Behind the Praise - Sunday June 29, 2008

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate our freedom in Christ and our freedom as Americans.

"I Pledge Allegiance"

Click here to preview the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auz7DY9sDHo

"Star-Spangled Banner"

This melody was first published in England circa 1780 as To Anacreon in Heaven. The melody was probably written by British composer John Stafford Smith. The words to that song were written by Ralph Tomlinson. Both were members of the Anacreontic Club of London. To Anacreon in Heaven was their theme song. The Anacreontic Club was a group of wealthy men who met to celebrate music, food and drink.
The melody was particularly popular in America during the War of 1812 and several Americans wrote patriotic songs to it. The most famous of these was Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer.
While aboard an English ship trying to secure the release of a friend, Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry. When the bombardment was over, the American flag was still flying. He wrote a poem The Defense of Fort McHenry, which was first printed anonymously on a broadside in 1814. On September 20 it was published in The Baltimore Patriot. Key's brother-in-law suggested he set the words to the tune To Anacreon in Heaven. When the sheet music was published in 1815, the name was changed to The Star Spangled Banner. The song was first adopted by the army and navy as the national anthem. It was officially recognized as the American National Anthem in 1931 by an act of Congress.

Click here for the various arrangements of the song:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+star-spangled+banner&search_type=&aq=0&oq=the+star-span

"My Country Tis' of Thee"

"Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants." -- William Penn
Moved deeply by the desire to create a national hymn that would allow the American people to offer praise to God for our wonderful land, a twenty-four-year-old theological student, Samuel Francis Smith, penned these lines on a scrap of paper in less than thirty minutes in 1832. Yet even today many consider "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" their favorite patriotic hymn and call it our "unofficial national anthem."
The easily singable words of the song are matched with a popular international melody used by many nations, including England, where it accompanies "God Save the King/Queen." The emotionally powerful ideas that Smith expressed had an immediate response. The hymn soon became a national favorite. The stirring tributes to our fatherland in the first three stanzas lead to a worshipful climax of gratefulness to God and a prayer for His continued guidance.
Following his graduation from Harvard and the Andover Theological Seminary, Samuel Smith became an outstanding minister in several Baptist churches in the East. He composed one hundred fifty hymns during his eighty-seven years and helped compile the leading Baptist hymnal of his day. He was also editor of a missionary magazine through which he exerted a strong influence in promoting the cause of missions. Later he became the secretary of the Baptist Missionary Union and spent considerable time visiting various foreign fields. Samuel Smith was truly a distinctive representative of both his country and his God.

My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing:
Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride,
From ev'ry mountain side let freedom ring!

My native country, thee, land of the noble free, thy name I love:
I love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills like that above.

Let music swell the breeze, and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song:
Let mortal tongues awake, let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to Thee, author of liberty, to Thee we sing:
Long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might, great God, our King!

Click here for the various recordings:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=my+country+tis+of+thee&search_type=&aq=f


“We will Remember”
Tommy Walker wrote the following about his song “We will Remember”.God really touched me through the song We Will Remember. When I wrote the song, I was just very discouraged and felt like God wasn't answering my prayers. I was reading a verse in Nehemiah about the children of Israel who had run far from God and become proud – because they forgot the miracles that God had done for them. I suddenly looked back at my life and how God had been so faithful to me and blessed me so much. In that moment, it didn't look so bright, but when I looked back, I was reminded of God's faithfulness. That's how I wrote the song

Click here to listen to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWgYBxcmI8I

"Blessed Be Your Name"
This powerful worship song by Matt Redman has a phrase that is based on Job 13:15. The Message translates it like this
"So hold your tongue while I have my say, then I'll take whatever I have coming to me.Why do I go out on a limb like this and take my life in my hands?Because even if he killed me, I'd keep on hoping. I'd defend my innocence to the very end. Just wait, this is going to work out for the best—my salvation!"
Click here to hear the story behind the song by Matt Redman.
www.theheartofworship.org/stories/Story-257-BlessedBeYourName-Redman.mp3

Click here to hear the song
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6xo5KogzaI

Click here to worship along with Tree63
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mZH9T9XNVU&mode=related&search=

"Salute to the Armed Forces"
Click here to listen to this tribute song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwnwONrLNio

"In God we still Trust"
Click here to learn more about Diamond Rio:
www.diamondrio.com

Click here to listen to this song by Diamond Rio:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auz7DY9sDHo

"America the Beautiful"

Pike's Peak is an American beauty spot, about 10 miles west of Colorado Springs, in the state of Colorado. It is actually a 14,000 ft mountain, with a road up to the summit, although many people choose to climb to the top and look out across the "spacious skies", and "purple mountain majesties".
Katherine Lee Bates did just that back in 1893, and the view she saw inspired her to write the words to America the Beautiful.
She was born in 1859, the daughter of a Pastor, and she graduated from Wellesley College, in Massachusetts. Later she returned to teach at the college, and became head of the English department.
By 1893 she had written a number of books, including her research into the history of American literature. But the work that she is best known for is the poem that became the country's second most popular patriotic song.

She had been on an extended holiday in 1893 when she visited Pike's Peak, in Colorado. After she returned to her room that night, she remarked to friends that countries such as England had failed because, while they may have been "great", they had not been "good" ... she went on "unless we are willing to crown our greatness with goodness, and our bounty with brotherhood, our beloved America may go the same way."
The poem itself remained unpublished until it appeared two years later in the Congregationalist Newspaper, and after that it went through a number of revisions before eventually being published by he Boston Evening Transcript in 1904.
It was originally never intended to be sung, but its metre fitted a number of tunes around at the time. The one that it is most closely associated with is a tune called Materna, written by Samuel Augustus Ward in 1882. originally for a hymn, O Mother Dear, Jerusalem.

