Think over these things...
In my further thought of the effects of immaturity in the
western church, I have discovered how unhelpful and trapping most of the
Christian music genre is. I have nothing against contemporary worship songs (as
long as they are “God-centered” and not “man-centered”), but what I do have a
problem with are the songs on the radio that are not meant for corporate
worship within church gatherings.
Consider the following song; I’m sure you’ve heard it.
The chorus to “Remind Me Who I Am” by Jason Grey: “Tell me
once again who I am to you, who I am to you. Tell me lest I forget who I am to
you, I belong to you.”
This song is not meant to honor God, be in awe of God,
praise God, fall in love with God. Nothing. From reading the lyrics, the only
conclusion I can come to is that from listening to and singing this song it
subtly puts an entitlement to our value.
The song says, “God, tell me why I’m valued. I know I’m
valued; I just need to be reminded of it all the time, especially when I’m sad
and I think that life stinks.”
How is the edifying to the body of Christ? The song is all
about us!! All about OUR value, and not about how much we need to get over
thinking highly of ourselves and counting OTHERS more valuable then ourselves. "... Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reference and awe." (Hebrews 12:28)
Acceptable worship is being in awe of God; not constantly wondering if we have any worth.
These songs produce immaturity among believers because of
these reasons:
1)
We become more focused on ourselves and OUR
worth rather than presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. (Romans 12:1)
2)
We unnecessarily question basic doctrines of the
Bible. If you want to know your worth, read the Bible. The Bible says that the
ONLY reason you have ANY worth is because Christ died for you out of love and
clothed you with righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10, Romans 6:1-4, Galatians 3:26-27,
1 John 4:19) The Bible describes anything you do as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6),
and even Paul says that he counts everything he does as rubbish apart from
Christ (Philippians 3:8)
3)
The last reason is that this song and songs like
it are singing to people in trials or hard circumstances, so because of that
for some reason we need to be reminded of our value? No. This is the wrong
mindset. We rejoice in trials. Job understood that both good and bad come from
God (Job 2:10). Paul rejoiced through praying and singing to God when he was in
prison (Acts 16:25). And James teaches that the man that is steadfast under
trials is blessed (James 1:12).
Simply put, these lyrics plant a spirit of selfishness. It's all about ME. Christ died for ME. Now God needs ME to preach to the nations.
We need a spirit of humility, and die for one another; just as Jesus modeled for us on the cross (Philippians 2:3-8)
To avoid these consequences of listening to these songs, try
these few things:
1)
Stop listening to “Christian” radio. Instead buy
cds of good artists (Phil Wickham, Leeland, Chris Tomlin) that sing about how wonderful and perfect and glorious God
is, and that we are meant to serve Him.
2)
If you continue to listen to “Christian” radio,
look up passages that talk about what they are singing about. If they question
basic doctrines and make you doubt that they are actually true, look them up.
Study them. And God will give you understanding (2 Timothy 2:7)
3)
Keep in mind that just because “Christian” songs
are popular, doesn’t mean they’re Biblical. How many artists have gone to
seminary for Theology?
4)
Listen to Hymns. They have been tested for
hundreds of years for theology. Most if not all of the unBiblical songs have
been weeded out from the hymnals.
