{"id":32913,"date":"2022-05-23T10:29:47","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T16:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=32913"},"modified":"2022-05-23T10:29:47","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T16:29:47","slug":"come-thou-fount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/come-thou-fount\/","title":{"rendered":"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Broken Bow Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past couple of years we have become rabid fans of Broken Bow Music, who has given us some wonderful new <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> music that features a signature blend while sharing powerful messages. They have just released their rendition of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Hv4SQsOcVZA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/center>This sacred song has become an anthem of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">Thanksgiving<\/a>. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/come-thou-fount-every-blessing\/\">We have told its history<\/a><\/strong> before and we encourage you to read it again. It is a song of praise but one that was written in 18<sup>th<\/sup> century, so some of its lyrics and phrasing could use some explanation:<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This is a clear reference to God. Jesus is the Living Water through which all blessings flow. As water is essential to sustain physical life, the Savior and his teachings (living water) are essential for eternal life.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Robinson, the 22-year old cleric who wrote this song, was looking for a sermon. This was here he started.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Streams of Mercy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This is another water reference, indicating that God\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">love<\/a> and mercy is never-ending. Isaiah 49:10 \u2013 <em>\u201cThey shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Praise the Mount<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This is a reference to the Sermon on the Mount, though have likened it to the Mount of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified.<\/p>\n<p>The Sermon on the Mount is where the essence of the Gospel of Jesus is taught. In this sermon Christ gives the Beatitudes \u2013 defining what it means to be a disciple of Christ and how those who embrace them can positively affect the world.<\/p>\n<p>As the scripture says, <em>\u201c\u2026in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In Hebrew the word ebenezer means \u201cstone of help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This raised stone was a reminder to the Israelites of what the Lord had done for them.<\/p>\n<p>This Ebenezer quite literally was a monument set to remember the great help that God granted the one raising the stone.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>O to Grace how great a debtor<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Grace is perhaps one of the most misunderstood terms in the Bible. Some take \u201cgrace\u201d to mean they can do nothing because Christ has done everything.<\/p>\n<p>But that is not grace.<\/p>\n<p>God is a keeper of law and there are laws of both justice and mercy.<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Timothy 2:5 it reads: <em>\u201cFor there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A mediator is not only one who saves and redeems, but one who balances things by covenant \u2013 meaning that one in debt will still need to change or provide recompense. This means living a life continually through the Gospel of Christ, to \u201calways remember Him\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Prone to Wander, Lord, I Feel It<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This is a reference to human weakness and the Light of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>In the sermon on the mount Christ challenged \u201cbe ye therefore perfect\u201d. That\u2019s not a command to be what we, as humans, cannot.<\/p>\n<p>It is a charge to become \u201ccomplete\u201d (the word \u201cperfect\u201d translates more closely to \u201ccomplete\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>We become complete by living the Gospel of Christ and making covenants with God. Each person is possessed with \u201cthe light of Christ\u201d &#8211;\u00a0 a knowledge of right and wrong, moral sense, or conscience, and it can direct us to moderate our actions.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s easier said than done. Hence, we are \u201cprone to wander\u201d. This is, perhaps, the most relatable part of Robinson\u2019s sermon in song. All of us fall short of what we hope in being true to God.<\/p>\n<p>And yet God loves us anyway.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">Thanksgiving<\/a> is a time of acknowledging God. But just as importantly, it is an acknowledgement of the goodness of life and all the blessings we all receive from it.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of religious belief, gratitude is a universal virtue near all faiths \u2013 and faithlessness \u2013 embrace.<\/p>\n<p>Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing has been embraced as a hymn of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">Thanksgiving<\/a> because it expresses, in very human terms, how blessed we are despite the imperfections we all possess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past couple of years we have become rabid fans of Broken Bow Music, who has given us some wonderful new Christmas music that features a signature blend while sharing powerful messages. They have just released their rendition of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. This sacred song has become an anthem of Thanksgiving. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":83,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,11],"tags":[924,271],"class_list":["post-32913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-music","category-christmas-news","category-thanksgiving","tag-song-of-thanksgiving","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}