seriously read this blog instead www.ongoingjourney.com.
Its much better.

Holiness and Identity with Christ

I have been giving the subject of Holiness some thought as it has been the topic in our Sunday school for the past two weeks and we have watched a couple of videos by R.C. Sproul on the matter. Here are a couple thoughts that hit me.

Most everyone knows “sanctify” means “to make holy.” And the primary aspect of holiness is separation. If you read one of my previous posts, you will find that this separation is created by uniqueness in traits and qualities. Recently I have been debating on a Christian Halo Clan Forum about “Christian” heavy metal, reading Harry Potter, being a ”Christian” Goth, and the like; basically common issues that face us on an everyday basis. The main defense that is given by everyone to defend what they like and why they do it is, “Well, it helps me reach out and witness” or “Most people like it this way better than that way.” I was pondering this as I said before. Let’s take a look at say your local city gang. Generally you can spot the members of one easy enough because they have their gang colors, symbols, dress and quite frequently weapons. All these aspects are carefully chosen to set the gang apart from others. They are chosen to create an identity. Now suppose a member of, say, the Cryps decides they could use more people in their gang and wants to recruit some from their rival gang, the Bloods. Do you honestly think he would go to the leader and say, “Hey, you know we could use some more people in our gang. And, uh, some of them don’t like blue a whole lot so in order to recruit them I am gonna start wearing their red color in order to convince them they need to join us. Also I am gonna start carrying their type of weapons and wear their symbols.” I am pretty sure the leader would either blow him away right then or say, “What! Are you stupid? If they want to join they have to wear what we wear and fight with what we fight with.”

You see, how they dress, act, talk, establishes the gangs identity. You take away that and the you no longer know what they are and, in fact cease to exist. Corporations spend millions and even billions of dollars creating a corporate identity, aspects to the company that set them apart from the all the others. Then you choose the companies you buy from based on what they are and what sets them apart from all the others.

We as Christians are supposed to have an identity. God even gives us guidelines. We are supposed to be different from all other people, and they are supposed to come to Christ based on the difference. How we dress, talk, act, should all be Christ like. We should get our identity from Him. It is being like Christ that attracts people to Christ. Not being what they want or being like them.

What makes people want to join “exclusive clubs?” Simply the fact they are “exclusive,” meaning few people get in and they are different from all other clubs. The more difference, the more exclusive, the more people want to get in. Where do you get your identity from? Have you lost it? In trying to get converts, have you lost the very thing that is supposed to attract the converts?

The Problem with “Being Better”

Now with all this being exclusive and having your identity in Christ, people say, “But then you will think that you are better than others and just being proud.”

I am going to now touch upon a very politically incorrect topic. When discussing Harry Potter, I pointed out the fact the wizardry was a practice for which God commanded people to be put to death. An almost immediate reply was that all sins are equal and we are all worthy of death. I agree we are all worthy of death simply because of the fact we are sinners. However, this does not mean all sins are equal. We know this simply by the fact that there are different levels of punishment prescribed for different crimes in the Bible. Instead the problem lies with not realizing anyone is capable of committing any type of crime and sin. Now are there Christians that are better than others? You bet. The more your identity is in Christ, the better Christian you are because you are more Christ like. God states in the Bible that there are mature Christians and infant Christians. The problem in this area lies not with saying there are better and not so good, the problem lies with the attitude held by the person. I do have a problem with the people who “righteously” state “Just because you have high standards don’t think that makes you a better Christian” because frequently it is said with just as much pride and indignation and self-righteousness (due ironically enough to lack of standards as the person holding the high standards). And in a sense the standards do not make you better if you are holding them in pride. However, if you are holding the standards in humility and you are more Christ like than the person who is simply relying on his “heart” to be like Christ. Then you are better by the virtue of being more like Christ. Loving God is not good enough; you are supposed to BE LIKE God because that is where our identity as Christians comes from.

The other area that I am running into on these forums is this. Everything anyone does is based on how they feel. “I don’t FEEL that God would care about that ” Or I don’t “think,” which, when they use it is synonymous with feel. None of them can provide scriptures to back up the view or act as a guiding principle. Their entire theology and mode of operation is based on how they feel that God would feel about it and obviously God feels about everything the same way they feel.

