Old Hymns, New Life, Good Wife (Radio / Podcast)

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,
(Proverbs 12:4a)

I have often said that the old hymns aren’t dead, but that we just need to breathe new life into them. I have also said in conjunction with that statement that at our church we often use old hymns with new arrangements, and the same words with different sounds and rhythms. The point was not about the new arrangements or sounds or rhythms, but a new, fresh vigor and appreciation for the theological and biblical words, phrases, and concepts delivered by these old hymns and spiritual songs, so wonderfully rich with timeless truth. However, this was perhaps not as clear to the people as it was to me.

My wife was talking to me one day and said that she thought I needed to be a little more precise on this matter. It seemed to her that when I said this, some people though it meant that we should indeed do old hymns, but that in order to breathe new life into them we need to use new rhythms. Perhaps, she said, some might even think that they would remain dead unless we used new arrangements, etc. For them what I was saying was that it was not just about keeping the old songs, but also about losing the old timing, music, etc.

Even though I communicated clearly, people hear from their own perspective, and as a pastor I must communicate in such as way as to speak to every situation that I can without clouding the message. I had got my point across, we were doing a lot of old songs, but did I do more than I intended by my unbeknownst lack of clarity? I knew what I had meant and I was right, but did people get all of what I was saying, or did they apply it in too literal a fashion?

You can be right about a thing but still not be considerate of all the angles necessary for others to appreciate it and apply it. Think about the Corinthians who had the right knowledge of idols but didn’t consider others who still had a weak conscience. Their right was made wrong, not by their understanding, but by their misunderstanding of how love limits liberty. In the same way, we don’t just get something right and then expect that all will understand as thoroughly as we do. If it took us time to come to the understanding, and that happened after specifically studying the matter, why would it not take others time as well?

It was worth thinking about and investigating. The ministers of music send me their ideas for the songs they want to use each week. I began to notice that my wife was right; we were using many old songs but almost always with new beats, rhythms, arrangements and such. Although they had a new appreciation for singing the old songs, perhaps they missed the point that we didn’t always need to revamp the old songs to re-amp them.

I meditated on this and realized that I do not want to miss a very practical and powerful point for my own life: listen to the wife even if you know you are right. You may be right but you can always expand the reach of your rightness. Her perspective is valuable and most precious. She is on your side, but she can see more than your shore. If she understands you like no one else, and yet she isn’t exactly clear on a matter, what does that say for people who know you less?

My wife truly makes me a better pastor. Your wife is here to make your old rights even more right. Listen to her rhythm and you will be blessed. If you fail to listen to her you fail to appreciate one of God’s greatest means of your growth in sanctification, as well as sanity.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Stop the Worship? (Radio / Podcast)

You worship what you do not know…
(John 4:22 – ESV)

As a pastor you always need to be talking to the song leaders about the balance. We should review the songs in the rotation and look together at new songs that they want to bring in. In this way you can use these times as teachable moments. Indeed we should have feelings and responses because of God's grace, but we need more "Thou art" and less "I will" in the songs, God entranced and not man entranced.

Now sometimes songs can slip by you or they can slip by a congregation without anyone really focusing on what is actually being taught. Congregational singing is more than stirring up feelings, it is teaching each other in song, and it is important, albeit for reasons that are sometimes lost on “worship leaders”.

It should be more about “doctrinal led devotion” than simply proclaiming our increasing love for a God we aren’t increasing in our knowledge of. It isn’t how much more I feel Him means how much more I love Him, but how much more I know Him, and then this would produce the proper devotion. We more often than not get the order reversed, and think we are growing deeper in our love for Him when we are actually growing colder even as our feelings burn hot.

Considering this, I have literally “stopped the worship” more than once. Actually I just stopped the music and singing and focused our worship on some truth I was absolutely sure we needed to hear more clearly as we sang it.

It was during the song “unfailing love” that I stopped the music and went over to the screen and pointed out the lyrics and something I wanted to make sure people noticed. The lyrics were “Praise you God of earth and sky how beautiful is your unfailing love, unfailing love”… “And you never change Lord you remain the holy one and my unfailing love, unfailing love”.

From these lyrics I showed that they teach correctly that His unfailing love is grounded in His holiness, “you never change you remain the holy one”, and so therefore He remains unfailing in His love. His love is grounded in His holiness not in our faithfulness and His holiness is that from which His love springs, not vice versa.

I’m not sure whether or not the author intended it this way, but it was good to point out considering the sermon of the day, or any day, nonetheless.

