Hymns

Abide with Me – Audrey Assad

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The Reverend Henry Lyte wrote the lyrics to the hymn “Abide With Me” in 1847 just weeks before his going to be with the Lord. But rather than being morbid and glum the words instead are filled with the fresh breath of hope. No matter what you are facing in your own person life there is hope in an eternal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He has pursued us faithfully down all the pathways of our lives. His gave His loving discipline when we have strayed, His encouraging hand our our shoulders when we mourned, and His mighty strength when we were weary. So why should we doubt the  faithful love of God as we transition from one chapter of our lives to the next? Whether leaving home for the first time off to the grand adventure of life or preparing for heaven when we lay all we have gathered at His feet; He abides. He has given His all so we could receive all of Him. Don’t be afraid what ever step is before you. I loved this rendition by Audrey Assad. She brings the timeless melody and lyrics to us in her own unique way. Thank you Audrey and may my readers be blessed this Sunday as you remember again the one who has promised.

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me

Connection by Hymn

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He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Luke 20:38

Hymns are songs that make a connection. Hymns can be sung by grandchildren as they hold  their Grandparent’s hands. I am connected to my father who is in now heaven when I hear the words  “When peace like a river attendeth my way.” I can still hear the voice of my pastor who has flown to heaven, when I sing “I’ll fly away O glory!” We who claim orthodoxy of the faith sometimes think and act like the Sadducees  who didn’t believe in life after death. We sing and worship as if Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Fanny Crosby were all long dead. But the reality is that they are also praising God together with us in “Real time” as we say today. When we sing the hymns we have access to a connection of praise that runs back through the ages without the divide of denomination, geography or race.

The demand for continual new material in our cooperate worship has become so strong that even songs written 10 years ago are treated like second class citizens. Worship songs from the 1970’s – 80’s are considered so out of touch or quaint that no one even considers using them.  But focusing only on latest contemporary worship rather than keeping us wonderfully connected to God actually leaves us both isolated and impoverished. We are not the only generation that has ever known how to glorify God but rather  we are simply one row in God’s enormous heavenly arena. When we worship we need to close our eyes and imagine the voices of all believers down through the centuries blending

aniversario da igreja 002their ancient harmonies with our 21st century praise. He is not the God of the dead but of the living and He gives us worship songs ever new and yet ageless; as His gift of connection to that ageless connected community called the church!

 

 

 

For Love of Hymn

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Though my parents did send me to Sunday school they were not church members and I really hadn’t heard any of the  Hymns until I was an adult. Music to me was divided into two categories: mine and my parents. They liked an odd combination of Benny Goodman, Pete Fountain and lot’s of Beethoven and friends. I remember sitting down to dinner with Ta Ta Ta Dom – Ta Ta Ta Dom resounding in the background! As for me I enjoyed just about anything that was being played on our local AM radio station. So for me rock and roll in all of its various styles was a welcome relief from the stuff Mom and Dad longed for me to listen to.

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So as a nineteen year old hippie and radical convert I encountered music that neither I nor my parents had any investment in. That music was the Hymns.

A hymn I discovered was a song that apparently everyone but me knew, but no one was too sure who wrote it or when. While I also heartily enjoyed plenty of Contemporary Christian music it would be a hymn that I found going through my mind when I was at work, sitting down to eat or lying down to sleep. Hymns seemed to fall into disfavor in church services beginning in the late 1980’s. It didn’t help that hymn books in the pews have virtually disappeared and been replaced by images displayed on the walls. But the old hymns have surprised everybody by their staying power. In the last five years many contemporary Christian recording artists have released either remakes of many hymns or have wholesale incorporated verses from hymns into their own songs.

In a funny sort or way, a hymn is a song that everyone knows, but no one knows who wrote it! In addition to that anonymity the vast majority of the older hymns were written, sung, translated and published with very little or no financial remuneration. For example Fanny Crosby the composer of Blessed Assurance received no more than $10 for any one of the thousand or so songs which she wrote! But just what exactly is a hymn and why doe anyone care what we sing when we gather in our local churches? Of course there is no one definition that fits all hymns but when we sing one somehow we recognize it. Over the next couple of days I will share a few tidbits I have picked up over the years and would welcome anyone else’s insights. Be blessd today and  don’t forget to keep singing as the days go by!

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Psalm 150:1-2