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Save $7.15 (41%)
Per-track Total: $17.10
Paul S. Jones (Author)
Genre: Sacred
Length: 63 minutes (18 tracks)
Size: 86.76 MB
Media: 
Audio
New Music For The Church, Vol. 1 Paul S. Jones
While the compositions in this album are varied and are performed by numerous musicians and ensembles, the pieces and performers have one unifying purpose: to bring glory to God. The recording begins with works that offer praise to our great God and His Son, our Saviour. The first (Almighty God, We Come to You, a hymn by the Rev. Eric J. Alexander) acknowledges our need for the Holy Spirit in order to hear the Word of God and to Follow it. Included in this section of praise is the French tune {Quelle est cette odeur agreble?} to which the English words by missionary Frank Houghton are often sung: “Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendor.” Next, musical prayers are offered—first, a prayer of consecration; then three ardent prayers on poems of Christina Rossetti; and finally, a prayer for vision set to the Irish tune {Slane}.
Our peace with God is the third section's focus. Included here also are themes of God's love, our comfort in Him, and our “friendship” with Christ as joint heirs. This friendship, of course, is only possible because of our redemption from sin, which “Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” both declare. The former is played to the Welsh tune {Hyfrydol} and the latter to the English tune {Rockingham}. The price of our redemption and our resulting peace with God was the atoning death of Christ at Calvary.
The final section contains four works that proclaim our pining for God; that is, our yearning for Him and for our heavenly home. This intense longing for God is captured in the Welsh word, hiraeth, which does not have a good English translation, but basically embodies the yearning, even aching homesickness on by expatriates for the land of Wales. For the Christian, it is this kind of deep desire for Christ and for heaven that should characterize one's life as Paul declares in Philippians, chapter three—a desire to know Christ better; but even more, an intense longing to be with Him.
Paul S. Jones, D. M., is Organist and Music Director of Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is the Director of Music & Worship for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Dr. Jones is also a board member of the Church Music National Conference, and holds degrees in Bible, piano performance, composition, and choral conducting.