MARCH AND MARCHING

Come ye that love the Lord, and let your joys be known
Join in a song with sweet accord, Join in a song with sweet accord. 
And thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne.
We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion; 
We're marching upward to Zion; the beautiful city of God.
 
Then let our songs a bound and every tear be dry;
We're marching through Immanuel's ground;
We're marching through Immanuel's ground, 
To fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high.
 
We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion; 
We're marching upward to Zion; the beautiful city of God
We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion; 
We're marching upward to Zion; the beautiful city of God.

This is an old old song that we used to sing a lot in church but haven't sung it for years.  I like the newer contemporary Christian songs (although the hand-clapping ones not so much) but there is something to be said for these songs we sang in the "old days." So why did I chose this particular song to share today? I was trying to think of something that would go with March since March is right around the corner. I know it is kind of "hokey" but that was how I chose this song. I do like the song. I like the concept of Marching to Zion. 

Silent Night

After posting some history behind O Little Town of Bethlehem, I decided to see what I could find out about an even more popular carol — Silent Night. Here is what I found online.

On December 24, 1818 the carol "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht" was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Fr. Joseph Mohr, and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber, rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohr's guitar. On each of the six verses, the choir repeated the last two lines in four-part harmony.

On that evening in 1818 Joseph Mohr journeyed to the home of musician-schoolteacher Franz Gruber who lived in an apartment over the schoolhouse in nearby Arnsdorf. He showed his friend a poem he had written and asked him to add a melody and guitar accompaniment so that it could be sung at Midnight Mass. His reason for wanting the new carol is unknown. Some speculate that the organ would not work; others feel that the assistant pastor, who dearly loved guitar music, merely wanted a new carol for Christmas. Later that evening, as the two men, backed by the choir, stood in front of the main altar in St. Nicholas Church and sang "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" for the first time, they could hardly imagine the impact their composition would have on the world. Now translated into hundreds of languages, it is sung by untold millions every December from small chapels in the Andes to great cathedrals in Antwerp and Rome.

I learned this carol in school way back when Christmas was celebrated in public schools and Christmas plays were the norm. In fact, I think I learned most of the carols that I love today in school. Today's children are denied that blessing. How sad for America's children.


I'm sharing this for Spiritual Sundays. You can go there to find links to many spiritual and inspirational posts on different blogs. You may want to share. There is info there about how to do it.

Treasure of Love

Probably not many will remember Clyde McPhatter's song called "The Treasure of Love". It was popular back in the 50s. OK. I'm telling my age here although it really isn't a secret, LOL. Anyway, back to the song, I hadn't thought about it in many years and then one day I heard it again and I remembered that it was one of my very favorite songs way back when.

The Treasure of Love is not a religious song but I think it can be adapted to spirituality. After all, where did "love" originate? Certainly God is love and He has put love in all our hearts.

Who could begin to count all the poems, songs, and books written about the love of God? One of God's first commandments was to love Him.

Deuteronomy 6:5
New International Version (NIV)

⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Leviticus 19:18

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. 

I always think of the "Love your neighbor as yourself" as a New Testament command, but it goes back to the beginning. Did you know it was commanded way back in Leviticus? 

And who is my neighbor? The story of the Good Samaritan answers that question. (Luke chapter 10).

I Corinthians chapter 13 is one of my favorites. It describes love perfectly. 

LOVE IS PATIENT,

LOVE IS KIND,

IT DOES NOT ENVY;

LOVE DOES NOT BOAST,

IT IS NOT ARROGANT,

IT DOES NOT BEHAVE RUDELY;

IT DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN,

IT IS NOT PROVOKED,

IT KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS;

IT DOES NOT REJOICE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS BUT REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH;

IT BEARS ALL THINGS,

BELIEVES ALL THINGS,

HOPES ALL THINGS,

ENDURES ALL THINGS.

LOVE NEVER FAILS.

