The Christmas Special

Corrie Ten Boom. This is

Christmas!

We are back, baby! Woo! I am so excited. It is Christmastime! Well, okay, so we're not fully back. And it's technically Advent, not Christmas. But hey, it is still the Bright Forever Christmas special. Oh my goodness. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to be back in action recording this podcast for you today. We'll be right back. with amazing women in my life, and he has done just that. Gemma Noel Peavyhouse was born November 18th, and just a few days ago celebrated her one-month birthday. She is truly the greatest blessing in surprise that Dean and I could ever have asked for. I have always wanted to name a child Noel, and with Gemma, my dream finally came true. You see, I love Christmas. Christmas is my most favorite time of year. I love the songs, the decorations, the candies, the cookies, the cold. Well, not in Florida, although this year we're finally getting a cold Christmas. And most importantly, the story. It's easy to get caught up in the glitz and the glitter of the holidays and forget that it's actually all about humility. Sin. Hell. Sin. And the grave death itself has been defeated. So for me, Christmas is a beginning that weaves the tapestry of God's indescribable love for us that finds its ultimate ending in our resurrected savior and King Jesus. So this is kind of a Christmas special. It's not the normal format that we would do a podcast in, but I wanted to do something special for this Christmas season. The regular podcast will return at the end of January, but I had to do something. My family calls me King Christmas, so I couldn't let Christmas pass without a little something, without giving you something to listen to and to talk about and to think about before this season passes us by. All the music you hear today is from my church, Bell Shoals Church in Brandon. We also have a campus in Apollo Beach. We have an Espanol campus at the same location or in the same area as the Brandon campus. And then we have a Riverview campus that is relaunching at Easter this next year. Our Christmas album came out about a year ago called Born Unto Us and it's from Bell Shoals Music. It is available on Amazon, Spotify, Apple in both English and Spanish versions. It's a fantastic album. If you have a chance to listen to the entire album, please do. So I have three hymns or Christmas carols that I want to share with you. These songs that ring in our ears during this season are some of my all-time favorites. favorite music. The three hymns that I'm going to be sharing with you today are Angels We Have Heard on High, What Child is This, and Go Tell It on the Mountain. Angels We Have Heard on High is French in origin. The original author of the song is unknown, but it's believed that he is from the Languedoc region of France. The name, which I won't even begin to try and pronounce to you, translates to angels in our countryside in English. It was translated and tweaked into English in 1862 by James Chadwick, an Anglo-Irish Roman Catholic who served as bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. Angels We Have Heard on High celebrates the birth of Jesus found in the Gospel of Luke. The song focuses on the shepherds and their encounter with the angels foretelling the birth of the newborn child. In 129 AD, Pope Telesphorus ordained that the Gloria be sung at the Christmas Eve midnight mass. The phrase became known as the angel's hymn and considered one of the earliest known Christmas hymns? Well, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Gloria was in Latin, Gloria in excelsis Deo, which means glory to God in the highest. The Gloria is believed to have inspired the chorus in Angels We Have Heard on High. The way the word Gloria is sung in Angels We Have Heard on High is melismatic. That's a big word for holding one syllable while hitting several notes. So Gloria That's called melismatic. This has always been my favorite part of the song. And I think it adds to the joyousness of the tune. And it sounds like what an angelic choir might've sounded like. Can you imagine being with the shepherds when the angels appeared to tell them, that Christ was born that amazing Christmas morning.

Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o'er Bye. Christ whose birth the angels sing

favorite lines is, and the mountains in reply, echoing their joyous strains. It reminds me of Psalm 98, where it says, shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth burst into jubilant song with music. And then go down a little bit further. And it says, let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing together for joy. Let them sing before the Lord before he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. So why all the pomp and circumstance for a little baby? God promised a king would come. Wait, he's from Nazareth? Are you kidding? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Come and worship a baby in a feeding trough. What child is this? Who lay to rest. On Mary's lap. Sleeping. Whom angels greet with anthem sweet. While shepherds watch or keeping. This. This is Christ the King whom shepherds guard and angels sing. Haste, haste to bring him laud. The babe, the son of Mary. Why lie he in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian fear for sinners here. The silent word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce him through. The cross be born for me and you. Hail, hail the word made flesh, the babe, the son of Mary. So bring him incense, gold and myrrh, come peasant king to own him. The king of kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him. Raise, raise a song on high, the virgin sings her lullaby. Joy, joy for Christ is born, the babe, the son of Mary. Would it surprise you to learn that that was written by an insurance salesman? In 1865, William Chatterton Dix was 29 years old when he suffered from a near fatal bout with sickness. He was afflicted with severe depression and And this near-death experience changed him completely. While undergoing recovery, he experienced a spiritual awakening, a revival that inspired him to begin writing hymns. He became an eager and passionate reader of the Bible. It was in this time when he wrote the lyrics of the manger song. which later became What Child Is This? and incorporated a tune written over a century before called Greensleeves.

