The Nightingale of Wittenberg

 

We had the first of our Autumn lectures in connection with the Evangelical Library on Monday. Dr Ian Densham, one of our trustees, gave an excellent lecture on Luther the Wittenberg Nightingale. The paper covered much of Luther's life but focussed on his love of music and his reforms in that area. Dr Densham showed both how radical and how conservative Lither was in his approach to this. He drew on a surprisingly large amount of secondary literature on the subject and referred positively also to audio programmes the BBC have produced on the subject such as this one here A square dance in heaven.

More on the rapture

Fascinating footage from 1964

This fascinating bit of footage showing the Joystrings is here prompted by the recent death of the drummer seen here Wycliffe Noble. More here.

I searched all around

A little premillennial and Arminian in places and the video uses a pic I wouldn't but good stuff on the whole.

God's not dead 2

This new release from Pure Flix directed by Harold Cronk is a very watchable court room drama with high production values and excellent acting. With great skill a number of themes have been woven together in order to provide what is both an enjoyable movie and a thought provoking piece of Christian apologetics.

Reflecting on more than twenty cases against Christians that have gone through the American court system in recent years, it presents us with the fictional case of a state school teacher (Melissa Joan Hart) who runs into trouble when she talks about Jesus in the classroom. The court room provides the opportunity to have the apologists Lee Strobel and former homicide detective J Warner Wallace take the stand as expert witnesses. We also have brief cameos from Gary Habermas and Rice Brooks on a show with Senator Mike Huckabee.

On the matter of cameos and similar elements, older viewers will no doubt appreciate the role played by Pat Boone, now 82 years old, and may be younger viewers will appreciate the presence of rock band Newsboys who perform the song My God's not dead.

As a product of the Arminian decisionistic-tending side of evangelicalism, thoroughly committed to evidentialist apologetics, the film makes as strong a case for Christ as one can imagine.

As for it making a dent in the world it is aimed at, Rotten Tomatoes described it, not entirely unfairly, as “Every bit the proselytizing lecture promised by its title, God's Not Dead 2 preaches ham-fistedly to its paranoid conservative choir” while Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that while the underlying issues presented in the film are relevant in today's world, it lacks subtlety and “comes off as a two-hour, jazzed-up movie version of a sermon.”

As for the idea that Christians are not really under pressure in the public square, that is certainly not the case. It may be that this film will do most good in raising awareness among professing Christians of such issues.
This article or something similar is in the current edition of Evangelical Times

Another bit of Rev Gary Davis

Give me a heart to love
Unto that home, that home above
Give me the mind to go all of the way.
Give me a firm heart to pray,
Helping some soul each day,
Give me a voice to sing my prayer.

Give me a heart to love
Unto that home, that home above
Give me the mind to go all of the way.
Give me a firm heart to pray,
Helping some soul each day,
Give me a voice to sing my prayer.

Give me a help-ing hand
That I may firm, the firmer stand,
Give me the prayers of the Lord every day.
Give me that saving power,
Filling me every, every hour
Give me the strength for all of my way.

Give me a heart to love
Unto that home, that home above
Give me the mind to go all of the way.
Give me a firm heart to pray,
Helping some soul each day,
Give me a voice to sing my prayer.

Give me a might to do,
As long as my strength endure,
Give me a heart to be honest and true.
Give me a song to sing,
Praising my hol- , the holy name,
Give me a life to live for you

Give me a heart to love
Unto that home, that home above
Give me the mind to go all of the way.
Give me a firm heart to pray,
Helping some soul each day,
Give me a voice to sing my prayer.

(The original Youtube video is no longer there though you cn hear the song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZ7FxgpFXE)

Rev Gary Davis in fine form

Fascinating bit of footage featuring the Rev Gary Davis (and Pete Seeger on banjo).

Retro Album "of the week" 50 - Lamb

We've not managed to get our 52 in within the year so we will finish the series with this one. This is Lamb by Lamb and it came out in 1973. It was an album I bought a little later in my local Christian Bookshop in the days when I was trying to listen to more "Christian music". I made the purchase on the basis of how the album looked, having no other knowledge of the band. I did like it, although I was painfully aware of the inadequacies evident in several places. Lamb it turns out was a two man combo, Joel Chernoff (lead singer/songwriter) and Rick “Levi” Coghill (producer/guitarist).

