David Hamrick was one of the music professors at Lipscomb while I was there.  He’s currently working his way through the Praise for the Lord hymnal, providing analysis of the text and music of each hymn.  He also has a lot of Restoration Movement history mixed in, especially with regards to our hymnody.

Here’s a good sample post: “Concerning hymns”by Jessie Brown Pounds

You can download it here: The Lord is Near – 2011 Edition

This is the text of the introduction:

The past decades have seen increased interest among non-liturgical Christians in traditional forms of Christian faith and practice.  Ancient customs that were once viewed with skepticism as dead rituals, or with outright hostility as poisonous “traditions of men,” are reappearing in a new light, as powerful aids to spiritual growth and steadying defenses against the onslaught of a secular anti-culture.

This is particularly true for the ancient custom of Advent.  While the surrounding world prepares for a singular Christmas Day with relentless advertising, shopping and sales, the observance of Advent reminds Christians to watch with prayer, alms-giving, and fasting for the imminent arrival of their Lord.  Among the orgies of consumer avarice and gluttony personified in a secular Santa Claus, Christians are once again remembering the real Saint Nicholas and his generosity to the poor.  Finally, the observance of Advent reminds us that Christmas Day is not the end, but the beginning of the Christmas season.

To many, fasting and repentance during “the most wonderful time of the year” will appear out-of-sync, even “Scrooge-like.”  Yet the Apostle Paul, distilling the gospel to a mere sentence, declared, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (I Cor. 2:2, ESV) Within this verse is contained the seeds for both Christmas and Easter, for the special observances of the incarnation as well as the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord.  Both call us to repentance and watchfulness, and both benefit from a time of careful and serious introspection.

This booklet of songs and prayers was compiled to aid families and small groups in observing the important season of Advent.  The songs may be used however desired, but the suggested use for families is one per day for a weekly cycle.  (This 2011 edition adds Lord Christ, Beneath Thy Starry Dome, a song well suited for family use.)  The collects from the BCP may be used each night of the designated week, particularly when lighting candles on an Advent wreath.  The other prayers may be used as desired.  There are twenty-eight Advent scripture readings, enough for one per day on any year.  They need not be read in the order they are listed.  There are thirteen Christmas scriptures, one for Christmas eve and each of the twelve days of Christmas thereafter.  These are partially ordered to give a sense of the chronology of the biblical story.

It is my hope that you will find this a helpful resource in “redeeming the time” from the continual assaults of a society that would gladly wish us to forget our Lord among the bustle of a busy holiday season.  May God bless you and your family this Advent.

Once more ’tis eventide, and we
Oppressed with various ills draw near;
What if Thy form we cannot see?
We know and feel that Thou art here.

O Savior Christ, our woes dispel;
For some are sick, and some are sad,
And some have never loved Thee well
And some have lost the love they had;

And some have found the world is vain,
Yet from the world they break not free;
And some have friends who give them pain,
Yet have not sought a friend in Thee;

And none, O Lord, have perfect rest,
For none are wholly free from sin;
And they who fain would serve Thee best
Are conscious most of wrong within.

O Savior Christ, Thou too art Man;
Thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried;
Thy kind but searching glance can scan
The very wounds that shame would hide.

Thy touch has still its ancient power;
No word from Thee can fruitless fall;
Hear in this solemn evening hour,
And in Thy mercy heal us all.

Henry Twells

A prayer for healing.  We sing it to ‘Jesus, thou Joy of Loving Hearts’ (Maryton).

And yet.

You know what I worry about? Call me neurotic if you will, but I wonder about the virtual life of my community. At any moment, there are broadcasts of wretched trials of adolescent mothers, accounts of children sexting because their sophomoric national leaders must twitter their groins, adolescents using video-controllers fashioned as pistol grips and slaughtering hundreds of virtual antagonists.

You know what I hope is not is not the case? What if the words of our Lord applied to these virtual displays: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matthew 5.28).

I think most would agree that Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 about lustful looking and adultery apply just as much whether the receiver of such looks is real or virtual. What struck me about the above quote, from here, is that the same may go for virtual acts of murder.

But is there a line? Is Angry Birds right up there with Call of Duty? Is there a difference between killing virtual human beings and killing virtual evil-monster-aliens? Or virtual round green pigs?

I don’t have a clear answer to those questions, and I actually gave up violent video games like Unreal Tournament quite a while ago. I began to recognize disorder inside my own spiritual house after playing them. The quote above helped put a little meat and bone on what was little more than a feeling, so I thought I would share it. The comment box is below, and any insights are welcome.

This is a story about a small family with old secrets living in big a world that is both beautiful and terrifying. My wife and I had a hard time figuring out the appropriate age range for this novel, but we decided that the age of the main characters, early adolescence, is about right. It has much of what you’d expect in a fantasy novel — wonders, monsters, thrills, and adventure — but it doesn’t rely too heavily on these elements. There are at least a few gratifying nods to Wendell Berry, (!) and although his book certainly proceeds from the spirit of Lewis and Tolkein, Peterson is his own author. He is at times hilariously goofy (whatever you do, don’t skip the footnotes), and others powerfully poignant. He knows the aching of the human heart for Eden, for home, and this heartache gently nudges the reader throughout the story.

