"JOY TO THE WORLD!"

I trust that you have had a blessed week of praising, praying, and preparing your heart for "The Birthday of the King!"
Tomorrow is Christmas Sunday, and all across our nation, if Jesus tarries, there will be children's programs, Christmas plays, Christmas Cantatas, beautiful special and instrumental music, and inspiring messages from the men of God!
One of the most beautiful Christmas carols is Joy to the World.  It is thrilling to learn how the Lord wedded three different men together to create this blissful carol.

     "This beautiful carol is the work of three individuals living on two continents and spanning three centuries to produce this carol that today is sung by millions of people around the globe.

      'Joy to the World' began in England with the work of Isaac Watts.  Born in 1674, he was the eldest son of an Anglican dissenter who frequently got thrown in jail for opposing the teachings of the Church of England.  Isaac was precocious and gifted at learning languages.  Before his 4th birthday he had developed the habit of speaking in rhymes, a habit that so irritated his father that at one point the elder Watts took a whip to the boy, and Isaac begged:  "O father, do some pity take and I will no more verses make."
By the age of nine, the boy had mastered Greek and Latin.  He conquered French and Hebrew in his early teens.  He criticized the boring hymns of his father's church until a frustrated deacon challenged him to do better.  The next Sunday he showed up with an original hymn, and brought a new one in each Sunday for the next several years!

      A few years earlier, another child prodigy from Germany had mastered by the age of 12, the violin, oboe, harpsichord, and organ all while studying law at the university.  In 1698, at the age of 13, George Frideric Handel decided to abandon his law studies to focus on his real love, music.  After the successful composition of many operas, Handel moved to England where, in 1741, he composed his most famous oratorio, "The Messiah", in just 24 days.  (I hope to post the amazing story of this beautiful masterpiece next week.)

      The beauty of Watt's words, and the majesty of Handel's music, might never have met had it not been for the third man, an American named Lowell Mason.  Taking musical phrases from different sections of the 'Messiah', and wedding them to the words of Isaac Watts, Mason's uplifting melody was published for the first time in 1836.  Thus, three different men from three very different backgrounds united their hearts and minds to produce this beautiful Christmas carol that has lifted spirits heavenward for more than 170 Christmases!  Their joint inspiration has truly brought joy to the world!"

     "Joy to the world, the Lord is come!  Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room, and Heaven and nature sing.
      Joy to the world, the Saviour reigns!  Let men their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy.

      No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.
      He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love!"