Stories behind the songs - Sunday October 21,2007

Worship Quote this week:

“To sing a wrong note is insignificant, to sing without passion is inexcusable”

Beethoven

"Sing for Joy"

This song was written in 1996 by Lamont Hiebert who considers himself an abolitionist. He set aside his music career for three years while he worked to confront child trafficking, click here to read about his work to abolish slavery
www.lamontsongs.com/
He is involved with the work of LOVE146 click here to watch a disturbing video on child trafficking http://www.jfci.org/
Click here to read more of about Lamonts ministry.
http://lamontsongs.blogspot.com/
Click here to hear a short sample of the song "Sing for Joy"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8sJsFFl3zs&mode=related&search=

"Say So"
Another great song by Israel Houghton click here to read about his ministry with "NEW BREED" http://www.newbreedmusic.com/
Click here to listen to Israel in the studio singing "SAY SO"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayuUrynTMy0
Click here to worship along at a worship event the song "SAY SO"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGlVQzUweso&mode=related&search=
Click here to watch more of Israel sharing a new song "If not for Your Grace"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgizH3sIizU&mode=related&search=


"No More Night" Soloist Ben Mclallen
Click here for the song sung by David Phelps and narrated by Joni Erickson Tada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDQijZ0OpaU&mode=related&search=

Walt Harrah is a noted song writer, session singer and record producer.His songs include Think About His Love (Integrity Music), In The Lord Alone (Maranatha Music), and No More Night (Word). He has been a session singer for 20 years, appearing on dozens of film soundtracks from "King Kong" to "Amistad," and numerous television programs, including the Oscars and the Tonight Show. He served as producer and singer with the vocal group Haven, a regular contributor to Haven Ministries radio programming. He has appeared on numerous recordings for Integrity Music, Maranatha Music, Word and other Christian recording companies. He received a bachelor of church music from the University of Southern California and a masters of divinity from Fuller Seminary. He serves as worship minister at Grace Evangelical Free Church in La Mirada, California.

"Pass me not O Gentle Saviour" This hymn was writen by Fanny Crosby here is the story behind the song: As ear­nest Christ­ian pas­tor told of a young man about whom he had long felt much an­xi­e­ty, as he had seemed so un­con­cerned about his soul, and was, in re­al­i­ty, a real cause of dis­turb­ance and in­ter­rupt­ion in class­es for other young men. Meet­ing him one day, the lov­ing pas­tor sought once more to in­flu­ence him, urg­ing, “We want you for Christ and his ser­vice.” There was a cer­tain change in his man­ner which did not es­cape the eye of the pray­er­ful watch­er for souls, and—lack­ing time to do more—he seized the op­por­tun­i­ty to se­cure the pre­sence of his young friend at a Christ­ian En­dea­vor meet­ing soon to be held. True to his prom­ise he was there. When an op­por­tun­i­ty was giv­en for some of the young men to choose a song, it was seen that he was urg­ing his com­pan­ion to se­lect some par­tic­u­lar hymn. The other, yield­ing to his re­quest, asked if the hymn, “Pass me not, O gentle Sav­iour,” might be sung; and both young men joined in the sing­ing with ev­i­dent in­ter­est and heart­i­ness. Lat­er in the ev­en­ing it was re­quest­ed that all who were def­in­ite­ly on the Lord’s side would con­fess their al­le­giance by stand­ing. Where­up­on the one over whom the heart of the pas­tor was spe­cial­ly yearn­ing rose at once, and with de­ci­sion.
“Tell me about your con­ver­sion,” the thank­ful pas­tor re­quest­ed at the close of the meet­ing, when hands were clasped in glad, bro­ther­ly wel­come and re­cog­ni­tion.
“Oh, yes,” as­sent­ed the other. “It was all through that hymn we have just sung. I was work­ing on the canal at G–, and there was a meet­ing be­ing held at the Mar­in­er’s Cha­pel, near­by. The words float­ed out over the wa­ter, and from the tug where I was work­ing I could hear them plain­ly enough. When they were just go­ing to sing those lines—‘While on others Thou are call­ing, Do not pass me by!’ a great fear came over me, and I thought, ‘Oh, if the Lord were to pass me by, how ter­ri­ble it would be!’ Then and there, on the tug, I cried out, ‘O Lord, do not pass me by.’ And”—with a bright smile—“he didn’t pass me by. I am saved.’”

