A Note on Music

"The music we listen to often carries the message of the world, and the world uses the medium of music to squeeze us into its mold. And a Christian cannot help being gradually influenced if he continually listens to the world's music"

~Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness

I don't like this quote. I don't think many Christians my age would be prone to defend its reasoning. I do wonder, though, how Christians who don't actually listen to worldly music would respond. They have less at stake, and so perhaps slightly less bias.

I am challenged, and I challenge you: what are you allowing to shape you? Scripture? Then how? Is your decision to engage secular culture by buying its music and memorizing its lyrics a part of your pursuit of godliness? Have you filtered your CD collection through the grid of God's revelation?

The attitudes expressed in much music--about love, about revenge, about the meaning(lessness) of life--are we really immune to subtle persuasion?

1 John 2:1 says "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin." Will not sin. Do we live like that's what we want? Jerry Bridges, at one point in his life, realized that all he wanted was "not to sin very much." Do we settle for this unbiblical standard?

James 1:26 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

In both of these passages, we are addressed as children as we are exhorted to pursue, or desire, holiness. I do not recommend that we publish a list of acceptable bands, or promote an all out ban on any music not labeled CCM. But I do think we should ask ourselves...would we obey if that's what God wanted? Do we even want to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world? Is that desire on our emotional radar screen? Is our father's standard of holiness important to us?

I have to say that often, for me, it is not.

One final thought--the other day the parable of the talents from Matthew 25 came to my mind. In the parable, the master returns and finds that the servant to whom he entrusted one talent has done nothing with it...he has merely buried it. The master's reaction is harsh: "you wicked, lazy servant!" That servant was wicked. He didn't lose what he'd been given. He didn't waste it, or squander it. He merely saved it. And he was wicked.

Many of those privileged to grow up in "sheltered" Christian homes have been blessed with innocence and instruction. And I'm scared--I'm scared that, worse even than the wicked servant, we aren't even protecting those gifts. I'm scared that we're throwing them away.

Where We Are and Where We Need to Go, Part 1

Today America rejoiced. The celebration of my countrymen permeated every avenue of communication with a frigid reality. On this day, January 20, 2009, the man who received a resounding endorsement from Hamas, who was named “the most liberal Senator of 2007” by the National Journal, and who promised to make his first act as President the passing of a radical bill that would wipe out state abortion restrictions (Freedom of Choice Act), was worshiped as he was sworn in as the forty-forth President of these United States. Yes, America celebrated, literally weeping in her ecstasy. I too wept. However, grief ushered forth my tears, not the opium of false hope. I wept and clawed at the anxiety searing my soul.

He is elected; it is done. It cannot be changed. We should be praying for our new president, as we should all our leaders, but this does not mean we turn a blind eye to his priorities and principles. The election of Obama says a lot about this country. It is now clear we live in a country whose people care more about “making history” than about doing what is good and right to build a stronger nation. We live in a country where the color of a man’s skin elevated him into the most powerful position in the world. We live in a country where the black evangelical church used worship services to praise God for their new idol, abandoned Scripture, and failed to embrace the conviction of their own martyr (MLK) that a man should be judged by content and character, not color. We live in a country where God’s people sit at home mourning the direction of this world, yet fail to stand up and fight. We live in a country where laws forbidding cruelty to animals are abundant, while laws forbidding cruelty to unborn babies are constantly opposed. We live in a country where almost 2 million people will brave harsh elements to “make history,” while only 125,000 will show up to fight for life. We live in a country where people mock the outgoing President as he exits with words of praise for his successor, even though he kept them safe for seven years. We live in a country where we claim the color of a man should not be an issue, yet heap effusive praise on a man whose color is at the very heart of the issue. We live in a country where tax breaks are more important to its citizens than the sacredness of human life. We live in a country that condemns voting on a single issue, but that votes the single issue of the economy. We live in a country where more stock is put in financial security than the security for those in a womb. We live in a country where the Church says the government has failed the poor, when it is really the Church’s responsibility and the Church who has failed. We live in an immoral, postmodern country. What are we going to do about it?

Until this point the Christian lawyers, theologians, educators, and the evangelical establishment as a whole have not “been in there blowing the trumpet loud and clear.” On January 22, the March for Life is one tremendous way to help blow the trumpet.

Just think: Today as America raised her voice in celebration there were 4,000 new voices joining the already 50,000,000 silenced voices in the grave.