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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Are we listening to each other? | John 12:32 | Scribe | 104066 | ||
Part 1 of 3 I would say that having considered our use of worship songs in the church I have come to the conclusion that as in all areas of our relationship with Christ that the best path to take is that of faith. What I mean is that when we worship the Lord in spirit and in truth scincerity and honesty should be expressed toward God in such a way as we individually have faith and understanding, or knowledge to walk in. If a person is well read in the Old hymns and that is what produces faith and expressions of heart felt worship toward God for him then they should do that. But it is not love nor understanding to think that all other people will also be moved by the same hymn. Some who are at a different place in their faith are almost offended by some of the words in some old hymns that others find inspiring. So if a brother or sister is full of faith and praise toward God giving a heart of thanksgiving toward God by singing, "Lord I lift your name on High.. Lord I love to sing your praises" and he sings it 7 times or 717 times, If he is from his heart thanking and Praising God, then it is far better than singing 100 Traditional and Theologically Rich hymns with your mind on the football game or business or God forbid the pretty woman two rows away. There is much more I could say about that but let me say what I most want to say. I have observed many things in the church in the past 24 years. And one of the most interesting and puzzling phenomenons is this area of contemporary worship music in mainline evangelical denominational yet not charismatic or pentacostal churches. You see having not attended church or been involved in religion growing up, I was saved in prison and had no knowledge of form or style of worship when I was first saved. I would read the Bible and the Holy Spirit would illuminate my understanding as to how I should live for God from the scriptures. I saw that Jesus and his disciples sang hymns so I asked for a hymn book and received a book of traditional hymns. The first song I learned was “Precious Memories” I never really liked it, but it was the only one that someone in the cell block I was at knew the music to. Then someone taught me the tune to Amazing Grace which I had never heard before either. I would pray and sing one of these hymns almost daily as a ritual because I was trying to do what Jesus did. Then one day someone visited me and taught me “This is the Day that the Lord has Made” well compared to the Amazing Grace you might think that the simple little song “This is the Day that they Lord Has made” is 7-11, but my worship time was transformed into something wonderful and non ritual when I sang it for two reasons. One I was singing the Word, the song was just a Psalm put to music, and to me was more supernaturally edifying than all the words of Amazing Grace put together. See Amazing Grace might be a wonderful song and the words of the writer might be considered classic and genius, but they are nothing compared to one sentence of God’s Word. Give me one sentence of God’s Word taken from the Psalm and I will sing it 7 times 70 more than words of men no matter how intellectual they seem. The other reason this type of song produced more spiritual growth and maturity in me than the intellectualism of the old hymns was that I was singing from my spirit and not just my head. If you worship from the spirit it does not matter if you only have one phrase from the Psalms , it is enough. Granted there are some songs that are not from the word or even contrary to the Word that I do not think we should be singing, but they are not that common, and I would say there are more of those in the hymnals than in the modern chorus music that is so popular. I personally do not sing songs in church to teach other, nor do I sing them as a means to learn, I sing to worship God. If singing songs is a good way to pass on doctrine to your children then we should sing some of the old hymns but certainly not all of them are sound doctrine. And finally I want to express how amazed I am at the acceptance of the contemporary music in the mainline denominations such as Baptists, or even Methodists etc. Why I am so amazed is that 20 years ago there is no way a local Baptist church in my community would have ever sang songs that had their origin and authorship in the Charismatic or Pentacostal Movement. CONTINUED ON NEXT POST |
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2 | Are we listening to each other? | John 12:32 | Radioman2 | 104073 | ||
Boys and Girls: Christian music (i.e., the preferred style, traditional or contemporary), believe it or not, is one of the most controversial issues in the church today. Isn't this thread (Is lifting His name related to this vs?) long enough without tacking on an off-topic sub-thread? It might be better to post a new question to start a new and separate thread on styles of Christian music. Just a suggestion. :-) I'm not scolding anyone. --Radioman2 |
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