Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
“Jesus, Lover of My Soul” was written by the prolific hymn writer Charles Wesley. He wrote the hymn within months of his 1738 conversion and titled the piece “In Temptation”. It was first published as a poem in 1740. Not until nine years after Wesley’s death was a tune added to the poem. Yet, it has become one of his […]
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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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If you read my Behind the Hymn stories, you will recognize the name Dwight L. Moody. Many of the hymns written by Fanny Crosby, Robert Lowry, Frances Ridley Havergal, William J. Kirkpatrick and other hymn writers were popularized in the crusades of Rev. Moody. So, who was Dwight L. Moody? Dwight Lyman Moody was born on February 5, 1837 in […]
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Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling was written by William Lamartine Thompson. Softly and Tenderly is one of his best known compositions, alongside Jesus is All the World to Me. Softly and Tenderly first appeared in a collection of songs, Sparkling Gems, Nos 1 and 2, by Thompson’s company in 1880. “UM Hymnal editor, the Rev. Carlton R. Young, notes: […]
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Fanny Crosby went blind at the age of six weeks in 1820. Her blindness was not necessary but was due to an improper medical procedure. One day in 1873, Fanny was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp. Phoebe began to play a tune for Fanny, which she {Phoebe} had composed. She asked Fanny what the tune said to her. Fanny’s […]
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Imagine all of your children were dead? Would you still be able to praise God? That is just the beginning of the story behind It Is Well with my Soul. This was not the first, nor the last, tragedy endured by the author, Horatio Gates Spafford. The beginning of their suffering began in 1871. In 1870, Horatio Spafford and his […]
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