Click here to hear a gospel organ version of the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmDDUSpD7PI click here to see a moving clip of the song sung by Fantasia Barrino http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvzB9C7lSlc&mode=related&search=music%20church%20gospel%20christian%20saviour%20jesus Click here to hear Romance Watson sing it on a Gaither video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8O4zEkIs1Y&mode=related&search=music%20church%20gospel%20christian%20saviour%20jesus

"We Fall down" Click here to learn more about the song with an interview with Chris Tomlin & Steven Curtis Chapman www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWVrKOzxuQg Click here to worship along with Chris Tomlin www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEswcXc-CCU

"In the Secret" Click here to listen to Andy Park share the story behind the song: www.theheartofworship.com/stories/Story-340-IntheSecret-AndyPark.mp3 Click here to learn more about Andy Park www.andypark.ca/bio.shtml Click here to worship along with Shane & Shane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWHaHK4kHUs

"My Jesus, I love Thee" Sixteen year old William Featherston of Montreal, Canada wrote this simple but profound hymn in 1862, not long after he was converted to Christ. William wrote no other hymns that we know of and his brief life ended just before his twenty-seventh birthday. Here is a story about the influence of this song: A Protestant Episcopal Bi­shop of Mi­chi­gan once re­lat­ed the fol­low­ing in­ci­dent to a large au­di­ence in one of the Rev. E. P. Ham­mond’s meet­ings in St. Lou­is. “A young, tal­ent­ed and ten­der-heart­ed ac­tress was pass­ing along the street of a large ci­ty. See­ing a pale, sick girl ly­ing up­on a couch just with­in the half-open door of a beau­ti­ful dwell­ing, she en­tered, with the thought that by her vi­va­ci­ty and plea­sant con­ver­sa­tion she might cheer the young in­va­lid. The sick girl was a de­vot­ed Christ­ian, and her words, her pa­tience, her sub­mis­sion and hea­ven-lit coun­te­nance, so dem­on­strat­ed the spir­it of her re­li­gion that the ac­tress was led to give some ear­nest thought to the claims of Christ­i­an­i­ty, and was tho­rough­ly con­vert­ed, and be­came a true fol­low­er of Christ. She told her fa­ther, the lead­er of the the­a­ter troupe, of her con­ver­sion, and of her de­sire to aban­don the stage, stat­ing that she could not live a con­sis­tent Christ­ian life and fol­low the life of an ac­tress. Her fa­ther was as­ton­ished be­yond mea­sure, and told his daugh­ter that their liv­ing would be lost to them and their bu­si­ness ru­ined, if she per­sist­ed in her re­so­lu­tion. Lov­ing her fa­ther dear­ly, she was shak­en some­what in her pur­pose, and par­tial­ly con­sent­ed to fill the pub­lished en­gage­ment to be met in a few days. She was the star of the troupe, and a gen­er­al fa­vo­rite. Ev­ery prep­a­ra­tion was made for the play in which she was to ap­pear. The ev­en­ing came and the fa­ther re­joiced that he had won back his daugh­ter, and that their liv­ing was not to be lost. The hour ar­rived; a large au­di­ence had as­sem­bled. The cur­tain rose, and the young ac­tress stepped for­ward firm­ly amid the ap­plause of the mul­ti­tude. But an un­wont­ed light beamed from her beau­ti­ful face. Amid the breath­less si­lence of the au­di­ence, she re­peat­ed:
‘My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou;If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.’
This was all. Through Christ she had con­quered and, leav­ing the au­di­ence in tears, she re­tired from the stage, ne­ver to ap­pear up­on it again. Through her in­flu­ence her fa­ther was con­vert­ed, and through their unit­ed evan­gel­is­tic la­bors ma­ny were led to God.”

Worship along with Avalon by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at67q_staZ8 Worship along with Paul Baloche by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJB2rZ-VE8 Worship along with an acoustic guitar version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvzq0-Qe2TI

Message "For You These Things I Pray"

"What a Friend We have in Jesus" Click here to hear the story behind the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLnfqpBQbnU