We Do Not Serve a Dead Hero

 

We Do Not Serve a Dead Hero

Matthew 28:6 “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

          One of the major differences between Christianity and other religions is the fact that we serve a risen Savior instead of a dead hero who is now considered to be a god.  God did not declare “I was”, but rather Exodus 3:14 declares, “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

          We, as His musical servants are presenting musical offerings to a living God who by virtue of His omnipresence is in this world today.   When we present to the God “who is” our best musical offerings as prayers, we have the assurance that he is able to receive them because 1Peter 3:12 explains,” For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” 

          So, our hearts with great confidence cry out, “He is risen—He is risen indeed.”  The fact that he is alive gives all Christians a “lively hope”. 1Peter 1:3 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”  This lively promise should cause you as a Christian musician to music unto God looking forward as 1Peter 1:4 explains, “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you…”  Christian musicians do not music in memory of a dead ‘superstar’ but unto a living Savior who is ‘I AM THAT I AM’. 

          B.D. Ackley wrote these words in His gospel hymn He Lives:

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ, the King
The Hope of all who seek Him, the Help of all who find
None other is so loving, so good and kind.

Ackley understood that Christ is “The hope of all who seek Him”.  He understood that this lively hope causes those who seek Christ to rejoice.  Christian musicians have the marvelous privilege of musicing the good news that Jesus Christ is the hope and help of all who seek Him.  It is a shame that so many Christians fail to take advantage of the joy and peace that comes to those who practice His presence throughout their daily activities.  Remember, we do not serve a dead hero but rather a living Savior who is ‘I AM THAT I AM’. 

 

 

 

Song for the Day He Lives by B.D. Ackley

 

Thought for the Day

Every musician who musics about Jesus Christ must be sure that he or she actually knows Christ by the life changing experience of becoming a born again Christian.  B.D. Ackley penned these words in his song He Lives “You ask me how I know He lives?  He lives within my heart.”

Christ Arose

 

Christ Arose

When I was a boy no one that I had contact with doubted that Christ was real or that He arose from the dead.  I know there were plenty of atheists and agnostics but no one in the little town of Fort Scott Kansas ever got on the KMDO radio talk show, put an article in the Fort Scott Tribune, or ever gave a speech against the reality of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.  Today, we live in a world where people openly doubt the existence and deity of Christ.

          I am strengthened by the true truth of this gospel hymn.  So, let me declare my credo:  Christ was born of a virgin, He was begotten of God, He left the portals of heaven and took on the form of a man, He was tempted like we are—yet without committing any sin, he lived on this earth while he ministered, He suffered, He died on a cross for my sin and the sin of the whole world, He died and rose again and is sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us all.  Hallelujah!

          This hymn is saturated with deep true truth which is backed by the inspired Word of God.  Regardless of what postmodern men tend to believe.  Christ was crucified by cruel unbelieving men and was dead and placed in a tomb and the great stone was sealed.  This hymn declares, “Vainly they watch His bed, vainly they seal the dead.”  However, the story does not end there for it declares, “Death cannot keep his Prey. He tore the bars away.”  This hymn declares the power of Jesus my Savior and my Lord over death, hell, and the grave.  Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever, with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose!  Hallelujah! Christ arose!

 

Thought for the Day

Those who wish to reign with Christ in Heaven must experience His saving and cleansing power in this life.

 

Secular and Sacred Music-part 2

 

Secular and Sacred Music-part 2    

 Some of the music mentioned in the Bible was not performed to honor God.  For instance, 1Samuel 18:7, “And the women answered one another (anah 6030)[i.e., they performed the music responsorally] as they played [sachaq (saw-khak') 3782], and said [i.e., sang], Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.  And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?”  This song was sung responsorally, not as a part of public worship to God, but rather to honor David. The word sachaq means to make merry or to make sport.  There is no indication that that their musicing was of a religious nature. The Bible makes no condemnation of these women’s secular musicing, neither does it intimate in any way that it was an occurrence of God honoring worship that could rightly be considered to be sacred musicing.

 I Samuel 21:11 and 29:5 both mention this singing and identify it as  musicing which honored David.  These two verses do not make any mention of God or praise being made to God by the performers.  Neither did King Achish nor the princes of the Philistines, nor did King Saul give any indication that this instance of responsorial singing (anah), playing (sachaq),  and dancing or piping (mecholah 4246) was sacred musicing to God. Certainly, the musicing that took place around the molten calf made from golden earrings of the people which was recorded in Exodus 32:1-4 and Deuteronomy 9:16-25 was not sacred musicing. Neither was the musicing that took place at the order of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 3 an instance of sacred musicing.  Also,  musicing at the party for the prodigal son’s return,  as recorded in Luke chapter 15, should be considered to be sacred musicing.