Dennis Prager said, “How one feels about something and true wisdom are seldom the same thing.” Example: Someone comes up and rakes you over the coals verbally. How do you feel? Most likely, “I am gonna punch that sucker’s lights out.” Wise? Nope. Wise means I am going to cool down and then address the issues in a calm manner. When going by feelings you lose almost all wisdom. Now is fear and reverence a thing that you are going to want to feel? No. We stuff those emotions on the back shelf because they don’t make us feel good. However, “The FEAR (or respect and reverence) of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” Reverence and fear like, I said earlier, are emotions we don’t like because we prefer much rather to feel giddy and joyful and happy; all feelings which have to be subdued when giving something reverence. Reverence is feeling you don’t have for something that is your “homeboy.” Because we base our theology now on feelings, we have lost wisdom and discernment; both qualities from which you have to remove your feelings and judge objectively and quite frequently come up with an answer which will not make you feel good. To not master your emotions is folly and will eventually destroy you and others. Remember, lynch mobs were driven by people going on their feelings. Jesus was crucified when the crowd got emotional. Emotion was what drove the Nazi regime. Emotions are good but only when held in check and contained.

I have been really interested in Aesthetics and what makes things beautiful lately. I have decided that this year I am going to read the Bible looking for principles and guidlines in the areas of aesthetics. Specifically art and music.

Good Music!

I have been requested to do the following opinion paper and thesis by a couple friends and a cousin. So here it goes! Please forgive any grammer, spelling and puctuation mistakes.

These are my opinions based on what I have learned from the Bible and what little knowledge of music that I have. I am human so there will be some error and I am sure some contradiction somewhere. But please try and read this with an attitude of wanting God to improve your walk with Him. Don’t view this as an attack but rather as a brother explaining his concerns and viewpoints in areas which he thinks one can improve how they serve a holy and righteous God. Hopefully it will cause you to at least think.

The topic of what music a Christian should listen to is without a doubt one of the most debated topics of the past 2 decades. This is a very tricky topic to discuss as music covers a broad range of areas and touches almost every part of our lives. Because music is so much a part of our life it is very necessary that we look at it with seriousness and concern.

I will start out with my foundational presupposition.

Music (the arrangement of diverse tones with various lengths. In other words the adding of notes together in a melodic fashion) is NOT amoral. This means music has moral qualities before you add words. The idea or concept of music is amoral and single notes are amoral. But as soon as you start putting notes together the arrangement of those notes has a moral or immoral quality. Music is a communication device. Whenever you communicate a message whether it be for entertainment, teaching or worship, that message has a moral quality, either moral or immoral.

In regards to morality. I believe that if something is immoral it is because it damages your character, defames God or promotes evil and sin in some way. If it is moral I do not believe that it has to have a significant message that promotes good character and moral. This area would be what some people would call neutral. She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain would fall into this category. This song neither promotes bad morals nor does it significantly uplift good morals, I hope you all see what I am trying to say. Maybe to clarify lets have 3 catagories. Immoral (i.e. Death Metal), Moral (i.e. most folk tunes) and Ultra Moral (i.e. Amazing Grace)

When deciding whether a song is good or bad you have multiple components that you have to consider. You have to consider the situation. For instance it would be wrong to sing “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” at your aunts funeral, but it would be right to sing it if you are in the Wizard of Oz provided you sing it at the time you should be singing it. You have to consider Time and Place. Next what message needs to be conveyed if you are trying to convey a solemn moment you would not use the song Roll Out the Barrels.

All the examples I have given are regarding the proper use of a song. Time and place and what message is supposed to be conveyed all play into whether a song is good or bad.

Next question you need to ask is, “is the musical genre, style or melody itself moral or immoral?” Now this is where the debate starts most frequently. My opinion is in order to judge this you have to look at multiple components.

Most music is mult-media. It had three parts that all convey a message.

You have the words, the melody, and the beat or rhythm. Oftentimes the rhythm is a big part of the melody and the two are inseparable and sometimes they aren’t. Sometime you have melody and words, sometimes you have just melody and rhythm, and sometimes you have just words and rhythm. Quite frequently you have all three together.

• The words communicate emotions, pictures, and facts or logic.
• The melody communicates pictures and emotions
• The rhythm almost always only communicates emotions

Like in math you add a negative anywhere in there and the whole thing goes negative.

Now comes the fun part!

