Jerusalem Fair, I long to be there,
The Lord is now waiting to welcome me there,
There's rest from our toil,
And life without care,
I long to be there sweet home _{Author unknown}

Mark Twain once said that when he was seventeen he thought his father didn't know anything, but four years later when he was twenty-one, he was amazed how much his father had learned. There's an inherent truth in that saying that highlights how our understanding and appreciation of things grows as we get older. We may think that something has changed, when essentially it's been the same all along; we've just learned to appreciate it.

I've noticed that in myself in my appreciation for some hymns of late.  When I was younger I certainly didn't exactly dislike them, but I didn't appreciate many of them in the way that I do now. These days I can't help seeing that there's something different about them, something deeper, something more profound than much of what we hear today.  That's perhaps because of the fact that they were wrought through the writers' hard fought experiences, and when something stems from experience it carries more authority. Reading about John Newton, the former slave-ship captain and writer of Amazing Grace, and Charles Wesley, and people like Fanny J Crosby, bears that out. All went through great experiences and their experience is reflected in what they wrote.

Does that mean that we should avoid new hymns, choruses, songs? Of course not. Equally as I've been moved by hymns of late, when I was much younger I spent much of my time listening to modern gospel music.  My closest friend reminded me a couple of weeks back that the way we originally started talking about Christ, after which he subsequently gave his heart to the Lord, was by me lending him an Andrae Crouch tape. (Andrae Crouch is a famous American gospel artist for those who don't know).

The same music that played for hours on end in my little studio flat, was just a noise to people older than myself.  To me, however, it was from heaven direct to my innermost being.  Andrae's songs spoke of loving Christ in a way I'd only previously heard in contemporary love songs, and I knew he meant it.  Just as with the old hymns, it was born of an experience. It perhaps wouldn't even be considered contemporary music now, but in that era it was the latest thing.

Preferences, likes and dislikes in church music and choruses is very topical these days.  We all have our likes and dislikes - myself included. 

Rejoice with those who rejoice _{Romans 12:15}

God requires that we praise him for what he's done and that we worship him for who he is. No particular flavour of delivery has a monopoly on God's blessing. The anointing is not in the song, but in the heart of the singer when lifting up the name of Christ.