Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus is another hymn that was born out of tragedy. The lyrics were written by Louisa M.R. Stead in 1882. Louisa Stead was born in 1850 England. In 1871, she came to the United States and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. She had hoped to become a missionary but was prevented by ill health. In […]
Read more
We’re Marching To Zion is sometimes referred to by it’s opening line, Come We That Love the Lord. The hymn was written by Isaac Watts. Watts was an English minister, hymnwriter, theologian and logician. He wrote over 750 hymns and is known as the Father of English hymnody. Marching to Zion may have been based on Jeremiah 31:6, “Arise ye, […]
Read more
The Solid Rock or My Hope is Built on Nothing Less was written by Edward Mote. He was a pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, West Essex, England. Mote was born in 1797 and trained to be a cabinet maker. At the age of 50, he entered the ministry. When offered the church building as a gift, Mote replied […]
Read more
William Walford was a simple uneducated wood carver with a great memory. He spoke and wrote poem in his England home and shop. He was so in tune with God and scripture that he was often asked to speak at his Congregational Church and share a sermon. The word of God overflowed through him and came out in his poetry. […]
Read more
Trusting Jesus was written by Edgar Page Stites. The music was written by Ira D. Sankey. Edgar Page Stites was a direct descendant of John Howland, one of the Mayflower passengers. Stites served in the Civil War before becoming a riverboat pilot and later a missionary to churches in South Dakota. The poem first appeared in the newspaper. The poem […]
Read more
Praise to the Lord the Almighty is a hymn based on Joachim Neander’s German hymn “Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren”, published in 1680. Neander was born in 1650 Bremen, Germany. In his youth, he lived on the wild side before attending a local service and listening to a visiting preacher. He adopted the beliefs of the Pietist […]
Read more
Safe in the Arms of Jesus was written by Fanny Crosby. On April 30, 1868, William Howard Doan, a composer and friend of Crosby’s knocked on her door. He said, “Miss Fanny, I have exactly forty minutes before my train leaves for Cincinnati, and I must take that train.” He explained he wanted a new hymn next month when he […]
Read more
Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home is a hymn often used as an invitational in the church. The hymn was written by Fanny Crosby and music was by George Coles Stebbins. Crosby had been blind since the age of six weeks and wrote over 8,000 songs in her lifetime. Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home first appeared in Gospel Hymns […]
Read more
Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus Our Blessed Redeemer is a hymn by beloved songwriter Fanny Crosby. Chester G. Allen married the melody to the lyrics written by Crosby. The hymn was first published in 1869 in the Bright Jewels songbook. This is a hymn that praises Jesus and reminds us to praise him. We are not told what inspired Crosby […]
Read more
Robert Lowry was a composer more remembered for the more than 500 hymns he wrote instead of the sermons he preferred to give. He once stated: “Music, with me has been a side issue… I would rather preach a gospel sermon to an appreciative audience than write a hymn. I have always looked upon myself as a preacher and felt […]
Read more
Rise Again was released in 1977 and shares the story of the crucifixion and resurrection from Jesus’ view point. The song was written by Dallas Holm, a singer-songwriter of Christian music. He has greatly influenced the contemporary Christian music genre. In an interview with the St. Augustine Record, Holm recalled: “I began to pray, which I should have done in […]
Read more
Pass Me Not O Gentle Savor is another popular hymn by prolific and beloved hymn writer Fanny Crosby. Crosby had been blind since she was six weeks old, but wrote over 8,000 songs in her lifetime. One evening, Fanny Crosby was invited to speak to a group of prisoners at the state prison and heard one of the men say […]
Read more
I Am Thine, O Lord is another beloved hymn by Fanny Crosby. Ira Sankey shared in his book that Fanny Crosby was visiting Mr. W.H. Doane, in is Cincinnati, Ohio home. They were talking about the blessedness and nearness of God. The sun began to set that evening and the evening shadows were gathering around them, during which time someone […]
Read more
Happy Mother’s Day! I thought this was a fitting song for the day. You Raise Me Up almost vanished into obscurity, instead of becoming the hit song we know and love today. You Raise Me Up was composed by an Irish-Norwegian duo known as Secret Garden, performers of primarily instrumental music. The music was composed by Rolf Lovland. The song […]
Read more
Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place is a praise hymn from the 1970s which is still popular today. The song was written by Lanny Wolfe and inspired by Genesis 28:16, “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” Lanny Wolfe is an […]
Read more
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms was published in 1887. The lyrics were written by Anthony J. Showalter and Elisha Hoffman. The music was also written by Showalter. Showalter said that he received letters from two of his former pupils saying that their wives had died. When writing letters of consolation, Showalter was […]
Read more
“Standing on the Promises” was written and composed by Russell Carter in 1886. Carter was a professor at the time at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, a school in which he had been a member of the first graduating class. Carter had a variety of jobs from sheep herding to professor of Natural Science, Civil Engineering, Chemistry and Mathematics. While sheep […]
Read more
Kum ba Yah is a spiritual song dating back to at least the 1920s, when the earliest known recordings took place. According to the Library of Congress the two earliest versions were both collected in 1926. Both of these versions now reside in the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. It is unknown when in 1926 either version was recorded […]
Read more
All the Way the Savior Leads Me is one of the songs that runs through my mind at times. The hymn was written in 1875 by Fanny Crosby. “A frequently told story about this hymn relates that it came to Fanny as a result of a prayer. Struggling financially, she desperately needed some money. As her usual custom, Fanny began […]
Read more
In honor of Epiphany, which we just celebrated, I thought We Three Kings would be a great song to take a closer look at. We Three Kings describes the journey of the Wise Men to see the baby Jesus. The names of the kings, passed down through tradition are Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar. The kings presented the Christ Child with […]
Read more