"Dang, Newfangled Music..."

Sometime you read something that just perfectly expresses your own thoughts. That's what this little piece did for me...

I like all kinds of music. But when it comes to church music, I confess I like the oldies best. I prefer the old songs because they put me in a nostalgic comfort zone. They bring back memories to me.

For instance, I love the song, “How Great Thou Art.” It was sung at the funeral of both my parents, and every time I hear it, I think of them. But is that necessarily good? When I sing “How great thou art” I should be directing my praise to God rather than thinking about my parents.

I’m sure there are memories you have attached to certain familiar songs. That’s why we like to sing them. They’re like a comfortable pair of slippers. That’s why there’s so much opposition to new music in church.

I came across an interesting article written by a leading clergyman who compiled six reasons for opposing the trend of new music in the church: (see if you agree with his observations)

1. It’s not as melodious as the more established style.
2. This new music creates disturbances and causes people to act in an indecent and disorderly manner.
3. It places too much emphasis on instruments rather than on godly lyrics.
4. The lyrics are often worldly, even blasphemous.
5. It is not needed, since preceding generations have gone to heaven without it.
6. These new musicians are young upstarts and some of them are lewd and loose persons.

If you’d like a copy of that article, you may want to know it was written in 1783 as a statement against the use of hymns. (Including “Blessed be the Name” and “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”)

If we aren’t careful, we will start judging the value of praise and worship songs based upon how they make us feel rather than whether they direct praise to God. So here is a very valuable WORSHIP TIP: The goal of worship is to honor God, NOT to please the worshiper

(From Pastor David Dykes - Green Acres Baptist Church)

Found, and Still Lost…

There’s a widespread problem in the Body of Christ – I know, I know…There’s more than one! – We tend to place all of the emphasis of Grace at the point of our initial forgiveness, but almost none on the ongoing work of transformation of life where it is so desperately needed.

We get saved and then immediately take control of our lives out of His hands and plunge right back into “making it” by our own efforts. We assume that we must live a life pleasing to God as a "thank you" for redemption, a type of repayment for the cross and eternal life in Heaven.

But we have one insurmountable problem – We are not capable in the slightest of pulling off the "look how godly I am now" life. We know we need to live a Godly life after we have experienced Christ – I mean, if we act just like everyone else, doesn’t that mean He has made no difference? And doesn’t that place our salvation in jeopardy?

At the end of the day, we're too often left confused and full of spiritual self-loathing as the consequences of our repeated noble, but vain, attempts to live “the Christian Life”. We’ve reduced Grace by making it just about the forgiveness of sin, and disconnected it from the transformation of our lives, with frustrating results.

God not only gives us our salvation, but He's the only one who gives us the power to actually change and live a holy life through his Grace. Note, I didn't say perfection – but there's a difference between "imperfection" and the conscious choice of sin that testifies that we are still in bondage to the very things that dominated us before we ever knew Christ.

In the book of Romans, Paul says that it is by faith that we have access to Grace, and it's by Grace that we stand. Grace begins with mercy, but it’s more than mercy. Grace is also the outworking of God's power in our life to transform us by the renewing of our mind.

But we never really seem to grasp that truth. Too often, we don’t take seriously the reality that God can deliver us from the very things that have owned us for so long. As a result, we just keep trying, failing, crying, hiding, and repeating, all the while hoping that maybe Jesus will return on Monday morning between 1 am and 6 am before we've had a chance to mess up the forgiveness we just re-pleaded for on Sunday night. We've given up on the power of God being able to change us.

May I offer an alternative? Let’s get alone with Father and say something like this: “God, it’s by Grace that I’m saved. Thank You for the love, mercy, and forgiveness You provided for me through the death of Jesus Christ. I realize if I’m going to live this life You’re calling me to, I also need massive amounts of Your Grace to do it. Thank You for the Grace by which I’m saved, and the Grace by which I stand. I want Your Holy Spirit – the ‘Christ in me’ that is my ‘hope of glory’ to transform me and lead me to life more abundantly.”

Amen.

(Thanks and props to Ray “Roman” Wayne for the original thoughts on which this article was based.)