After having mulled it over for hours and hours I have figured out that the music debate breaks down into three areas of argument which overlap profusely. The 3 areas are:

The Worship Value of the Music

The Aesthetic Value of the Music

The Evangelism Value of the Music.

The Worship Value of Music

“I think we ought to worship God anyway we like. After all it the heart that matters”

“…people worship differently, and praise the lord all in their own way. i believe god loves worship so much, he doesn't care how it's done, and the lord has never spoken to me and told me that any type of worship is wrong.”

“I've been to a few Christian Rock concerts, and every one of them started with a prayer. That is definately a sign of worship to me.”

“And Not all people who like rock dress in all black and act like gothics...
I LOVE CHRISTIAN ROCK I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE IT!
That is how I worship. IF it touches my soul, then why should it be wronge?
And Honestly, I hang out with people who dress in all black and are gothic? IS that a sin?”

“So I think my analogy to the terrorists is CORRECT. NOW you see the true spirit behind the fanatics who hate Christian rock. It is the desire to take away your freedom to worship God in your own way. The desire to take away your individuality, your freedom of thought. It is the desire to destroy every single recording of Christian rock, the desire to ban it from the airwaves, to stop its performance. It is the desire to FORCE uniformity in worship across the board in Christian churches. It is a hatred of YOUTH, a hatred of new and creative ideas, a hatred of change - a completely SELF-CENTERED desire to be in ultimate control - to be a religious dictator and voice of the "truth" - a desire to legislate out of existance anybody who wants to worship in a different way. It is the spirit of MURDER, according to scripture. And I am OUTRAGED, with a righteous, holy anger on your behalf.”

The above are all quotes from people on a Christian forum debating CCM as a worship and evangelism tool. I have not edited them in any way.

In the Old Testament you had three categories for almost everything in life. You had the “profane” that, which no man should handle, touch, eat, or wear let alone offer to God. Then you had the “common”. That which was okay to handle, touch, eat, and wear but not offer to God as a sacrifice. Then you had the “Holy” That which was to be handled, touched, eaten and offered as worship to God. There were items which overlapped all three categories but I think you get the general idea. I think as Christians we need to recognize these three categories with our music. I think that there is music which we should not listen to, music we can listen to but not offer as worship, and music which is suitable for the Worship of God.

Now if you go to any college class on the history of rock you will find that the whole rock genre was born out of the celebration of free sex and drugs. There is no denying it you tell any music professor that rock is not and they will laugh you out of class. I personally don’t think we should offer a genre of music which has that history to God as worship. Rock is the world’s music. God is Holy and hates the world. Don’t offer the world’s music to him as worship. It’s using a pagan ritual to worship God.

“…people worship differently, and praise the lord all in their own way. i believe god loves worship so much, he doesn't care how it's done, and the lord has never spoken to me and told me that any type of worship is wrong.”

I would like to ask this person if they ever read about Nadab and Abihu and when they wanted to worship God by offering the particular fire they liked! If God loves worship so much He doesn’t care how its done, how come He specified everything in the Old Testament worship service down to literally the priest’s underwear? That which you love most you protect and have very specific preferences about! This quote would also allow for stripping while quoting verses as worship.

“I've been to a few Christian Rock concerts, and every one of them started with a prayer. That is definitely a sign of worship to me.”

I saw the opening of a Madonna music video once. Guess what? she opened it in prayer. I guess all of her music is worship to God.

“That is how I worship. IF it touches my soul, then why should it be wronge?

What if my soul is touched by worshiping while high on pot? After all I am sure I would get a good feeling out of the whole experience.

The Aesthetic Value of Music

I already have covered this somewhat in my earlier Music is not amoral statement. Another aspect Christians need to realize is that Art (which music is a big part of) is NOT relative. Just like there is bad art (Jackson Pollack comes to mind as well as most “refrigerator” art) there is good art or fine art (Rembrandt anyone?). So it’s the same with music. There is bad music and good music. There are preferences but just because you like something better does not mean that makes it better though. Just because you like to listen to the chorus Lord I Lift Your Name on High more then you like to listen to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto’s does not mean that Lord I Lift Your Name on High is higher and better art then Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto’s. Aesthetics are not relative. If you ask almost any person who has their masters in music what is technically better and finer art Rock or Sacred Music (hymns) almost all will tell you Sacred Music is aesthetically better. God wants the best. Give it to Him.

