Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
A Mighty Fortress is Our God was written by Martin Luther. It has been proclaimed “The one hymn that most symbolizes the Protestant Reformation.” Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic monk who believed the Church of Rome was corrupt. He posted his famous 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church on October 31, 1517. In 1521, Luther broke […]
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I’m familiar with the song This Ole House, but knew nothing of it’s origin. Only when researching the story behind another song, did I discover the story behind this song. The song was written by Carl Stuart Hamblen, who was the author of Until Then and It Is No Secret {What God Can Do}. Hamblen and his friend and fellow […]
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It Is No Secret, was written by Craig Stuart Hamblen, who also wrote Until Then. Hamblen was the son of a Methodist minister and is considered one of radio’s first “singing cowboys”. He lived a life of “destructive behavior” before attending a Billy Graham crusade in 1949. He met Rev. Graham when he appeared on Hamblen’s radio show. He was […]
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The song Through It All was written by Andráe Crouch and is his biography and testimony wrapped up into one. Andráe Crouch was born on July 1, 1942 in Los Angeles, California. He experienced devesating loss when he lost his father, mother and brother all within two years of one another. He said, “Probably the hardest time in my life…Just […]
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There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit was written by gospel songwriter Doris Mae Akers. She was born in Brookfield, Missouri on May 21, 1923. She was one of ten children and developed an interest in music at an early age. By the age of six, she had taught herself to play piano by ear. She wrote her first song, “Keep the […]
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Surely Goodness and Mercy is another beautiful hymn that I grew up singing but only recently did I read the amazing story behind this hymn. The hymn was the collaboration of two well known gospel music writers, John W. Peterson and Alfred B. Smith. In 1958, the two men collaborated to write a song based on Psalm 23. Mr. Smith […]
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God Will Take Care of You was written by Civilla D. Martin. She also wrote the well known His Eye Is on the Sparrow. Civilla Martin was born in 1866 Nova Scotia. She was the daughter of James N. and Irene Hardin Holden, a Baptist Minister. She married Rev. W. Stillman Martin, a well known Baptist Evangelist. One Sunday in […]
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Lead Me to Calvary was written by Jennie Evelyn Hussey. Hussey was born on February 8, 1874 and grew up on a family farm in Nenniker, New Hampshire. She was the fourth generation to live on the homestead, following her Quaker ancestors. She was a member of the Society of Friends. She began writing in her teens and in addition […]
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There is Power in the Blood is a great old hymn about the power of Christ blood. The hymn was written in 1889 by Lewis Edgar Jones. Lewis Jones was born on February 8, 1865 in Yates City, Illinois. Jones was attending a camp meeting at Mountain Lake Park, MD when he wrote his most popular hymn. One can imagine […]
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There Shall Be Showers of Blessings was written by Major Daniel Webster Whittle. He was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts on November 22, 1840. After moving to Chicago in 1857, he began to attend a Congregational church and joined a Bible class. In 1862, he married Abbie Hanson. He wrote of his conversion during the Civil War in the book […]
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Johnson Oatman, Jr. was an lifelong insurance agent, while also serving as an ordained Methodist minister. No, Not One is a repetitive phrase used throughout the song to remind us that Jesus came to be our friend and to save us and there is no one else like Him. Oatman is also known for his hymns Higher Ground and Count […]
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In one of his sermons, Dwight L. Moody, the famed 19th Century evangelist, provided an anecdote of a pilot during the storm. He spoke of how not even a star was visible on this night, as the ship captain neared harbor. Then he saw only light from a nearby lighthouse of Cleveland Harbor. The lower lights had gone out and […]
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Horatio R. Palmer, was an American musician, who was struck with the idea for this hymn in a most unexpected way. One day while working on a music theory exercise, the idea for this hymn suddenly came to him. Taking out another sheet of paper, he quickly wrote down the lyrics that came to him. Upon completion of the words […]
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Robert Raikes is known as the “founder of the modern Sunday School”. He had a driving desire for the spiritual and social conditions of the poor illiterate children in 18th Century England. This was a time when education was reserved for the wealthy and four out of five children received no education. Child labor was also heavily exploited during this […]
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Growing up Daddy and I often performed the song Statue of Liberty for patriotic services. Recently I sung this song again and wondered about the origin of this beautiful song which combines both our patriotic and religious freedom with one another. The Statue of Liberty was written by Neil Enloe around 1974. He was a 36-year-old singer-songwriter at the time. […]
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Hail, Columbia was composed by Philip Phile in 1789. He composed the song for the first inauguration of George Washington and titled the song “The President’s March”. In 1798, Joseph Hopkinson added lyrics and the song became known as “Hail, Columbia”. During the 18th Century, Columbia was a poetic name often used to identify the United States. The song was […]
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Fanny Crosby, was a famed hymn composer in the 19th Century. She wrote over 5,500 hymns in her almost 95 years on earth. However, she spent the majority of her life blind. She became blind when she was only six weeks old from an eye infection and medical ignorance. However, she did not let her blindness hinder it. She said, […]
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In celebration of Father’s Day, I wanted to take a look at this beautiful song. Holly Dunn wrote the song in honor of her father. She stated in writing the song as a gift to her father she “tapped into a well of emotion.” She released the song in August 1986 on her album Holly Dunn. The song […]
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Margaret Clarkson traveled to northern Ontario, Canada as a young twenty-three-year-old woman to work as a school teacher in a gold-mining camp town. With her family and friend’s miles away, one can imagine the loneliness that set in. Clarkson later said, “ “I experienced deep loneliness of every kind—mental, cultural and particularly, spiritual—I found no Bible-teaching church fellowship, and only one […]
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Recently, I was discussing the hymn I’m Just a Wayfaring Stranger with my grandmother, who remembered singing the song when she was a youngster. The song is a folk song which is believed to have originated sometime in the early 19th Century. The lyrics share the journey of an individual on life’s journey, who dreams of better […]
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