Music Begins and Ends with God-part 2

 

Music Begins and Ends with God-part 2

 One thing for sure, public education will not directly teach the next generation of church musicians’ wrong things about God because they are not allowed to teach God in their music knowledge.  Although federal law has mandated that public education can no longer retain God in our educational knowledge, the fact that they will not directly teach false concepts of God does not indicate that no “God-education” will take place in public schools and universities.  By eliminating God as the Creator and Lord of music education, public education relays strong false messages about the nature and value of music to our young people.

 Public education can no longer recognize God in the development of a philosophical basis for music education.  As a matter of fact, teaching God as the basis of all philosophical thought is forbidden.  The only safe path in public education is to omit the authority of God in any philosophical discussion of music.  In public education, no sacred music concerts are legal, and the sacred classics may only be taught or performed as music literature.  It is often mandated that there be no Christmas or Easter concerts.  The only time that it is totally legal to mention God in the music classroom is when the music instructor stubs his toe on the desk leg.

 

Music Begins and Ends with God-part 1

 

Music Begins and Ends with God-part 1

For the committed Christian, music begins and ends with God.  To the humanist, music begins and ends with self.  The musician who has submitted his or her music to the Lordship of Christ believes that all church music is sung and played to glorify God since God owns music.  Conversely, the secular humanists (and the religious humanist) believes that music belongs to man’s true humanness since all music is about self-actualization.  This type of thinker owns his or her music.

 We cannot trust public education to produce Christ-centered musicians who have a Christocentric music philosophy.  Christians never should have trusted the world to formulate music philosophy for Christian young people.  It has always been the responsibility of Christians to train their own. Although many Christian parents have ignored it, the world has never been a friend of grace.  Could you imagine the ancient Hebrews calling in the Philistines to train their Levite sons?  The 20^th century church did just that--they called in the worldly musicians who outwardly profaned the name of Christ to train church musicians.  The result was generation after generation of Christian musicians filled with Philistine philosophy. 

 

The Song of Fools

 

The Song of Fools 

Ecclesiastes 7:5 states, “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.”  Church musicians sometimes get a little worried that their musicing unto God is too serious, because all of us want people to like our music ministry.  What did the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes mean by “the song of fools (shiyr kaciyl 7892 3684)”?  Was he suggesting that the content of the song is foolish or that those who are singing the songs are actually fools?  He probably meant “all of the above”. 

       Never be afraid of the seriousness of the musical message of Christ crucified.  The awesome depth and true truth of this message is the very thing that makes it worthwhile.  The message of Christ being obedient to the will of His Father: which included being reviled, rebuked, rejected, misunderstood, abused, and tortured physically and mentally is a very solemn and worthwhile message.  Never be ashamed of the awesome and solemn truth about Christ’s suffering and death which we sing about in God’s house. The Christian musician should never “water it down” or fail to sing about the precious blood that Christ shed for the sins of the whole world.

       Although the message of His suffering and death is a very solemn message, there is another side to this musical coin.  Turn it over and you will see victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You will see the joy of the debt of sin being paid by His suffering and death and resurrection.  You will also see that we can have a clean and pure heart through the efficacy of His precious blood that was shed on Calvary.  (See Acts 29:28, Hebrews 9:12, 13:12 and Revelation 1:5.)  You will further see freedom from the guilt of sin.  You will also see the joy of having a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this life and in the life to come.  Sing and play and tell through your musicing, not only the suffering and death of our Savior, but also of the fact that He was victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave.

 The message of the “song of fools” is very different because it is mostly an empty social gospel.  The gospel message of Christ crucified is far better than the foolish, light, chaffy, religious music that contains little of any eternal value. Church musicians that are still musicing the whole gospel should not allow themselves to be intimidated.  The true truth of the deep message of Christ crucified, buried, and risen again and seated on the right of the Father praying for us all is exactly what this post-postmodern world needs to hear.

 

 

Faith Basis and Musical Understanding

 

Faith Basis and Musical Understanding

  Recently there has been discussion by a limited number of philosophers concerning faith as a basis for the development of a music philosophy.  A much larger number of philosophers have not even made casual mention of faith based music philosophy.  They have been occupied with the argument about whether real life understanding can or cannot be gained through music listening and performing.

Some of the ancients believed that music had great power and meaning. Some of them believed that music could influence the morals and ethics of the performer and listener.  As the discipline of music philosophy developed over the centuries, there was often among music philosophers a connection between religion and philosophic reasoning. Over the centuries, music philosophers have been divided in their opinions of whether religious faith basis was necessary or was even a reasonable option in the development of a music philosophy.

Forgiving your Brother

 

Forgiving your Brother 

 

Matthew 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Matthew 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? ‘Till seven times?  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.

 

            I know Christian people who have let their hearts fester for decades over wrongs that have been done to them.  Remember, seventy times seven equals four hundred and ninety times.  I do not know about you but that seems to be a lot of times to me!  I have never had to forgive anyone nearly that many times in my lifetime.  To tell you the truth, I do not know how I would accomplish such a monumental task. I guess that I would have to go about it one forgiveness at a time.

