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Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!


 O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good; 
for His mercy endureth for ever.

  ~1 Chronicles 16:34 ~

Did you know that these or similar words are repeated in the Bible at least nine times? 
This isn't just a once-a-year sort of thing, but a daily attitude of thankfulness 
that we all need to have!  We have so very much to thank God for. I don't know about you, 
but I often need to remember how much God hates unthankfulness and complaining, 
and ask Him to forgive me, and to deliver me from it in my life.  
Praise His Name for His many blessings to us, though we are so undeserving!


  Psalms 136:1   O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalms 136:2   O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.

  Psalms 136:3   O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.

  Psalms 136:26   O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Praise the Lord!



Why should we praise the LORD? 


1.The LORD is worthy:

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.  Revelation 4:11

2.  The LORD is great:

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.  Psalm 145:3

3.  The LORD is good:

O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

4:  The LORD is holy:

Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.  Psalm 99:5

5: The LORD is righteous:

The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.  Psalm 145:17

6:  The LORD is merciful:

The LORD is merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.  Psalm 103:8


 7:  The LORD is gracious:

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful.  Psalm 116:5

Monday, November 24, 2014

Thanksgiving Week Is Here!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times in the year! We have so many blessings to be grateful for!
  When I was growing up and still lived with my parents, my family would tape a blank poster to the wall, at some point in November. We all would let our minds reflect back on the past year, thinking of all of the answered prayers and blessings we had received. Then we would write the things we were grateful for on the poster as they came to our minds.
This year I have several "big" things to add to the list. I think of new babies, family members who have come to know Jesus, healing from serious medical conditions, safety during tornadoes, hurricanes and the like, or anything that seems miraculous as being a "big" thing.
  But, I need to praise God for the "small" things, too. We have good food, clean water, a warm home, clothes, a sound mind, full use of our bodies, loving family members, and so much more. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6:6-8
"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing onto this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us therewith be content."
Let's be more than content this Thanksgiving. Let's praise God for his kindness toward us!
"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice."       - Philippians 4:4

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Writing Hymns

   I am not qualified to write a dissertation on hymn writing, but I did want to share a few things that I have found useful when I have tried my hand in hymn writing.
  
  First and foremost, you need to study God's Word if you are going to write a good hymn. And by a "good hymn," I mean, a hymn that glorifies God. We have to read what God has revealed about Himself to know who He is and what He is like. We have to read the Bible in order to know what He does receive glory from and what He accepts as worship. Not everything that is intended to worship the LORD is acceptable in His sight–ask Nadab and Abihu, who burned strange fire before the LORD, "which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them," (Leviticus 10:1-2) Good intentions doesn't equal acceptability with God.

   Second, it is helpful to read the works of other great hymn writers, like Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, John Newton, and many others. It helps to see the kind of hymns that can be written and also gives you a feel for the rhythms in poetry. You'll find phrases that are used frequently and rhymes that go well together. You'll see that there are songs that mainly deal with who God is and how awesome and worthy of worship He is, (O Worship the King by Robert Grant and Immortal, Invisible by Walter Smith are a couple examples). There are also songs that deal more with salvation, the life of Jesus Christ, the Christian walk, deeper doctrines, ministry, the delights of heaven, etc., etc.... Just remember to weigh everything by the Scriptures. If the words of a song don't match the teachings of Scripture, then the song is at fault. And, again, the only way you will know how to tell what is false and what is true is by studying God's Word.


  When it actually comes to writing a song there are several ways to get started. Sometimes an idea will come to your mind and the words come quite naturally. This is the easiest way to write a hymn. But, you can also purpose to write a hymn and make a project or assignment of writing a hymn. Doing the first two things that I recommend (studying the Bible and reading hymns) can help give you inspiration and direction.

As I mentioned in my last post, hymns are basically poems. There are many rules to poetry that I do not know. The rules I follow are:

 (1) each line needs to rhyme at the end, or, every other line needs to rhyme, and 
 (2) each verse needs to follow the same rhythmical pattern.

  If you want your hymn to be one that can be sung to music, you may need to think of this aspect at the very beginning. If you want to compose your own music there are some things you need to consider. Is this a hymn that you will want to share with other Christians? You can come up with a tune for yourself, but if you cannot write the tune out in musical notation then you will only be able to share it with others by singing it for them. If you want to share it with others in a way that it can be sung as a congregational hymn then the music will have to be written down. It can be fun to write out a tune to go with a song but it also can be a lot of work. Also, if you want to share it in written form you can only share with someone who can read music.


    This is where knowing about tunes and meters can come in handy. If you write a hymn that can be sung to an already familiar tune it can be a lot easier to share with other people. You can share your song with people who cannot read music if you are able to tell them a familiar tune they can sing it with. It is also a lot easier for people to catch on if they are only learning new words and not new music and new words.
  To write a hymn that goes with an already existing tune, you need to pick a meter to be your pattern for arranging the lines and wording of your hymn. You can pick a meter that several tunes match, or go ahead and pick out a specific tune that you want to use.
  For example, let's say I am writing a hymn, and I want to use a meter that many tunes use. I'll choose 8.8.8.8., (also known as Long Meter) because I already have an idea for a few lines that are each 8 syllables or can be tweaked slightly to be made 8 syllables.

  A quick refresher for what meter numbers represent: meter numbers represent a rhythmical pattern in the music or the number of syllables in each line of the poem.
 Here are my first 4 lines:
1 We may lose courage here below.
2 We see trouble, violence and woe.
3 We plead for help from above.
4 Jesus will take our hand in love.