Also I used the stoppage purposefully to stop people from just “going with the flow”. The atmosphere was starting to get moving, and not necessarily in a bad way, but I wanted to make sure people don’t always equate this “everybody’s into it” thing with “now we are really worshipping”. I pointed out that we shouldn’t bristle at someone, something, or some event stopping our “flow”.

I asked if anyone was thinking like, “I was just getting into it man”, and how their focus would be wrong. Well, no sir, you were just feeling it, but God was already here to be worshipped and you must renew your mind to the fact that feelings are a byproduct of worship, not the conduit of them. Feelings aren’t the way into His presence, as if we simply stir up our emotions by repeating some vague chorus over and over, and “poof!” God is there. No. Was I wrong to stop the singing, no, not at all, it was a good demonstration of the fact that if this hindered your worship than you were worshipping at the altar of your own feelings.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Celtic Woman (The Prayer)

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Penn Becomes a Teller...

HT:PyroManiacs

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

For Only Me?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Special Music: Goodness and Mercy

Our church's minister of music, Chris Cohen, has, together with his wife and daughter, produced this beautiful piece of music based on Psalm 23...I am sure you will be blessed by it...enjoy!

Goodness and Mercy

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Swept Away

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
(Acts 17:29 – ESV)

I was listening to what many might call a “powerful” worship song the other day. I listened and watched the video, yes it is powerful, lots of feeling, biblical language, and easy to "get into". It didn’t teach heresy, and everyone was really excited about it, and seemingly praising the Lord with abandon. The “presence of God” seemed to be tangible.

Yet there was a lot of repetition, and my fear is that people simply fall in love with being "swept away". I know it is a problem I have had before, and it makes me cringe to see others caught up whom I know have no desire to truly worship the Lord. I am not trying to judge them on the spot; I am talking about things observed over time. They have a love for song but not a growing love for the One whom the songs are supposed to be about. The songs may seem like they are working right then, but they don’t seem to be working out in their lives.

For many, these type of songs are only hindering their growth, because they think the feeling of being swept away is the height of spirituality, and the goal to be in a continuous act of being swept out from shore, into the depths of God. That is what they think is happening, but they are only being swept away to the shores of their own self and falling in love with feelings and with their own ideas about God, even while we are presumably singing truth about Him. They might be learning how to get “in tune” more and more, but they don’t ever seem to be excited about the Bible, or doctrine, or things like that. Those other things don’t “bring the anointing” they say.

Some “worship leaders” seem to realize that certain amounts of happy clappy songs can be all too much like a pep rally, and so they switch gears, to a slower, more somber, “deep” feel. Or they speed things up, add instruments, and then during the same song strip back, and go with voices only, and it seems as if God arrives on the scene, it is so holy, they think.

No I don’t think so, I think it is just our emotions being taken on a ride, like with good classical music. It is okay to have variation in music, but to think this helps people “break through” is superstitious nonsense, and I don’t care what story you might tell me, what happened is that their emotions got touched, and emotions are not the keyhole to unlock spiritual doors. Truth is the key, and that is the truth. Instead of breaking though we are binding them to a pattern of emotional release that they think is spiritual growth.

Try this experiment sometime; instead of your favorite tune set to perfect music, etc., sing one of the great hymns of the faith with no accompaniment at all, just voices. If you just can’t seem to get into it, you just can’t worship as well, or whatever, then guess what, it is the feeling for the music you worship, not God.

It is not our job to get people swept away in emotions, and most often repetition of simple choruses breeds music appreciation not some extra power. It grieves me to hear of people saying a certain song “brings the anointing”. Worshipping God isn’t supposed to resemble an incantation or summoning. People are using certain music, flags, dance, and other peripherals as supposed power tools; in a sense they are trying to “summon the Spirit”. Maybe they are successful, but I’m not so sure about what spirit is coming in. Don’t get swept away by them.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Sound of Silent Music

nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
(1 Timothy 1:4 – ESV)

You might be looking at the verse above and wondering what this has to do with music. Well it is a verse that in context is one of many sections where Paul admonishes church leaders to keep sound doctrine at the fore. When observing and studying the “pastoral epistles” of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, we see that Paul continually speaks of sound doctrine, of correction, rebuke, exhortation, public reading of scripture and truth before feelings. They seem to be silent on the style and content of music. In searching through the pastoral epistles you will notice he doesn’t tell Timothy (or Titus) to make sure they have a great praise band!

