"I am Helped"

"I am Helped"    

            Psalm 12:7 states, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusteth in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”  The psalmist David expressed that his shield is the self-existent eternal God who is.  He also acknowledged that he received his strength from Jehovah.  Sometimes church musicians only think of the struggles of public music ministry.  They forget to remember and say “I am helped”.  They also often forget just who it is that has helped them.  Practice the presence of God”.  When we receive help in our musicing unto God we need to practice saying out loud “Thank You Lord for helping me”.   It will help you and Satan will not like it because he will know that you have your head on straight. 

       The psalmist David acknowledged that God helped him and, since Jehovah was working in his life, he said, “My heart greatly rejoiceth”.  Do you rejoice when God helps you in your musicing?  Do you greatly rejoice?  Do you really praise God like David with your “song’?

Prayer for the Day   

Lord You know what is best for my life.   When something continually perplexes me, I want You to solve it as soon as I bring it to you.  Help me to be aware that You working in my life even when I do not understand why this trial has come into my life.  Help me to believe that Your grace is sufficient for me at this time.  This I am praying in Your name.  Amen.   

Thank you for a Great Month of February 2017

       Thank you for a Great Month of February 2017  

            This month was the 50^th month of my blog which contained devotional and philosophical thoughts for Christian musicians. I have written over 2,800 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 2017 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 2017.  The over 1,600 page views of my blog this month were experienced by people who read a mixture of philosophical and devotional thoughts.  We have had over 82,600 page views since the blog was started in January of 2013.  Since I started this blog the page views have come from 122 different countries.  

            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, Czech Republic, Colombia, Congo [DRC], Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, 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, 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, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, USA and Zimbabwe .  We would like to welcome to our blog family Guyana that had its first page views this month.  The ten countries with the most page views this month were:  USA, France, Russia, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, China, Portugal, and Philippines.

          If you are from a country that has had page views in the past months and has been omitted from the 122 countries listed above, please email me your country’s name.  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. Please pray for me, as I have mentioned before, I am in the process of writing a general music philosophy book and a devotional book for musicians. My philosophy book is now in the hands of the content editor. Please pray the editor of the devotional book is in the process of moving to Scotland and is very busy at this time.

       Once again I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to view my music philosophy blog during the month of January and a special thanks is in order to those countries that faithfully view this blog month after month.  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 Savior 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.          I am strengthened in my spiritual walk with God by going through that serious trial that involved our car insurance company last November.  I want to encourage all of our blog readers that God answers prayer.

Prayer for this Blog in March

            I want to thank You Lord and Father for the 122 countries that are a part of our blog family.  It is my sincere and earnest prayer let this blog will go around the world to places where I cannot go.  Lord, thank You that You are answering my prayer by guiding people from 122 countries to find and read my blog posts. Please continue to help me in 2017 as I prepare a post for each day to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  

             Lord, I want to thank You for all your goodness to me!  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 thoughts will help these busy pastors and musicians.  Lord, as I continue to develop posts for the month of March. I am not sure which aspects of music education and music ministry to write about that will stimulate and encourage the blog family.  Please anoint the blog, the blogger, and the blog readers during 2017. If it is your will I am asking that the number of page views will increase during each month.

             Lord, I am praying that you will help the content editors for the two books that they are now editing and making final preparations so they can be sent to the publisher. Also, I want to thank You Lord for helping us to finish the manuscript which has been sent to the publisher. I am asking You Lord, to multiply time for the editor who is working on the devotional book because she is very busy people this month. These things I ask in your great and wise and wonderful name.  Amen.

Are There Any Absolutes?—part 3

Are There Any Absolutes?—part 3

            Before Hegelian synthesis thought, the Scripture in I John 2:15, “Love not the world”, meant just that, don’t love the world or become controlled by the system of “this present age”.  After acceptance of Hegelian synthesis thought, it became acceptable to be a worldly Christian.  Those who accepted this viewpoint no longer believed the Bible when it said that if you loved the world, the love of the father was not in you.  Under this autonomous philosophy you could love the world and the Lord at the same time. 