Knowing that most of you have probably never heard Clyde McPhatter's song and might be a little curious about it, I decided to include it in this post. The quality is not good. It's like listening to an old 78 rpm record. I love the words that say it's stronger than diamonds, worth more than gold. This is the treasure that never grows old. So true.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

I hope you will go to the Spiritual Sundays blog and visit as many of the links there as you can. Trust me, there is a lot of great "stuff" shared there. You may want to share something on your blog as well. Linking info is available there. Click HERE to go to that blog.

Celine Dion - Happy Christmas

If you're not already in the Christmas spirit, this video should put you there. This has long been one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Be sure to click the music on my sidebar off before starting the video. (You can click on the little x to turn off the ads on the video.)

I hope you will drop by my other blog to read my Spiritual Sundays post.

http://char72.wordpress.com/

BRULÉ

Are you familiar with Brulé? The first time I saw them perform was at an Arts Festival in Fountain Hills, AZ.  There are several Arts festivals in the Phoenix area and we have been to quite a few. We enjoy looking at all the interesting things that are featured there. I usually come away with a piece of pottery, a piece of jewelry, or something each time we go to one. Of course there is a lot of different foods available too. We usually get Indian fry bread with beans and cheese on it for lunch while we're there.

Anyway, back to Brulé. The first time we saw and heard them we were mesmerized. They always draw a large crowd to listen to their music.

Here are some photos I took at one of their performances a couple of years ago.

The music playing right now is one of theirs.(Note: I just turned it off for the Spiritual Sundays post.) You can click on the music widget on the sidebar to listen to their music. I thought I would include one of their videos in case you would be interested in watching it. 

I hope you enjoy Brulé as much as I do. You can find more of their videos on UTube.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

I didn't know so many strange, beautiful, ugly, weird, large, small, instruments existed in the world until I went to the new Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix a couple of days ago.

They advertise they have over 10,000 instruments. We spent several hours there but plan to go back soon to see the rest of them. I took a lot of pictures and just finished posting several of them on Sharing My Photos. You can click HERE to go to that blog.

The museum opened on Saturday which happened to be my mother's birthday. That fact makes it even more special to me.

If you live in the Phoenix area, you will want to visit it I'm sure. It is close to Desert Ridge at Tatum and Mayo Blvd.

AN EVENING WITH SCOTT MACINTYRE

It's Saturday night. We just got back from a wonderful performance by Scott MacIntyre of American Idol fame. He wanted to thank his church family for the support he has been given. We got to the church building about 20 minutes early, but when we got there the parking lot was full and we thought, Huh oh, we should have come earlier. When we entered the church there was standing room only in an auditorium that seats about 2,000. The overflow crowd (which included us) went to two other buildings on campus. Each one seats 400 to 500 people and was set up with closed circuit TV monitors so it was all shown on giant screens. 

Since Scott will be on the summer tour, he is forbidden to give concerts before the tour -- but, he is not forbidden from leading worship so there he was, up front giving his testimony and singing and playing the piano. His brother, who is as good or maybe a better singer than Scott, sang a couple of songs with him. His story is truly amazing. He started playing the piano at about age 3. He went to college at ASU at age 14 and graduated at 19. After that he studied in London. Classical piano is his specialty and he played a Chopin piece for us.  I don't know what all God has in store for this talented young man, but I'm eager to find out. 

Scott MacIntyre

I am so proud of Scott. He was one of the top eight finalists for American Idol when he got voted off. 

Scott is going to be doing a thank you concert at our church on May 9. Here is the information copied from the Scottsdale Bible Church website:

Scott MacIntyre in Concert

Saturday, May 9, 7 p.m., Worship Center

Scott wants to take this opportunity to thank Scottsdale Bible Church for their support. During the concert he will share his journey and testimony. There is no charge for this concert.

Scott made it to the top 8 of the current season of American Idol. Come listen to Scott’s first performance at Scottsdale Bible since his journey with American Idol began.

I'm really looking forward to this concert. If you live in the Phoenix area you might want to consider going also. You can click HERE to go to the Scottsdale Bible Church website for more information and directions to the church.