I've been turning my radio and headphones to more worship music lately. What catches me are lyrics that magnify and glorify our great God. I find myself to have wasted money on worship songs that are man-centered and have lyrics that seem to imply that "God's my boyfriend/girlfriend". What ever happened to the elaborate doctrines and lyrics of the Psalms and hymns in our worship services? I'm not trying to be hyper-critical, but mindful of the fact that we worship leaders over the past few decades have chosen some wimpy songs to lead the people of God into worship with.
Compare the lyrics of this contemporary worship song and hymn:
I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever
Over the mountains and the sea
Your river runs with love for me
And I will open up my heart
And let the Healer set me free
I'm happy to be in the truth
I will daily lift my hands
For I will always song of when Your love can down
I could sing of Your love forever
I could sing of Your love forever
I could sing of Your love forever
I could sing of Your love forever
Be Thou My Vision
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
You can see the difference in doctrinal depth here. Yes, they are both doctrinally correct, but which one gives a deeper understanding of God? Do you see what I'm saying? Here is a comparison with another contemporary song and hymn:
Draw Me Close
Draw me close to You
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I'm Your friend
You are my desire
No one else will do
Nothing else could take your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find the way
To bring me back to You
You're all I want
You're all I've ever needed
You're all I want
Help me know You are near
Come Thou Fount
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my hear to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love
Here I raise my sign of victory
Hither by Thy help I'm come
And I know, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wand'ring from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
O, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wand'ring hear to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O, take and seal it
Seal it for They courts above
Now I'll take a step away from hymns and look at more contemporary worship songs that have deep doctrinal depth. Here is one of my favorites:
Counting On Your Name
My name is written on Your hands
You call me Your own
You call me Your own
Now I am Yours
No earthly power could tear us apart
Tear us apart
I'm counting on Your name
I'm counting on Your name
Counting on Your name to save me
I'm trusting You're the way
I'm trusting You're the way
Trusting Your the way
My Savior
My life is built on nothing less
Than Your faithfulness
Your faithfulness
Counting on Christ and Christ alone
I'm hoping in You
Hoping in You
How is that compared to:
Arms of Love
I sing a simple song of love
To my Savior
To my Jesus
I'm thankful for the things You've done
My loving Savior
My precious Jesus
My heart is glad
That You call me Your own
There's no place is rather be
(Than) in Your arms love
Your arms of love
Holding me still
Holding me near
In Your arms of love
Now I know some of these songs are probably your favorite worship songs, and you've probably got some things of your own to say to me. Before you do, think about the point of this post: do my songs I use to lead the congregation of God into the worship of God lift high the name of God? What's the point of worship? To make God's people feel warm and have an emotional high? No way! It's about bringing people to feet of the God of the universe and letting them praise Him for who He is and what He's done. It's about singing the praises of God. Let the Holy Spirit have reign over people's emotions with songs filled with good doctrine not good ideas.
Yes, harsh, but I think necessary. Praise God for who He is and what He's done. Lead the people of God in songs of good, sound doctrine.
Blessings,
Nick
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Emotions Run High!
Emotions make us human. The ones we choose to embrace tell a lot about who we are. We all have "good" emotions that we feel: happiness, joy, excitement, love, compassion, peace, thankfulness, etc. But we also have "bad" emotions that we feel: sadness, sorrow, hate, anger, unrest, bitterness, etc. These all play a huge part in how we conduct our Christian lives. There are correct ways to use these emotions and the Bible tells us how to use them.
How do we use our emotions to glorify God?
Our lives are to glorify God in every thought, word, and deed; but since we have fallen natures, this is impossible to do most, if not every single time. Therefore God gave us the Bible to help us align ourselves to His nature. It is very important to remember that emotions swing back and forth. They are unstable and not a good standard for a guide in life. Emotions should compliment a standard for living and not be the standard for living.
What does the Bible say?
Here are some emotions that the Bible focuses on and how it tells us the right and wrong intentions for their use.
Happiness, Joy, Rejoicing...
There are times for us when acting on being happy and joyous are good, but there are times when these emotions are sinful.
A few examples of rightly rejoicing are always rejoicing in the Lord (Philippians 4:4), rejoicing when a person trusts in Jesus for salvation (Luke 15:7), rejoicing with another person who is rejoicing (12:15), and rejoicing in justice (Proverbs 21:15). We would all agree that these are good uses for happiness and rejoicing, but the Bible also has clear guidance on when these emotions and acting upon them are sinful.
Being happy about or joyous about something that dishonors God, His character, and His plans are sinful. Ways that these emotions dishonor God are being happy in sin or about sin (Romans 1:32, 6:1-4), being happy with calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20), happily being in alliance with injustice (Psalm 94:20-21), and happily making yourself more important than God (Romans 1:20-23).
Hate and Anger
Yes, there are correct times when hate and anger are to be acted upon, but I can almost guarantee it's not the way you're thinking of. As Christians, we are to hate the things that God hates and love the things that God loves. The first example of hatred is going to be a little more in depth because most Christians can't grasp the limit of how far hate can go.
Hatred for sin is the number one hatred we should have (Proverbs 8:13). It is our ruthless enemy and our nature is riddled with it. We will battle against sin until the day we die. There are two big problems that Christians have with this.
The first problem Christians have is a love for their own sin and a hatred for other people's sins. They want to hang on to their own selfish sins and criticize others about how they don't obey God. Sounds obviously crazy, doesn't it? But it's true. We don't hate our sin with a loathsome, passionate hate. We don't get angry with the sin in our own lives like we should.
Secondly, many Christians blur the line between hating sin and hating sinners. We are to hate sin, but we are to also love the sinner. Yeah, I know this has been used as a cop-out for "friendship evangelism" and cowardly approaches to evangelism, but that's not where I'm going with this. Jesus told us to love our enemies, and I believe that means we are to love God's enemies too. We are not to be friends with the world in the sense of living as the world lives and approve of how they live, but we are to go into the world as Christ did and love those who are at odds with God giving them the Gospel of reconciliation to God. The problem is that most Christians can't distinguish that. They see someone who doesn't believe as they do and they mark them off as if they were a leper, hating them because of how they live or what they do. Do you not understand you were in that exact same standing with God as this person is before God so graciously reached down and saved you? Quit being a hypocrite and love as Christ loved! Correct hatred does not breed hatred for people. It breeds compassion, love, and a desire that they be saved.
Hatred for injustice, calling good evil, and evil good are a few more ways we are to use hate to glorify God.
Anger goes right along with hate since they are very close emotions. Anger usually has to do with sin against others or you. A few examples of being rightly angered is when someone slanders God, slanders justice, misuses the Bible, or does evil to others and you. The correct response to this isn't revenge. God will deal with that in His timing. Our response could be as simple as educating the offender, seeking justice (again, not revenge!), or turning the other cheek. We can be angry, but we are commanded to be angry without sinning and don't go to sleep on your anger (Ephesians 4:26).
I realize that is a lot to dwell on for one blog so I'll leave this entry as is until my next post. Think about these things and check to see if you are rightly using your emotions to glorify God.
Worship Him with every emotion.
Blessings,
Nick
How do we use our emotions to glorify God?
Our lives are to glorify God in every thought, word, and deed; but since we have fallen natures, this is impossible to do most, if not every single time. Therefore God gave us the Bible to help us align ourselves to His nature. It is very important to remember that emotions swing back and forth. They are unstable and not a good standard for a guide in life. Emotions should compliment a standard for living and not be the standard for living.
What does the Bible say?
Here are some emotions that the Bible focuses on and how it tells us the right and wrong intentions for their use.
Happiness, Joy, Rejoicing...
There are times for us when acting on being happy and joyous are good, but there are times when these emotions are sinful.
A few examples of rightly rejoicing are always rejoicing in the Lord (Philippians 4:4), rejoicing when a person trusts in Jesus for salvation (Luke 15:7), rejoicing with another person who is rejoicing (12:15), and rejoicing in justice (Proverbs 21:15). We would all agree that these are good uses for happiness and rejoicing, but the Bible also has clear guidance on when these emotions and acting upon them are sinful.
Being happy about or joyous about something that dishonors God, His character, and His plans are sinful. Ways that these emotions dishonor God are being happy in sin or about sin (Romans 1:32, 6:1-4), being happy with calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20), happily being in alliance with injustice (Psalm 94:20-21), and happily making yourself more important than God (Romans 1:20-23).
Hate and Anger
Yes, there are correct times when hate and anger are to be acted upon, but I can almost guarantee it's not the way you're thinking of. As Christians, we are to hate the things that God hates and love the things that God loves. The first example of hatred is going to be a little more in depth because most Christians can't grasp the limit of how far hate can go.
Hatred for sin is the number one hatred we should have (Proverbs 8:13). It is our ruthless enemy and our nature is riddled with it. We will battle against sin until the day we die. There are two big problems that Christians have with this.
The first problem Christians have is a love for their own sin and a hatred for other people's sins. They want to hang on to their own selfish sins and criticize others about how they don't obey God. Sounds obviously crazy, doesn't it? But it's true. We don't hate our sin with a loathsome, passionate hate. We don't get angry with the sin in our own lives like we should.
Secondly, many Christians blur the line between hating sin and hating sinners. We are to hate sin, but we are to also love the sinner. Yeah, I know this has been used as a cop-out for "friendship evangelism" and cowardly approaches to evangelism, but that's not where I'm going with this. Jesus told us to love our enemies, and I believe that means we are to love God's enemies too. We are not to be friends with the world in the sense of living as the world lives and approve of how they live, but we are to go into the world as Christ did and love those who are at odds with God giving them the Gospel of reconciliation to God. The problem is that most Christians can't distinguish that. They see someone who doesn't believe as they do and they mark them off as if they were a leper, hating them because of how they live or what they do. Do you not understand you were in that exact same standing with God as this person is before God so graciously reached down and saved you? Quit being a hypocrite and love as Christ loved! Correct hatred does not breed hatred for people. It breeds compassion, love, and a desire that they be saved.
Hatred for injustice, calling good evil, and evil good are a few more ways we are to use hate to glorify God.
Anger goes right along with hate since they are very close emotions. Anger usually has to do with sin against others or you. A few examples of being rightly angered is when someone slanders God, slanders justice, misuses the Bible, or does evil to others and you. The correct response to this isn't revenge. God will deal with that in His timing. Our response could be as simple as educating the offender, seeking justice (again, not revenge!), or turning the other cheek. We can be angry, but we are commanded to be angry without sinning and don't go to sleep on your anger (Ephesians 4:26).
I realize that is a lot to dwell on for one blog so I'll leave this entry as is until my next post. Think about these things and check to see if you are rightly using your emotions to glorify God.
Worship Him with every emotion.
Blessings,
Nick
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