Prayer, Song, and Thought for the Day

Prayer for the Day  

Heavenly Father, search my heart and see if there is any wicked way in me.  Purify my heart of anything that would offend you.  Help me to give You musical offerings in righteousness.  Lord, I do not want my musical ministry to be wood, hay, and stubble in your sight.  Help my heart to be hot toward you.  Please do not let my ministry not be about religion only, but about the outpourings of relationship with You.  These things I pray in Your holy name.  Amen.  

Song for the Day Purify My Heart by Jeff Nelson  

Thought for the Day  

Why do so many musicians resist the belief that God can and will purify our hearts in this life?

 

Religion or Relationship?

Religion or Relationship?   

It is one thing to be involved in a religion that believes in and is centered on God, but it is another to have a relationship with God.  It is one thing to say prayers to God, but it is another to commune with God.  It is one thing to believe in God, but it is another to believe God.  Being associated with a religion that recognizes God as one to whom one can say prayers is not the same as having a real relationship with God the father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  

            Second Timothy 3:5 talks of the spiritual condition of “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away”.  Certainly it is possible for a musician to go through all the formalities of worshiping god and at the same time not really believing what god has said in His Word.  So, we are brought directly to the question, are you, as a church musician involved in a religion or a relationship? 

It is possible for a Christian musician to become so busy doing good things that he or she neglects being good.  2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  Malachi 3:2-3 asks and answeres the question “But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”  A musician’s musical offerings will not be accepted by the LORD unless they are given “in righteousness”.  

            The Hebrew word tsadaqah (6666) translated here as righteousness means with moral virtue.  So, a Christian musician is not truly a righteous person his or her musical offerings and ministry may be considered to be wood, hay, and stubble in the sight of God.  1Cointhians 3:3 explains that, “Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.”

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day  

It is not always easy to find music that exalts God or that is complete truth, but if we are going to music according to the precepts of the Bible we must worship with both concepts in mind.

 

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Worship in Spirit and in Truth   =

St. John 4:20-24 states, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain [Mt. Gerizem]; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” 

Can we truly say we know what we worship?    The post-modern church has a fundamental misconception of what worship really is. It is not a guy on the platform playing a pipe organ so big you have to wear a crash helmet to get down off the bench, or some bloke down on the floor wearing sandals and a Jesus t-shirt playing his guitar or banjo, or six Barbies with microphones singing in front of the congregation.    

            Nick Page, in his book And Now Let’s Move into a Time of Nonsense, stated “Worship has become an event, an occasion, isolated and distinct from the rest of our life and from our real walk with God…Real worship stems from a conscious decision to live our lives in God’s way” (pp 26-27).  Worship is not about singing, or preaching, or testifying, or taking an offering and it certainly is not about the long laundry list of announcements we make. Worship is about acknowledging who God is and what He has done and what He does. We worship because:  

God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. (St. John 4:24)

1. God has made it possible for us to be His children.

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²The same was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life; and the life was the light of men…¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. ¹¹He came unto his own, and his own received him not. ¹²But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (St. John 1:1-4, 10-12) 

3. God made us His children by adoption. 

¹⁵For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Romans 8:15)

4. God sent His Son to redeem us.

¹⁷For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (St. John 3:17)

5. God justifies us through His Son Jesus.

¹Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)

6. Because of Christ, we can live without God’s condemnation.

¹There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)

7. Nothing has the power to separate us from God.

³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, ³⁹Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

 

Song, Prayer, and Thought for the Day

Song for the Day Grace Greater than Our Sin by Julia H. Johnston   

Prayer for the Day  

 

Lord Jesus I confess that I need Your grace every day.  Please help to receive Your grace with great joy.  Thank you for loving me enough to provide each day’s needed grace.  Help me to understand in greater measure just how important my musicing unto you really is.  Help me to You as high and lifted up and sufficient for my every need.  Help me to lead others in musicing unto You in such a way that their musical offerings will become a means of grace to them.  Please never let my musicing or the musicing of those musicians that I direct and lead in worship become merely musical performance.  These petitions I bring to You.  Amen. 

Thought for the Day   

As a Christian minister of music, what makes your musicing different than the musicing of a musician who does not k now God in a personal way?

 

 

 

God!—Part 4

God!—Part 4   

             Genesis 2:7 explains man’s origin. “ And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”   Jehovah Elohim (3068, 430) the self existent, eternal God in plurality who is breathed the breath of life into the lifeless lump of clay that He had created.  This breath of life caused Adam to become a living being i.e. Adam was given the gift of mortal life...  Although this scripture explains that Adam became a living breathing being, the implication is far greater that the lifeless creation was made capable of communication with the God who created him. 

            The gift of life did not grant Adam mortal life eternally nor did it grant him eternal life outside of the grace of God.  Although as we have said before, God desired and desires fellowship with his human creation, He did not have man to exist, however man needed God from the time he was created i.e. man could not and still cannot exist without God’s grace.  Man needed God before and after the fall.  Although he was not separated from God before he fell he still needed God. 

            When the Christian musician understands man’s need for the grace and help of God, that musician’s musicing takes on great significance.  Musicing unto God is a means of grace to mankind.  Although music is not the main communicator of grace, it is never-the-less a definite means of grace.  So, a musician’s musicing is not merely an exhibition of the musician’s musical talent, but rather one of the open channels whereby Christians may take the journey from the natural to the supernatural and commune with God.

 

Prayer and Thought for the Day

Prayer for the Day 

 Lord, please forgive me for getting so involved in my musicing that I neglect to tune my heart.  I am truly praying the words of this song to You.  Please quicken my passion toward You and let this renewal be reflected in my musicing.  I love You Lord and I want my relationship with you to be renewed as you “shed abroad the Savior’s love” in my heart today.  These things I am praying in your powerful and loving name.  Amen.

Thought for the day

If we as Christian musicians would tithe their time and use that time to tune our hearts we would not have trouble letting our hearts grow cold toward God.

 

 

God!—Part 3

God!—Part 3   

As I have written before, nothing matters as much in our lives as God.  Christian musicians need to be often reminded that everything else we do is wood, hay, and stubble if it is not saturated with the presence and power of the Holy Ghost.  I think of the hymn written by Isaac Watts:

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With all Thy quick’ning powers;
Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours.

Look how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys;
Our souls can neither fly nor go
To reach eternal joys.

In vain we tune our formal songs,
In vain we strive to rise;
Hosannas languish on our tongues,
And our devotion dies.

Dear Lord! and shall we ever live
At this poor dying rate?
Our love so faint, so cold to Thee,
And Thine to us so great?

Come, Holy Spirit, heav’nly Dove,
With all Thy quick’ning powers;
Come, shed abroad the Savior’s love
And that shall kindle ours.

The third verse says, “In vain we tune our formal songs”.  How true that statement is if the musician does not heed the words of the first verse which entreats, “Come Holy Spirit” and “kindle a flame of sacred love”.  Often in the midst of my musical pursuits over the last forty four years I have come to the realization that my heart was hot toward music but in the process my heart was going cold toward God.  It is truly a vain practice to be so concerned with vainly tuning our harp while at the same time we fail to tune our heart.
            I am literally brought to my knees by Watt’s statement “our love so faint, so cold to Thee, and Thine to us so great”.  We, as Christian musician musicians must remember that nothing in our lives matters as much as our relationship to God.  What is the answer to this dilemma?  Again Watts provides the answer.  It is the quickening power of the Holy Spirit that will kindle and warm our hearts for efficacious music ministry.

Prayer for this blog in March

 Prayer for this Blog in March

Lord, please allow this Music philosophy blog to be a blessing during the month of March. As I have prayed so many times, please let this blog go around the world to places where I cannot go.  Thank You for the new countries that were added to our blog family this month.  Lord I do not take the addition of these new countries lightly, because they are a definite answer to my prayers. Help me as I prepare a post for each day to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  Only you know Lord who is out there ministering musically that needs a fresh anointing for musical ministry.  Help me to know which philosophical and devotional topics are important and will be a blessing.  Lord, you know that at times I am not sure what topics to write about concerning music. Please anoint the blog and the blogger.  These things I ask in your name.  Amen.

Thank you for a Great Month of February.

       Thank you for a Great Month of February. 

 Last month was the thirteenth month of my blog which contains devotional and philosophical thoughts for Christian musicians.  It is my sincere prayer that this year of musical posts have stimulated your thinking and that they have brought honor to our heavenly Father.   On the 27^th of January I starting a series of posts on”Musical sounds communicate meaning”.  It included 20 blog posts that ran until February 16^th.

       Since I began on January 2 of 2013 we have received a total of over 22,112 page views with about 759 views in February of 2014. Since I started this blog the page views have come from 69 different countries.  These views have come from Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands,  China, Congo [DRC],Croatia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Iceland, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, Hong Kong,  India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma) Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Porto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.  I would like to welcome the Countries of Turkey, New Zealand, Iceland, and Myanmar (Burma) which were all added to our blog family during February.  Please pray with me that God will allow this Music Philosophy Blog to continue to go places where I will never have the opportunity to minister musically in person.

       Again I want to thank all you busy pastors and musicians who have taken the time to view my music philosophy blog during the month of November.  Please continue to pray that God will guide each post and allow it to reach those who need encouragement to keep ministering for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

       The main reason that I started this Music Philosophy blog is that although there is much music philosophy information on the net, not very much of it is from a biblical perspective.  Please share the blog address with your friends.   If you have an area of music or fine arts philosophy that troubles you, please feel free to let me know and I will include it in our discussions.  My email address is Garenlwolf@gmail.com.