Experiencing the Manifold Grace of God
We absolutely LOVE Christmas music around here and listen to it pretty much year round. As I was listening to our customized Pandora station the other day, the thought came to me of writing an Advent devotional series incorporating some of the amazing hymns and carols of Christmas. The series is set to start on November 29 and go through Christmas Eve.
We three kings of Orient are; bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.WE THREE KINGS OF ORIENT ARE verse 1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who [...]
Whence is that goodly fragrance flowing, stealing our senses all away! I love how this Christmas hymn written in 1728 associates Jesus with a "goodly fragrance." Ephesians 5:1-2 says, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering [...]
Noel is "a term signifying the holiday season. Noel comes to us form the Latin verb "nasci," meaning to be born. A variation of (the word natalis), "nael," made its way into Old French as a reference to the Christmas season and later into Middle English as "nowel” (Etymology of Noel). Yesterday we talked about [...]
This Advent hymn centers around the shepherds who were the first to hear the glorious, angelic proclamation of Christ's birth. As mentioned in a previous Advent post, these shepherds were not ordinary shepherds. The more I’ve studied this, the more I’m in awe of how God orchestrated the Christmas story. Rabbi Jason Sobel says of [...]
This favorite Advent hymn has a surprising origin that I want to take some time to share. It was written by Placide Cappeau of France in 1847. Placide suffered a terrible accident at the age of 8 when a playmate shot him in the hand by mistake . He ended up losing his hand as [...]
This Advent hymn by Emily S. Elliott is one of my favorites. Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly power when Thou camest to earth for me: but in Bethlehem's home there was found no room for Thy holy nativity! O come to my heart Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for [...]
Written in 1849 by Edmund Sears, this Advent hymn spans from the night of Christ's birth to the New Heaven and New Earth. The angels’ song (message of the gospel) is still sounding forth today, but the noise of this world drowns it out. The world's noise can be terribly distracting, and if we are [...]
This Polish carol originated in the early 1900’s and carries on the Advent theme from yesterday’s Away in a Manger. If you have a chance to listen to one of the links below, you will be blessed with how quiet and worshipful this song is. It truly is awesome to imagine the birth of the [...]
This child like Christmas hymn is a favorite of many. Like several others from our Advent series, it was written in the 1800’s. Martin Luther was the attributed author for years, but His authorship has come into question and cannot be proven. All we know is that it was part of a Lutheran children's book [...]
On Christmas Eve in the year 1818, St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria was preparing for the Christmas Eve service. Much to everyone's dismay, the organ wouldn't work! The young priest, Joseph Mohr was scrambling to think of what to do. The hour was getting late, and he remembered a poem he had written two [...]
Simply Persuaded 