Award-winning author Kenneth W. Osbeck tells the dramatic stories behind twenty-five gospel songs, including "The Old Rugged Cross"; "His Eye Is on the Sparrow"; and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand."
Insights into the stories of pain and hope that are behind the hymns that have inspired generations of Christians. CD and cassette tape include powerful renditions of each song in the book.
This revised best-seller is an inspiring daily devotional based on 366 great hymns of the faith. It contains a portion of each hymn along with Scripture readings, meditations, and practical applications.
Evangelical Christianity--the faith professed by one in four Americans--exerts an enormous influence in American society. Believed by some to have originated as a reaction to the social revolution of the 1960s, evangelicalism as a distinct subculture in fact dates to the advent of radio. The evangelical faithful flocked to the airwaves, developing a nationwide mass culture as listeners across denominational lines heard the same popular preachers and music. Evangelicals left behind the fundamentalism of the early 20th century as broadcast ministries laid the foundation for the culturally engaged New Christian Right of the late 20th century. This historical ethnography presents the era's major radio evangelists and songwriters in the own words, drawing on their writings and recordings, as well as songbooks, liner notes and "song story" anthologies of the period.
The old gospel song invited listeners to turn their radios on and hear the . . . music in the air. Now return to the eventful days when Americans could “turn the lights down low and listen to the Master’s radio” through this colorful and inspiring history of Christian music and ministry during the golden age of gospel radio. Learn the stories behind such legendary groups as Blackwood Brothers, Statesmen, Gaithers, Back to the Bible Quartet, Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet, Haven of Rest Quartet, and Stamps Quartet. Follow the careers of the great songwriters of the radio days, men such as Albert Brumley, Merrill Dunlop, John W. Peterson, and Stuart Hamblen. Read about the evangelists who pioneered Christian broadcasting, such as Billy Graham, Charles Fuller, Jack Wyrtzen, Percy Crawford, Paul Myers, Torrey Johnson, Walter Maier, Theodore App, and Paul Vader. And learn the stores behind the greatest gospel songs of the country, from “Some Golden Daybreak” to “Beyond the Sunset,” plus more than 100 others!
This full-color, illustrated gift edition includes twenty-eight of Osbeck's most popular hymn-story devotions, including "Amazing Grace"; "Great Is Thy Faithfulness"; "Holy, Holy, Holy"; and "It Is Well with My Soul."