   Notice, line 3 technically only has 7 syllables instead of 8. I may have to discard line 3. But, sometimes the number of syllables doesn't have to match the the meter exactly and can still sound right depending on the particular tune. So, before I throw out line 3 I'll try singing it with a long meter tune. The tune "Old Hundredth" is a good standby long meter tune that many hymns are sung with, the most common of which, may be the Doxology, Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.
When I try singing it to Old Hundredth it flows quite nicely even with the missing syllable. This is because the word, "help," can be stretched over two notes. Now, when I try singing it with the tune "Duke Street," "above," is the word that gets held over a few notes, but it comes quite naturally in both cases and you don't have to think about it for it to come out right. This means I can leave line 3 the way it is and continue with writing my hymn.


  When writing a hymn to an already existing tune it is helpful to sing each line with the tune as you go. Once you have a good start there can be lots of adjustments made. For instance, if you want to elaborate on each idea in each line you could insert an additional line between each existing line. And words can be changed to synonyms with more or less syllables as needed. Like so,

1 We may lose courage here below,
2 On our pilgrimage through earth.
3 We see trouble, violence and woe.
4 There is widespread spiritual dearth.
Or,
1 We oft lose courage here below,
2 as Satan, our determined foe,
3 seeks to cause us sorrow and woe,
4 with his mighty band and bent bow.

   At first I had written, " There is vast spiritual dearth." in line 4 of the first example. But upon singing with a long meter tune it seemed like I needed another syllable so I replaced, "vast," with, "widespread."
Also, go through the words you have chosen several times to see if there are different words that would communicate the idea you want to express more precisely. In the second example, instead of saying, "We may lose courage,..." I changed it to, "We oft lose courage,..." Because I feel like that better expresses my own Christian experience.

  That is all the advice I have for writing hymns. I would love to hear any advice you have found helpful when writing hymns and/or poems! And if you have never tried to write a hymn please give it try. It may not be as hard as it sounds and it can also direct your mind toward the things of God in a different way.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Hymns and Tunes

 
  Hymns are basically poems. Older hymnals were usually called Psalters. Originally, Psalters (sometimes called Psalteries) were collections of psalms from the Bible that had been paraphrased in order to be able to sing them with a tune. They did not contain any musical notation. The first hymnal with words and music together was not printed until the nineteenth century. To sing songs from a Psalter one would have to pick out a tune who's rhythm matched with the songs syllables. The rhythmic pattern of a tune or song is called the meter.


It can be fun to pick out different tunes for songs even today. It makes singing more interesting when you don't have to use the same tune all of the time. (Try singing What a Friend We Have in Jesus to the tune Nettleton [commonly associated with Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing]).
This is how you choose a tune based on the meter that the song is written in:
   If you have a hymnal without music the songs are written out like poems. Usually at the top of the "poem" there will be a set of numbers. For example they may look like this, 8.6.8.6. The numbers correlate with the number of syllables in each stanza of the song. In our example the song has 8 syllables in the first stanza and 6 syllables in the second stanza and so on. 

  
Alas! And Did My Saviour Bleed 
by Isaac Watts
     8.6.8.6. 

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed, (8 syllables)
And did my Sovereign Die, (6 syllables)
Would He devote that sacred head (8 syllables)
For such a worm as I? (6 syllables)

  An 8.6.8.6. meter was actually one of the most common meters at one point and it is also know as Common Meter. Instead of 8.6.8.6. sometimes a common meter song will have the initials C.M. at the top of the song. Other letters that can appear on the meter indication are:

  A capital "D" stands for "doubled." Example: C.M.D. or 8.6.8.6.D.
(D. can be put on the end of any meter.)
L.M. stands for Long Meter (8.8.8.8.)
S.M. stands for Short Meter (6.6.8.6.)

  Once you know what meter the song is in you need a metrical index of tunes. In most modern hymnals, there is a metrical index of tunes in the back with the other indexes. In the metrical index, the tunes will be organized in categories by their meter numbers. You can then go through the list of tunes that fit the meter of the song you want to sing and pick out a tune that you like. The tune names are usually different than the songs.

  Once you find a tune it is very helpful to play it on a piano while you sing the song with it for the first few times through. I am not one of those gifted individuals who are able to sight sing, (that is, sing the notes of music I have never heard just by reading the notes on the staff.) I need to hear it played first unless it is a tune I am pretty familiar with. 
  If you are doing this with a modern hymnal sometimes the meters are listed on the same page as the song. Look for it close to where the author and composer are given on the page. Otherwise you can always count the syllables in each phrase of the song to come up with the correct meter number.
I really like  Jesus Lover of My Soul by John Wesley paired with the tune Aberystwyth 7.7.7.7.D.
 
                                        
                                                           Do you have any favorite tune/hymn pairs?
                                         Next week look for a post I plan to make on writing your own hymns.

Friday, November 7, 2014

No Book Is Like the Bible

"The Bible is the only Book whose Author is always 
present when you read it." 

No Book is Like the Bible

By Fanny Crosby

No book is like the Bible,
For childhood, youth and age;
Our duty, plain and simple,
We find on every page.
It came by inspiration,
A light to guide our way,
A voice from Him who gave it,
Reproving when we stray.

It tells of man’s creation,
His sad, primeval fall;
It tells of man’s redemption,
Through Christ, who died for all;
In sacred words of wisdom
It bids us watch and pray,
And early come to Jesus,
The Life, the Truth, the Way.

Love God, our Lord and Savior,
Who reigns in Heaven above,
And bids us all remember,
Our neighbors we must love;
For on these great commandments
To Christians here below
Hang all the law and prophets;
The Bible tells us so.

 Refrain

No book is like the Bible,
The blessed Book we love,
The pilgrim’s chart of glory,
It leads to God above.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Take Heed

1 Corinthians 3:10-15  
According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder,
 I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every
 man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.  
 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  

  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be 
revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
   If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
   If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; 
yet so as by fire.