Erlene thought it might be good to post this again: Days of Elijah, Paul Wilbur, full orchestra, and who knows how big an audience singing and dancing in the aisles. Normally I post the video with U.S. Marines singing it.
Wow! If this worship song doesn’t pump you up, I don’t know what will. It’s going to be in my head all night, but I don’t mind a bit. Turn up the volume!
To hear the TV and radio noozies tell it, today’s snowstorm is just too awful, too fraught with doom and disaster, to bear thinking of–which doesn’t stop them obsessing about it.
So, yeah, just now, here in Noo Joisey, it’s terribly cold and snowing very hard–as it has done many times before, and will do many times again. It means a bit of hardship, but it won’t last.
I look out my bathroom window, where there’s a maple tree whose branches almost touch the screen. Despite the nasty cold snap we’ve been in, the tips of those branches already bear hard, tight little buds–this year’s leaves. In due time, according to the pattern ordained by our Creator, the buds will fatten, open up, and be green leaves.
We have God’s promise: While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)
But I don’t suppose too many noozies know that anymore.
This is an old French hymn, and I haven’t heard it since I was a kid and we sang it in school: Bring a Torch, Jeannette Isabella, performed by the Robert Shaw Chorale. I was thinking of this carol a few days ago, wondering if I’d be able to find it, wondering if I’d remembered it right; and there it was today, on the youtube home page.
Yes! We sang Christmas songs at Christmas-time in school, because it was a better, cleaner, saner time, and Christmas was allowed.
I had a desire for this hymn, this evening: To God Be the Glory. I don’t know who’s performing it here, but it sounds like an old-fashioned church congregation singing to the accompaniment of a piano… played by a lady in a hat.
I’ve never heard O Little Town of Bethlehem sung to this melody before. The thing that’s going to bug me all day is, I know I’ve heard that melody with another set of lyrics, another hymn–but I can’t remember its name. Well, one of you out there must be a more knowledgeable hymnologist than I am. Hoping to hear from you!
P.S.–While I was pondering this, Patty discovered that this is a folk melody called “Forest Green,” which the composer Vaughan Williams adapted to O Little Town of Bethlehem.
“Thewhiterabbit” requested this one, and I’m glad he did. I was going to save it for tomorrow, but I feel the need of Christmas cheer, just now. Ach, the news! And on New Year’s Eve we had no heat here in our apartment, with the landlord saying it was our fault–aah, never mind. Just one of those little things that can get you down.
Well, it helps to remember what Christmas is all about–forgiveness of sins, redemption, and eternal life. We can only get those things from God… and He has taken care of it.
“Thewhiterabbit” has requested Once in Royal David’s City, and I thought this performance of it by Libera rather nice.
Running out of time, folks, to request Christmas hymns–so if you’ve got a request to make, sing out.
In Genesis, God observes that “It is not good for the man to be alone,” so He creates the woman.
Today, this first day of 2018, with Social Media out the wazoo and more communications tools than any people ever had before, we seem to be communicating less than ever–and more and more of us are lonely.
No problem, boys ‘n’ girls! Science has the answer! Well, Science always has the answers.
There’s a new app, whatever an “app” is, called “Replica,” which is “a simple solution to overcoming loneliness” (http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/artificial-intelligence-app-replika-1.4222755). Yessireebob, it’s “an app that promised to provide unwavering companionship,” a “chatbot–” chatbot?–“that is intent–” wrong word: a machine cannot have intentions–“on learning all about you.” That is, it has been programmed to “ask,” not that a machine is really asking anything, certain stereotypical questions of the user and to make certain stereotypical replies.
Well, at least they haven’t programed it to say, “You know something? You disgust me!”
Ah, huzzah, it’s Artificial Intelligence–a lifeless, mindless imitation of human intelligence–come to save us from loneliness! Who needs love? Who needs family? Who needs friendship? Who even needs a blooming hamster? This here machine is all them things and more! And it fits in the palm of your hand!
Never mind it isn’t real.
A goldfish who would trust me enough to take food from my fingers is real–and worth more than all the “apps” in the world.
So you buy this freakin’ gizmo, and one of two outcomes must occur. Either you’re still lonely, and out the money, to boot; or you’ve succumbed to a delusion.
And Science marches on.
I still don’t know what people believe in after they get rid of Christianity. I’d particularly like to know what a lot of these people in Britain now believe in. You rejected Jesus Christ, redemption, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life: what have you put in its place?
https://leeduigon.com/2016/01/12/britains-fear-of-christians/
Not that America is in any position to sneer.
My aunts used to have Andre Reiu on TV all thoughout the Christmas season. Now the house is gone, my aunts are gone, and the memories stand. Christmas is a good time for memories, and an even better time for hope. Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Anyway, I’m standing on the hilltop, waving the Christmas flag. Please feel free to join in with a hymn request of your own.