Merry Christmas

[Alan]

May God bless all of you as we ponder upon the birth of the Lord Jesus; the Saviour of the World.

Merry Christmas!

I do hope that the song, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," sung by the Cleveland Baptist Church, is a blessing to all of you.

Alan

[HappyChristian]

Merry Christmas to you, too, Alan.

Today the girls I homeschool are hosting a Christmas tea for their moms (well, one of the girls will only have her aunt here, but that works). They made desserts and in a little bit will be making some tea sandwiches. They made gifts for their moms. And they learned a piano piece (they've never played before)  and will be "telling" The True Night Before Christmas by John Cook, using pictures.

They are excited and nervous. And then we'll have two weeks' break. YAY!

[Rosie]

MERRY BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU.. WE ARE NOT HAVING A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL THIS YEAR AS OUR CHOIR DIRECTOR AND R U LEADER HAS BEEN CALLED TO THE PHILIPPINES TO START R U PROGRAMS THERE

[Jim_Alaska]

Thank you all for your holiday greetings and well wishes. I thank God for the past year and am prayerfully grateful to our God for allowing us all more opportunities to glorify Him in our lives and testimonies.

I enjoy researching the history of the hymns and carols we sing and found that the history of this carol is extremely interesting. Traditionally the world has sung this carol as a Christmas carol, but it we not composed for this purpose.

The music was written in the late sixteen hundreds to early seventeen hundreds but the renowned composer Fredric Handel. But the lyrics were added to the music in the same time frame by Sir Isaac Watts. This is where it gets interesting. His lyrics were based on the last half of Psalm 98 which speaks to the second coming of the Messiah, rather than the first coming. In this respect it makes one wonder how this traditional carol is sung as a tribute to the birth of Christ.

In practicing for our church choir special I came upon this musical video while searching for quartet versions of Joy to the World. These young people do an excellent rendition of this song at home. Four of us sang this carol as a church special last Sunday.

I have never posted a video and hope it comes out like others have posted and not just a link. But either way I think you will get a blessing out of it.

 

[Invicta]

Very nice Jim.  I have a hat like that on the left.

 

[Alan]

Jim,

I appreciate your letting us know the historical background for the hymn and letting us know it was based on the last half of Psalm 98 and how it is now a Christmas carol instead of a praise to the coming of the Lord as Messiah. Very Interesting.

Thanks also for the video. We all appreciate it.

Alan 

[1Timothy115]

Merry Christmas to all my old and any new brothers and sisters in Christ.

[MountainChristian]

Merry Christmas to all, may Jesus bless your Church activities.