Is Sacred Music the Stepchild of Secular Music?

 

Is Sacred Music the Stepchild of Secular Music?

Many church musicians believe that traditional styles of church music started like rock music. We often hear stories that church music was first bar room tunes that were later ‘sanctified’ by church musicians. It is a little known fact among church musicians that until 1750, a great preponderance of all music composed was sacred music written specifically for the glory of God. As a matter of fact much of the religious music was written specifically for public worship.

It is shocking to me that so few church musicians are aware of the well-known fact that two species of music have existed since at least the time of Ancient Israel. One is sacred music and the other is secular music. Furthermore, from the Middle Ages until 1900, a specific type of church music existed. The bulk of this music was practical music to be used in regular church worship services. The remainder of the religious music was written in the same styles but was intended as religious concert music.

 

Music in Worship Is Not All a Matter of Taste

 

Music in Worship Is Not All a Matter of Taste

Writers often refer to the terms modern, postmodern, and post-Christian and contemporary thinkers. The term modern means that which exhibits the characteristics of present or recent times. One who adheres to conforms to current tendencies at the exclusion of traditional ways of ministering through the art of music or builds a music philosophy based on modern standards of “correctness” and “knowing” is a “modern” music minister. A distinction must be made between “modern” and “up-to-date”. Modern connotes a new way of “thinking” or “knowing” about musicing. Up to date connotes thinking new things about musicing. Conservative traditional thesis thinkers must not make the mistake of confusing the two. If this mistake is made the conservative Christian will become an “antiquer” – one who reveres only old things.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a new style or a new composition or a new way of musicing. Those who are “antiquers” disdain anything past Watts and Wesley, Ira Sankey, and George Beverly Shea. Never confuse an ancient landmark of musical worship with an old-fashioned way of musicing. Music as a part of worship is not all a matter of taste but there is room for personal taste in musical worship. Not every style of music is appropriate for worship but there is room for more than one style of music in Christian worship.

 

His Way With Thee

 

His Way With Thee

1. Would you live for Jesus, and be always pure and good?

Would you walk with Him within the narrow road?

Would you have Him bear your burden, carry all your load?

Let Him have His way with thee.

2. Would you have Him make you free, and follow at His call?

Would you know the peace that comes by giving all?

Would you have Him save you, so that you need never fall?

Let Him have His way with thee.

3. Would you in His kingdom find a place of constant rest?

Would you prove Him true in providential test?

Would you in His service labor always at your best?

Let Him have His way with thee.

Refrain:

His pow’r can make you what you ought to be;

His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free;

His love can fill your soul, and you will see

’Twas best for Him to have His way with thee.

By  Cyrus S. Nusbaum—1898

 

I have led this song many times in evangelistic services.  Many times I led it as a song of invitation.  Each verse begins with the question “Would you…” and are followed with pungent statements that end with “Let Him have His way with thee”.  Certainly, this song is an invitation to the seeker, who does not love and serve Jesus Christ.  Would you have Him make you free, and follow at His call? The question,  “Would you know the peace that comes by giving all?” 

Isaiah 1:18  gives the admonition, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”  Jesus stated  in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.  The thought of Jesus offering rest is echoed in verse three with the words “Would you in His kingdom find a place of constant rest?” and in the chorus with “His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free”.

One of the many striking thoughts that are found in this song is the true truth that” His pow’r can make you what you ought to be”.  When one is separated from fellowship with God, he or she is not what that person “ought to be”.  Another truth taught in this gospel song of invitation is the all-important life question that should be answered by letting Christ have complete control of one’s life.  Christian musician be sure that your is submitted to “His way”  every day of your life.  It is one thing for a musician to have become a Christian, but it is another to continually walk in Christ every day.  Our Christian journey is about relationship rather than religiosity.  Read this old song over again and let the Holy Spirit apply its truths to your daily walk with Christ.

