Blessed hour of prayer

Today I share with you a post written by a young lady whose blog I follow. You might want to follow it too. It's such an encouraging blog with a spark of humor in it as well! http://elaneesendeavors.blogspot.com/ .

So here is the post I hope you enjoy it.

 " Here's a encouraging song I heard on Sermon Audio the other day. I hope you are blessed by the uplifting words.

All too often I forget how important it is to bring everything to God in prayer.
Recently I have begun a prayer journal by keeping a record of answered prayers. It is amazing to see how much God cares for us in the simple things of life.

One such answer to prayer, was the time when I said to God how nice it would be to see the hands of my friend who was playing piano at a concert I was attending. I was in the third row, but the people in front of me were obstructing my view of the pianists hands. My friend was the last pianist of four to play, and at the intermission, after taking a break to stretch and fellowship with others, I rushed back to my seat just as the second half of the program began.
As I took my seat and looked up to see the piano, I was amazed to see that the people in front of me had moved over making a wide passageway for me to clearly see the pianist's hands. I lifted up a silent grateful prayer to God at that moment, and realized again how much He cares for us and answers our prayers even when we least expect it. How truly blessed is the hour of humble prayer."

Blessed Hour of Prayer

By Fanny Crosby.

’Tis the blessèd hour of prayer, when our hearts lowly bend,
And we gather to Jesus, our Savior and Friend;
If we come to Him in faith, His protection to share,
What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!

Blessèd hour of prayer, blessèd hour of prayer,
What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!

’Tis the blessèd hour of prayer, when the Savior draws near,
With a tender compassion His children to hear;
When He tells us we may cast at His feet every care,
What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!

Blessèd hour of prayer, blessèd hour of prayer,
What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!

’Tis the blessèd hour of prayer, when the tempted and tried
To the Savior Who loves them their sorrow confide;
With a sympathizing heart He removes every care;
What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!

Blessèd hour of prayer, blessèd hour of prayer,
What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!

At the blessèd hour of prayer, trusting Him, we believe
That the blessing we’re needing we’ll surely receive;
In the fullness of the trust we shall lose every care;
What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee

Here is a beautiful piece very well played. Beethoven's Ninth symphony "Ode to Joy" which I first knew as the hymn, "Joyful Joyful we Adore Thee". This orchestra plays it beautifully; notice that there is no music any where, not a microphone in sight, and no instrument cases clutter the ground. The timing of the musicians entering was also very well done. Over all, it is much better than most flash mob attractions that people organize. When Beethoven composed this symphony, he was almost completely deaf. At its first performance, Beethoven could not conduct, because he was deaf, but sat to the side furiously beating time to the music which he could not hear. He was a few measures off when the piece was done and one of his friends had to walk over and turn him around so that he could see the crowd wildly applauding. The whole audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats and raised hands, so that Beethoven, who could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovation gestures. The fact that he did write this when nearly deaf, is amazing. It is also interesting to note that this was one of the first pieces written for a choir and an orchestra making it a choral symphony. Beethoven had wanted to write music for Schiller's poem "An die Freude" (Ode to Joy) since he was about 22, and some of the pieces he wrote earlier were used in this symphony. He kept writing and rewriting the piece until he had it just right. It is now one of the most played symphonies in the world! It is also considered Beethoven's best piece.
http://youtu.be/GBaHPND2QJg Enjoy! Below are the words to the beloved old hymn which were written by Henry Van Dyke for Beethoven's symphony.

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, God of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!

All Thy works with joy surround Thee,
Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee,
Center of unbroken praise!.:
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flowering  meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain,
Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living ocean depth of happy rest! 

Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, --
All who live in love are Thine:
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine..

Mortals join the mighty chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
Father-love is reigning o'er us,
Brother-love binds man to man.
Ever singing march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife;
Joyful music lifts us sunward
in the triumph song of life!

Jesus Priceless Treasure

 This is one of my favorite hymns; I've known it for as long as I can remember. "Jesus, Priceless Treasure" is one of those old sixteenth century hymns that I love. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. The one I have here:  http://youtu.be/xd8NznkAIUE is one sung by four people in just the way I used to listen to it on CD when I was little.

Zadok the Priest

My Little brother, Benaiah, has a stuffed lamb named Zadok. This lamb also happens to be Benaiah's favorite animal and is not only taken with his papa everywhere he goes, but is also dragged into every fight, conversation, game and event that his doting father participates in.  Also the letter 'Z' is second only to 'B' in importance as far as reading goes and the name 'Zadok' was one of the first words Benaiah learned to recognize in the Bible. So you can imagine what happens when someone casually mentions that he saw a piece by Handel called "Zadok the Priest"! Yes he went crazy over it and would not let us rest while we were on the computer until he got to listen to "Zadok the Priest".  I then decided to listen to it myself and found it very beautiful; it is much like Messiah in style, which is to be expected, and isn't overly complicated. so here http://youtu.be/QCHUCMiJ_Ew is a link to this lovely piece, the instruments are all period instruments, which means that the instruments used were as much like those that were played when the piece was written as possible, you'll notice that in the wood winds and trumpets. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did!