            I have been thinking this morning about the number of times that my precious Savior has forgiven me in my lifetime.  I am sure it has been more than 490 times.  Since He freely has forgiven me all those times, He was not wrong in asking me to forgive another who has wronged me only a few times.  How about you, are you nursing a very old wound that you should have let the Healer heal in your heart?  If Satan cannot get you to rob a bank perhaps he can get you to harbor resentment and hurt in your body, mind, and soul.  If he can, the hurt will eat away at the health of your body mind and soul.  And by the way, the issue is not whether or not your brother asks for forgiveness, but rather whether or not you will forgive him.

 

Is your musical seed still in the barn?

 

Is your musical seed still in the barn?

Haggai 2:19a, Is the seed yet in the barn? 

This verse from the book of Haggai may seem to be a strange portion of scripture to use for a devotional thought for today.  How could seed in a barn possibly have any relevance to a Christian musician? 

       How does seed get into a barn?  As you well know, seed never comes with a barn when it is constructed.  Someone has to place it in the granary.  Someone has to till the soil, plant the seed, cultivate or spray the plants and fertilize the soil.  After the grain is mature someone has to harvest the seed and store it in the barn.

       How did you get a start musically?  Many Christian musicians are the product of a lot of spiritual and musical cultivation.  It was my home church that gave me a start musically.  It was also my mother and father who provided the money and took me to my music lessons.

       Very few Christian musicians are self-made musicians.   Someone cared, prayed, encouraged, and provided ministry opportunities.  As a result, many of us are loaded with training and practical music ministry experiences and music education.  We owe others a great debt. Furthermore we owe God an eternal debt of gratitude and responsibility to train others for His Kingdom.  We need to make sure that our musical seed is not sitting idly in our barn.  God does not provide for us so that we can, musically speaking, get all we can so that we are able to “can” all we get.  God gives to us so that we can get all we can and give Him all we get.  So, we as Christian musicians need to be sure that our life is about taking the precious musical seed and planting it in the fertile soil of  people’s lives.

       I do not want to face my Savior, who gave his all for me, with a barn full of musical seed that I was too lazy to plant in the fertile soil of young Christian musicians.

 

Prayer for the day

 

Prayer for the day

Thank you Heavenly Father for making me Your child.  Thank you for removing the chaff from my life and making me like a tree.  Thank you for giving me a spiritual “green leaf” as a testimony that I am alive in Christ.  Thank you that You have made it possible for me to have inner life through Your spiritual photosynthesis process.  Please keep my spiritual xylem and phloem working to circulate Your spiritual “sugars”.  Lord I am asking you to help me to be able to minister to someone today that needs spiritual encouragement.  Holy Spirit flow through me today so that I may be able to feed someone’s soul today.  Thank you. I love You with all of my being.  Amen.

Beliefs about Music Matter-part 4

 

                                                Beliefs about Music Matter-part 4

          Although Christians live in this present evil world, they are not of this present world system. Therefore, their music world view, music paradigm, music philosophy, and overarching philosophy of life should be of a higher renovated character than secular, humanistic musicians, and music educators.  A Christian music educator’s music philosophy matters to God, and although there is much evil in this century, conservative Spirit-filled music educators can effect changes in music that will have a positive influence in this century.  Parents, educators, churches, Christian schools, and Bible colleges who have a Christocentric* music philosophy can and should catechize the next generation of Christian Musicians. That will only happen if  parents make sure that their children and youth are trained by Christian musicians.

 

 

 

                                                Beliefs about Music Matter-part 3

 God thought music into being as one of the acts of the acts of creation, therefore,  He owns it and His Word that addresses it specifically.  Therefore, music educators should study God’s Word to ascertain what He thinks about music and musicing. Studying what the Bible teaches about music and musicing and applying these principles to living out the changed life of a Christian will affect one’s world view of music. The Old Testament teaches that it is the responsibility of Christians to educate their own musically so that good causes in music may be served.  His Word commands us to instruct our children in “the songs of the LORD” (1 chronicles 25:7).

Beliefs about Music Matter-part 2

 

                                                Beliefs about Music Matter-part 2

The only completely safe teacher of Christian music education and music philosophy is the Holy Spirit who is capable and willing to guide Christian musicians into “all truth” (John 16:19) which of course  includes music education in this century. Although a Christian may make appropriate personal choices and have personal preferences concerning music, there are absolutes concerning music and its place in a Christian’s life. Therefore, a prescriptive Christian music education philosophy must be   built on Bible principles of musicing, profundity, appropriateness, and standards of correctness. There is room for taste in music in the life of a Christian, but the use of music  is not entirely a matter of personal taste.  All  of a Christian’s music and musicing must be guided by Bible principles of musicing.

All of a Christiaan’s musical doing must be congruent with the principles of  living out the changed life of a Christian that are taught in the Bible.  Certainly, living a changed life will affect how a musician musics.