-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: “Faithful Love”
[Each Thursday, we reflect on a hymn suggested by our readers. If you would like to add your favorites to our list please leave a comment with up to 3 songs.] Written in 1993, “Faithful Love” has become quite popular. The tune is quite simple, but it is the words that give the song its strength. “Faithful Love” is a song that goes against one common theme of many of our songs. Most songs contain fairly long statements that cover a line or two. Ken Young’s “Faithful Love,” though, contains many very brief statements–some as short as two words–that support the idea of the title of the first line of…
-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: “Abide with Me”
[Each Thursday, we reflect on a hymn suggested by our readers. To add your favorites to our list, leave a comment with up to three songs.] Written by Henry Lyte in 1847, Abide with Me continues to be sung often, and has been used in many formal services and even films (including Shane) and TV series (including Touched by an Angel). For a song of this age, it is amazing to me how many of all ages, including young people, enjoy singing it. Originally containing eight stanzas (which most modern song books shorten to four or five), the song is a prayer for God’s protection through the difficult times in…
-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: “Be Thou My Vision”
[Each Thursday, we “reflect” on a hymn suggested by our readers. If you would like to add your favorites to our list, leave a comment with no more than 3 suggestions.] Outside of the songs that come directly from the pages of Scripture, “Be Thou My Vision” is one of the oldest songs still in regular use among Christians. The words come from an old Irish hymn, and are estimated to be from the 8th Century. This history suggests why you will often hear the tune played in Celtic instrumentation, and will sometimes still hear it in movies and TV shows. “Be Thou My Vision” is a song of deep…
-
Friday Links Roundup: Put Me In, Coach Edition
Tonight, the season (for me) begins again. Our church softball team played two games last Friday night, winning both. Incidentally, that’s ties the longest winning streak we’ve had in some time! I was not able to play, though, due to sickness. So, tonight, I’ll be out there, swinging and missing, committing errors, and generally not trying to get injured. In honor of that moment, enjoy a little 80s flashback: On to the links for this week: 1. Since we’ve talked about sports, what about those kids who show up at worship wearing soiled uniforms? Cindy Colley says (and I totally agree), they are more than welcome! 2. Leadership in the…
-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: “There Is a Habitation”
[Each Thursday, we give a brief “reflection” on a hymn. If you would like to add your favorites–up to three–to our list, please leave the names of those songs in the comments and we’ll reflect on them in the future.] One of the grandest songs about heaven, “There is a Habitation” combines powerful music with more powerful words. This is a song that is nearly always sung as singings, because you can’t sing it softly. As we excitedly sing about heaven, the song builds and builds. Written by J.H. Rosecrans, the song seems to be the writer’s feelings of longing for heaven, but it also contains some deeply impactful statements.…
-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: "In Christ Alone"
[On Thursdays, we “reflect” on a hymn suggested by our readers. To add your favorites (no more than 3, please) to the list, simply leave a comment.] What a fantastic new hymn! “In Christ Alone,” in my opinion, will stand the test of time because it is a simple melody in the usual construction of four verses. The beauty of this song is that it builds together (1) the sacrifice of Jesus and (2) our response to it. The song begins with a verse of praise to Jesus. With that verse, we sing that our full faith is in Him, then we move to the reason why. Verse one uses…
-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: "I Need Thee Every Hour"
[On Thursdays, we “reflect” on hymns submitted by our readers. If you would like to add your favorites–no more than 3, please–to our upcoming list, leave the names of the songs in the comments.] Written by a housewife in 1872, the simple words of “I Need Thee Every Hour” continue to bring comfort to many folks each time they are sung. In his book Then Sings My Soul, Robert Morgan gives the Annie Hawks’ own words as to where the poem came from (from page 179): One day as a young wife and mother of 37 years of age, I was busy with my regular household tasks. Suddenly, I became…
-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: "Ancient Words"
[Each Thursday, we give “reflections” on songs suggested by our readers. To add a song to our upcoming posts, leave no more than three suggestions in the comments.] A fairly new song, “Ancient Words” has found its way into more popular usage in the last couple of years. As older songs have done, “Ancient Words” celebrates God’s Word, but it also has a unique trait in that it celebrates the history of the Bible. The history of the Bible is a fascinating study. Most of us respect God’s Word and hold it as inspired, but many fail to see the connection between our day and when the Bible was actually…
-
10 Changes in the Blog World I'd Like to See
I love blogs, and not just because I write one. It is a joy to discover new and helpful writers in this format. I subscribe to 116 feeds through Google Reader. Some post daily (or even more), while others almost never post. That’s one reason I like a feed reader like Google, you don’t have to scan through dozens of websites to see if someone has updated, you just get the updates when they come. If you’ve never used Google Reader, click here for a video (less than 3 minutes long) that will show you how to set it up. (By the way, you can do the same for our…
-
Thursday Hymn Reflection: This is My Father's World
[NOTE: Today’s post continues our Thursday hymn reflections, which are simple thoughts on songs suggested by our readers. If you would like to add your favorites–no more than three–to our list, please leave a comment. We’ll get to it eventually!] This hymn, usually containing three verses, is part of a longer poem by Maltie Babcock. The original poem contained 16 stanzas and each began with the title phrase. Cyber Hymnal gives this brief introduction to the song: While a pastor in Lockport, New York, Babcock liked to hike in an area called “the escarpment,” an ancient upthrust ledge near Lockport. It has a marvelous view of farms, orchards, and Lake…
