Amazing Grace has gone on to become one of the most powerful songs in the world and a favorite hymn for many because it offers up a universal message of hope and redemption. Some people argue that part of the huge appeal of the hymn is the incredible backstory that brought it to life. John…
Category: OPEN YOUR HYMNALS TO
Growing up as a kid in an Adventist home, I usually have memories of hymns being sung in family worships. This hymn is not usually sung at home tho, but I have faint recollections of it being usually sung in evangelistic meetings, especially after the preacher has made an appeal for baptism. It is not…
“The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was given the challenge of building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, one of the most earthquake-prone cities in the world. Wright’s investigation showed that a solid foundation could be “floated” on a sixty-foot layer of soft mud underlying the hotel, which would provide a shock-absorbing but solid support for…
This song is very simple in it’s lyrics and arrangement, and that is what makes it so beautiful. Add the history of where the song came from, and it becomes more beautiful. Singing a simple song by those who were horribly oppressed is a great reminder of our own slavery to sin, and how the…
Back in 1981, several hymn societies gathered together in St. Catherine’s College in Oxford for their annual meeting. The chairmen of these societies were asked to “choose hymns that reflected the congregational song of their region of the world.” Carlton Young, then President of the American Society, chose four hymns to represent the diversity of…
In this African American spiritual, the writer plaintively alludes to the balm in Gilead as the ultimate cure, not for physical ailments, but that which cures the soul, the sin-sick soul. What really is the balm in Gilead and does it really exist? Where is Gilead? Gilead first appears in the Scriptures as a landmark…
Long before John F. Kennedy became the US president, he served as a PT-Boat Commander in the Pacific in the Second World War. A fateful story is written in many history books about the time when Kennedy’s PT-109 torpedo boat was rammed by the Japanese first-line Fubuki-class destroyer, Amagiri on August 2, 1943 close to…
A very important part of the Seventh-day Adventist liturgy is the emphasis on the soon return of Christ. A second advent hymn is usually sung at the end of every Divine Worship service to leave a lasting impression on the church member’s mind as they go and face the new week. The SDA hymnody is…
‘We Have This Hope’ is probably one of the most famous Adventist hymn that is still sung today. In almost every Adventist Church in the world, this hymn still remains to be the final congregational song that is sung after the preacher says the benediction for the Divine Hour Worship. Succinctly reflecting the Adventist belief…
In the early 18th century, a trend burgeoned along the lines of American music and music education. When the early settlers fled to the New World for religious freedom, they also brought along with them the practice of singing hymns and psalms in their worship services. Unfortunately, as a distinct body of folk American music…