An Arabic Christmas Carol (Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity)

 

Gee Whiz, It's Coming Up To Christmas!

 God Saves Old Sinners

Some Days are Diamonds--JD Snell

Carla Thomas--Gee Whiz its Christmas

He Giveth More Grace---Sonia Daniels

The Temptations - The Christmas Song

Otis Redding - Merry Christmas Baby (Atco Records 1967)

From Trabbia, Palermo

Donny Hathaway - We Need You Right Now Lord

 

Sister Sonia Daniels Will Pick You Up

 

Holy, Holy, Holy - Audrey Assad

 

I'm Going That Way--Ralph Stanley & Friends

 I have had this on my mind all day...

The Georgia Mass Choir - Walk In the Light

 

Dave Stacy at the Mine | Flight Without an Airplane

I listen to Brother Stacy quite a bit. I appreciate his energy and dedication. This is part of a longer workplace (mine) sermon where he's talking about loving our neighbors and showing compassion. I hope that Brother Stacy works in a union-represented mine, and I hope that some day he's moved to preach social justice. More of us need this power and drive.

     

Leslie Jordan ft. Eddie Vedder - "The One Who Hideth Me" (Official Audio)

 

The Georgia Mass Choir - Come On In The Room

 

When We All Get to Heaven

I recently saw the old sheet music and lyrics for the hymn "When We All Get to Heaven." I was not familiar with the hymn, to my regret. 

In good hands it can be a beautiful and moving hymn with a hopeful message for Christians and the Christian-curious.

Here are two versions of the hymn:

Alan Jackson

Bishop Rudolph McKissick, Jr. · The Word & Worship Mass Choir

Amelia Shields and the Magee Sisters - He's Sweet I Know (8/5/2022) in Yazoo City, MS.

This really is music for the soul...

Inspiring! The B & H Gospel Singers - Time Belongs to You (7/22/2022) --- in Collins, MS.

 

Sterlin Bolen - Live Through The Ages--Old Regular Baptists

 

The Anointed Brown Sisters - True Vine (7/09/2022) in Gulport, MS.

 

I Love to Tell the Story

 

Things to smile on #10

This is our weekly post of things to make you smile, feel hopeful, or remind you that it's still a beautiful world out there and that your presence makes everything so much better. 

I caught this on the Appalachian Americans Facebook page, but I think that it originated with Lorraine Bruno at Wild Free:

Preparing a woodpecker for winter.

First, he finds a dead tree and starts making holes for the acorns. Each hole is made very thoughtfully, because if the hole is large, other birds can easily steal the acorn. If the hole is narrow, the nut can break and deteriorate. By the end of summer, the woodpecker's "jewelry" work ends, by this time the acorns ripen and take their places in the tree. The trunk of a large tree can hold about 50,000 acorns, allowing the bird a satisfying winter.

From Celebrating Appalachia

Hymns Family Mid Day Boost

Seven bridges Road (cover)

JOEY JUSTICE ~ LAST NIGHT I DREAMED I WENT TO HEAVEN

 JOEY JUSTICE ~  LAST NIGHT I DREAMED I WENT TO HEAVEN

"Just another day that the Lord has kept me"

Just another day that the Lord has kept me---Elder Maurice Brown

 

Faith is where we find it in unexpected places #2

The common Western Christian perception is that only Jesus saves. The Eastern churches see a more complex world and cosmos: we can be saved through the intercessions and actions of others, including the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints and the holy ones who watch over us and accompany us. It is not that Jesus does not save, or that the holy ones save through their own means. It's that God is so big and all-encompassing and so merciful that salvation is available to all and that God's mercy is within and among us.

The poet and jazz musician Gil Scott-Heron may have had some sense of this. His work is full of hope and faith. Much of it may make Christians, and especially white Christians, uncomfortable even eleven years after he died from complications tied to being HIV-positive. But look deeper and consider hope and faith from the perspective of a Black artist of the 1970s who loved deeply. There were steps away from what was common, ordinary, and accepted. And there were uncertain steps towards something great but unknown. Listen to "Lady Day and John Coltrane" as a hymn from one flawed human being to another about situations that we all know in our hearts. Try recognizing your own flaws and following the way forward suggested in the song-poem as a part of your spiritual growth.

Ever feel kind of down and out
You don't know just what to do?
Living all of your days in darkness
Let the sun shine through
Ever feel that somehow, somewhere
You lost your way?
And if you don't get help quick
You won't make it through the day?
Could you call on Lady Day?
Could you call on John Coltrane?
Now, 'cause they'll, they'll wash your troubles
Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away!
Plastic people with plastic minds
Are on their way to plastic homes
No beginning, there ain't no ending
Just on and on and on and on and on
It's all because they're so afraid to say that they're alone
Until our hero rides in, rides in on his saxophone
Could you call on Lady Day?
Could you call on John Coltrane?
Now, 'cause they'll, they'll wash your troubles
Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away!
All right
Ever feel kind of down and out
You don't know just what to do?
Living all of your days in darkness
Let the sun shine through
Ever feel that somehow, somewhere
You lost your way?
And if you don't get help quick
You won't make it through the day?
Could you call on Lady Day?
And could you call on John Coltrane?
Now, 'cause they'll, they'll wash your troubles
Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles
Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles
Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away
They'll wash your troubles away
They'll wash your troubles away
Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away
Yeah, they'll wash your troubles away
They'll wash your troubles away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah