Hello Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Just a note to say thank you for your friendship with Christian Concourse! We humbly ask for your prayers and gratefully accept any financial support you may feel led to share with us. Again, thank you, sincerely.
We must give glory and praise to our Master, Jesus Christ, to be able to announce the completion of our fifth “Praise to Our Redeemer Devotional” video. This visual tool is specially developed for use in nursing home ministry. For the direction of our thoughts in this devotion we draw from the theme of the old favorite hymn, “When the Roll Is Called.” Below, we quote from the text of the introduction:
In this devotional, we are focused on the classic hymn, “When the Roll is Called.” It was written and published by James Black in 1893. He was an American composer of hymns, a choir leader and Sunday school teacher who lived in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Over the years this song has held a place among some of the most famous Christian hymns.
The story is told that one Sunday, while calling the roll of his Sunday School class, James Black noticed one of his regular students was absent. Later he visited her home to see how she was and found her suffering with pneumonia, an often fatal illness in those days. Shortly thereafter she passed away. As Mr. Black reflected on the loss of this precious child and her absence at roll call, he thought of the roll call in heaven one day. Passages like Hebrews 12:23 came to his mind which speaks of “…the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,…” and Revelation 21:27: “…they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” It is said that our author looked for a hymn that addressed this “roll call in heaven” and found none, so he wrote “When the Roll is Called.” *
This well-known anthem of our faith points to the ultimate goal of our Christian hope: one day each of God’s children will realize eternal life in the realms of Glory, where we will join the blessed throng in Heaven, basking in the presence of our loving Redeemer, Jesus Christ!
Let us sing together this classic song of hope and joy. And, as we sing, may we remind ourselves of the wonderful promise of Heaven we enjoy by the mercy and grace of our God!
* From: https://christianmusicandhymns.com/2019/09/when-roll-is-called-up-yonder-hymn-story.html
If you would like to watch the video of this devotional, click here. “When the Roll Is Called” is at the bottom of the list on that page. We would count it a great honor if you took the time and invested the effort to check it out. Maybe you know someone who would benefit from the encouragement we prayerfully included in the message of hope in this video.
Thanks again for your prayers and support, Love in Christ,
Jerry and Dar Johnson