The Evangelism Value of the Music

If I have not already stepped on some toes I will probably now. When ever I discuss the CCM music topic I almost always get this from someone “But I use the music to help witness” or “But hymns just don’t work anymore” or “Hymns aren’t jumpy enough to attract people to church.”

I have some questions!

Since when is the morning worship service supposed to be an evangelism tool?

Where in the bible does is say you shall witness by playing music with Christian lyrics to people or that music is meant to be an evangelism tool?

Evangelism is supposed to be done by “going out” to the people and preaching (not singing) the Gospel or by one on one witnessing. If we were supposed to uses music to spread the gospel how come we don’t see Christ getting up and singing a few choruses or Paul hosting a rock concert? The only time you find Christ singing is with the disciples after the last supper. After Judas had left! So it was all believers.

Church is primarily for the edification and building up of believers so that the congregation can go out and worship. If an unsaved person comes to church it should be by chance and the witnessing to him should be by your character and how you treat one another.

Since when should anything about Christians other then the fruits of the spirit appeal to un-believers and the world? Look at Hebrews 10. The World is supposed to hate us! See John 15. We are supposed to be mocked. The world should hate our music because it embodies Christ. The world hates Christ and hates you. Get used to it. What ever happened to being mocked, humiliated, scorned and laughed at for Christ’s sake? When you are using the world’s music to evangelize you are saying two things.

1. I don’t have faith that God can call and bring those he wants saved without catering to the world and…
2. I don’t want to be rejected by the world because I make them feel uncomfortable. I just want to fit in.

Rock music is the WORLD’s music pure and simple if there is anything not worldly about a style of music created to celebrate Sex and Drugs then I must be crazy. God says “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4.

Closing Comments and Points to Ponder!

Every comment I hear about using rock in a worship service involves one person. The person making the comment.

“I think we ought to worship God anyway we like.”

“I just don’t get as good a feeling when I worship that way.”

“I don’t feel the spirit as much whenever I worship that way.”

“I don’t like that style of worship.”

They sound as if worship were solely designed for their personal benefit. Worship is for GOD not us. It is to glorify GOD not us. It is for HIS benefit not us. If you look at the first to references to worship in the Old Testament you will find they involve the prostrating and humbling of oneself in fear or honor. Not a very feel good position. The first time the word worship is used in a liturgical sense is when Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac. Once again a very happy and feel good time for the worshiper. I am not saying we should be miserable every time we worship, only that we enter worship thinking only about God and coming before Him with a clean heart and to benefit only Him. Whatever we get out of it is bonus. Worship is all about Glorifying God and nothing about us!

Rock is the worlds music. It belongs solely to the world had has no place in the worship of God. I am totally fine with people who listen to it for personal entertainment but don’t offer a pagan sacrifice to God and call it good worship.

You need to ask yourself if I dress completely like the world and act like the world and talk like the world and listen to the same music but without curse words how do I expect people to come to Christ when there is no difference between how I live and act and how they live and act? If I am like the world in order to “befriend it and bring it to Christ” and God hates the world, how then could He like and bless what I am doing?

Should we offer to God as worship a genre of music that was created to perpetuate free sex and drugs?

Art and Music is not relative or left only to ones preferences. There is fundamental truths which have to govern both. Preference does come into play but there is bad music and good music just like there is bad art and good art!

This debate is not only about music. At the heart you will find the timeless debate of serving self, not wanting to be ridiculed for Christ's sake, and not wanting to whole heartedly serve God and give Him everything including your music, your good feelings and emotions and your reputation.

I share this not to make people mad but to encourage in love brothers in Christ so that they may serve him more effectively. The only addiction one should have is an addiction to Christ and His word! If you don't think Rock Music is an addiction please try and go on a music fast and try and listen to music for a whole month that does not have a Rock beat. This would include not making your own rock music by beat boxing around the house and drumming on everything with your figures.

But as always it comes down to having a heart that is 100% sold out to Christ and serving Him in order to bring Him glory. I am nothing so that Christ can be everything! God Bless and thank you for reading!

God’s which rule our lives!

Throughout all ages school of thought which effect man’s outlook on life have arisen. School’s of though and philosophy which are in grave error with the Bible. Right before and during the time of Christ it was Greek philosophy. During the medieval ages it was a type of mysticism and magic somewhat influenced by Greek ideals and philosophy. During the renaissance it was a revival of Greek thought and humanism. And later during the 1800’s to the 1900’s it was humanism and the supremacy of science which ruled. During all of these periods we find that Theologians and the Church tried to fit these philosophies in with the Bible. The effects of these which can still be felt and seen to a degree nowadays.