Both would call themselves Messianic Jews and the flavour of the music is contemporary Jewish with plenty of Hebrew words sprinkled here and there. Lamb have apparently sold over 600,000 albums, having produced 14 recordings. I never got beyond this album and I currently have only the best of the tracks on my ipod. HaTeeshKach, BaruchHaShem and DraChaiCha have Hebrew titles. The other tracks are The Judge, The Sacrifice Lamb, Time is running out, The Least I could do and The night is far spent. So not only very Jewish but pre-millennial too. The singing can be a bit languid at points.

10 Inspirational songs with love in the title

1. Love constraining to obedience (Indelible Grace ft M P Jones)
2. O love that will not let me go (Indelible Grace ft Sandra McCracken)
3. O the deep deep love of Jesus (Indelible Grace ft Katy Bowser)
4. I love you (Larry Norman)
5. Without love you are nothing (Larry Norman)
6. Give me a heart to love (Rev Gary Davis)
7. Watered-down love (Bob Dylan)
8. Shot of love (Bob Dylan)
9. Love divine (Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band)
10. Let us love and sing and wonder (Jars of Clay)

Saving Grace/In the Garden

Real records you missed

I found this genuine record sleeve here. Plenty more where that came from.

The Outlaw

This is a version of the late Larry Norman's song The Outlaw that you may enjoy. I should add that this video, strikingly, also features a saw player.

Dechrau canmol

The youngest boys were singing with their friends from the Welsh School on Welsh TV yesterday on the Welsh equivalent of Songs of praise Dechrau canu Dechrau canmol (start to sing, start to praise?) The programme was recorded last week in a Welsh Baptist chapel in central London (see here). One has mixed feelings about such things but such programmes do some good I'm sure. The producer has managed to get them sounding very good. For the next month or so the programme is available here. Huw Edwards introduces the short piece (Little drummer boy) around the 11:40 mark. Click the owl for subtitles.

Hunt the links

I noticed this interesting link over at Jonathan's new wordpress blog (not my cup of tea musically I'm afraid). I was also interested in what Jeremy Brooks had to say as I was dubious (like Jonathan) about a man leaving the pastorate. See here.

After the fire

Yes, After the fire. I remember seeing the perform in Lampeter one time. Being a fan of popular music I always liked the idea of finding "Christian music" I'd like. The trouble with the following lyrics fine as they are is that the brash way things are put is relly out of keeping with the New Testament approach. This is not an uncomon fault when trying to work in this idiom. There are worse songs than this.

Time and tide they wait for no-one, disbelieve it if you dare
Turn around and they will be gone, and you will still be standing there
Check it out
Check it out, come on you know it's right
God is right, check it out

People say I'm like a river, cause I'm never standing still
I don't care I'm gonna live forever, cause the Bible says I will
Check it out

Check it out, come on you know it's right
God is right, check it out

People say that I'm a dreamer, And I don't know what it's all about
But time will tell who's got the answers, one day we will all all find out
Check it out

Check it out, come on you know it's right
God is right, check it out

Time and tide they wait for no-one, disbelieve it if you dare
Turn around and they will be gone, and you will still be standing there
Check it out

Check it out, come on you know it's right
God is right, check it out

Paradise Found

Regular visitors to this blog may have noticed a predeliction for the hymns of Charles Wesley. This year is the 300th anniversary of his birth and to mark that date one of the things that has been done this year is the release of a CD, which I have just purchased. It is by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. Maddy Prior came to prominence in the seventies with the folk rock band Steeleye Span (All around my hat, etc). The Carnival Band specialise in old instruments. I believe they came together to play some Christmas carols at first (they have three or four good Christmas CDs by now) and then later did a collection of 18th Century hymns ('Sing lustily and with good courage'). I remember being in the car with my friend Alan Davey one day and he played this latter album on CD. I was immediately struck and had to get it which I did. More recently I managed to track down a CD version which I've continued to enjoy.