Click here for the various arrangements of the song:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=american+the+beautiful+&search_type=&aq=f

"Break Our Hearts"

Billy and his wife Cindy live in San Antonio. Billy started leading worship in 1990, right out of college. Back then Christiandom didn't demand bands. They were satisfied with simplicity. Billy played his guitar and led worship by himself until several years later. He added a drummer (Joe McArthur) first and then a bass player (Shawn Skeen) and then Cindy joined in with vocals in 2001. Sometime around the year 2000 Billy began having vocal trouble which turned out to be a neurological condition called hyper-disphonia. There's really no cure for this condition. So Cindy began singing more of the lead vocals over time. Though Cindy sings most of the songs, Billy is still the person giving direction to the worship time and, of course, he writes most of the songs the band plays. Billy began song writing in the late 1990's. He's written several well known songs including:"Break Our Hearts", "Goodness and Mercy", "You Are My King (Amazing Love)", "Sing to the King", "I Have a River", "Die the Death", "You Are God Alone (not a god)", "You Are Welcome Here" and "Welcome to the Cross".

Learn more about Billy's ministry on his myspace website & ministry website:
www.myspace.com/billyfooteband

Learn more about Billy's ministry here:
www.billyfoote.com/

Click here to worship along on the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLT8BdDOsWk

"God of our Fathers"

Daniel C. Roberts, the 35 year-old rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, a small rural church in Brandon, Vermont, wanted a new hymn for his congregation to celebrate the American Centennial in 1876. He wrote "God of Our Fathers" and his congregation sang it to the tune RUSSIAN HYMN.
In 1892, he anonymously sent the hymn to the General Convention for consideration by the commission formed to revise the Episcopal hymnal. If approved, he promised to send his name. The commission approved it, printing it anonymously in its report. Rev. Dr. Tucker, who was the editor of the Hymnal, and George W. Warren, an organist in New York city, were commissioned to choose a hymn for the celebration of the centennial of the United States Constitution. They chose this text and Warren wrote a new tune for it, NATIONAL HYMN, including the trumpet fanfare at the beginning of the hymn.
It was first published in Tucker’s Hymnal, 1892, with this tune, then in 1894 in the Tucker and Rosseau’s Hymnal Revised and Enlarged. These lyrics were also set to the hymn tune PRO PATRIA in Charles Hutchins’ The Church Hymnal. But NATIONAL HYMN prevailed and it is the tune to which "God of Our Fathers" is always sung today.

Click here for the various arrangements:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=god+of+our+fathers+&search_type=&aq=f

“God Bless America”

The unofficial national anthem of the United States was composed by an immigrant who left his home in Siberia for the USA when he was only five years old. The original version of "God Bless America" was written by Irving Berlin (1888-1989) during the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, located in Yaphank, Long Island, for his Ziegfeld-style revue, Yip, Yip, Yaphank. "Make her victorious on land and foam, God Bless America..." ran the original lyrics. However, Irving decided that the solemn tone of "God Bless America" was somewhat out of keeping with the more comedic elements of the show, so the song was laid aside.
In the fall of 1938, as war was again threatening Europe, he decided to write a "peace" song. He recalled his lyrics of "God Bless America" from twenty years earlier, then made some alterations to reflect the different state of the world. Singer Kate Smith introduced the revised "God Bless America" during her radio broadcast on Armistice Day, 1938. The song was an immediate sensation; the sheet music was in great demand.

Click here to read more details about the song:
http://katesmith.org/gba.html

Click here to listen to Celine Dion singing this great song at the Super Bowl following 9/11
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H13R_stGuLo

Click here to listen to the different arrangements of the song:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=god+bless+america&search_type=&aq=f


"Songs for the Heroes"

This song was written by Mike Harland head of the worship department for Lifeway. During this song we'll have a tribute to heroes with over 115 photos of heroes past & present.

"Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Words by Julia W. Howe 1861. This hymn was born dur­ing the Amer­i­can ci­vil war, when Howe vis­it­ed a Un­ion Ar­my camp on the Po­to­mac Riv­er near Wash­ing­ton, D. C. She heard the sol­diers sing­ing the song “John Brown’s Body,” and was tak­en with the strong marching beat. She wrote the words the next day with a strong march­ing beat. "I awoke in the grey of the morn­ing, and as I lay wait­ing for dawn, the long lines of the de­sired po­em be­gan to en­twine them­selves in my mind, and I said to my­self, “I must get up and write these vers­es, lest I fall asleep and for­get them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dim­ness found an old stump of a pen, which I re­mem­bered us­ing the day be­fore. I scrawled the vers­es al­most with­out look­ing at the p­aper."The hymn ap­peared in the At­lant­ic Month­ly in 1862. It was sung at the fun­er­als of Brit­ish states­man Win­ston Church­ill, Amer­i­can sen­at­or Ro­bert Ken­ne­dy, and Am­er­i­can pre­si­dents Ron­ald Rea­gan and Ri­chard Nix­on.Music: John Brown’s Bo­dy, poss­i­bly by John Will­iam SteffeJohn Brown was an Amer­i­can abo­li­tion­ist who led a short lived in­­sur­­rect­­ion to free the slaves.

Click here to listen to the many arrangements of this great hymn:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=battle+hymn+of+the+republic&search_type=&aq=0&oq=battle+hymn+o