"Small Hinges Carry Big Doors"

Seen today at First Baptist Church on Yakima Ave in Yakima, WA.

Addicted? "Reach for the Savior, not the Substance"

From from my nephew's blog relating the death by suicide of drug user relative of his wife. Since there are addicted family members on both sides of our families, I thought this was appropiate.

"Faith is Personal, but not Private"

Seen recently at a church signboard here in Yakima, WA.

Please vote!

Even though you may not choose to leave a comment, please vote if you have that option, so that I may have some feedback.

Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move;
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art;
And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies;
But take the dimness of my soul away.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
O let me seek Thee, and O let me find!

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heaven descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

Words: George Cro­ly, Psalms and Hymns for Pub­lic Wor­ship (Lon­don: 1854).
Music: More­cambe, Fred­er­ick C. At­kin­son, 1870 (MI­DI, score); At­kin­son orig­in­al­ly wrote this tune for Abide With Me, but it ne­ver caught on.

This beautiful hymn along with Great Is Thy Faithfulness and The Church's One Foundation were sung yesterday's services at the church we attend here in Yakima. It was awesome! There are so many wonderful hymns available for us to praise and worship God. We need to take back our music and really praise and worship Him. Don't be afraid to raise the bar.

Material from cyberhymnal.org

Savior, Thy Dying Love

Sylvanus Dryden Phelps
Born: May 15, 1816, Suf­field, Con­nec­ti­cut.
Died: No­vem­ber 23, 1895, New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut.
Phelps at­tend­ed the Con­nec­ti­cut Lit­er­ary In­sti­tute, Brown Un­i­ver­si­ty (grad­u­at­ed 1844), and Yale Di­vin­i­ty School. Af­ter or­din­a­tion, he pas­tored at the First Bap­tist Church in New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut (1854-1882), and the Jef­fer­son Street Bap­tist Church, Prov­i­dence, Rhode Is­land (1876). Lat­er, he be­came ed­i­tor of The Christ­ian Sec­re­ta­ry. His son was preach­er, au­thor and pro­fess­or Will­iam Ly­ons Phelps.

Music: Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
On Phelps’ 70th birth­day, Low­ry wrote him: It is worth liv­ing 70 years even if no­thing comes of it but one such hymn as:
"Savior! Thy dying love
Thou gavest me;
Nor should I aught withhold,
Dear Lord, from Thee".

Happy is the man who can produce one song which the world will keep on singing after the au­thor shall have passed away. May the tune­ful harp pre­serve its strings for ma­ny a long year yet, and the last note reach us on­ly when it is time for the sing­er to take his place in the hea­ven­ly choir.
From cyberhymnal.org

Amen, Amen! This is a great hymn of the Faith that our Temple Choir Director, Gordon Leavitt selected for yesterday's worship service.

Go To Dark Gethsemane

Words: James Montgomery
Born: No­vem­ber 4, 1771
Died: Ap­ril 30, 1854
When Montgomery was five years old, his fam­i­ly moved to the Mo­rav­i­an set­tle­ment at Grace­hill, near Bal­ly­mena, Coun­ty An­trim. Two years lat­er, he was sent to the Ful­neck Sem­in­ary in York­shire. He left Ful­neck in 1787 to work in a shop in Mir­field, near Wake­field. Soon tir­ing of that, he se­cured a sim­i­lar po­si­tion at Wath, near Rother­ham, on­ly to find it as un­suit­a­ble as his pre­vi­ous job. A trip to Lon­don, hop­ing to find a pub­lish­er for his youth­ful po­ems, end­ed in fail­ure. In 1792, he glad­ly left Wath for Shef­field to be as­sist­ant to Mr. Gales, auc­tion­eer, book­sel­ler, and print­er of the Shef­field Reg­is­ter. In 1794, Gales left Eng­land to avoid po­lit­ic­al pro­se­cu­tion. Mont­gom­ery took the Shef­field Reg­is­ter in hand, changed its name to the Shef­field Iris, and con­tin­ued to ed­it it for 32 years. Dur­ing the next two years he was im­pris­oned twice, first for re­print­ing a song in com­mem­or­a­tion of the fall of the Bas­tille, then for giv­ing an ac­count of a ri­ot in Shef­field.

"Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter’s power;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour,
Turn not from His griefs away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

See Him at the judgment hall, beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned;
O the wormwood and the gall! O the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss; learn of Christ to bear the cross.

Calvary’s mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete.
“It is finished!” hear Him cry; learn of Jesus Christ to die.

Early hasten to the tomb where they laid His breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom. Who has taken Him away?
Christ is risen! He meets our eyes; Savior, teach us so to rise".

It was my blessing to sing this great hymn as a choral anthem today.The message in this hymn is so deep and the melody and arrangement portrayed the purpose of the words in a really wonderful and worshipful manner. Thank you Gordon Leavitt Choir Director, Jon Waite Organist and each of my fellow Temple Choir members at First Presbyterian Church.

Music:Thomas Tertius Noble 1867-1953.
Noble stu­died at the Roy­al Coll­ege of Mu­sic with, among others, Charles Stan­ford. No­ble be­came a fel­low in 1905. He served as a church or­gan­ist in Cam­bridge and Col­ches­ter. He moved to Ely Ca­thed­ral in 1892 as or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter, and in 1898 to York Min­ster, where he found­ed the York Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra, di­rect­ed the York Mu­sic­al So­ci­e­ty, con­duct­ed the York Pa­geant, and re­vived the York Mu­sic­al Fes­tiv­al af­ter a lapse of 75 years. He be­came an hon­or­ary fel­low of the Roy­al Coll­ege of Or­gan­ists in 1905. In 1913, he moved to New York Ci­ty, where he was or­gan­ist at St. Thom­as’ Epis­co­pal Church, and es­tab­lished its choir school and a boys’ choir. In ad­di­tion to com­pos­ing, he wrote about mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion, and helped ed­it the 1916 Pro­test­ant Epis­co­pal hym­nal, and served on the mu­sic com­mit­tee that pre­pared its 1940 suc­ces­sor. He wrote a wide range of mu­sic, but on­ly his serv­ices, an­thems and hymn tunes are still per­formed reg­u­lar­ly.

Above material from cyberhymnal.org

Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind

From cyberhymnal.org
Words: John G. Whit­ti­er, in the At­lan­tic Month­ly, Ap­ril 1872.
The words are from a long nar­ra­tive poem, “The Brew­ing of So­ma.” It de­scribes Ve­dic priests go­ing in­to the for­est and drink­ing them­selves into a stu­por with a con­coct­ion called “soma.” They try to have a re­li­gious ex­per­i­ence and con­tact the spir­it world. It is af­ter set­ting that scene that Whit­tier draws his les­son: “Dear Lord, and Fa­ther of man­kind, for­give our fool­ish ways…” This hymn is as rel­e­vant to­day as when it was writ­ten. In a mod­ern con­text, it speaks to the drug cul­ture, and those look­ing for an “ex­per­i­ence” to prove the re­al­i­ty of God. The hymn was sung in the 2007 mo­vie Atone­ment, which won an Acad­e­my Award for best score.
Music: Rest (Mak­er), Fred­er­ick C. Mak­er, 1887

This time is a very difficult time for me, but wonderful thoughts keep coming to my mind and this song is one such blessing. In the years 1966-68 I was an Army Officer stationed in El Paso, TX and for most of those years I served as the choir director of the Protestant Chapel at WM Beaumont Gen Hospital where I was assigned. It was there that I first heard this hymn and it's been a great favorite for the past 40+ years. My former wife and mother of my three children played the piano and sang well and she and my daughter Beth and myself have sung this at church at least one occassion I recall.

"Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise."

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.

"How Shall I Sing That Majesty"

A great hymn one that's sung infrequetly alas. Words by John Mason.
Born: Cir­ca 1645, Ir­ches­ter, North­amp­ton­shire, Eng­land (bap­tized March 1646).
Died: 1694, Wa­ter Strat­ford, Buck­ing­ham­shire, Eng­land (buried May 22).

Mason was the son of a dis­sent­ing min­is­ter, and grand­fa­ther of John Ma­son, au­thor of A Trea­tise on Self-Know­ledge. He was ed­u­cat­ed at Strix­ton School, Nort­hants, Eng­land, and Clare Coll­ege, Cam­bridge. Af­ter re­ceiv­ing his mas­ter’s de­gree, he be­came Cu­rate of Is­ham, and in 1688, Vi­car of Stan­ton­bu­ry, Buckinghamshire. A lit­tle more than five years lat­er he be­came Rec­tor of Wa­ter Strat­ford. Here he com­posed the vol­ume con­tain­ing The Songs of Praise, his par­a­phrase of The Song of Sol­o­mon, and the Po­em on Dives and Laz­a­rus, with which Shep­herd’s Pen­i­ten­tial Cries was lat­er bound up. This vol­ume passed through 20 edi­tions; be­sides the Songs of Praise, it con­tains six Pen­i­ten­tial Cries by Ma­son. Ma­son’s hymns were prob­ab­ly used in pub­lic wor­ship, and, if so, they are among the ear­li­est hymns so used in the Church of Eng­land.

About a month be­fore his death, Ma­son had a vi­sion of Je­sus wear­ing a glor­i­ous crown, and with a look of un­ut­ter­a­ble ma­jes­ty on His face. Of this vi­sion he spoke, and preached a ser­mon called The Mid­night Cry, in which he pro­claimed the near­ness of Christ’s re­turn. A re­port spread that this would take place at Wa­ter Strat­ford it­self, and crowds ga­thered there from the sur­round­ing vil­lages. Fur­ni­ture and pro­vi­sions were brought in, and eve­ry cor­ner of the house and vil­lage oc­cu­pied. The ex­cite­ment had scarce­ly died down when Mason passed away, still tes­ti­fy­ing that he had seen the Lord, and that it was time for the na­tion to trem­ble, and for Christ­ians to trim their lamps. His last words were, “I am full of lov­ing kind­ness of the Lord.”

How shall I sing that Majesty
Which angels do admire?
Let dust in dust and silence lie;
Sing, sing, ye heavenly choir.
Thousands of thousands stand around
Thy throne, O God most high;
Ten thousand times ten thousand sound
Thy praise; but who am I?

Thy brightness unto them appears,
Whilst I Thy footsteps trace;
A sound of God comes to my ears,
But they behold Thy face.
They sing because Thou art their Sun;
Lord, send a beam on me;
For where heaven is but once begun
There alleluias be.

Enlighten with faith’s light my heart,
Inflame it with love’s fire;
Then shall I sing and bear a part
With that celestial choir.
I shall, I fear, be dark and cold,
With all my fire and light;
Yet when Thou dost accept their gold,
Lord, treasure up my mite.

How great a being, Lord, is Thine,
Which doth all beings keep!
Thy knowledge is the only line
To sound so vast a deep.
Thou art a sea without a shore,
A sun without a sphere;
Thy time is now and evermore,
Thy place is everywhere.

"The Impossible is often the Untried"

Seen recently on a sign on a Tieton Ave car wash here in Yakima, WA.