 

Secular and Sacred Music-part 1

 

Secular and Sacred Music-part 1

Considering that  all of the muscing in the life of a Christian is a  sacred experience blurs the universal understanding of sacred and secular or sacred and profane music and musicing.  The theological belief that  there is essentially no difference in these two generas when a Christian performs them did not originate from general music culture, but rather from 20^th and 21^st century protestant Christian culture. However, just because a Christian musician’s life is ultimately a life of worship and service to God  does not move secular musicing over into the sacred category philosophically.  

Everything that a Christian musics must not bring a reproach upon the cause of Jesus Christ.  However, it is an error of philosophical judgment to believe that all of a Christian’s musicing is a sacred experience based on the understanding that ultimately a Christian’s life is a life of honor, service, and worship to God.  Everything that a Christian performs is not necessarily sacred musicing. The reason for this understanding of the whole of music and musicing is that some  of the music that Christians perform is not in any way addressed to God as its object, to religious matters, or to direct intentional praise and honor of God. The fact that this type of music and musicing does not have God as its object does not negate the intent of a committed Christian performer to live out his or her life as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”

 

The Most Important Thing for a Musician to Hide

 

The Most Important Thing for a Musician to Hide

“Psalm 119:11-12, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.  Blessed art thou O lord, teach me thy statutes.

Musicians who are too busy to read God’s Word regularly seem to suppose that God will pour knowledge into their brain like oil through a funnel.  How can a musician honestly ask God to teach him or her His statutes if that Christian has not read them, studied them, and hence, has hidden them in his or her heart? 

          The Hebrew word translated statutes is derived from chaqaq (2710) which means to engrave something.  So, the psalmist is stating that he has engraved god’s statutes deep on his heart.  This connotes deep study, care and respect for what God’s word teaches.  The word teach lamad (3925) means to goad.  Are we as Christian musicians willing to submit our minds to the rod of the Lord?  Many, many times in my life I have found myself saying “ouch” when the Lord has finally awakened my mind with the goading of His instructive rod.  I read God’s word but failed to understand what it was teaching.  Only after the rod of correction was I able to get it through my head that God was trying to teach me something important.

Thought for the Day

 We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit every day to order our steps in the way we should go.  Either we will submit and follow, or we will most likely lose our way.

 

Understanding Sacred Music

 

Understanding Sacred Music

The reason the Levite musicians could prophesy “in the words of God” for the service of the LORD is simply that they understood sacred music.  The Bible does not tell us that these musicians were proficient in all the artistic wisdom of Hurrians, Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Sumerians, or Akkadians, but rather in the sacred songs of the Temple.  Likewise, in the New Testament, in the Ephesian letter, church musicians are admonished to “speak to yourselves in psalms (psalmos 5568) and hymns (humnos 5215) and spiritual songs (pneumatikos 4152 oide 5503).”  The New Testament Christian musician is counseled to be knowledgeable in the songs of the Lord.  Colossians 3:16 also confirms that the Christian musician must be knowledgeable in the songs of the Lord when it states, “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”.  These church musicians were knowledgeable in the psalms of the Bible, hymns or songs of laudation to God and spiritual or non-carnal songs.

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 4

 

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 4

Evangelical Christians are in danger of accepting a new music philosophy of worship that has lost its historical meaning.  Historically, church music has represented the worldview of Christians – not the worldview of those who were anti-Christ.  Much of what contemporary Christian music represents is not clearly a Christ-centered worldview.  Music style is one of the ways for a composer to present his worldview.  This is especially true when a style of music like rock music is so almost universally associated with a sub-culture.

 All over the world people of most nations know that rock music is associated with mistrust, sex, drugs, and rebellion.  So, some churches have accepted a style of music that muddies the water of clear Christian witness.  When Satan completes his stratagems concerning church music the new synthesis witness is saturated with the antichrist witness simply by association.  Is this theory farfetched?  I do not think so.

 

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 3

 

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 3

            I hear well-meaning pastors and worship leaders assert that we do not have to preserve our Christian heritage of how we have musiced unto God.  That is seriously flawed logic if I ever heard it.  Nothing lasts unless it has a champion.  We are unwise if we think for one single moment that Christian musical worship cannot be, over a period of time, debauched by secular influences.  If the church persists in its assertion that there is no difference between the sacred and the profane, our musical worship will without doubt amalgamate and mutate into a new synthesis that is not Christian.

Although the inspired writer was not addressing music or musicing, what is being taught in Ezekiel 44:23 extends to how we music unto God.  Eze 44:23 very clearly that it is the responsibility of leadership to make a distinction between the sacred and the profane when it states, “And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.” One of Satan’s stratagems is to amalgamate music styles to the point that the church has no way to separate sacred music from secular music.  He is doing the same thing with God’s plan for the family.  Same sex marriage so confuses gender and the holy bond of marriage that future generations will have very twisted views concerning marriage and family.  Satan is doing the same thing with our understanding that being a born-again Christian means a total life changing relationship with a personal infinite God.  The whole “added dimension” theory effectively does away from the “old man” versus the “new man” and passing from death unto life when one becomes a truly born-again Christian.  Once Satan has convinced the church that becoming a Christian only means the old man plus an encounter with Christ, being born again has lost its former meaning.

