Hymn Hypocrisy

Do you ever feel like a total hypocrite when you realize what is coming out of your mouth at church?

I don’t mean the words of worship and praise for God—those always sound right. And I don’t mean the words of confession of sin or the words of prayer. I am referring to the words of hymns that describe our lives as Christians.

Take, for instance, Frances Havergal’s famous hymn of personal dedication, “Take My Life and Let It Be.” The fourth stanza always makes me feel kind of sheepish (we’d blush if that were possible in this age of no shame): “Take my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold.” I think of my decades of selfishness. Can you sing that stanza with a straight face and mean it?

OUR SPIRITS BLOSSOM WHEN WE SING

Paul Estabrooks

God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Psalm 68:6

Our Open Doors colleague, Ron Boyd-MacMillan, shares the following insight from his teaching, “Why I Need to Encounter the Persecuted Church.”

Chinese evangelist, Mrs Yang, was visited by another full time preacher who was very downcast. The preacher wanted to buy a tape player, but had no money. Mrs Yang sat down and just began to sing to him. Her voice was deep and scratchy, the tune barely discernible, the words simple: I am a wanderer, my home is in heaven/ Life is fleeting/ Our home is in heaven/ In this world we have many trials/ And sadness and sickness/ True happiness is not in this world/ But in heaven.

Miracles Still Happen-Testimony by poetryechoes

Pastor Linda Sharing God's Love

"Whispers Of Worship"

Dearest Friends,This Testimony just came to me via one of our very own here on 

Poetrypoem and with all the different trials and reports given us these days 

SINGING TO THE LORD

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple…Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord. Psalm 27:4, 6

Brother Zhang, a young medical doctor and preacher in Zhejiang, China, refused to join the government Three Self Patriotic Church. He was arrested and spent eighteen years in prison eating poor food, being beaten and drowning in the stench of cellmates. He shares this testimony:

“The eighteen years were a tremendous spiritual challenge, which brought great blessings I never before thought possible in my life. Prison officials ordered me to empty the camp night-soil pit, the prison’s cesspool. While I had little experience of physical labor, its hardship and suffering did not frighten me. Although most of the other prisoners dreaded night-soil pit duty as the most difficult task in prison, I accepted this assignment without complaint. 

Beloved hymns carried King through troubled times

At 87, the Rev. C.T. Vivian can still recall the moment, decades after the height of the civil rights movement.

As he stood to conclude a meeting in his Atlanta home, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. joined his activist colleagues in song, his eyes closed, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“There is a balm in Gilead,” they sang, “to make the wounded whole.”

As the nation pauses Monday (Jan. 16) to mark King’s birthday, those who knew him say hymns, spirituals and other religious songs helped carry him through troubled times.

The spiritual fit King’s unique circumstances, said Vivian, who recently was named vice president of the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization co-founded by King.

“The average Christian doesn’t have to pick up his phone when it rings and think about somebody killing him or his children,” said Vivian. “The average Christian didn’t have any of that.”

We Still March to His Tune : Oliver Holden (1765-1844)

On June 17, 1775, the Battle of Bunker Hill raged as the British Redcoats sought to take Breed’s Hill from the entrenched American Rebels. At the bottom of the hill and just across the water from Boston, the four hundred houses of Charlestown roared in flame. In response to sniper fire from the town, the British had bombarded it with red-hot cannon balls.[1] By the end of the day, the British would have control of the hill, but their loss of 1,150 soldiers compared to only 411 colonists[2] will give the moral victory to the Americans.

In 1786, only five years after the surrender of the British at Yorktown and a year before the U.S. Constitution will be drawn up, the town of Charlestown is still recovering from its personal tragedy. Workers are needed to restore the destroyed city. One man who found his way to the city is a 21-year-old carpenter named Oliver Holden.[3] Holden, a fifth generation American who traced his descent from a Richard Holden, a 1634 emigrant from England, moved to Charlestown from Shirley, Massachusetts in that year.[4]

But Oliver Holden was not a simple working man. He had interests other than carpentry. In time, he opened a general store and later dealt broadly in real estate. As his wealth grew, he became involved in politics and served several terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Neither was Holden just a man of the world. He knew and loved the Lord and earnestly lived as a Christian and a Baptist. He joined the First Baptist Church of Boston in 1791, but the evidence shows him to have been a Baptist before this date. Another known interest during these years was his love for music. He admitted that his only musical instruction consisted of two month’s instruction in a Singing School in 1783, but this did not stop him from being one of the premier early American hymnists.

Soon after joining the First Baptist Church of Boston, he became the leader of the church choir. This choir has the distinction of being the first Baptist church choir in America and was in operation as early as 1771. Holden’s interest in music led him to publish a number of collections of sacred hymns, producing at least seven works between 1792 and 1800. Most likely, he wrote much of this music and the music sung by the church choir. Holden also wrote the words to a number of hymns.

