Tune Your Hearts To God

My Song Shall Be Of Jesus

 Fanny Crosby

Though blind­ed by an in­com­pe­tent doc­tor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blind­ness, she said:

It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me.

In her life­time, Fan­ny Cros­by was one of the best known wo­men in the Unit­ed States. To this day, the vast ma­jor­i­ty of Amer­i­can hymn­als con­tain her work.

~copied from cyberhymnal.org

Below is one of her hymns.  It has such beautiful words.  

My song shall be of Jesus;
His mercy crowns my days,
He fills my cup with blessings,
And tunes my heart to praise;
My song shall be of Jesus,
The precious Lamb of God;
Who gave Himself my ransom,
And bought me with His blood.

My song shall be of Jesus;
When, sitting at His feet,
I call to mind His goodness,
In meditation sweet;
My song shall be of Jesus,
Whatever ill betide;
I’ll sing the grace that saves me,
And keeps me at His side.

My song shall be of Jesus,
While pressing on my way
To reach the blissful region
Of pure and perfect day.
And when my soul shall enter
The gate of Eden fair,
A song of praise to Jesus
I’ll sing forever there.

There is an arrangement and a chorus written by David West.  You can find that HERE

What is practice?

PRACTICE

What is is not - It is not making mistakes and then fixing them.

What it is - It is avoiding the mistakes in the first place.

 I thought this was oh so very good!   If someone had instilled that into me when I was first learning, it probably would have helped so much.  I tend to be in a hurry and want to rush through something new just to hear what it sounds like.  I am sure if I teach my little ones to go slow, think, and work at doing it correctly the first time, then we won't continually be repeating to correct mistakes.  I will be working on this more with my students and am excited to see what improvement this might make with some of them.  Haste does make waste, so why not do it right the first time even though it may be slower going.  Gradually slower will get faster and will be done correctly.

Music Philosophy in a Nut Shell

Psalms 40:3 

And he hath put

a new song in my mouth,

even praise unto our God: 

many shall see it, and fear, 

and shall trust in the LORD.

This is my music philosophy in a nut shell.  My music should reflect my new nature.  The words that come out of my mouth or my musical instruments should reflect a new song that God has put into my heart when He saved me!  As this new song is reflected in my music and my praise is given to God, this will cause many to see it and fear and to trust in the Lord!  By my song others should know who my God is!   

There is no argument about whether certain music is right or wrong.  It should be very clear whether or not that music is showing forth the new song that God has given us!   Would a child of the devil take his words and put them to the music of our great hymns and gospel songs?  NO!  Then why would a christian say it is ok to take our words and put them to the music that the world offers?  Think about it!

He put a new song in my mouth

I'll sing it o'er and o'er

Even praise unto our God

I'll sing it more and more

I pray that many will see it and fear

May my life shine forth the Word

So that others will trust in the Lord

Because of what they've seen and heard.

Psalms 47:6-7 

Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, 

sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: 

sing ye praises with understanding.

How often are we singing praises to God?  Four times in these two verses it tells us to sing praises to God.   God thought it was important.  

We are to sing praise with understanding.  Understand who God is! He is the King of the universe, all powerful! 

Understand who and what you are singing about lest you use God's name lightly and take His name in vain!

 

 Praise Him, Praise Him

Words: Fan­ny Cros­by,
Music: Ches­ter G. Al­len 

Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessèd Redeemer!
Sing, O Earth, His wonderful love proclaim!
Hail Him! hail Him! highest archangels in glory;
Strength and honor give to His holy Name!
Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children,
In His arms He carries them all day long:

Refrain

Praise Him! Praise Him!
Tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him! Praise Him!
Ever in joyful song!

Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessèd Redeemer!
For our sins He suffered, and bled, and died.
He our Rock, our hope of eternal salvation,
Hail Him! hail Him! Jesus the Crucified.
Sound His praises! Jesus who bore our sorrows,
Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong.

Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessèd Redeemer!
Heav’nly portals loud with hosannas ring!
Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever.
Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King!
Christ is coming! over the world victorious,
Pow’r and glory unto the Lord belong.

Grab Bag Winners

Winners already!  

Three students, Mackenzie, Anna, and Makayla have already reached the first goal.  They earned 25 pom poms and were able to choose a grab bag from my treasure chest.  

 

practice Incentive

This is not an original idea.  I found it on another blog, but cannot remember where so if you have come across it, please let me know so I can give credit to whom credit is due.  My students each have a jar on the piano.  As they practice they can fill it with pom poms.   Of course there are certain criteria they must meet in order to earn pom poms.  Below are some things they can do. 

PRACTICE

Fill out your practice time. 

4 days = 1 pom-pom

5 days = 2 pom-poms

6 days = 3 pom-poms

 MEMORIZATION

Memorize a designated song

 receive 3 pom-poms

TECHNIQUE

Play your finger patterns perfect

 receive 2 pom-poms

THEORY

Completed theory done during the week,

not on the way to lesson, earns 2 pom-poms

Win a Grab Bag Prize

25 pom-poms in your jar earns a grab bag

 This week Jared, memorized three songs. WOW!  He just about filled his jar already!