Righteous is the Main Thing

           Righteous is the Main Thing

          Proverbs28:5 -6, “Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.  Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.”  It is a strange thought to some Christian musicians that wicked men and women do not understand God’s judgment.  Because God does not exact judgment at the end of each day, some musicians are duped by Satan into believing that sinners have it better in this life than Christians. 

          God’s Word attests to the fact that it is better to be righteous and poor than to be rich and perverse.  The reader should remember that I did not make this comparison but rather it was the inspired Word of God.  Rich people do not have to be perverse, but riches can buy many opportunities to experience perversion.  The Christian musician that does not possess much of this world’s goods should be advised of two things.  First, the righteous should concentrate on being righteous and second, should not fret over those who are perverse and also possibly rich.  The Christians responsibility is to walk carefully before God and his or her fellow man.  God will bring judgment on the wicked whether or not they understand that He will. 

Quote for the Day

 1Timothy 6:5-6 “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.  But godliness with contentment is great gain.”  Remember to concentrate on being content every day.  That is the only way that you can keep the main thing the main thing.

Prayer and Thought for the Day

My precious Lord I want my life, my heart, and my actions to be pleasing in Your sight.  Help me to always be a good and faithful musical servant.  I know that it is not my might or power or worldly wisdom that my life will be pleasing unto You.  Help me to have the wisdom to ask You for Your wisdom.  Help me throughout this year to seek your will for my daily walk. Help me to concentrate on being righteous.  This I am asking in Your wise and wonderful name.  Amen.

Traditional Church Music—part 2

Traditional Church Music—part 2 

          Yesterday we considered traditional church music and its use in public worship.  Although traditional church music may at times be fraught with problems—so are many other styles of music that are now being used in public worship.  As nervous church leaders who are deeply involved in leader-shift are sweeping the worship service clean of those things like solid oak pulpits, grand pianos, organs, church steeples etc. all traditional church music is most often added to the pile.

          Many church musicians consider all traditional forms of church music to be the culprit responsible for all or most of the church’s problems.  Writers who are conservative are often accused of making sweeping generalities about current problems of music styles that are now being used in public worship. However, the removal of hymns, gospel hymns, gospel songs because they are no longer useful is a much more egregious sweeping generality.  So, every genre of music used as a concomitant to the good news of the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ must be individually evaluated as to its usefulness in the context of worship.

Traditional Church Music—part 1

Traditional Church Music—part 1

          Traditions are harmful when they are in conflict with God’s Word. Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”   However, St. Paul states in 2Thesalonians 2:15, “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”  So, the New Testament writers only condemned traditions that were in conflict With Scripture—not all traditions.  The word paradosis (3862) which was translated traditions is derived from paradidomi 3860 which means to instruct or transmit.  So, St. Paul was admonishing the Christians at Thessalonica to stand fast in these truths which had been transmitted to them.

          Traditional church music is harmful when it takes the focus off of the main things i.e. the “weightier matters” (Cardinal doctrines) found in the Bible or when it is partnered with confusing or incorrect doctrine.  Matthew 23:23, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”  If traditional music is so shallow that it obscures the “weightier matters” then it is harmful to public worship.  However, worship leaders should not act as if traditional church music is the only music that is capable of being banal music or an inadequate vehicle or the transmission of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

To my Faithful Blog Readers

To my Faithful Blog Readers

          Some of my faithful readers have for many months read my thoughts on music. As I have said before, it is my desire that you now have greater insights into the Scriptures concerning music in the Bible.  Church musicians are not usually language scholars and, on the contrary, they have general tendency to avoid original language study concerning Bible music.

          All too many musicians' libraries consist of a host of volumes on music history, theory, literature, a few volumes of hymn stories, and their favorite hypnology text without a single concordance or lexicon to study the original Bible languages.  I hope that your word study appetite has been stimulated until you will at least invest in the standard works that are now keyed to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.

          As we are now more than half way through the second decade of this twenty-first century, every Christian musician needs to not only be prepared spiritually and musically, but also have a deep understanding of the significance of music in the Bible.  It is important that musicians be able to understand the music of the Bible in Christian perspective.  I Corinthians 2:12-13 states, "Now ye have received, not of the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that ye might know the things that are freely given to us of God.  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

          No music blog will be able to completely guide church musicians in the twenty-first century.  Only an understanding of what the Book of Books has to say about sacred music will serve as a guide for Christian musicians of the next century.  If my blog has stimulated you to study music in the Book of Books, the many hours that it has taken to prepare these posts have been well spent.

                                                            G.L.W.

I AM That I AM Created Music

I AM That I AM Created Music

          Earlier I said that God did not create music because He was destined to do so.  God did not create music because it was in His destiny or future.  God very clearly explained this to Moses in Exodus 3:14, “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.”  God did not say, I was God in the past or I will be God in the future, but rather hayah asher hayah (1961, 834, 1961) which should be understood according to historic manuscripts translated by Dr. Clarke: “The Vulgate translates I am who am.  The Septuagint, I am he who exists.  The Syriac, the Persic, and the Chaldee preserve the original words without any gloss.”[i]  

               Therefore, God does not have a beginning or end, but rather, in His own words, He simply explains, “I AM”.  Because God “is” and always has had this permanence, He did not create music to complete anything.  He created music out of His Great wisdom and will.  This act of God’s sovereign will should be a reminder to finite musicians of the permanence and importance of music which God created out of his wisdom and perfect will.  It establishes and attests to the fact that God owns music; therefore it must always come under the Lordship Of Christ.  Christian musicians do not have rights concerning music, they only have responsibilities!

