Here is a touching video of illustrations set to the music of Andrew Peterson’s “Family Man” from his album Love and Thunder. Since I’m promoting his music, check out my post on his Behold the Lamb of God album. I also highly recommend his latest release Resurrection Letters, Vol II.

• The Author of The Shack Denies Penal Substitutionary Atonement
  In this interview, William P. Young flatly denies a cornerstone of our Christian faith. [HT: Challies]

• How to Witness Honestly
  In a Q&A session, Paul Washer offers an honest approach to evangelizing the lost. [HT: walksbyf8h]

• Free Album of Hymns for Modern Ears
  Page CXVI is a new music project that seeks to make hymns known to the church again. Being a traditional type of guy, I was pleasantly suprised by this album. Side note…from what I understand, CXVI is the page number where Aslan sings Narnia into being.

• Albert Mohler on TIME Magazine’s “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now”
  Mohler was interviewed by TIME about their #3 world changing idea: “The New Calvinism”.

• Louis Berkhof Collection is Now Available on Logos PrePub
  Berkhof’s collection (which includes his widely cited Systematic Theology) is a tremendous resource for doctrinal theology of the Reformed tradition.

• Any Song. Legal. Free
  Search the web for any song in the world. You can also create a playlist.

• 2009 Desiring God Pastors Conference
  Audio and Video files are being posted daily from this year’s conference.

• Have You Ordered Your Five Solas Hooded Sweatshirt Yet?
  Expose the world to the “five solas” of the Reformation.

• 20 Classical Guitar tracks for $2.99
  This is a good deal from Amazon if you enjoy guitar music.

• Back Up the Important Stuff On Your Computer
  Mozy is a great way to back up your hard drive online. I have been using it for over a year and it has come to the rescue more than once.

Every day through December 25, Amazon.com is unveiling a new Christmas song available to download free for a limited time. Check back daily to see what’s next.

Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson is one of my favorite Christmas albums. The musical arrangements are unique and there is a lyrical depth that goes beyond what you usually hear from the vast majority of Christian artists. I find myself listening to it throughout the whole year because it tells the story of our Savior and the plan of salvation beginning in the Old Testament and concluding in the New Testament. Andrew Peterson is a gifted musician and storyteller. This is not your standard Christmas music.

Andrew Peterson writes:

“What makes this bunch of songs unique is that I wanted to remind (or teach) the audience that the story of Christmas doesn’t begin with the birth of Jesus. Many people tend to forget or have never even learned that the entire Bible is about Jesus, not just the New Testament. So the musical begins with Moses and the symbolic story of the Passover (Passover Us) and works its way through the kings and the prophets with their many prophecies about the coming Messiah (So Long, Moses) to the awful four hundred years of silence before God told Mary she’d be having a baby (Deliver Us). After the song called Matthew’s Begats, which lists the genealogy of Jesus, the story picks up in more familiar territory with Mary and Joseph and the actual birth (It Came To Pass, Labor of Love). The final song is called Behold, the Lamb of God, which ties together the Passover and the beauty and scope of the story.”

And here’s a review from the Dallas Morning News:

“If you buy only one Christmas CD this year, let it be this one. No doubt, Mr. Peterson is one of the finest singer/songwriters in Christian music. On ‘Behold’ he is joined by some of the other best of the best, including Fernando Ortega, Derek Webb, Jill Phillips and Sandra McCracken. The result is an organic album that relies on strength of writing faithful to Scripture, expert musicianship on everything from piano to hammered dulcimer and vocals that are pure and honest. What you will hear is a new classic in the making.”

Listen here. Purchase here or on iTunes.

The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers & devotions. When asked what books have had a great influence on his life, John MacArthur included The Valley of Vision among them.

Puritans like John Bunyan, Thomas Watson, Richard Baxter, and Isaac Watts knew their hearts, their Bibles, and their God much better than we do. Their prayers reveal a personal, humble, passionate relationship with an awesome God, a living Savior, and an active Spirit. Reading their meditations should inspire us to pursue the same level of reality as we worship God.

I have also been greatly encouraged by an album of songs inspired by The Valley of Vision released by Sovereign Grace Music. Available here or on iTunes.

You can’t beat this. Covenant Life Church has released a great album of hymns—traditional hymns with traditional melodies. I have been really enjoying this album. You can get it here for whatever you feel is fair—no questions asked (or for free if you tell five friends about the album).

Hymns have served the people of God for generations and will endure long after we’re gone. They are time-tested and true. They speak to every circumstance of life and point us to the wisdom, love and power of our gracious God and Savior.

Horatio Spafford

As we sang It Is Well With My Soul this past Sunday at church, I thought of the traumatic events in the life of Horatio Spafford that led him to write this much loved hymn

It is only by God’s grace that one could experience such personal tragedies and sorrows as did Horatio Spafford, yet, be able to say with such convincing clarity, “It is well with my soul.” It is an enormous challenge to embrace the significance of this hymn. (Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”)

Hymn-Writer Horatio G. Spafford

Spafford was born on October 20, 1828 in North Troy, New York. He was a successful lawyer in Chicago. He was deeply spiritual and devoted to scripture.

Death of Only Son & the Great Chicago Fire

The first tragedy was the death of his only son in 1871. Shortly after, on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire swept through the city. Horatio was a prominent lawyer in Chicago and had invested heavily in the city’s real estate, and the fire destroyed almost everything he owned.

The Wreck of the Ville Du Havre

Two years later, in 1873, Spafford decided his family should take a vacation somewhere in Europe, and chose England knowing that his friend D. L. Moody would be preaching there in the fall. Delayed because of business, he sent ahead of him his family: his wife, Anna, and four children, daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta.

On November 21, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic on the steamship Ville du Havre, their ship was struck by an iron sailing vessel and two hundred and twenty-six people lost their lives, including all four of Spafford’s daughters. Anna Spafford survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to Spafford beginning “Saved alone.” Spafford then sailed to England, going over the location of his daughters’ deaths. According to Bertha Spafford, a daughter born after the tragedy, It Is Well With My Soul was written on this journey.

It is Well with My Soul

Horatio Spafford wrote this most poignant text so significantly descriptive of his own personal grief – “When sorrows like sea billows roll…” It is noteworthy that he did not dwell on the theme of life’s sorrows and trials, instead, focused in the third stanza on the redemptive work of Christ, and in the fourth verse, anticipates His glorious second coming.

Composer Philip Bliss

Philip P. Bliss, the hymn composer, was a prolific writer of gospel songs. He was so impressed with the experience and expression of Spafford’s text that he wrote the music for it. Shortly after writing It Is Well With My Soul, Bliss died in a tragic train accident.

It Is Well With My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.