My wife and I are scrambling to get a hold of the next few books in this five-part series, and not just to find out how it ends. This is definitely one we will read to our children.

Maybe I should have watched more King of the Hill back when I had the chance.

H/T Sam Smith at The Rabbit Room.

O Lord and Master of my life,
Grant not that I should live
In lazing sloth, nor weak despair,
And spurn the tasks Thou’d give.

Ambition’s spirit, lust for pow’r,
Cast far away from me.
Let not my tongue spout empty words,
Nor profane man, nor Thee.

Instead of these, Thy servant grant
Thy freeing chastity,
And teach, O Christ, in pathways dark
Thine own humility.

A patient Spirit give to me,
Thy calm indwelling Dove,
And that I might Thee better know,
Lord, crown my heart with love.

Yea, Lord and King, help me to spy
My own corroding faults,
And not to judge my brother’s sins,
But serve him as I ought.

Great God, our Father, Christ His Son,
And Spirit, Trinity,
Most bless’d art Thou from age to age,
And through eternity.

Snake-handlers

When I was a boy there were lots of holy rollers and snake handlers around.  I don’t think they do that much anymore; in fact, I think it’s illegal most places now.  But back then, especially up in the mountains, they would make a big event out of it, and put flyers up around town a few weeks beforehand.  So we’d all go and watch them, and someone would bring out a big box full of snakes and start handing them out.

I remember one man unbuttoned the top of his shirt and dropped a big old copperhead down in there. He walked around a bit and waved his arms, but the snake didn’t bite him.  Apparently the snake would just go to sleep.

There was another man who lived nearby to us, and he was one of those snake-handlers, and he would go around most of the time with bandages on his hands, because he was all time getting bit by those snakes.  Eventually he developed a tolerance for the poison so that he would get bit and it wouldn’t hurt him.  In fact, one time a snake bit him, and the snake died!

One of the local deputies was well-known for arresting innocent people.  [Grandad had a term for this but I don't remember what it was.  It might have been "pay-seeker."  Apparently they had a pay-per-arrest model in those days.]  One day the deputy went to the house of one of the snake handlers and shot all of his snakes, citing some law or another.  So the snake-handler shot and killed the deputy, because he had taken away his livelihood.  Nobody missed the deputy too much, but that wasn’t a very Christian thing to do.

Unions

The coal miners were always trying to form a union, and the coal company was always trying to stop them.  One time, before I was born, my father was going with some of the workers to meet at the store to talk about the union.  The company had caught wind of it, and they brought in a big machine gun which they mounted inside the store, and when the workers were pulling up and walking in they let the gun loose on them.  Lots of the miners fought back, and some of them died.  My father started to run back to his car to get his shotgun, but his friend talked him out of it.  I’m glad he did, because if my father had been killed, I wouldn’t have been born.

There was a union organizer who had come to live in the area with his wife and children, and I went to school with one of his sons, who was my age.  We were pretty young, but he had another son who was older, about fifteen or sixteen.  One night the company hired some men to go shoot their house up.  The union man was out at a meeting somewhere, and they pulled up in a car and let loose with their machine guns and then sped off.  The mother and her children did their best to huddle together in the kitchen.  My friend who I went to school with was shot in the arm, but it just grazed him and he got better.  But the older son was shot several times and died, and all he had been doing was sitting by the fire reading a book.  And just like that they killed him.

Alcohol

Back when I was a heathen I used to drink pretty regularly.  One day the local Baptist pastor had come to visit, and he was talking to my mother.   I came home from work and opened a bottle of beer, as was my habit, and my mother introduced me to the man and told me his name.  I didn’t know who he was, so trying to be polite, I said, “Mr. Smith, can I offer you a beer?  I’m sorry that it’s not cold.”  ”No, thanks, not right now,” he said. “But when I do drink it, I prefer it warm.”  Later after he had left my mother let me have it for offering beer to the Baptist pastor.  But I didn’t know he was a pastor; I was just trying to be polite.

One time before your grandma and I were married, I went to go visit her at her mother’s house.  And I had a toothache that had been bothering me for several days.  Now Lois’ family weren’t drinking people, but when I told her mother about my tooth, she said I should put some whiskey on it to numb it.  They had a bottle of whiskey back in a cabinet under the sink, and she gave me a little bit and told me to hold it in my cheek there where the tooth was.  Well, I wasn’t going to pass up good whiskey, so I swallowed it as soon as she wasn’t looking and stuck my tongue over in my cheek so it would look like I still had the whiskey in there.  And I sat there for pretty much the whole visit with my tongue over in my cheek like that.  But you know what?  After a few minutes my tooth really did stop hurting.

"I've just sucked one hour or your life away."