Worship Music

Jesus Just Wants To Give You A Hug?
Over thirty years ago, the great philosopher Paul McCartney asked, “What’s wrong with silly love songs?” Having given this over three decades of serious consideration (OK, at least several months), I have Sir McCartney’s answer.It depends.If you want to fill the world with silly love songs, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to fill the church with them, I say, “Stop it!”Tune into your “get you through your day” Christian music station and you will hear grown men, whining like love sick puppies, “Nothing else can take your place, or feel the warmth of your embrace.” Who are they singing to? The One who holds the universe together by the power of His word, or a chick?Take the QuizHere are six phrases from six contemporary songs. Can you pick which phrases belong to secular songs and which to the sacred?1. All I need to do is just be me, being in love with you.2. My world stops spinning round, without you.3. I never want to leave; I want to stay in your warm embrace.4. I’m lost in love.5. Now and forever, together and all that I feel, here's my love for you.6. You say you love me just as I am.The first three are from a popular Christian band called Big Daddy Weave, the second half are from Air Supply.More and more of our Christian music is sounding one note: Jesus loves you soooooo much. Do I doubt for a second that Jesus loves His children? Nope, but it depends on what your definition of “love” is.God “agape” loves His children. Agape love is not an emotions based, warm and fuzzy kind of love. Agape love is a self sacrificing, “I will help you despite how I feel” love.William Tyndale was the first translator to use the word “love” for agape. Prior to the 16th century, the word “charity” best described agape. Leaving that debate aside, since Tyndale’s time, the English definition for love has expanded. Our modern day use of love ranges from a love for an object to physical love/sex (eros love). I love that new car. I love that girl. I love that God. That God loves me.Not only do we use “love” in romantic ways to sing about God, we have added other romantic phrases to our Christian music repertoire: hold me, embrace me, feel you, need you. This criticism is not new, in fact, it has existed since Godly men began endeavoring to sing anything but the Psalms.John Wesley considered an “amatory phrase” to be language that was more feelings based love than self-sacrificing agape love. John deleted “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” from one of his brother Charles’ collections because it was too romantic sounding.Amatory PhrasingNot only are musicians guilty of writing amatory phrases, but they are singing with amatory phrasing. Christian men sing with such romantic longing and neediness it makes me want to scream, “Man up!”Christian women are singing with such throaty breathiness you would think they had just run from their home to the studio. To whom exactly are they singing? Brad Pitt or the Savior?There are two consequences to this “Jesus is my boyfriend/girlfriend” music. Needy, emotional women continue to need more counseling, self help books and conferences where they can spread their wings and soar. Men simply are not showing up for church. It is my belief they simply can’t stand the mood manipulating worship times designed to help them “feel the Lord’s embrace.”Musical MermaidsWithout theology in music, we are offering fluff that will not comfort when bridges collapse and test reports are negative. Songwriters could provide true hope if they would write about the sovereignty of God rather than crying about “how safe I feel when Jesus is holding me.”Charles Spurgeon had the same criticism of “Hymns for Heart and Voice” published in 1855. He condemned the hymns as being “little better than mermaids, nice to look at but dangerous because they cannot deliver what they promise.”Is there anything wrong with being reminded that our God is our help from ages past? Of course not, the Psalms are loaded with promises of God’s comfort. But unlike the Psalms (and theology based hymns), contemporary music is void of the reason why we should not worry. We do not worry because someone purrs that we shouldn’t fret, but because God is our shelter in the stormy blast and our eternal home. Our comfort comes from knowledge, not caterwauling.If you enjoy a silly love song now and then, knock yourself out. But leave them where they belong, in the world or in the bedroom, not in the church.
Posted by J & J Bible Ministry, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Rock on! The site link is on my side bar. Check it out is has a ton of cool stuff. Sound doctrine is stinkin' awesome!

Brandon and Nopey

This is gonna be short but I wanted to update.

Today we got onto the topic of Nicole and Brandon. Nopey for some odd reason, will not believe that there is a "Brandon and Nicole". She kept sayin' "NO. They are not. I won't believe it till she tells me." Mind you that at our house Nicole and Brandon have been a topic of discussion for a while now. She has know for over a month now that they were "gonna get married"(not anytime soon; with officialness comes eventual marriage. Understood. Good). So she doesn't believe me. Well not quite anyway.

See I told you I was gonna be brief. Mom didn't think I could. It is only a ONE(ish) paragraph post. Ha-ha-haaaaa. I did it!

Ok I am done. Love ya'll

Quotes

My grandpa sent me quotes for Thomas A. Kempis ( Imitation of Christ). I thought that I would post some. I have found that they make me feel guilty which, is a good thing. Though, truly, I should live my life above such reproach. This blog post is my "something for the public good".

Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good.

Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou has many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou are not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?

(Does anyone else struggle with this one?)

The good devout man first makes inner preparation for the actions he has later to perform. His outward actions do not draw him into lust and vice; rather it is he who bends them into the shape of reason and right judgement. Who has a stiffer battle to fight than the man who is striving to conquer himself.

The quotes were found on This website.

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Tonight is PP. Yeah. Chemistry went well today. I understood it all. That makes me happy.

Thank you Tony for helping me make a 3D pyramid with a piece of paper. ;D Can you tell that geometry isn't my thing? Ok so it's just graphing and apparently making things with my hands. It takes some major brain power for me to graph anything. I don't understand why. It is a picture. You think that drawing basic geometric shapes would be easy!

Moving on..... I hear that senior Patriots got creamed at the tournament. I don't have particulars.

Oh!!!!!! Something very exciting happened on Saturday. Back story coming right up.