Memories of Those Who Cared for My Soul

 

Memories of Those Who Cared for My Soul

            My first memories of going to church include my mother practicing songs with me and praying with me, and the preacher lifting me up on a chair behind the pulpit to sing special music about Jesus. I have told you all this to remind all of you Christian parents that your children’s musical training really matters. No matter what you have or do not have, the things that matter are not “things”. Whatever it takes, make sure that your children receive a quality music education and that you provide them opportunities to give their musical talents back to the God who gave them to your children.

         I am grateful that Dr. John I. Page and his wife Virginia took me to church fellowship meetings and to retirement communities to sing the gospel as a little child. I was extremely blessed to have a pastor and his wife that cared about a little boy who had some musical talent. I am also grateful that in July of 1967 Dr. Page invited me to an altar of prayer where I confessed my sins and wept my way into the loving arms of my forgiving Savior Jesus Christ. I will forever be thankful that I was given a Christian upbringing and that as a child I was given musical training and many opportunities to give my musical talents back to God.

Today I am Thankful

 

Today I am Thankful

            Colossians 3:15 admonishes Christians, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”  Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States of America.  I am well aware that there are at this time there are those of you who live in the other 96 countries who read this blog that do not celebrate this day as a special Religious holiday.  I thought about it and decided that you might like a day off from my Congruency series and that it was perfectly ok for you all to be thankful all day long today.  In this post postmodern secularized generation, I am thankful for a day that has been set aside to thank God for his bountiful blessings that he has so freely bestowed on all of us! 

            If we are going to respond biblically, we all need to let God’s peace permeate our hearts on this day.  We are the world-wide body of Christ.  To him we are all equal!  It makes no difference how rich or poor we are or how obscure or famous we are. As Christians we are all His children.  He has forgiven us of all our sins and made us to be new creatures in Christ Jesus.  This is no joke because He said in 2Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  Praise God, I am so thankful that my old sinful life has passed away and Christ has given me a new start!  I am blessed beyond measure today so I have made plans to be happy every minute of this Thanksgiving Day.  If you are a Christian I suggest that you make this day a Thanksgiving Day too because you have much to be thankful for today.

A Christian’s Worldview of Music part 2

 

A Christian’s Worldview of Music  part 2

 

In St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (12:1-2)  he gives a strong admonishment to those who are Christians,  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”  The words not conformed (me suschematizo 3361, 4964) teach us that, in the process of presenting ourselves to God, we must not let ourselves be fashioned into the pattern of the world’s paradigm.  It is interesting to note that the original meaning of the word paradigm first appeared in English sometime during the 15th century and meant "an example or pattern".  However, since the 1960’s the word paradigm has developed the meaning of a framework containing a person’s basic assumptions and ways of thinking and knowing.

 

 

A Christian’s Worldview of Music part 1

 

A Christian’s Worldview of Music  part 1

There was a time in my career when I believed that a music philosophy was always developed before the formation of music worldview.  Now I understand that worldview, and specifically one’s music worldview, is the window through which a musician views what he or she believes is the truth about the nature and value of music. All Christian musicians have a music worldview, but being a Christian does not insure that one’s worldview of music is truly a Christian worldview.  I define music worldview as how a musician perceives the whole of music in terms of what he or she considers the reality of what is right and wrong, appropriate or not appropriate concerning music.

 This presumed reality is then weaved into a Christian’s music philosophy.  What is weaved into the musician’s philosophy from worldview will strongly shape how the musician views and deals with music in relationship to his or her being in the world. Certainly every Christian is in the world, but simply being in the world does not mean that a Christian is “of the world” i.e. is squeezed into the world’s mold philosophically.  Hopefully, the Christian will not be convinced by those who are not Christians to view the world and music as they do. The way that a Christian musician views the world will strongly influence how he or she views music in this world.

 

Young Musicians Be Careful

Young Musicians Be Careful

Proverbs 7:1-2, “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.  Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.”

 

          Solomon admonishes young people to keep God’s commandments when they are young.  I know from teaching young people for over forty years that the habits that young musicians establish in their pre-teen years can either be a great help or hindrance to Christian living in their teen years.  A young person who has the discipline to get up in the morning and practice a musical instrument will often have the discipline to read the Bible and pray regularly.  This discipline is not a given but it often makes consistent attending to the means of grace regular habit of life.

          Young musicians should also “lay up” God’s commandments in their minds.  When cognitions take place they are first stored in the electrical memory of the brain.  When one consistently thinks on God’s laws this information become more permanent as the brain experiences chemical changes.  So, as cognitions take place in the brain as a person reads the Bible, that young person is actually establishing a firewall against the ploys of Satan in the future.

          Matthew Pool’s Commentary explains that, “As the apple of thine eye; with all possible care and diligence, as men guard that part from all dangers, yea, even from the least mote. The eye is a most noble and necessary, and therefore highly esteemed and beloved, part of the body, and the apple thereof is the most honourable, and beautiful, and useful part of that part, and it is a most tender part, easily hurt, or destroyed, and therefore needs to be diligently watched.”  So, young Christian musicians should protect what their eyes observe and only store those things that will be a concomitant to the changed life principles taught in the Bible.

 

Thought for the Day

It is a good thing for parents to require pre-teens to have daily musical practice and daily Bible reading.

 

Giving Our Talents Back to God

 

Giving Our Talents Back to God  

 I believe that every child is given musical talent by our loving heavenly Father. Mothers and fathers you have the responsibility to give your children an opportunity to develop their musical talents and at an early age give those talents back to God!  That is what really matters because children learn musically by doing.  If you want your sons and daughters to give their musical talents to God in adulthood, make sure their early memories of going to church include musicing unto Him.

My first memories of going to church include my mother practicing songs with me and praying with me, and the preacher lifting me up on a chair behind the pulpit to sing special music about Jesus.  I have told you all this to remind all of you Christian parents that your children’s musical training really matters.  No matter what you have or do not have, the things that matter are not “things”.  Whatever it takes, make sure that your children receive a quality music education and that you provide them opportunities to give their musical talents back to the God who gave them to your children.  

Thought for the Day

Matthew 19:20, “The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” What this young man lacked was a willingness to give what he possessed back to God. He kept the rules but he had evidently not been taught to submit what he considered to be his own back to God.

Music Begins and Ends with God-part 3

 

Music Begins and Ends with God-part 3

 Post Postmodern musicians are now so squeezed into the world’s mold that they do not seem to realize that the whole belief-system that music is amoral is the result of autonomous music philosophy.  It is no wonder that you can trust a humanist to conclude that all music endeavor begins and ends with man.  The philosophical bias of a humanist will always be that all meaning in life (if there is meaning in life) will be the result of self-actualization and the act of a person’s free will.

This musical mind believes wholeheartedly that in the beginning was “ameba” or worse yet in the beginning was “nothing”.  This musician believes within himself that man came from nowhere and is ultimately going nowhere.  It is not hard for him to believe that man exists in a purposeless universe and that he is “caught in the wheel of time”.  This musician also believes that music came from nowhere and is ultimately going nowhere.  To this humanistic musician the only thing that really matters is “me”.  This type of thinker concludes that music is amoral since man is god and god is man therefore god is in man because man created god.  So, man is god of his music.  

 Any music that a humanist composes or performs is god’s music i.e., all man’s music is created in god’s image since God is created in man’s image.  Any music that pleases man will also please God and conversely no music that displeases man is pleasing to God.  So, if you can wade through all the previous mumbo-jumbo, you will be able to understand why a synthesis thinking religious humanist, who is autonomous, believes that all musical roads lead to heaven – why there is no profundity in music – why all music is appropriate for public worship and ultimately why music is all a matter of taste.