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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

promptings top ten hymns countdown - 10, 9

I've decided to join in Semicolon's top 100 hymns project. But rather than put up my ten in one long post, I will put up two a day every other day, aiming to have them all up by the deadline date of May 31st.

So here is my Top Ten Hymn Countdown, starting with...

#10. "Holy Spirit Rain Down"
by Russell Fragar 1997

This song reminds me of the time of personal spiritual renewal my husband and I experienced around the year 2000. We listened to and sang this song a lot. Here it is sung by Darlene Zschech from Hillsongs Australia.




#9 "Christ the Lord is Risen Today"
Lyrics by Charles Wesley - 1739, tune from Lyra Davidica

This song typifies Easter Sunday morning for me. I love its joyous energy.

Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan is a book of 150 of the world's greatest hymn stories. It says of this song:

"John and Charles Wesley found themselves out of favor with many fellow Anglican ministers who spurned their fiery evangelistic preaching. Many pulpits were closed to them.

A friend from his Oxford days, George Whitefield, 22, who was having the same trouble, began preaching in the open air. In London, he asked Charles to stand with him as he preached to thousands in the open air at Blackheath, and Charles too got a vision for reaching the multitudes...

[...] Charles Wesley still preaches today in much the same way through his ageless hymns which are sung around the world each Sunday. Perhaps his most exuberant anthem is the one he simply called, "Hymn for Easter Day" published in 1739. It originally consisted of 11 stanzas and the "Alleluias" were added later.


Steve Green sings this up-tempo version.

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