Only four days left in the Christmas Carol Contest, folks. Here we are, waiting for your Christmas hymn requests. So far no carol has managed to get 20 views on the day it was requested. Two are tied with 19.
Don’t tell me you’re already tired of Christmas carols!
Here’s one to get us started today–Ding Dong Merrily on High, played with gusto by the Idaho Falls Symphony Orchestra. And there’s a harpsichord in it, too!
Joy to the World inspired this wonderful essay by Mark Rushdoony.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/joy-to-the-world-because-our-king-reigns
Yes, as Mark points out, our world is in a heap of trouble just now. Our culture is polluted with a deep spiritual pollution. Our “leaders” push self-destructive, even suicidal, policies. Rebelling against God, they are in rebellion against reality itself. That’s what “transgender” is all about.
But the Christmas hymn presents the truth in all its power: Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, reigning both in heaven and on the earth; and He has already lifted the curse. Evil will play itself out.
Thank you, Mark, for reminding us.
Requested by Joshua, O Come, O Come, Emanuel, sung by Simon Khorolskiye.
Where does he find the dramatic landscapes featured in his videos?
“Emanuel” means “God with us.”
Please pardon the silly cartoon. I wanted this carol in German because I grew up hearing it in German–from my mother, my grandma, and my aunts. Oh, it brings them back to me! But Christmas is a time for remembering.
Excuse me, gotta go wipe my eyes.
Oh, I love this! And look–another coincidence. Not only was I wondering whether we’d forgotten to post this carol, but I was also wondering where I could find a hymn featuring a harpsichord.
Phoebe’s request for What Child Is This took care of the one; and making the mistake of thinking this particular rendition would be sung by Nat King Cole, when it isn’t–well, what should I find here but a harpsichord? It certainly took care of the other.
All these coincidences at Christmas-time… I think the Lord is with us.
I suddenly realized yesterday that I’d neglected to post one of my favorite Christmas carols–but not to worry: SlimJim requested it this morning. Have you noticed that we have a great many coincidences around here?
Pat-a-Pan is an old, old Burgundian carol. Here we have it by Quadriga Consort. I’m so happy that we haven’t missed it. Now, if I can just find a carol featuring a harpsichord…
Yesterday two different readers, Thewhiterabbit and ElderMike, requested the same hymn on the same day. If it winds up winning our Christmas Carol Contest, I’ll have to ship out two prizes.
Mary, Did You Know, sung by Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
What’s with these silly beggars standing there filming while their cat wrecks their Christmas tree? Very strange behavior!
I’m happy to be able to say that no cat of ours, over a great many years, ever tried to climb our Christmas tree. They do sometimes bat low-hanging ornaments. But that’s not as much fun as picking fights with each other.
Two hours of constant motion, but it was worth it–our Christmas tree is fully decorated.
Boy, we have a lot of ornaments! But I wouldn’t part with them–some of them have been in our family for three generations. Our string of lights, for example, is from the early 1930s, from my grandpa’s store. They all still work.
So we’ve got ornaments from my mother and father, both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles–all gone on to glory by now, but all still loved and none forgotten. I remember them as I attach their decorations to our tree. Their tree, too!
When we all sit down together in God’s Kingdom, we’ll remember the Christmases we shared on earth.
We watched this yesterday–Scrooge, the 1951 retelling of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this. Dozens? At least forty, given that Patty and I watch it every Christmas. But it won’t matter if we see it forty times more: it has never failed to melt my heart, and never will.
Why? Because it’s about redemption! What could possibly be more important? And who doesn’t need it?
By the time we were halfway through the story yesterday, I was shaking my head: this was a man who had seriously made a hog’s ass of his life. He’d started out with real disadvantages–his mother died, his father never loved him–which he parleyed into enduring character flaws. If ever a man was bound for Hell, it was he.
And by the power of Jesus Christ, acting through Christmas… he’s saved.
Think about that. Saved! Think of the bad things that you’ve said and done in your life. Truly awful, isn’t it? Oh, what was I thinking!
But God’s sovereign grace, in Jesus Christ, has wiped them all away. They won’t count against us. They won’t even be mentioned.
That’s what this story is about. That’s why it never gets old.
If you haven’t seen it, or been a long time without it–well, it’s easy enough to find on line. Find an hour and a half to give to it. You’ll be abundantly repaid.