Now that we've moved back to the U.S., we've started attending regular church. (More on this perhaps in a future post) and my Vietnamese wife, who doesn't have any background in Christianity, has decided to learn about the Bible, and has been reading through a children's Bible storybook.
As someone who is a Bible nerd, I'm enjoying this because it gives me an excuse to talk about all the things I find fascinating about the Bible.
It also gives me an excuse to introduce her to some of my favorite music.
For example, when she got to the Babylonian exile, I introduced her to Rivers of Babylon by Boney M. (Actually she had heard this song before in Vietnam--Boney M. is somewhat popular in Vietnam--but now she understands what the lyrics actually refer to.)
When my wife got up to the passion narrative, I introduced her to Jesus Christ Superstar.
Now she's up to the Book of Acts, and recently read the story of Paul and Silas being freed from jail. "You know," I said. "There's actually a lot of really cool music inspired by that story."
The first thing that came to mind is the song Keep Your Eyes on the Prize. There's lots of versions, but I like Pete Seeger's best:
I'm also fairly sure that I've Got A River of Life is inspired by the Paul and Silas story, although it seems surprisingly hard to find solid information about I've Got A River of Life on the Internet. (After doing a couple Google searches, I feel the frustration of this redditer.)
Anyway, I've Got A River of Life is another one of my favorite Christian songs.
Searching around Youtube reveals there's a few other good tunes inspired the Paul and Silas story.
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