Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
Jeremiah 8:22 says “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wounds of my [God’s] people?” {Gilead also mentioned in Jeremiah 46:2,11 and Jeremiah 22:6} It is believed this passage inspired the spiritual There Is a Balm in Gilead. The song emphasizes the comfort found in the Lord God, […]
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Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is a well-known and popular African American spiritual. The song was written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime after 1865. Historians believe he may have been inspired by the sight of the Red River, near where he […]
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Deep River is an African-American spiritual with unknown origins. The song was first printed in the 1876, The Story of the Jubilee Singers: With Their Songs, by J. B. T. Marsh. In 1917, Harry T. Burleigh completed the last of several influential arrangements. The song became very popular in recitals of the early 20th Century. The song was used in […]
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Do you ever have days when your heart is heavy? Do you feel no one cares? We all have times when we are lost, floundering, struggling to understand the difficult times, feel lonely and all alone. No One Understand Like Jesus was written by John W. Peterson. John W. Peterson was born on November 1, 1921 in Lindsborg, Kansas. After […]
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A great and mighty wonder is a little-known Christmas Carol. The hymn is German in origin. The hymn was written by St. Germanus I. He was born in Constantinople of a patrician family in 634 Greece. He was ordained in Constantinople and subsequently became bishop of Cyzicus. He was present at the Synod of Constantinople in 712, which restored the […]
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As with Gladness Men of Old is considered an Epiphany hymn more than a Christmas hymn. William Chatterton Dix wrote the hymn on January 6, 1859 while recovering from an extended illness. He was bed bound at his home in Glasgow, Scotland and unable to attend that morning’s Epiphany service at church. While reading the account of the Epiphany or […]
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There’s A Star in the East is a Christmas Carol. Reginald Heber is credited with writing the song. He was in 1783 England and named after his father. He professed his admiration of the hymns of John Newton and William Cower and one of the first High Church Anglicans to write his own hymns. In 1811, he was appointed Bishop […]
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Bethlehem Morning was written by Morris Chapman. The song was made popular by Sandi Patty. Chapman was born in Mississippi in 1940. He served as pastor to several churches in Texas before becoming CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1992-2010. The song takes one to the morning of Jesus birth. Merry Christmas!
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The song is a traditional spiritual of African American origin. The origin of the song is unknown. One source claims sister Margaret Allison of the Angelic Gospel Singers, a 1950s performing group, wrote the song. However, this has not been proven. She did write the song “Glory to the Newborn King,” which many believe may have morphed into Jesus, Oh […]
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The Gift Goes On was written by Claire Cloninger and Ron Harris. Brenton-Benson Music and Lillenas Publishing published the song in 1974. The song was made popular by Sandi Patty. We are reminded through the lyrics that the gift of Christmas is Jesus and continues to give and go on even after Christmas time.
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Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming is a Christmas carol of German origin. The carol was originally known as “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” which means a rose has sprung up. The rose in the text is symbolic of the Virgin Mary. The original hymn had two verses, expressing the prophecy of Isaiah in the first verse and the symbolism […]
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While by My Sheep was a traditional German carol by Nach Friedrich von Spee. The hymn was written in 1623 and known as Als ich bei meinen Schafen wacht. Hugo Jüngst arranged the text to a traditional German melody. Theodore Baker translated the carol into English.
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A Christmas Carol was written and composed by Charles Ives in 1897. The song appeared in his collection 114 songs which was published in 1922. He self-published these never before seen songs. By the early 1920s, he decided to publish more than 150 abandoned compositions. Charles Ives was born in 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut. His love of music was inherited […]
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This is a beautiful Thanksgiving hymn, which has often been forgotten and overlooked. The hymn is often known as “We Praise Thee O Lord For The Bountiful Harvest“. The hymn was written by famed hymnists, Fanny Crosby. Fanny Crosby wrote well over 8,000 hymns and is considered a prolific hymnists. She was blinded at the age of six weeks and […]
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Blest Be the Tie that Binds was written by John Fawcett. John Fawcett was born on January 6, 1740 in Yorkshire, England. By the age of twelve, he was an orphan and “bound out” to a tailor in Bradford. The hours were long and hard. He learned to read and is said to have mastered the John Bunyan classic, Pilgrim’s […]
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“The Stars and Stripes Forever” is a patriotic American march written and composed by John Philip Sousa, widely considered to be his magnum opus. By a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America. Sousa wrote in his autobiography, Marching Along, that he composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. […]
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This is an interesting hymn story, my brother asked me to write. I can’t believe it took me so long to discover this hymn story. I Have Decided to Follow Jesus originated in Assam, India. By the late 1800s, India was formally closed to the gospel. However, it did not stop the sweeping missionary movement from Wales, England, Australia, and […]
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Stephen was a Greek monk who lived during the 8th Century in the monastery of Mar Sabas in the wilderness of Judea. Eventually he became the abbot of this monastery, where he remained until his death at the age of 90. He wrote a poem a variety of hymns in Greek and Latin throughout his lifetime. During this time where […]
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If you know the story of C.S. Lewis, you know he tried to prove God did not exist. Along the way, he could only prove that God actually did exist. The story of the hymn In Jesus is very similar to C. S. Lewis testimony. James Proctor grew up in Manchester, England. He was raised in a Christian home, where […]
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Stress and strain was part of daily living during the height of World War II. Many did not know what to expect or what was coming next. Many families experience personal “sorrows or tragedies”. Ruth Caye was born August 9, 1902 in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania. She married Rev. Bert Jones. Ruth Jones was a mother of five and a pastor’s wife. […]
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