 

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 2

 

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 2

That being said, those who are responsible for safe-guarding corporate Christian worship have the right and responsibility to set guidelines for how a particular Christian fellowship of believers will music unto God.  Frankly, that means that there some ways of musicing must be rejected because of their destructive influence.  When we stand at the judgement before Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire (Revelation 1:14b) we will give an account for what matters in church music.  Since Church Music Matters and all music in the life of a Christian matters so much, a Christian must define philosophically just what his or her musical convictions are.  It is my belief that we may be required to give up some of our musical preferences, but we cannot remain true to true truth and give up our convictions concerning music that are Bible based.

For instance, if every church in the world denies the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the inspiration of the whole Bible, the inerrancy of all Scripture they are all still true.  If the whole world denies that the music part of Church Music Matters, it still is true.  I believe that God demands that we stand up for truth concerning church music.  We must be like the energizer bunny.  We must keep going and going and going and going and going...  If it takes a constant fight to ensure that we preserve our Christian heritage of music by rejecting trends and methods of musicing that are destructive to Christian worship, we must keep fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting…

 

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 1

 

Thinking Through What Really Matters-part 1

There are a host of things about church music that matter to a conservative Bible believing Christians.  Style matters, words matter, how we arrange the elements of music matters, what this music does to the whole life of the auditor matters, how appropriate the music is matters, how suitable it is matters, and what God thinks about this music matters.

            Since conservatives and liberals think differently style phobia is a concomitant of both views.  Peaceful, agreeable co-existence therefore is not possible. Since conservative musicians do have style phobia, we must carefully analyze why we take such an adamant view.  Does our praxial view involve conviction or preference?  If it is based on preference then it is certainly not worth all the fuss.  In this post postmodern age more and more Christians are beginning to recognize that believers in Christ need each other.  Since we live in a post-Christian age, all Christian believers are in the minority worldwide.  Splitting  into two “belief” camps over music style has hurt our worldwide Christian witness.  In some cases it is necessary, but before believers break fellowship with other Christians  they must be sure that what they are splitting and splintering over is truly destructive to Christian worship. 

Putting Specifics to What One Believes-part 2

 

 

Putting Specifics to What One Believes-part 2

As to the issue of naming names, St Paul mentioned Demas in 2Timothy 4:10 and in Galatians 2:11 Paul mentions Peter, ”But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed”.  Note that Paul mentioned people by name in his letters to other Christians.  Certainly modern thought would consider that St, Paul was not politically correct, but I would remind the reader that he wrote these letters under the inspiration of the blessed Holy Spirit.  It is one thing to think about what is right and wrong with religious music, but it won’t do much good if we do not share, in love, that knowledge with other Christians.

1John 4:1 teaches, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”  It seems that almost everyone is an expert on church music in this century.  Just as prevalent is the notion that worship leaders have heard from God that this or that way of musicing is “of the Spirit”.  Certainly, what 1John teaches in the fourth chapter of his epistle is apropos today.  Every worship leader is responsible to “try the spirits whether they are of God”.  A wise man once said, “You should believe almost none of what you hear and only about half of what you see”. 

Putting Specifics to What One Believes-part 1

 

Putting Specifics to What One Believes-part 1

It is not considered politically correct to specify what and whom when it comes to sacred music and musicing.  So, Christian musicians tiptoe through the tulips so to speak when it comes to putting specifics to what one considers to be wrong with some religious music and musicing. The Matthew 7:1,statement, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” is often used as a prohibition of making any musical judgements that are specific even though these judgments have legitimate foundations that have a Bible and or a music basis. The Bible also states in John 7:24, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment”.  The Bible also states in Matthew 7:20, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them”.

The fabric of music and the landscape that surrounds it is “Christian” only when it is congruent with and has a footprint that is theologically accurate and has the propensity to accurately represent the moral nature of God.  Christians have the right and the responsibility to inspect the music’s “fruit”.  Let me  put it simply, for those who find it difficult to conceptualize my writings.  If something looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, swims like a duck, has a duck’s footprint, and associates itself with other ducks, one may safely make the judgment that it is indeed a duck.

