Blessed Be Your Name was written by songwriter and worship leader Matt Redman and his wife, Beth. We sing this song together quite often, but I only recently learned the story behind the song. Matt Redman shares more about the story behind the song in his book “Blessed Be Your […]
Song Story
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Osinachi Kalu Okoro-Egbu is a popular Nigerian Gospel singer and song writer who is professionally called Sinach. She was born March 30, 1973. She is a senior worship leader at the Believers Loveworld, Christ Embassy Church. She has written more than 200 gospel songs, which are favorites in Nigeria and […]
Charles Carroll Luther wrote this hymn in 1877. I first heard this hymn while in high school when my late friend Ray Munsaka sung it in Tonga and the words and tune have never left my heart since then. My wife Enid does the Luhya version and I am content […]
The lyrics of this song were written by Judson Van DeVenter around 1890 (later put to music by Winfield S. Weeden, published in 1896). Van DenVenter was an accomplished musician and worked as an art teacher and supervisor of art in local public schools where he lived. Records reveal that […]
Andrae Crouch (1942-2015) wrote many songs, and contributed a great deal to praise and worship music across America. But, when Andrae was a boy, his parents didn’t know if he would be able to do anything for the Lord. He was dyslexic… and he stuttered badly; his parents were certain […]
Today we look at the story of the hymn Higher Ground. Johnson Oatman Jr. (1856–1922) was one of the most prolific gospel songwriters of his day—with some 7000 texts to his credit. Hymnary.org includes more than 1,150 texts found in various collections. “There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus” (“No, Not […]
A lone teenager’s masterful poetic message finds it way around the world. Occasionally, in the search for information concerning the story behind a particular hymn obstacles are encountered. Such is the case with one of our best-loved hymns, “My Jesus, I Love Thee.” It was not until recent years that […]
“Because He Lives” is one of the most loved and frequently used songs written by Bill & Gloria Gaither. Originally used by the Gaither Trio and other southern gospel groups, the song became popular for use in local church congregations and choirs. Gloria has shared in interviews how the song […]
The China Inland Mission, which James Hudson Taylor had launched in 1865, was exposed to a series of persecution, including the evacuation of missionaries and the martyrdom of local Christians, which was ignited with the Boxer Uprising in 1900 and being aggravated in the nine-year-long Civil War. Nonetheless, the CIM, […]
This song was written by Samuel Trevor Francis (1834-1925) after a serious bout with depression. As his biographers tell the story, one winter night as a teen, Francis was walking across the Hungerford Bridge over the River Thames. He paused and stared down into the depths of the river below. […]
William Cowper (pronounced “Cooper”) was one of the few hymn writers that was also a recognized secular poet. This much-beloved and yet tormented literary figure was born in his father’s rectory at Great Berkhampstead, England, on Nov. 26, 1731. His father, George II, was a chaplain. His mother died when […]
Horatio G. Spafford was a successful lawyer and businessman in Chicago with a lovely family – a wife, Anna, and five children. However, they were not strangers to tears and tragedy. Their young son died with pneumonia in 1871, and in that same year, much of their business was lost […]