Hymns that touch my heart

Church today was like attending a history of music class. The great reformist Martin Luther preached that "next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world."

Guest speaker Pr. Victor Wong gave a lively sermon about five church hymns that touched his heart, including two beautiful songs that we sang last week at my grandma's memorial - "Amazing Grace" and one of my favourite songs, "What A Friend We Have in Jesus".

A simple yet beautiful rendition of "Amazing Grace" by LeAnn Rimes.

The composers of these beautiful hymns went through a lot of hardships and grief in their lives before they created these masterpieces that would be sung all over the world. John Newton, composer of "Amazing Grace", grew up in a God-loving family until his mother died when he was 7. Then he became a rebellious and vile sailor who worked on a slave ship until one day his ship got caught in a huge storm and in that moment of danger, he cried out to God to have mercy on him. Then he went on to write the most famous hymn of all time - "Amazing Grace".

Rendition of "What A Friend We Have in Jesus" by Neville Peter

Joseph Scriven, who wrote "What A Friend We Have in Jesus", lost his first fiancee who fell from a horse and drowned in a river on the day before their wedding day, then lost the second woman he loved to pneumonia. However he still did not give up on God and when his mother was going to pass away in Ireland, he was in Canada and had no money to go back to visit her. Therefore he wrote and sent her the poem "What A Friend We Have in Jesus" to comfort her.

The message of the day was: If there is a breakdown in your life, just hang in there a little while longer, for God will surely send a breakthrough.