You might say, these schools of thought in a way were elevated to the degree of god. And naturally when seeing the rule and prevalence of these philosophies one might say that. So what is the current philosophy god that is rampant today? I would say he goes by two names. Relativism and Tolerance and yet if you throw of these god’s cloaks you will find one god. His name would be Emotion. Emotion is the God which creates and has created all those other god’s. And as in Greek mythology there is a hierarchy to these gods(now please do not accuse me of falling pray to what I am writing about. I am using the greek god’s hierarchy as an analogy to what I am explaining and not deriving my life philosophy around greek poly-theism. Thank you.) These groups of duo gods serve tanother god called Emotion. The difference now is that instead of declaring their laws in the name of philosophy they just declare them directly in the name of Emotion or his alias Feelings.

If you look at the theologians during the renaissance they shaped their theology based on the incoming philosophies of humanism and the prevalent Greek philosophy. During the 1800 and 1900 hundreds the Church and leading theologians again gave way to the current gods and started trying to fit in the current science and humanist schools of thought into their theology ( I always find this funny because the views of humanism and science where at the heart trying to destroy Christianity more then ever). You would find pastors trying to say that the first 6 chapters in Genesis allow for evolution. Well, we today are still doing it, we are still allowing the current philosophical god to direct our philosophies.

We base everything that we do based on tolerance of others viewpoints. We say that everything is relative so that I can worship in the way I want and you can worship how you want. God is now concept based on what how we feel and He would never do anything or have any rules or that would make us feel bad or inhibit us from feeling good. We won’t go to a worship service or worship in anyway that doesn’t give us a good feeling. We pick all our movies, music, house, dress, accessories, car, philosophies, theology, principles, convictions etc. etc. based on how they make us feel. This god emotion has even twisted two types of love into self serving emotions. Love of friends now means “not ever making them feel bad and them not ever making me feel bad”. The Love that is supposed to be found in a marriage for your other spouse has been turned into wanting someone that makes me feel good all the time when I am around them.
Now this god called emotion has a very real enemy named Truth. You have heard the phrase “the truth hurts?” And when you also look at this closely you find that these gods of relativism, tolerance, and emotion are as direct enemies of God that you could possibly ever find. Why? Because God is Truth and Truth is God. “I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life.” Yes, these gods are diametrically opposed to the true and only God.

In reality Emotion is not the top dog or god. He is the guardian of two twin brothers called Pride and Self. And we all know that these two twin brothers reside in us and are always bucking for control. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not entirely against Emotion. It is just that emotion has usurped his natural position and bloated himself up as being more important then he should be. Emotion and his brother Conscience were given to us to enhance life and not dictate it. You see when in balance conscience is a monitor and emotion is supposed to be an enhancer of life and the messenger for the conscience (For instance when we sin the conscience tell the emotion to make us FEEL guilty or bad). But when Emotion is pushed up and elevated as guardian of pride and self, we then have a war break out. Conscience starts getting active and hurts Emotion in order to try and bring him back to his natural position as an enhancer of life. Emotion then says “NO” and then we start to remove anything in our lives that makes us feel bad or uncomfortable.

So my question is this. Are there areas in your life where the philosophy and god Emotion dictate the rules. Where you are ignoring and allowing something that should not be there simply because it makes you feel good. Are you ignoring a friend’s advice or a pastor’s exhortation because it makes you feel bad. Have you not incorporated a rule or conviction simply because you believe that if you did you would not enjoy or feel as good? Do you base your theology, principles and view of God based on how you feel? I know I have done this often, and we need to take Truth and put emotion back where it belongs as an enhancer of life.

Thank you for reading my ramblings!

I have decided to use this as my blogger avatar! 

Here is a slide show of some of the scenes from Love Unkown
(a movie me and my dad created for the SAICFF. I also just found out that our
movie is a semi-finalist) and some photoshop and webpage stuff.
All the webpage stuff is first and the pictures from the movie are last.
Please leave your critiques and comments on the website stuff. I could really
use some advice. Hope you enjoy it! If you click on the picture currently being displayed it will pull up a brief description of the picture.