Rainy Day Songs
“Oooh I hear laughter in the rain, walking hand in and with the one I love. Oooh, how I love the rainy days and the happy way I feel inside.”~Neil Sedaka I love rainy days. So I thought, since it’s a lovely rainy day here in Houston, I’d make up a playlist of rainy day [...]
Pro-Life Country
You might find this country song a bit too sentimental and simplistic, but I thought it showed how the message of the value of human life is resonating in all sorts of sub-cultures, even country music.
Soundtrack for the Book of Esther
I’ve been reading and studying the book of Esther all month. Here are a few songs that go well with the themes of Esther: courage, trust, God’s sovereignty, our willing obedience. God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry Emerson Fosdick. Grant us the wisdom of a Mordecai and the courage of an Esther. [...]
Christmas in Coventry, England, c. 1200
Neither in halls nor yet in bowers, Born would he not be, Neither in castles nor yet in towers That seemly were to see; But at his Father’s will, The prophecy to fulfill, Betwixt an ox and an ass Jesus, this king, born he was. Heaven he bring us till! ~Coventry Mystery Play, c.1200. Taken [...]
Viva la Vida, or Death and All His Friends
Tonight we went to a performance by the musical theater class that some of my young people—Brown Bear Daughter (14), Artiste Daughter (20), Drama Daughter (18), and Karate Kid (12)—attend. The students all did a fantastic job, presenting songs and choreography such as “The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends” from Oklahoma! and “My [...]
Hymn of the Week: Angels We Have Heard on HIgh
Lyrics: Traditional French carol, Les Anges dans nos campagnes. Translated to English by James Chadwick, 1862. Music: GLORIA arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes. Theme: Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his [...]
Hymn of the Week: The First Noel the Angel Did Say
Lyrics: Unknown, of Cornish origin, 1400′s(?). Music: Traditional English Melody from W. Sandy’s Christmas Carols, 1833. Theme: Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 In the [...]
Hymn of the Week: When Morning Gilds the Skies
Lyrics: Anonymous German hymn (Katholisches Gesangbuch), 1744. Translated to English by Edward Caswell. Music: LAUDES DOMINI by Joseph Barnby, 1868. Theme: They were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD. They were to do the same in the evening. I Chronicles 23:30. Edward Caswell graduated from Oxford University and became an [...]
Hymn of the Week: We Gather Together
Lyrics: Adrianus Valerius (aka François Valéry). Translated to English by Theodore Baker in 1894. Music: KREMSER, a Dutch tune arranged by Edouard Kremser. Theme: Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. I John 4:4. This hymn was [...]
Semicolon Review of Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Reprint from May, 2005: Peace Like a River tells the story of the Land family, father Jeremiah, two sons, Davy and Reuben, and a daughter, Swede. The children’s mother walked out on them long before the time of the novel. Reuben, eleven years old, tells the story. Davy is sixteen when the story starts, and [...]