             So, the synthesis thinking church musicians, who were in many instances, graduates of Christian colleges and seminaries began to think that if it was okay to love the world system then it was okay to love the world’s music.  Philosophically they believed that the answer could no more be based on good music and bad music, God’s music and the Satan’s music, or in appropriate or inappropriate music.  They believed that all styles were equal and that the musical answer must be somewhere between truth and error.

Thought for the Day. 

One of the ways that Christian musicians are swept into philosophical error is by believing that it is not possible to develop a Bible based music philosophy.

Are There Any Absolutes?—part 2

Are There Any Absolutes?—part 2 

            Philosophy has been historically a pursuit of the systematized principles that give a wisdom that reveals truth and a unified filed of knowledge based on truth and error or thesis and antithesis.  Somewhere in the early 20th century many philosophers began to give up hope in a unified filed of knowledge based on thesis (right) or antithesis (wrong).  They began to believe the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Frederick Hegel (1770-1831).  Hegel believed that every idea belonged to an all-embracing mind in which every idea (thesis) elicited its opposite (antithesis) and the result of these two was a unified whole which he called synthesis.  His “unified” whole was epistemologically different since it derived “knowing” from a new synthesis thesis.  This “knowing” brought about a new truth that was always found somewhere between truth and error.  

Thought for the Day   

It is disappointing that many church musicians now believe that the only thing they can know for sure about religious music I that they cannot know anything for sure about it because they are of the notion that there are no absolutes in church music.

Are There Any Absolutes?—part 1

Are There Any Absolutes?—part 1

            I am deeply indebted to the work of Francis Schaffer for opening to me a very clear basic understanding of how philosophical thought has shaped the thinking of modern and postmodern Christians.  After reading his Escape from Reason and The God Who is There as well as other of his great works, it became clear to me how many Christian musicians came to believe that there are no absolutes in music.

            For centuries philosophers believed that it was possible for all thought to come under a unified filed of knowledge.  They often fought bitterly over just what that unified field of knowledge included.  Although philosophers did not agree on the content of that unified knowledge, they did agree that philosophical endeavor could and should bring about a philosophy of hope to the world.  

Thought for the Day

If a Christian musician’s music is to be Christocentric, it must be congruent with God’s Word and Bible principles of musicing.

Forgiving your Brother 490 Times

Forgiving your Brother 490 Times

            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.”  These verses are on the same subject that we considered very briefly yesterday.  Do you think that this topic bears repeating?  I do because I know Christian people who have let their hearts fester for decades over wrongs that have been done to them.

            If you think yesterday’s admonishment of Jesus to forgive another seven times in one day is hard to understand, how about today’s admonition for a Christian to forgive another seventy times seven?  Let’s see, seventy times seven equals four hundred and ninety times (490).  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 Jesus Christ the righteous one 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. 

Prayer for the Day 

Lord, it is another day so I will need grace for this new day.  I want to thank You that You have enough grace for me so that I can live victoriously throughout this day.  Thank you for caring so much for me.  Lord I am asking you to help those musicians who are struggling over being able to forgive others today.  Help them to also know that Your grace is sufficient for them to meet every need of their lives.  Help them to know that Your grace is able to help them to forgive others who have wronged them.  This I pry in Your strong name.  Amen.

Forgiving Your Brother

Forgiving Your Brother

            St. Luke 17:3 -4 records the words of Jesus, “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.  And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”  Wow!  The words of Jesus often trouble us because, most of us do not like conflict so we fail to go to our brother directly and rebuke him (or her) when he or she trespasses (commits an offence) against us.  It is much easier to do the wrong thing and go to someone else and talk to them about the offence against us than it is to go directly to the offender.  Jesus said to rebuke (epitimao 2008) i.e. to censure or admonish the one who committed the offense. 

            If you think the first part of what Jesus said to do is difficult to understand, how about the second part?  Jesus very succinctly stated, “Forgive him.”  When I read this the other day I decided to look up the word aphiemi (863) to make sure it meant forgive.  Sure enough it means: let go, disregard, keep no longer, leave behind, and of course forgive!