So Paul wasn’t concerned with music. Or was he? Indeed he was; if Paul continues on and on about doctrine, then the means of which it is delivered must also adhere to his strictures. By his silence Paul isn’t saying anything goes, especially if it is loving, has a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. No he is saying that good doctrine will lead to those qualities in truth, which would lead to good music choices. He isn’t saying anything goes he is saying anything that goes must go according to his doctrine. When he says doctrine he means Gospel.

He isn’t implying that music isn’t important but he is obviously intending to say that music is secondary, it is an instrument for doctrine, doctrine first, and music as a means of delivery of doctrine. By concentrating on doctrine Paul doesn’t say don’t do music he is saying that all our music should be doctrinal leading to devotional. Right devotion is informed by right doctrine.

Music teaches us something, not just by what it says but also by what it doesn’t. If it is only fluff with no meat it is teaching us that doctrine doesn’t matter. It obviously does to Paul and to God since the NT focuses on teaching, and so obviously the content of our songs of worship must be doctrinally rich if they are to be biblically sound. Paul doesn’t downplay worship with music; he exalts it by exalting the Bible! First things first: in keeping his students focused on doctrine, he is keeping them focused on the content of their worship. It isn’t that “worship” is unimportant, but that it is, so much so that it needs to be seen in the right order. Focusing on the Bible will help us to focus correctly in worship.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Son-Day Son-Rise

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
(1 John 3:3 – ESV)

I find my worth in You
Not in the works I do
From works I’ve been set free
I live in liberty

Now I am free to give
My life for Him to live
Because of what He’s done
Because I am God’s Son

I do what He has taught
Because my life He’s bought
It means I’m free from sin
It means I live for Him

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Right and Wrong of Song

Sing to him; sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!
(1 Chronicles 16:9 – ESV)

The priority in worship must be about God Himself, and then about Him including us into His plan, not us including God into our plan. Worship is about His love for us before it is about our love for Him. Most everyone, upon careful consideration, would agree to this. But does that mean we are not supposed to sing about how we love Jesus, or how we feel about what He has done for us? Does this mean if the song has a lot of “me” or “I” in it that it is no good? Does this mean the old songs are always better, or that we can never sing the new praise choruses?

It certainly isn’t that all the old songs are good and all the new ones are bad, or that using personal experience is never warranted. In one very old song, within 6 verses it uses I, me or my seventeen times. A quick reading shows an emphasis on what God can do for me.

It’s known as Psalm 23. Indeed, many of the Psalms initially seem to have their focus on the writer’s feelings and emotions and what they want God to do for them and to their enemies. However, they always return to God and who He is. The mind is grounded in God.

Thinking about one the most beloved of all hymns, "Amazing Grace", it does refer to "me", "I", and so on, but the focus is on what God has done, not on what I have done.

You see it’s not an either/or answer, but a question of where the overall focus is. Primary emphasis must be on God, His greatness, His holiness, and His attributes, because God’s promises are only as reliable as the God they come from. We must understand His faithfulness, and explore that, in order to more fully appreciate the reasons we can have faith. That is worship, discovering more about Him, and developing that theme in our songs.

In saying that we must first look at Him, and His perfections, we are saying that there is a proper order and levels of primacy, not that there is nothing else. Secondarily, therefore, we must also consider, ponder, mediate on, and sing about what God has done for us. Worship does include our response to His holiness. This is also a matter we should have as a higher focus or more emphasized fact than what we want or our devotional response.

Thirdly then, as far as preponderance of emphasis, is the matter of our devotional response to Him. It is because we can trust His works for us, and that being because of whom He is, that we can rightly declare our allegiance to and love for Him. If we should include songs about our devotion, and it is my contention that we should, then we must always include songs that inform us as to why we should be devoted and how we can be devoted also. We love Him because He first loves us, and the only reason we can love Him is because He first loved us, and so we must sing of Him loving us as primary and in that way more important than us loving Him. His faithfulness is not negated by our lack of it, and that is reason to worship.

Fourthly we come to God asking Him for mercy and grace to help in time of need, and we can do this in song. We thank Him for what we have before we ask Him for what we need. These needs are for corporate or individual outpouring of God’s Spirit into the worship situation, into the lives of others to bring salvation, or sanctification, into lives for mercy and healing, or requests of God to help in whatever situation we may find ourselves or others in.

Thinking about a song set rather than an individual song, perhaps a very simple hierarchy of emphasis and overall focus for our songs might look like this.