Glorious Resurrection day

Christ The Lord is Risen! Ah what a glorious thing to meditate on, Christ Jesus has conquered death, he has payed the ransom, He has set us free!  As the hymn writer aptly puts it: 

"Tis the spring of souls today,

Christ has burst his prison,

And from three days sleep in death,

As a sun has risen,

All the winter of our sins,

long and dark is flying,

from his light to whom we give

laud and praise undying."

As we rejoice over this glorious day, the words of a beautiful song come to mind: "Thine be the Glory".  The first verse beautifully states the events which took place on that glorious morning, the second relates how Jesus gathers together his bewildered followers and comforts them, and the third verse is the plea of the writer for Jesus to help him win the battle against sin and guide him home to himself.  Just in case you can't understand the words in this video,

http://youtu.be/lXzmjNE-yLA   here they are below.

Thine be the glory, risen, conqu’ring Son;
Endless is the victory, Thou o’er death hast won;
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
Kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay.                                                                                                                                            

 Thine is the glory, risen conqu’ring Son,
Endless is the vict’ry, Thou o’er death hast won.
Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
Let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;
For her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

Refrain

No more we doubt Thee, glorious Prince of life;
Life is naught without Thee; aid us in our strife;
Make us more than conqu’rors, through Thy deathless love:
Bring us safe through Jordan to Thy home above.

Refrain

Enjoy! and Happy Resurrection day!

Good Friday-Ah Holy Jesus

 This is a beautiful song to think about on Good Friday, the day we remember the death of our Lord. It was indeed, I think, the climax of History; all events after the fall were leading up to this point and afterward all things are leading down towards the eventual end of the earth. Before the incarnation and resurrection, men were saved by looking forward to the promised hope of Israel, after the ascension, men were and are saved by looking back to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and his victory over sin and death.
 We choose this day to remember his sacrifice, which did happen on a Friday, (though we can never be quite sure which Friday) and which was both the worst and the best day for God and the Devil concerning the earth. The worst in that God became sin, and the best in that through this seeming defeat came the redemption of mankind. So as we celebrate this day we must both mourn over our sins that nailed the Lord of glory to the cross, but we must also rejoice in His victory over sin and our salvation which He has given us! Let us also rejoice with thankful hearts, for we can never fully know the extent of the pain and sorrow and anguish that it took for Christ to be separated from God and the Father to turn his face from his only begotten son with whom He was well pleased.  So now, here is a song which does a good job of putting our guilt into perspective. Let us remember that we are just as responsible for nailing Jesus to the tree, as was Judas Iscariot!
http://youtu.be/cA43meEg3JY
 

Gabrielle turns twenty-one (a month ago)

I must confess, my friends, that I am quite tardy in posting, as Gabrielle turned 21 on January seventeenth. I have no excuses and can only plead guilty. However, posting late is better than not posting at all, so I will give you a glimpse of what my lovely older sister looked like growing up. I say glimpse, not only because being the oldest child, she had the most pictures, most of which I can not post here, but also because I took pictures of the pictures, and the quality is horrible, but it was the easiest way to do it, and I the pictures are "viewable" (at least most of them). So enjoy!

Five days old.

looking quite stiff in a Sunday suit.

   

Helping Daddy.

With her Grandparents. She was their first grandchild.

                                           

Her first Christmas

With mommy and the uncles.

Her first Birthday

First little brother, Timothy.

Playing with Grandpa. Sorry for the bad quality.

Trying to entertain Timothy.

With her other Grandmother.

with her beloved lamb, "Baba".

Ready for church with daddy.

Her first trip to the ocean.

                                                         
                                                                 

Here she is again, ready for church.

                                                      

feeding her dolly.

                                                                

  Posing with our adopted grandparent's cat. (she is quite photogenic, don't you think?)

                            

I couldn't resist getting all these pictures of her dressed up. She looks so nice.

With little brother Timothy. And, of course, Baba.

                           

With Daddy, Mommy, Timothy and new baby sister, Arianne.

 Playing with Timothy.

dressed up for a Christmas party.

                                                     

Posing with siblings before church.

And again, a year or so later.

                                                          

trying to see how many can fit into one sleeping bag!

                                           

  Aren't those matching dresses so cute?

With second baby sister.

clowning around with siblings before bed.

                                              

A lovely young lady.

                                                               

Dressing doll with sister.

with second little brother Elliot.

A year later.

In a lovely velvet "gown" before church.

                                                   

Playing with a calf at the sugar Maple farm in Vermont.

                                                     

with third little brother Jedidiah.

                                                      

Playing on a " warm" winter day in New Hampshire.

washing Bok-choy from the garden.

with fourth little brother Tobias.

Posing with a flying pig and our adopted Grandfather. (the only two in our group who liked pigs).

On the famous swing in the brown barn.

helping Daddy with the garden chores.

Her baptism.

with our Grandparents a few years ago.

with fifth little brother, Benaiah.

with braces and a new haircut on her eighteenth birthday.

A lovely young lady of nineteen.

 We love you dearly Gabrielle.