pone and Chocolate Tea”. However, the song was never recorded in this […]
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The Friendly Beasts is another strong contender as one of the oldest Christmas songs. It was written in French about the animals surrounded Christ at the nativity. The song is about the gifts that five animals {a donkey, cow, sheep, camel and dove} brought to baby Jesus. The song dates back to the 12th Century. The French lyrics were set to […]
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Of the Father’s Love Begotten is another song considered among the oldest Christmas hymns. It started as a Latin poem titled “Corde natus” and was written by the Roman poet Auerlius Prudentius. He wrote it for his Liber Cathemerinon. The song was paired with the plainchant, Medieval melody “Divinum mysterium”. Over the years the plainchant was musically embellished. The melody first appears in […]
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A friend was searching for the oldest Christmas hymns and stumbled upon this hymn. So, it lead me to search out the stories behind these old Christmas hymns. The song was composed in Latin by St. Hilary of Poitiers in the fourth century. The Latin translation is “Jesus refulsit omnium”. The song is said to have been composed after the first […]
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Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven was written by Rev. Henry Francis Lyte. The text is based on Psalm 103 which begins with “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” He first published the song in his 1834 The Spirit of the Psalms and remains a popular hymn in some […]
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More Than Wonderful is a well known duet by Sandy Patti and Larnelle Harris. They first released the song in 1983 and the following year won Best Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group. The song was written by Lanny Wolfe. He was born in 1942 Ohio and is an Aemrican Christian songwriter, musician, music publisher, and music educator. He […]
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Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue was written by Toby Keith and became a hit following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Keith wrote the song in late 2001, inspired by the patriotism that errupted after September 11 and his own father’s patriotism. His father had died in March from a car accident. The song took him twenty minutes to […]
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Henry Jackson Van Dyke was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 10, 1852. He attended Princeton University, Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Berlin. Van Dyke served as pastor of Brick Presbyterian Church for seventeen years {1883-1900}, in Manhattan, before becoming a professor of English literature at Princeton University. He was greatly respected and sought out both as a […]
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I’ll Fly Away was written by Albert E. Brumley in 1929. The song was influenced by the 1924 secular ballad, “The Prisoner’s Song”. Brumley was reportedly picking cotton on his father’s farm in Rock Island, Oklahoma. Brumley says that as he worked he was “humming the old ballad that went like this: ‘If I had the wings of an angel, […]
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Imagine standing at the foot of Jesus cross with his mother, Mary Magdalene, the other women and the apostle John. Beneath the Cross of Jesus gives us insight to this time and place. The song was written by Elizabeth Clephane, who also wrote The Ninety and Nine. Elizabeth Clephane lost her parents at a young age and struggled with her […]
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O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing was one of the more than six thousand hymns that was written by Charles Wesley. In May 1738, Charles Wesley was suffering from pleurisy, while studying with his brother, John, in London. During this time he was plagued with extreme doubts regarding his faith. After taking to his bed, he attended a Bible […]
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This is the Day is an upbeat song that reminds us that this is the day the Lord has made, we should be happy and rejoice. The hymn is based on Psalm 118:24, “This is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” The practice of writing songs based off of scripture dates […]
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Lord, Speak to Me That I May Speak was written by Frances R. Havergal in 1872. Havergal is one of several women hymn writers who lived in the late Victorian era of England {18th Century}. Her father was an Anglican pastor and devoted himself to the improvement of church music in the Church of England. Frances was inspired by her […]
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