What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping whom angels greet While shepherds watch are keeping Bye.

The profound lyrics and the touching melody of this carol evoke the depth of the situation. It paints for us that picture of the reality that God himself has put on flesh and became the incarnation of I am. God himself. has arrived to rescue humanity. What child is this? This is Jesus. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. So what's our job? What am I supposed to do now? What are we supposed to do with this information? Go tell them on the mountain. is one of the most well-known and beloved Negro spirituals and represents just one of the countless contributions made to American music by enslaved people. These songs represented a passion for life and living despite the suffering, the humiliation, the unimaginable cruelty of slavery. Because most slaves were uneducated, these songs were passed along through a vibrant and rich oral tradition and were eventually captured and written down by one special American family. Not long after the Civil War, John Wesley Work, a black choir director in Nashville, Tennessee, began a mission to write down melodies and lyrics of these well-known songs. Often traveling hundreds of miles to seek former slaves who had sung this or other songs like it, Work's passion for music and history of these plantation songs was passed on to his son, john wesley jr whose wife was the music teacher at fisk university one of the first universities for blacks in the south beginning in 1871 the fisk jubilee singers went on tour introducing the world to the genre of negro spirituals while raising funds to keep the doors of the school open Before long, their repertoire of uplifting spirituals not only saved their university, but earned them worldwide recognition, including notable audiences like President Arthur and Queen Victoria. So when I was looking at the history behind Go Tell on the Mountain, it is so rich. I don't even have time necessarily to do it on this podcast. We could fill... An entire podcast just on Go Tell It on the Mountain, which we may do next year. I don't know. But Go Tell It on the Mountain has been covered by many artists over the years. Many, many hundreds of artists have covered this. James Brown, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, the golden gospel singer, Sarah Evans for King and Country. So many people. have covered this song. It's one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time, and it always gets everybody into the holiday spirit. So how did it become a Christmas song? Because it didn't have generally Christmassy lyrics. The lyrics to Go Tell It on the Mountain were based off a Christmas story that John Wesley Work Jr. heard as a child. The story is about a young boy who goes to the mountains to tell the shepherds about the birth of Jesus. When he returns home, his family's really happy and they're excited and they all sing Christmas carols together. It's what inspired John Wesley Work Jr. to write the lyrics to Go Tell It on the Mountain. And he wanted to share this Christmas story with

everyone. Don't tell it that Jesus Christ is born. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. While shepherds kept their watching, or silent flocks by night. They're shown a hole was born and God sent us salvation that blessed

The lyrics of Go Tell in the Mountain are about spreading the good news of Jesus. A nativity story. The song is a reminder that Christmas is not just about presents and Christmas trees. It's about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. I am so glad to get to do this podcast. And I hope you all have a very Very Merry Christmas. I want to take a moment to just say, if you enjoy this podcast, please continue to share it. Even during the time off, share the podcast. Go back and listen to it again. The more downloads, the more strength this has to go out and share it on your social media and share it on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and TikTok and wherever you can share it and just let people know about it. And we will be back here again in January. If you'd like to contact the show or contact me in particular, please send us an email or you can go to our website to www.thebrightforever.com and you can go to the contact us and send us that way. Or you can send us an email to podcast Again, that's podcastatthebrightforever.com. I wish you and your family a very, very Merry Christmas. And I want you all to just remember how much you are loved by the God who stepped out of heaven and into our world, into our time to do what we couldn't do. and to conquer death and hell and the grave so that we can have life and life to the full. Merry Christmas and have a happy new year. We're out.

Thank you.