 

Spirit Led Musicing Can Be Efficacious-part 3

 

Spirit Led Musicing Can  Be Efficacious-part 3

          Pastor’s should help the musicians select proper music for the service by first of all telling the musicians where the service is intended to go.  What are the immediate goals of the service?  What is the topic and text of the sermon?  Should the organist player not play during prayer?  What atmosphere and mood should be set by the instrumental prelude?  Should the choir sing before or after the message or both times?  Do you plan to invite people to pray at the altar after the message?  Will the call to prayer be aimed at saints or sinners?  Will the appeal be to sinners to come to repentance or to Christians to greater Christians commitment?  Do you have a particular song that you wish to be sung at the end of the service?  Do you want the minister of music to sing an invitation hymn?  Do you want the congregation to sing with the minister of music or stand quietly while he or she sings alone?  Would you prefer that the musicians play softly with no singing at all?

          The musicians including the song leader, minister of music, organist, pianist, praise team leader, keyboard player and perhaps some key instrumentalists should be called together with the pastor for a face to face meeting.  All of the key musical personnel need to know the pastor’s goals for the service in question.  The Holy Spirit should never be expected to do for us what we can do for ourselves.  It s the pastor’s responsibility to inform all who are involved in worship leadership what his goals are for the worship service.

Spirit Led Musicing Can Be Efficacious-part 2

 

Spirit Led Musicing Can  Be Efficacious-part 2

           The larger church has a regular music staff including a minister of music, pianist, organist, keyboards, and instrumentalists.  These professional musicians need mentoring and personal attention of the pastor.  The church musicians of a small congregation, who are most often volunteers, need even more pastoral attention.  They need musical and spiritual mentoring.  If a pastor is going to mentor these volunteer amateur church musicians, he is going to need to know more about music than the names of the lines and spaces.  Pastors of a small church will find that their two to four hours of music taken in Bible College or Seminary will grow thin under such conditions.

          A regular part of a pastors “lifelong learning” and continuing education should include continued training in music and music philosophy.  Understanding problems of developing and administering a Christocentric biblically based music philosophy must be a preferred claim of the pastor’s continuing education.  Churches should support Bible Colleges and Seminaries that provide an opportunity for continuing education in church music for their pastor.  Pastors must take a hands on approach to church music.  This does not mean destroying all initiative of the novice church musicians who give selflessly of their time and energies.  Many pastors who are strong leaders make the deadly mistake of choosing all the music for the worship and evangelistic services.  This is demeaning to a church musician.  Although it may be easier to pick all the selections and push the musicians around like they were pawns on a chessboard, it is the wrong decision to make.

          This style of leadership is not “pastoring” or “mentoring” but rather the work of dictator.  Pastors with strong personalities often treat professional church musicians the same way they do novices.  Rather than defining exact style and sequence of worship they desire they become silently frustrated with what is happening in the worship and evangelistic services and blame most of the problems on the musicians and the music.

 

Spirit Led Musicing Can Be Efficacious-part 1

 

Spirit Led Musicing Can  Be Efficacious-part 1

Is church music only a “getting started” task or a vehicle used to pick up the offering?  Does the effectual fervent musicing of a righteous man or woman avail much?  It is my belief that Spirit led musicing can and should be efficacious in the 21st century church.  Music ministry can be a very effective vehicle for the Word of God to ride into the hearts of the worshiping body.  Music can and should be a means of preparing people’s hearts in the worship or evangelistic service. 

          If music is going to accomplish the many purposes of public worship it will probably be accomplished not by accident but rather very much on purpose.  Applying the 20th century principles of chance music or indeterminacy to church music only creates an atmosphere of chaos in worship.  Many pastors are so busy making sure that public worship does not become formal that, in an attempt to be folksy and familiar, the worship service has little or no form or direction.  I believe that pastors who wait for something spontaneous to light a fire under a sleepy, dry, worship experience, normally get what they expected out of the worship service—little or nothing at all.

Ways of Thinking-part 3

 

Ways of Thinking-part 3

The conservative Christian has the tendency to conserve and preserve established institutions.  The thesis thinker must be careful to keep public worship from being morally damaged or destroyed.  Resist harmful change, not all change!  Resist worldliness and secularization of Christian music worship, not all change in musical worship style.

Postmodern means that which represents thinking that is a further development of the thinking of modern man.  The term “postmodern” when referring to time simply means postmodern times or after modern times.  Postmodernism refers to an ideology that is more advanced or liberal, if you will, than modernism.

Modernism is a worldview containing rationalism and humanism that disdained former orthodox ideologies.  For instance, modern man believes that there are aspects of Christianity that are not true, and that truth and morality are relative.  Now this modern thinking is thought to be old-fashioned since many postmodernists do not believe that we can “know” truth or reality.  Orthodox Christians and modernists “thought differently” about absolutes and truth.  Postmodernists have taken thought even farther by rejecting absolutes in music completely.  The fine arts are often a part of the Avant-guard.  Music and the fine arts in general often give us insight into where a particular culture is headed.