Oliver Holden’s dedication to missionary work and holiness can be seen in his church affiliations. In April of 1801, he was one of 14 members of the Boston Church who were given their church letters so that they might start the First Baptist Church of Charlestown. Holden left the musical opportunities of the much larger Boston Church in order to start a new church across the river. In 1802, he further revealed his heart when he became one of the 12 original trustees for the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society. This was several years before American Baptists sent out their first foreign missionaries. He was clearly willing to sacrifice the glory of the moment at the head of America’s only Baptist choir in order to take the gospel to new places.

Holden’s stand for holy living can been seen in a later church problem. In 1809, Holden and a few other members split off from the First Baptist of Charlestown and formed the Second Baptist Church. They left the first church because of its laxness in disciplining its members. Holden served as the pastor of the new church which was derogatorily referred to at Holden’s “Puritan Society.” We could use such stands on holiness and biblical church discipline today.

Of all the things Oliver Holden did during his lifetime, his famous work is his composition of the hymn tune called CORONATION. It was composed in 1793 and is used today whenever we sing Edward Perronet’s hymn, “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name.” He called it CORONATION because of the references to the crowning of Jesus in the refrain. Hamilton C. MacDougall, in his Early New England Psalmody , said: “Out of the hundreds of tunes written in New England from 1770 to 1823…, CORONATION is the only one now in general and approved use in the United States.”[5] And this surviving hymn tune from early America was written by the Baptist Oliver Holden.

The following hymn written by Holden was still in use in a number of 19th century hymn books. It first appeared in 1793 and speaks of the importance of secret prayer since God is present everywhere.

All those who seek a throne of grace,

Are sure to find in every place;

To those who love a life of prayer,

Our God is present everywhere.

The shady grove or burning plain,

The blooming field or swelling main,

Alike are sweet in secret prayer,

For God is present everywhere.

In pining sickness, rosy health,

In poverty or growing wealth,

The humble soul delights in prayer,

And God is present everywhere.

When Zion mourns, and comforts fall,

And all her foes do scoff and rail,

‘Tis then a time for secret prayer,

For God is present everywhere.

When some backslide and other fall,

And few are found who strive at all,

The faithful find in secret prayer,

That God is present everywhere.

Come, then, my soul, in every strait,

To Jesus come and on him wait,

He sees and hears each secret sigh,

And brings his own salvation nigh.[6]

[1] Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 142.

[2] James Trager, The People’s Chronology (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1992), 321.

[3] Harry Eskew, David W. Music, Paul A. Richardson, Singing Baptists(Nashville, TN: Church Street Press, 1994), 19.

[4] Henry Burrage, Baptist Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (Portland, ME: Brown Thurston & Company, 1888), 235

[5] Eskew, 24.

[6] Burrage, 237.

David Reagan

Free Christian Radio

http://www.crosswalk.com/audio-video/crosswalk-radio/#

Gospel Music Showcase

About Gospel Music Showcase

Gospel Music Showcase, Daystar’s original southern gospel music program, returns for its seventh season better than ever. The show music fans already love is back with more exciting live performances and exclusive interviews from today’s most popular artists, such as Ernie Haase and Signature Sound, Greater Vision, The Isaacs and Jason Crabb.

Joining Gospel Music Showcase this season is new host, Guy Penrod. As a long-time member of the Gaither Vocal Band and as a soloist, audiences have enjoyed Guy’s singing and warm personality for years. Fans are certain to enjoy watching him every Saturday as he introduces the music and artists they enjoy.

Be sure to tune in to Gospel Music Showcase every week to hear your favorite artists sing their newest songs, biggest hits and well-known classics. You won’t want to miss it!

Gospel Music Showcase, where great music has great meaning.

Time: Saturdays, 5:30pm EST
Address: Daystar Television Network, PO Box 612066, Dallas, TX 75261
Phone: 1-800-329-0029 
Website: www.daystar.com/gms 

http://www.daystar.com/shows/daystar-original-programs/gospel-music-showcase/

Reflections - be still and hear the Lord.

About Reflections

A daily original program for every day of your life.
Experience the highly anticipated Daystar original program “Reflections.” Every morning, enjoy breathtaking scenes from many of God’s miraculous creations. Be immersed in the Word of God while you take in the redwood forests, the California coast, the Hawaiian tropics, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Alaska’s icy terrain and more. Familiar hymns and beautifully produced original music accompany Scripture to help you let go and surrender during a time of daily prayer and meditation. “Reflections” airs every morning from 4:00-6:00 a.m. ET. We pray that it will not only bless you, but that it will provide a peaceful time and place to be still and hear the Lord.

Time: Every Morning: 4:00 – 6:00am EST
Address: Daystar Television Network, PO Box 612066, Dallas, TX 75261
Phone: 817-571-1229
Website: www.daystar.com/reflections 

http://www.daystar.com/shows/daystar-original-programs/reflections/