Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

Music often has a profound impact on us.  Over the last twenty years or so, as we have witnessed and experienced significant suffering with our son, the hymn, ‘It is well with my soul‘, never ceases to stir our hearts and clear the tear ducts!  Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) composed these words in the aftermath of extreme suffering.

If you enjoyed the singing of Wintley Phipps on the previous post, then turn up the volume, get out the tissues and praise God for His strengthening presence in the midst of severe suffering:

It’s Boxing Day, and if you’re a sports fan (like me!), this is a BIG day – start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and the Boxing Day Cricket Test, between Australia and Pakistan.

And as we enjoy the Christmas/New Year period, continue to praise Immanuel, the ultimate Servant, who calls each of us to The Servant Way:

It seems like everyone is into Handel’s Messiah at the moment (well, at least some folk!).  Having just posted the link to Daniel Block’s biblical theology of the oratorio, now the prolific writer, Ben Witherington, provides the Story behind the Classic.  Ben writes:

“Handel composed the work in a short period of time during the summer of 1741, and when he got to the Hallelujah chorus, his assistant found him in tears saying “I did think I saw heaven open, and saw the very face of God”.

About this time of the year, I load up my CD stacker in the car with the live performance of Handel: Messiah, conducted by Neville Mariner.  It is simply magnificent, as agreed by an Amazon reviewer:

“Marriner and the Academy have turned out an A+ performance. The quality of the players, the chorus, and the soloists is unmatchable. The interpretations of the movements are also right on. The entire ensemble gels perfectly under the direction of one of the world’s best and most recorded conductors. While classical reviewers have pinned the J. E. Gardiner recording as tops, I think they have overlooked this gem.”

At Deep Creek Anglican we are part-way through our Christmas series, Who is this baby? In the lead into each of the first two messages, we played the appropriate track from this album.  I trust the congregations enjoyed it as much as I did!

Today, I noticed at Justin Taylor’s blog, a link to an excellent essay by Daniel Block [Gunther H. Knoedler Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College Graduate School] on the biblical theology of Handel’s Messiah.  Well worth a read.

Today, we completed the second message in our Christmas series Who is this baby? As we considered Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus in Matt 1:17-25, we turned our hearts to the wonderful mission opportunity of Christmas.  And in doing so, we were encouraged in praying for our friends in the words of Prayer for a friend by Casting Crowns, off their album The Altar and the Door:

Lord I lift my friend to You.
I've done all that I know to do.
I lift my friend, to You.
Complicated circumstances
have clouded his view.
Lord I lift my friend up to You. 

I fear that I won’t have the words
that he needs to hear.
I pray for Your wisdom , oh God.
And a heart that's sincere.
And Lord I lift my friend up
to You. 

Lord I lift my friend to You.
My best friend in the
world, I know he means much
more to You.
I want so much to help him, but
this is something he has to do.
Lord I lift my friend up to You. 

There's a way that seems so right to him.
But You know where that leads.
He's becoming a puppet of the world.
Too blind to see the strings.
And Lord I lift my friend up to You. 

Lord I lift my friend to You.
I've done all that I know to do.
I lift my friend, to You.

I love the words of the third verse: “Lord I lift my friend to You. My best friend in the world, I know he means much more to You….”  What a great testimony to the love of God; to the truth of John 3:16 and 1 Tim 2:3f.