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[i] Clarke’s commentary, Vol. 1, p. by Adam Clarke, p. 306.

God Created-- Man Arranges

                                        God Created-- Man Arranges
                               (God out of perfection—Man out of imperfection)

               God truly created music. Although the word created is used loosely by many musicians, man never actually creates music or anything else for that matter.  God took nothing and made something--that something was music.  Music composers and arrangers only "construct"—they are only capable of "arranging"  or moving God's created musical building blocks into new artistic patterns. 

           A contractor who builds a building takes created materials and uses them to construct something.  He always takes "something" and constructs with these materials.  No matter how great a building a contractor constructs, or how much creative effort he exerts, what he puts together is not truly a creation.  We will not be able to discuss “creativeness” further in this discussion since it belongs under the topic “Creativity and the Christian Musician”.  These “creative” acts are not like God’s acts of real creation as recorded in the Genesis Record.  I will simply say here that a composer or arranger’s creative processes are much like the work of a Contractor.  They are only artistic efforts that produce artistic constructions—these creative efforts produce results that we call musical compositions.

God Chose It, Thought And Created It

God Chose It, Thought And Created It

          Genesis 1:1 records that, “In the beginning God created”.  In His divine wisdom and sovereignty God chose to create music because He desired to create it.  So He thought it into existence—that is creation.  God did not create music to fulfill his destiny, because He has no destiny –He is eternal and He is “I Am”. He is also the beginning and the end as Revelation 22:13 explains, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”.  

          Also since everything that God has ever done is perfect, He did not need to create music in order to make His creation more perfect.  Everything that He created--including music-- was perfect.  Although this is difficult for a musician to conceptualize, God’s creation was completely perfect with or without music.  Think about it, God’s creation did not get better or more complete or more perfect when He created music, because God never gets better. We as Christian musicians do things to perfect our musical skills in our long journey toward the development of our God-given musical gifts. God did not take a long or short musical journey.  He simply thought and absolutely nothing became something—music.  That is creation

Teaching Biblical Music Standards—part 2

Teaching Biblical Music Standards—part 2

          There is an argument among some Bible scholars as to whether the New Testament is referring to pastors and teachers or pastor-teachers.  If the Scripture refers to pastor-teachers, then the onus probandi falls squarely to teach Bible principles of musicing to succeeding generations of Christians.  If the Bible is referring to pastors AND teachers, they must share the responsibility. 

          Let me point out that the responsibility to teach Bible principles of musicing to our children and youth must include both secular and sacred musicing.  God must be Lord of all a Christian’s musicing or it won’t be very long until He will not be Lord of any of a person’s musicing.  As I often point out, all Christian who music first Christians and second musicians are.  All a Christian’s musician’s musicing must follow what the Bible teaches a Christian to do.  Musicing is never done in a “bubble” but conversely it is a part of that person’s “whole-life”.  So, pastors, music teachers, and Christian performers must all accept the responsibility to train our own to music in a way that will bring honor to our high and holy triune God. 

Teaching Biblical Music Standards—part 1

Teaching Biblical Music Standards—part 1

“There is much controversy today surrounding the subject of music in our Independent Baptist Churches. The average pastor today will often admit that he knows very little about music, and generally leaves decisions regarding the music ministry to the song leader/choir director. The primary reason most pastors know very little about music is that they have never been taught a Biblical philosophy of Christian music. Most Bible Colleges today do not teach much in the way of Biblical music standards, and often leave such decisions up to the students themselves as to what they listen to and perform.”  A Biblical Philosophy of Christian Music by Dr. Thomas Cassidy ©  1995  http://www.beaconmbc.com/articles/abiblicalphilosophyofchristianmusic.htm

               I have often told my college classes that a church musician or a pastor cannot teach what they do not know.  The New Testament teaches that God specifically calls some Christians to be teachers.  Since He sets some apart to teach, it is reasonable to deduce that it is the responsibility of these teachers to teach Christian young people how to music unto God.  I believe that Dr. Cassidy was correct in asserting that “The average pastor today will often admit that he knows very little about music…”  So, the problem gets bigger with Each succeeding generation of shared musical ignorance. 

Thank you for a Great Month of November 2018

Thank you for a Great Month of November 2018      

            This month was the 68th month of my blog which contained devotional and philosophical thoughts for Christian musicians. I have written over 3,3004 posts since this blog was started in January of 2013. There have been several times this year when I have experienced a certain amount of writer’s burnout.  However, I am praying that my posts in 2018 will stimulate both the regular and new blog members to remain faithful to their musical Ministeries.  It is my continued prayer that each new post will bring honor to our heavenly Father in 2018.  The over 2,5oopage views of my blog this month were experienced by people who read a mixture of philosophical and devotional thoughts.  We have had over 130,500 page-views since the blog was started in January of 2013.  Since I started this blog the page views have come from 127 different countries. It is interesting to note that a little over one half of the total page views since we began in January 2013 have come from the United States and the other one half have come from a varied combination of the other 126 countries scattered around the world. In the month of August I will be posting the longest blog series since the blog was started in 2013.

            These views have come from Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Argentina, Armenia, Angola,  Aruba, Austria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Czechia , Czech Republic,  Colombia, Congo [DRC], Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong,  Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland (Republic of),  Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordon, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYROM) Macau, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Malta Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia,  Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands (Antilles) New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Oman, Palestine, Paraguay, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru. Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Porto Rico, Qatar, Réunion, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand,  Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Unknown Region, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

             The ten countries with the most page views this month were: United States, Unknown region, Canada, Ukraine, Germany, South Korea, France, Russia, Portugal, and Bolivia.