All Glory Laud And Honor

From cyberhynal.org
Words: The­o­dulph of Or­le­ans, cir­ca 820 (Glor­ia, laus, et hon­or); trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John M. Neale, 1851.Music: St. The­o­dulph, Mel­chi­or Tesch­ner, in Ein an­däch­tig­es Ge­bet (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny: 1615) (MI­DI, score). Bach used this chor­ale in his “St. John’s Pas­sion.” Wil­liam H. Monk wrote the har­mo­ny in 1861.

As I sang with our choir preparing for the singing of this on Sunday my heart was so blessed by all the words and music, but especially the second verse and in my mind picured my nephew Timothy Vernon Gelatt who died Feb 12th. He's up there singing with the angels!

The company of angels
Are praising Thee on High,
And mortal men and all things
Created make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
With palms before Thee went;
Our prayer and praise and anthems
Before Thee we present.

From John Wesley

“Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can.”

Born: June 28, 1703, Ep­worth, Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.
Died: March 2, 1791, Lon­don, Eng­land.
Buried: Ci­ty Road Cha­pel, Lon­don, Eng­land.

John and his brother Charles found­ed the movement which be­came the Meth­od­ist de­nom­in­a­tion. Charles was the main hymn­ist in the fam­i­ly, but John trans­lat­ed a num­ber of hymns (most­ly Ger­man) him­self. He be­gan stu­dy­ing the German lan­guage on board the ship Sim­mons, which car­ried him and Charles to Georg­ia in 1735. Al­so on the ship were 26 Ger­man Mo­ra­vian col­o­nists, and Wesley want­ed to be able to talk with them and share in their wor­ship servi­ces.

From cyberhymnal.org

Jesus, Thy Boood and Righteousness

I'm ashamed to say that I've never I heard this great hymm. Go to cyberhymnal.org where most of this information is from and look at its words and music. It was such a blessing for me to sing this hymm in our worship this morning. With a great Pipe Organ, Organist, Choir members as well as probably 200 worshipers, it was such a blessing. Thank you Temple Choir Leader Gordon Leavitt and members and Organist Jon Waite for bringing so much blessing into my heart this day.

Words: Nikolaus L. von Zin­zen­dorf, 1739 (Christi Blut und Ge­rech­tig­keit); first pub­lished in the eighth ap­pen­dix to his Das Ge­sang-Buch der Ge­meine in Herrn-Huth.; trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by John Wes­ley. Music: Ger­ma­ny, Sac­red Mel­o­dies, by Will­iam Gar­din­er (1770-1853).

In 1739, wen the Count was mak­ing a sea voy­age from Saint Thom­as, West In­dies, he wrote this re­mark­a­ble hymn. Al­though as a boy he was ed­u­cat­ed in pi­e­tis­tic teach­ings, he is said to have been con­vert­ed by see­ing the fa­mous paint­ing, “Ecce Homo,” which hangs in the Düss­el­dorf Gal­le­ry and pic­tures the bowed head of Christ, crowned with thorns. Per­haps he still cher­ished in his mem­o­ry that vi­sion of the Man of Sor­rows, when in this hymn he wrote of the “ho­ly, meek, un­spot­ted Lamb,” “Who died for me, e’en me t’ atone.”

"Be Part of the Solution, Not Part of the Problem"

I've done a lot of soul searching these past weeks and in that process I thought of this often used statement. My chief reason for starting this blog was to express my concern over much of the type and content of music being performed and sung in today's evangelical churches.

After a year of praying, research and study I've decided that for me the solution is to to be proactive not reactive. So at the age of almost 72 I'm taking voice lessons and singing in a church choir where the music is selected by it's content not decibel level.

My efforts for 2008 will be focused on the many outstanding hymns, anthems, introits, prayers and amens available and do all that I can to encourage and support such music by devoting my time, talent and resources in support of that music.