Happy New Year to you from Seminary Gal!

Beginning with the New Year, 7 Days of Blessing!  A great way to start 2015.

In the Bible, the number 7 is associated with completion, fullness, and perfection.  Let’s start 2015 with 7 Days of Blessing by recalling famous blessings in Scripture.

Merry Christmas! 

Easy words to say.

Hard words to live out in the lives of so many around the world.

We’re a world of darkness and fear.  A world of terror and trouble.  A world of discord and destruction.  A world of social media and unfathomable loneliness. 

We are a world careening toward anarchy and lawlessness.

Yet, there’s hope because of what happened on Christmas Day. 

Isaiah 9: 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

No more suitable carol would match Christmas than a carol arising from such dark depths.  Its origin is a poem called Christmas Bells, penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day in 1863.  He was going through personally dark days following the death of his beloved wife Fanny and the injury sustained by his eldest son Charles Appleton Longfellow in the Civil War.

Fanny died in 1861 and Longfellow’s journal that year at Christmas was silent.

The following Christmas, showing the enduring nature of grief, his journal stated, “’A merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”

Finally in 1863 on Christmas Day, Christmas Bells put ink to the longstanding grief and pointed Longfellow clearly upward to God.

The poem reads,

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,  The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

You’ll note that the carol—with powerful music supplied by John Baptiste Calkin—has omitted the two stanzas which specifically referenced the American Civil War.  (Longfellow was a staunch abolitionist and Christmas Bells strongly reflects Longfellow’s life and times).  Calkin rearranged the 5 resulting stanzas in 1872, set them to music, and gave us a carol called I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

How appropriate that we conclude our series of Carol Me Christmas with words of hope that no matter how dark our world, God is not dead.  He doesn’t sleep.  We might want to cry out,

God, where are you?” 

Why can’t you do something?”

But on Christmas Day, God’s answer would be

I am Immanuel which you’ll remember means ‘God with us.’  And I did something already: I came to you as the True Light in darkness.  If you believe in Me, there is eternal life ahead.  No one can snatch you out of my hands.

As you listen to this version by The Carpenters, read through the poem.  Think about how Jesus’ coming as a baby in a manger changed everything.  Because of Him, there is hope.  Though the world is a dark one, the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining (1 John 2:8).

Merry Christmas!

It’s Christmas Eve.  I can’t think of a better carol to honor today than Go Tell It On the Mountain.  The exhilaration of joy at having heard proclaimed by the angels the birth of our Lord and Savior…the joy at seeing Him and adoring Him… ought to prompt us forward to share the Good News of great joy that we have heard.

Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Our greatest joy on Christmas morning is that Jesus entered into our human struggle as fully God but fully human.  His life and His death changed everything.

Romans 10:4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. ..8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile– the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

It doesn’t matter whether we’re male or female, young or old, Jew or Gentile…and there is no difference in God’s love for us.  His love is immeasurable and magnificent and given to us no matter what color is our skin, what social strata we’re from, where we live, or what language we speak.  Every human bears the Image of God.  God’s Image is colorblind and His love is big enough for all.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Go Tell It on the Mountain was first published in a collection of slave songs and spirituals entitled New Jubilee Songs and Folk Songs of the American Negro (1907) by John Wesley Work, Jr..  His family before him and after him were devoted to preserving spirituals and he was actively involved with the Fisk Jubilee Singers whose name you might remember from the Overcomer’s series devotional on Swing Low Sweet Chariot.

As you read through the lyrics to this spiritual and enjoy this version from the incomparable Mahalia Jackson, ponder our Thought Focus for Today.

Thought Focus for Today:  In a world that seems to divide and tear apart on superficial demographics, what does it mean to you that there is no difference…that the same Lord is Lord of all? 

How ought our views of others along national and racial lines be changed by remembering that Jesus entered this human struggle as a Jewish man to save the entire world? 

Will you Go Tell It On the Mountain that Jesus Christ is born?

Go, tell it on the mountain,

Over the hills and everywhere

Go, tell it on the mountain,       

That Jesus Christ is born.

While shepherds kept their watching

Over silent flocks by night

Behold throughout the heavens

There shone a holy light.

Refrain

The shepherds feared and trembled,

When lo! above the earth,

Rang out the angels chorus

That hailed the Savior’s birth.

Refrain

Down in a lowly manger

The humble Christ was born

And God sent us salvation

That blessèd Christmas morn.

Refrain

Joy to the World! is probably my all-time favorite Christmas carol in our Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series).  I don’t know if it’s the upbeat melody or if it’s the emphasis on joy, but it’s fully appropriate that as Advent progresses, we moved from anticipation in a dark world desperate for salvation from our earliest week, to the announcement of Jesus’ birth, to the adoration of Christ…now to exhilaration at how amazing it is that the Lord is come.

I always wondered why it is the Lord is come when it seemed like it should be “did” or “has” or simply “came.”  I’m guessing that Isaac Watts (who could arm-wrestle Charles Wesley for the title of Most Noted Hymn Writer) knew exactly what he was doing.

Of course!  Why didn’t I think of it before?  It’s the present tense!

Exactly what one would expect from a pastor and theologian.  The Lord is come.  Once for all time.  Jesus is alive in heaven at the right hand of the Father.  He came into the human struggle at a singular point in the past (what we call the Incarnation), but He is come (as an ongoing presence) in the hearts of an increasing population of saints.  He will never be re-incarnated.  One time in the flesh accomplished salvation forever!  The is connotes a continual presence.

Isaac Watts wrote more than 700 hymns plus numerous theological books during his time as a Nonconformist pastor in England.  Like the Puritans before him and the Reformed Protestants, Congregationalists, Baptists and Methodists after him, he did not conform to the uniform governance set forth by the Church of England.  Rather, he devoted himself to the Scriptures and to the proclamation of the Gospel’s truth in the footsteps of his father who was jailed as a Nonconformist pastor.

Most hymnals have many of his hymns including When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and O God Our Help in Ages Past.  Two classics to be sure!

The score is often noted as “from George Frederick Handel” which isn’t really a Handel composition but was likely inspired by the works of Handel.  In our modern world known for plagiarizing and pirating music without a second thought, it’s actually rather refreshing that credit would be given even for the inspiration for the music entitled Antioch (yes, after the place where believers were first called Christians according to Acts 11:26).  Today, Antioch is presumed composed by, and not simply arranged by, Lowell Mason (1839).

Consider the lyrics below and read Psalm 98 which inspired it.  Enjoy this version of Joy to the World! by the George Fox University Music Department Christmas program while pondering our Thought Focus for Today.

Thought Focus for Today:  How does a continual present accurately depict what Jesus has done for us in His Incarnation?

1. Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room;
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and nature sing. And heav’n and heav’n and nature sing.

2. Joy to the world, the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ.
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy

3. No more let sin and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.

4. He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness.
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders of His love.

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Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) began November 30th.  There are only a few days left.  If you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.  I will do another devotional series for Lent and will continue to post the sermons from the Acts of the Holy Spirit and Apostles series as well.  If you like these devotionals, I’d really appreciate your letting others know so I can continue to spread the Good News far and wide.  Blessings to you, in Christ always, Barbara <><