1. His perfections / who He is / His holiness, His attributes and character
2. His purpose / His mighty works / what He has done for us
3. His praise / our devotional response to Him
4. His provision / our requests of Him

Let us endeavor to do it all, but let us be diligent to make it primarily God entranced, centered on Christ, and speaking of the glory of the Godhead, with our singing the praise of His awe and wonder, our heartfelt devotion and neediness of the now following in proper response.

Summer Camp 2

To the tune of “Isn’t she lovely” by Stevie Wonder

Isn’t He lovely
Isn’t He wonderful
Isn’t He precious
And so adorable

I can believe
What God has done
He has given us
His own Son

Isn’t He lovely
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Kazoos

I can believe
What God has done
He has given us
His own Son

Isn’t He lovely
Yeah, yeah, yeah

To the tune of “All you need is love” by the Beatles

He can make you happy when you feel sad
He can make it good when things go bad
If you want to have a friend who’s love for you will have no end
It’s easy

All you need is God
All you need is God
All you need is God, God
God is all you need

There’s nothing you can do He can’t forgive
Just turn to Him in trust and then you’ll live
When you don’t know what to do you know the Bible will show you
It’s easy

All you need is God
All you need is God
All you need is God, God
God is all you need

To the tune of “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Kazoos intro

Bible readin’, pages turnin’ (kazoos)
Readin’ ‘bout Jesus, He’s my friend
You know one day I’m gonna meet Him
Thinkin’ ‘bout heaven once again

My home is in heaven
Where the streets are paved with gold
My home is in heaven
Jesus Christ He saved my soul

When I’m in church I sing about it
But you know some people put it down
I hope those people will remember
Jesus Christ is my Lord now, anyhow

My home is in heaven
Where the streets are paved with gold
My home is in heaven
Jesus Christ He saved my soul

Interlude

My home is in heaven
Where the streets are paved with gold
My home is in heaven
Jesus Christ He saved my soul

Summer Camp

Each summer, for the past 23 years, one of the elders of our church has held a Christian summer camp. This is done along with many adult volunteers, from both our church and our community. We have about 25 kids, and this year, about 15 counselors, as well as many adults. All in all, we probably have between 35-55 people at the camp at any given time for a three week period. There are tons of activities, games, fun things, crafts, leadership and discipleship training, critical thinking development, Bible studies, and Bible Skits and so on, too much to name here.

Well, that part that I do most often is "music". It is a chance to get the kids to have some fun, and do some things the adults will enjoy. It makes some of the kids have to come out of their shell, and it is just generally all around wackiness. But it also allows us to worship God in song, in a fun way. You see, I take secular songs and give them new lyrics. We do dance moves, play kazoos, and get everyone involved. I thought I might like to post a few of these ditties, which I make up on the way as I drive the half hour to camp each morning. I pray, ask God to help me and the children, and He just puts a song in my head, and we change the lyrics as I drive. I hope these will edify you in some small way. Enjoy!

To the tune of “Low Places” by Garth Brooks

I’ve got friends in holy places
Where I learned steel drums and social graces
And thank you notes, and made knots with rope
I learned to sew and I met new faces
And my life will have a Bible basis
‘Cause I’ve got friends in holy places

I’m the Vine ye are the branches
If you need some help don’t take no chances
Just stay with me I’ll set you free
So get your Bible and turn some pages
And your life will grow in heavenly stages
‘Cause you’ll have friends in holy places

To the tune of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” by Aretha Franklin

Oooh, what you want
Oooh, you know we got it
Oooh, what you need
Oooh, yeah we got it
Oooh, all we’re askin’ you to do
Is read it, yeah

Just a little bit (x4)

It’s the B-I-B-L-E
Find out what it means to me
It’s the B-I-B-L-E
Jesus Christ is real, you’ll see,
yeah!

Read it (x8)

Yeah!

Just a little bit (x4)

It’s the B-I-B-L-E
Find out what it means to me
It’s the B-I-B-L-E
Jesus Christ is real, you’ll see,
YEAH!

More fun tomorrow...God bless you (I hope they stay in your head!)

Safe and Secure?

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:
(Deuteronomy 33:27)

Have you ever thought through some of the theology of the songs you sing in church, in your personal worship times, and that sort of thing? Have you ever sung some of the old hymns and wondered what they mean? Do you ever think that they really don’t speak the truth, or don’t make it very clear, or that they contradict themselves? Those old hymns sure do have a way of getting us to think, they teach doctrine, we teach each other by singing them, and they will preach if you have the notion to do so. I suggest you do so.