I'd not noticed Paradise Found, which came out back in May, but there was a reference to it in The Times the other week and when I looked there it was on i-tunes and Amazon. I wouldn't want a praise band in church but this is very pleasant (a remarkably old fashioned idea by the way). Everything is done in the folk (rather than operatic) idiom which I think is a better way to sing hymns. There's plenty of well known stuff on this CD (Love Divine All Loves Excelling, Ye Servants Of God, Soldiers Of Christ Arise, Jesu Lover Of My Soul, etc) but often to an unfamiliar tune. There are also new ones to me like Dead Dead The Child I Loved So Well and Come On My Partners In Distress (not all the verses below but some of them). There's a very bouncy 'Come away to the skies' that grabs my fancy most on first listening.

Come on, my partners in distress,
My comrades through the wilderness,
Who still your bodies feel;
Awhile forget your griefs and fears,
And look beyond the vale of tears,
To that celestial hill.

Beyond the bounds of time and space,
Look forward to that happy place,
The saints’ secure abode;
On faith’s strong eagle pinions rise,
And force your passage to the skies,
And scale the mount of God.

See where the Lamb in glory stands,
Encircled with His radiant bands,
And join the angelic powers.
For all that height of glorious bliss,
Our everlasting portion is,
And all that Heaven is ours.

Who suffer with our Master here,
We shall before His face appear
And by His side sit down;
To patient faith the prize is sure,
And all that to the end endure
The cross, shall wear the crown.

Thrice blessèd, bliss-inspiring hope!
It lifts the fainting spirits up,
It brings to life the dead;
Our conflicts here shall soon be past,
And you and I ascend at last,
Triumphant with our Head.

That great mysterious Deity
We soon with open face shall see;
The beatific sight
Shall fill the heavenly courts with praise,
And wide diffuse the golden blaze
Of everlasting light.

The Father shining on His throne,
The glorious co-eternal Son,
The Spirit one and seven,
Conspire our rapture to complete;
And lo! we fall before His feet,
And silence heightens Heaven.

In hope of that ecstatic pause,
Jesus, we now sustain Thy cross,
And at Thy footstool fall,
’Till Thou our hidden life reveal,
’Till Thou our ravished spirits fill,
And God is all in all.

Apologetix Parody

I know nothing about the Christian music scene but somebody played me this parody of Bohemian Rhapsody the other day which I liked. Apologetix are an American band with 9 albums under their belt. They specialise in parody. These are the words to Bethlehemian Rhapsody. If you know the tune you can sing it to yourself. Their website is apolegetix.com

Is this a real guy? Is he just fantasy?
'Cause of his grand size, no one's safe from fatality
Open your eyes, look up at Goliath, and see:

(GOLIATH) I’m dressed for war, boys. I need no infantry
Because I'll meet the one you propose
Israelites, pick my foe
Anyway, I'll win, so it doesn’t really matter to me
(DAVID) Mama, there's still no man who can come against this threat
You might figure now we're dead
Mama, Goliath is testing us
And know he's gonna know they’re all afraid
Mama, ooh ooh ooh, he's a mean and crazy guy
He'll come right back again this time tomorrow
Scaring us, scaring us - 'cause he wants to meet in battle
Hooray! My time has come
Been a shepherd all my life - but I'm taking on this giant
Goodbye, everybody - but not for long
God will lead me all the while I face this brute
C'mon! Ooh ooh ooh!
(David you’re a wimp though) I'm not gonna die
The One who wins my battles is Lord of all .

(GOLIATH) I see a little silly shepherd - not a man
What are you tryin' to prove? You’ll be chewed up and mangled!
Send a boy to fight me? Very, very tiny flea!

(DAVID)
Gol-la-liath! Gol-la-liath! Gonna die you big galoot!
I'll kick your butt!
I trust the Lord but nobody trusts me

(CROWD) He trusts the Lord, but suffers from insanity
Daring to fight 'gainst this monstrosity
(DAVID) Evil comes, evil goes - You will get deposed
(GOLIATH) I will not, no! I will not get deposed
(DAVID) Yes, you will. Yes, you will
Your head will roll
(GOLIATH) No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Come-to-me-a! Come-to-me-a! Let the eagles pick your bones
Beelzebub and his devils gonna fight for me for me for me.

(DAVID) So you think you can scorn me and spit at my tribe?
So you think you’re above me just based on your size?
Oh, baby ... you ain't just duelin' David
You're gonna get it now - 'cause God'll win my battle here.

(CROWD) Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!
(DAVID) Guys I’m really flattered — yet it wasn’t me
God wins every battle — God wins every battle for me.

(VOICE) David will be king soon.