There is a lady in my mom's Sunday School class whose husband has had brain tumors. Doctors have gone in and removed that tumors at various times and b/c of the frequency of removing them, left out a piece of his scull in order that they could more easily get in just in case they had to remove more. Well this last summer the doctors decided that they would put back into place this man's bone. His body rejected it. Now he is having to have antibiotic and all these special things and his wife (the lady in mom's class) is having to stay home to take care of him. All of these happenings have put a financial strain on this family.

The lady was telling about her situation in SS one morning and it got the other ladies to thinking upon how they could help her out. They came up with having a garage sale. And that they did last Saturday. Ya'll should have seen the amount of stuff went to that garage sale. My house became a drop off point b/c of its location so we saw much of it. We took a full size bed full, a suburban full, and two or three loads in the small-bed truck, of things donated to be in the garage sale and people were dropping stuff off at the site of the sale as well!

Here is the cool part. On Saturday, this one day garage sale made $1,100.01. What makes it awesome is that the ladies had prayed that they would make a $1000! (mom didn't know that 'till afterward) Most of the items were marked at $1. Mom said that they probably sold $800 dollars in $1 items. It has to be a God thing that they made so much money. At 2:30 when everything was being packed up people were still trying to look! So God is good all the time and all the time God IS GOOD!

'K ya'll that rocks my socks off!

Happy Birthday Hannah!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to work this morning or I would have had this up sooner. I pray that you would have a WONDERFUL birthday with none embarrassing you tooo much. But just a little would be good I am sure. LOL

*Smooch* Lady

Star wars

Today at nap time J. Alan asked to listen to Star Wars. I had told him that we would listen to my MP3 player. He sang right along with the Star Wars theme. Twas so stinkin' cute! Besides Taggs, do all 3yos know SW to the point of being able to sing it? I also introduced him to bluegrass. We listened to "Honey in the Rock". It happens to be a comical song that is partially sung with the zerbert sound. He absolutely loved it!

Jelly threw up all night. :( Sadness. She was all fun and games this morning so we think she is all better now.

Yesterday in Chem we all didn't get to finish are experiment b/c this machine that we were to use broke. Hopefully next week. I almost cried in class b/c Mr. Herb did this skit about the 10 lepers that Jesus healed and the 1 coming back. I'm not sure why.

My brother pulled a tooth that was going to have to be pulled (now he only has 5 that need to be cut out) in order to get $50. Ya'll shoulda heard him scream! Good night the boy has one powerful set of lungs, though I don't believe that anyone can beat Beanie.

Now I am going to venture to show that same brother all of the Hobbbottom films. I dearly think that it should invoke great pleasure to his young being.

Night Ya'll

Star wars

Patriot Basketball

Wow they mean small when they say it! That last one is itty bitty. I took a good number of pictures but none of them are really any good. The first one on the page cracks me up. It coulda been so good. It is clear and bright enough{(mind you the only one that was clear and bright w/o editing softwere) but there is a basketball in the way. Who woulda figured as a basketball would get in the way at a basketball game? I am sure I never would have. LOL

What a wretched place would heaven be!

What a wretched place would heaven be!

(Jonathan Edwards, "The Way of Holiness")

"Nothing impure will ever enter it." Revelation 21:27

Everyone hopes for heaven--and if everyone who hoped for heaven actually went there--heaven would be full of murderers, adulterers, swearers, drunkards, and thieves!It would be full of all manner of wickedness and wicked men--those who are no better than wild beasts, howling wolves, and poisonous serpents. Yes, heaven would be full of incarnate devils! What a wretched place would heaven be--if it were so! That pure, undefiled, glorious place--would be turned into a hell. There would be no happiness there for those who are holy--if they were all mixed up together with wicked men and devils! How would one unsanctified person interrupt their happiness--and fill those regions with the loathsome stench of his sin and filthiness!It is impossible that a God of infinite holiness, who is perfect and hates sin with perfect hatred, who is infinitely lovely and excellent--could embrace in His arms--a filthy, abominable creature, a hideous, detestable monster, more hateful than a toad and more poisonous than a viper! So hateful, base, and abominable--is every unsanctified man!What a pitiable, miserable condition are they in--to step out of this world into an uncertain eternity, with an expectation of finding themselves exceedingly happy and blessed in heaven--and all at once find themselves undeceived--and sinking in the bottomless pit!

Are you to be pitied?

Hayride!

Ya'll I had a blast last night. We went out into the middle of nowhere to have a bonfire and a hayride and sing songs and just to be with other Jesus lovers. It was great. We started singing while on the hayride and J. Alan wanted to sing Jesus loves me. So we did and then he wanted to sing Deep and wide and so we did. But then he wanted Jesus love me again and since we are nice peoples we sang it again. It didn't satisfy him though he kept wanting to sing that song. He loves it. He looked up at me with his big excited eyes and whispered "Let's sing all the Jesus songs!". I of course had to check into that with "What Jesus songs?". The reply "Jesus Loves Me".

Jazzy. I had met her before but I learned about her by experience yesterday. Talk about more fun than a barrel of monkeys! Lou~La~Belle got to be with her guy. Yeah for them!!!!! I am being genuine!

Mr. David spoke on the faithfulness of God. We did the "God is good" repeat thing with faithfulness and merciful in place of good. God is faithful. The examples of His faithfulness are endless.

Have I ever mentioned that I love the book of Romans? I do. Our pastor is going through Romans on Sunday Mornings. He has been preachin' some pretty awesome sermons and this morning was no exceptions. It was on Romans 2: 17-29 and self righteousness. Right now we are at the bad news. The bad news of condemnation. We are all sinners. Soon we will come to the beauty of Christ's finished work on the cross (what that means) and b/c of the foundation that is being laid we will hopefully, appreciate it all the more. You have to be lost and know it to be saved.

Sorry about the ginormous gap in between posts.

Lady