The group from our church was singing one of their favorite songs at the nursing home the other day, and it occurred to me that those whom we were singing with, and singing to, might be confused as to what the lyrics were proclaiming, and wonder how, in their condition, these things could possibly be true. So as I often do, I used this as a teaching moment.

The song in question was “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”. Now the chorus, or refrain, goes like this: Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Most people have heard it before, and I had sung it many times, but in the context of being in that nursing home I thought about the fact that we really do have things that can trouble us, from a loved one who gets in an accident, someone we know having cancer, going through a personal crisis, and on and on. There are many things that God seems to not have as high on the priority list as we do, or things that we have to go through that aren’t all that wonderful.

So in light of this, what can these words mean, safe and secure from all alarms? How could the people in the nursing home sing this, they were in a difficult situation and some of them in horrific pain, and that is an alarming thing no doubt, just as those of us who aren’t there have alarming, unexpected things happen to us every day. God doesn’t always “protect” us from them so how could it be that we are safe and secure from all alarms? How is this true?

Well, in pondering that question, the answer came to me. Those things are just alarms, they only wake us up to the reality of everyday living in this fallen world, but we are indeed safe from them, in the ultimate sense. Those things are only temporal, but we are not leaning on temporal arms, but everlasting ones, and so those temporal things can have no everlasting power over us.

We are not counting on temporal things to deliver us, but for God in His everlasting grace to deliver us, and He does so even through our deaths. This is why we have blessed peace, with our Lord so near, because we have nothing to fear, in the final analysis. Even if the alarm was a heart attack that took our life we are safe and secure from that alarm because all it would do is wake us up to our new home in heaven, safe in the everlasting arms of the Father in eternal life.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear? Nothing can cause us everlasting harm leaning on the everlasting arms.

Stop the Worship?

You worship what you do not know…
(John 4:22 – ESV)

As a pastor you always need to be talking to the song leaders about the balance. We should review the songs in the rotation and look together at new songs that they want to bring in. In this way you can use these times as teachable moments. Indeed we should have feelings and responses because of God's grace, but we need more "Thou art" and less "I will" in the songs, God entranced and not man entranced.

Now sometimes songs can slip by you or they can slip by a congregation without anyone really focusing on what is actually being taught. Congregational singing is more than stirring up feelings, it is teaching each other in song, and it is important, albeit for reasons that are sometimes lost on “worship leaders”.

It should be more about “doctrinal led devotion” than simply proclaiming our increasing love for a God we aren’t increasing in our knowledge of. It isn’t how much more I feel Him means how much more I love Him, but how much more I know Him, and then this would produce the proper devotion. We more often than not get the order reversed, and think we are growing deeper in our love for Him when we are actually growing colder even as our feelings burn hot.

Considering this, I have literally “stopped the worship” more than once. Actually I just stopped the music and singing and focused our worship on some truth I was absolutely sure we needed to hear more clearly as we sang it.

It was during the song “unfailing love” that I stopped the music and went over to the screen and pointed out the lyrics and something I wanted to make sure people noticed. The lyrics were “Praise you God of earth and sky how beautiful is your unfailing love, unfailing love”… “And you never change Lord you remain the holy one and my unfailing love, unfailing love”.

From these lyrics I showed that they teach correctly that His unfailing love is grounded in His holiness, “you never change you remain the holy one”, and so therefore He remains unfailing in His love. His love is grounded in His holiness not in our faithfulness and His holiness is that from which His love springs, not vice versa.

I’m not sure whether or not the author intended it this way, but it was good to point out considering the sermon of the day, or any day, nonetheless.

Also I used the stoppage purposefully to stop people from just “going with the flow”. The atmosphere was starting to get moving, and not necessarily in a bad way, but I wanted to make sure people don’t always equate this “everybody’s into it” thing with “now we are really worshipping”. I pointed out that we shouldn’t bristle at someone, something, or some event stopping our “flow”.

I asked if anyone was thinking like, “I was just getting into it man”, and how their focus would be wrong. Well, no sir, you were just feeling it, but God was already here to be worshipped and you must renew your mind to the fact that feelings are a byproduct of worship, not the conduit of them. Feelings aren’t the way into His presence, as if we simply stir up our emotions by repeating some vague chorus over and over, and “poof!” God is there. No. Was I wrong to stop the singing, no, not at all, it was a good demonstration of the fact that if this hindered your worship than you were worshipping at the altar of your own feelings.