All Grave

Wikipedia: Richard Wurmbrand, also known as Nicolai Ionescu (24 March 1909 – 17 February 2001) was a Romanian Evangelical Lutheran priest, and professor of Jewish descent. In 1948, having become a Christian ten years before, he publicly said Communism and Christianity were incompatible. Wurmbrand preached at bomb shelters and rescued Jews during World War II.[1] As a result, he experienced imprisonment and torture by the then-Communist regime of Romania, which maintained a policy of state atheism. After serving a Read more...

The man who saved AM Radio. Divorced 3 times. Addicted to OxyContin. Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And yet not long before he died, he gave his life to Jesus. Joel Rosenberg shares more and this quote from Rush It’s tough to realize that the days where I do not think I’m under a death sentence are over.  Read more...

Hymn History: Leaning on the Everlasting Arms Author: Anthony Johnson Showalter   “(Anthony Showalter) was known as an editor, composer, compiler, writer of theory textbooks, song leader, and successful businessman, simultaneously managing three music-related businesses and having interests in lumber (and) insurance …” (The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology) Talk about a “Renaissance Man!” Anthony Showalter showed an aptitude for music, Read more...

“In those days that tried men’s souls the old hero preferred the bread and water diet and the foul air of Culpeper jail, to the abandonment of his faith in Christ and loyalty to him as King.” Located just west of New Market, Virginia (originally called “Cross Roads”), is the grave of Anderson Moffett, the third pastor of Smith Creek Read more...

Hymn History: Victory in Jesus Author: Eugene Monroe Bartlett Sr.   Eugene Monroe Bartlett, Sr., was laid to rest at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, only two years after suffering a debilitating stroke at the age of fifty-four. Bartlett was quite the musician, having composed several hundred hymns during his lifetime and founding the Hartford Music Institute Read more...

“Stephen’s living face was as the face of an angel. Brother Kline’s dead face was the face of a saint—no, not the face of a saint, but the face of the earthly casket in which a saint had lived, and labored, and rejoiced; and out of which he stepped into the glories of the eternal world. Amen!” (Benjamin Funk, Life Read more...

“I have finished my work, I am waiting at the River, looking across for further orders.”   So ended the life of one of America’s most notable African-American preachers. In fact, one biographer called John Jasper “the most famous of all the slave preachers.” (Dance, “Jasper, John.”, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, 2006), while another entitled his biography Read more...

Hymn History: Jesus Loves Me Author: Anna Bartlett Warner   “You have rendered a real and patriotic service, and on behalf of all our people I desire to express our obligation and our appreciation.” (President Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to Anna Bartlett Warner)   The Origin of the Hymn “Jesus Loves Me” Few hymns in the English-speaking world have Read more...

Hymn History: The Love of God Author: Frederick Martin Lehman   Were all the skies parchment, And all the reeds pens, and all the oceans ink, And all who dwell on earth scribes, God’s grandeur could not be told. Rabbi Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai   Frederick Martin Lehman was born in Schwerin, Germany – a town east of Hamburg about Read more...

Hymn History: Go Tell It on the Mountain Publisher: John Wesley Work Jr. The fact that we sing “Go Tell It on the Mountain” every Christmas is really a credit to the tenacity of John Wesley Work Jr., a former professor of Latin, Greek, and History at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In fact, C. Michael Hawn says bluntly: “’Go, Read more...

Hymn History: Trust and Obey Author: John Hanna Sammis   If you turn into the main entrance of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, and make your way east on Westminster Road, you’ll pass the grave of Red Skelton and Elizabeth Taylor. Just after the final resting place of these two famous people is “Section L” – the portion Read more...

Hymn History: Just a Little Talk with Jesus Author: Cleavant Derricks   “The same songs that ministered to impoverished blacks enduring discrimination in the Jim Crow South, spoke to the hearts of disadvantaged whites whose lot seemed similarly dismal…” (Greg Freeman)   The Origin of the Hymn “Just a Little Talk with Jesus” Few gospel songs capture the heartfelt simplicity Read more...

Hymn History: I Will Sing the Wondrous Story Author: Francis Harold Rowley   “The first element in worship is adoration. The Hebrews expressed this by their posture and not alone my their word. For they prostrated themselves before God. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” (Francis Harold Rowley)   The Read more...

Hymn History: Sweet, Sweet Spirit Author: Doris Mae Akers   “Her music was a special gift, and she gave God all the glory for it. It wasn’t her, it was God that put that gift into her possession.” (Rev. Willa Grant Battle, Founding Pastor of Grace Temple Deliverance Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota)   Born in Brookfield, Missouri, on May 21, Read more...

Hymn History: Grace Greater Than All Our Sin Author: Julia Harriette Johnston   I have partly learned some of my lessons, Some others but dimly I see; I was ever, I think, a slow learner: My Teacher is patient with me; So patient and tender and loving, So gentle and kindly His rule, I care not how simple my lessons, Read more...

From Reach Beyond (HCJB):   One Sunday morning at Lake Harbor, Paul Rader gave a missionary challenge, and at the invitation, Clarence, who had been leading the singing, went forward to give his life for missionary service.  Rader was greatly moved. “God bless him.  We need Clarence Jones here in this work.  But if God wants him in missionary work, Read more...

  William Bradford, signer of the Mayflower Compact and Governor of Plymouth Colony for over thirty years. His memoir, Of Plimoth Plantation, preserves the history of the Pilgrim migration.     Image Credit: File:of Plimoth Plantation First 1900.jpg – Simple English Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 1900, simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Of_Plimoth_Plantation_First_1900.jpg. Read more...

William Brewster was pastor to the Pilgrims during and after the Mayflower Voyage. The only University-trained member of the voyage, he was the spiritual leader of the group.   The Pilgrim Voyage is the subject of the Brinkman Adventures series: Freedom.   Image Credit: Elder William Brewster  (1564-1644) – Find a Grave… 1 Jan. 1564, www.findagrave.com/memorial/16195888/william-brewster. Read more...

Better known as Patch the Pirate, Ron Hamilton authored thousands of songs and the musical adventure series, The Adventures of Patch the Pirate.   Obituary in Christianity Today From his obituary: Ronald Allen Hamilton was born in South Bend, Indiana on November 9, 1950. His parents, Melvin Hamilton and Leota Marie Hamilton, were perfect family planners. Marta Sue was born exactly two Read more...

Moody Church: Many a lost soul has been won to the Lord by wandering over the cobblestones of memory’s lane and hearing again the sweet hymns of the church. When the roll is finally called up yonder, Avis B. Christiansen will find stars in her crown never dreamed of. As poetess and hymn writer, her inspired words have brought easing Read more...