If you think the first and second parts of the admonishment that Jesus gave are hard to understand, how about the third part?  Jesus told His disciples to keep on forgiving even after many offences.

            Musicians are very emotional people.  They get hurt very easily because they are sensitive people.  It is no wonder that they get hurt when someone actually does something to them that is definitely wrong.  However, it is never right to fester over something that someone else has done which is wrong.  You may be right about the situation, but if you do not forgive, the offender you are in the wrong. 

Prayer for the Day

Dear Lord, I want you to give me forgiving spirit.  Help me to be able to forgive those who have committed an offence against me.  Help me to forgive others even if they do not ask me to forgive them. Lord, you said I Your Word to forgive so help me to be able to truly forgive.  This petition I am praying in Your all-powerful and wise name.  Amen.  

Song for the Day All Your Anxiety by Edward H. Joy 

Quote for the Day

 My former pastor and great friend Rev. R. E. Carroll once told me , “Garen when someone has committed  a wrong against me, when I go to prayer I say to the Lord, ‘Lord handle me, Lord will you please take care of my attitude.’”

THE PSALMS ARE INSPIRED.

THE PSALMS ARE INSPIRED.

            As was mentioned before in my blog posts, I have prepared each post with the presupposition that the entire Bible is authored and inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The Book of Psalms is therefore the inspired word of God.  Hibbard, in Whedon's Commentary states, "The Psalms are the only collection of sacred songs plenarily inspired which were ever given to the church, and as such presents a claim upon our reverence, faith, and devotional use which belongs to no other." Commentary on the Old Testament by D.D. Whedon, ed., Psalms Vol. 5, p. 7.

            The Book of Psalms is the only inspired collection of sacred songs extant in the world today.  Since it is an inspired songbook, it is important to study the various places in the Old and New Testaments where the writers quote portions of the psalms and thereby attest to the inspiration of the Psalm collection.  It is also worth noting that in the New Testament there are more exact quotations, references, and allusions to the Book of Psalms than to any other Old Testament Book.

             David claimed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in II Samuel 23:1-2 where it states, “Now these be the last words of David.  David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.”  So, David directly claimed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he declared that his psalms were breathed out (ruach 7307) from YHVH (3068) so thoroughly that he stated that God spoke by or through his psalms. The psalmist David further declared that God’s word (millah 4405) was actually in his tongue (lashown 3956). 

Quote and Thought for the Day 

 “Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.” Acts 1:16  This statement by St. Peter is significant in that it attests to the fact that the Holy Spirit’s inspiration on the Book of Psalms. Ac 1:20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.”

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 and Thought  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 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.

The Seven Note Creation-part 2

The Seven Note Creation-part 2  

       When we study the te'amim (which is the musical notation found above and below the texts of the entire Old Testament), we find that both the psalmodic and prosodic systems of notation have a tonic note.  (See chapter 8 of my book, Music of the Bible in Christian Perspective and The Music of the Bible Revealed. by Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, Berkley: Bibal Press, 1991.).  This tonic note is called "silluq".  This term means "end" and has the same function as the tonic note of our "modern" diatonic scale. God created and rested in seven days and God made a seven note scale with a resting note.  After the seventh day the sequence of days re-begins and after the seventh note the musical scale re-begins--all this is more than a coincidence!  It is the work of an omniscient creator.

       Outside of our knowledge of the te'amim, the Pentateuch is relatively silent as to the specifics of the beginnings of music.  However, we do know that God imparted musical knowledge to man before the flood.  Genesis 4:21 explains that Lamech’s son Jubal “was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ."  We also know that Adam was given domain over the erets (776) so he no doubt had wisdom concerning music. The more we learn about God’s seven note creation the more we are drawn to the conclusion that a God this wise is capable of guiding us in developing a unified Christocentric music philosophy in the twenty-first century.  Praise God   

Thought for the Day

When a composer or arranger repeatedly avoids the use of the tonic, he or she obscures the finality which is necessary for the proper presentation of the gospel.