We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum. A.W. Tozer
Therefore let God-inspired Scripture decide between us; and on whichever side be found doctrines in harmony with the word of God, in favor of that side will be cast the vote of truth. --Basil of Caesarea
Once you learn to discern, there's no going back. You will begin to spot the lie everywhere it appears.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service. 1 Timothy 1:12

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

SIGH!


Why is it that the bands (whether small or large) which perform during the gathering of the saints in the assembly on Sundays (or any day) are called “worship bands,” or “praise bands” (or instead of “bands” they are called “teams,” but with the same prefix)?  They aren’t any of those prefixes —they are just bands or music teams.  “Worship” and “praise” covers more (and should cover all) of the activities in “church.”

Well, that’s just an aside.  This post is about more pap being sung in the assembly.  Here are two we used this week (at least we also sang two old hymns!).

Our God Saves
By Brenton Brown and Paul Baloche.

In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son
In the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come
We're gathered together to lift up Your Name
To call on our Savior to fall on Your grace

In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son
In the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come
We're gathered together to lift up Your Name
To call on our Savior to fall on Your grace
To call on our Savior, to fall on Your grace

Hear the joyful sound of our offering
As Your saints bow down, as Your people sing
We will rise with You, lifted on Your wings
And the world will see that

Our God saves, our God saves
There is hope in Your name
Our God saves, our God saves
There is hope in Your name

[repeat all the above after the obligatory bridge for the band performance]

Mourning turns to songs of praise
Our God saves, our God saves
Our God saves, our God saves.

Why must we always go around and around repeating the text of the lyrics?  I realize the artists singing these songs on their CDs are doing this, but that doesn’t mean the congregation should be performing these songs as if we are on stage!

Think about this part of the song;
Hear the joyful sound of our offering
As Your saints bow down, as Your people sing
We will rise with You, lifted on Your wings

So our offering gives a joyful sound as we bow down and sing, and this makes us rise with God?!?  Really. And “lifted” on His “wings”?!?  What is this supposed to mean? I wonder about these song writer—do they think about what they are writing or are they just trying some way of making rhymes? Or to make the emotions get all sappy?

Let’s look at the next one:

Give Us Clean Hands
By Charlie Hall

We bow our Hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob

We bow our Hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast out our idols

So give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob

So give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
Oh God of Jacob

We bow our hearts to you

And we had a wee bit more repetition than shown here! Does it make the song better to have so much repetition?  Does it make a stronger point of what is asked of God?  Or does this sort of fit into “vain repetition” in our prayer?  I think it does!

Again, this is nothing better than pap.  Why can’t the song leaders quit trying to be like every seeker-sensitive/market-driven assembly and give their congregations meat!! Please, you men who are in church leadership and you who lead the music, don’t treat your congregations like spiritual babies!

3 comments:

Doug Evans said...

The Give Us Clean Hands is another one of those CCM songs that scream

"HEY EVERYONE! LOOK AT ME BEING HUMBLE! LOOK AT ME! I'M HUMBLE! LOOK!"

I'd personally rather sing about God's grace and mercy or Jesus suffering and glorification rather than what I want or what I'm doing that's so awesome

Jesse Albrecht said...

"Shall we introduce some nice, clean, soft heavy metal lyrics into our churches?"

--Mega Church Logic 101

Martha said...

Is it possible to worship our Lord in spirit and truth, without a "leader" to do so? So then, exactly "who" lords over our worship?

What did Jesus, our Lord and Savior, have to say to the woman at the well, about worshiping Him?

Hmmmmm......seems to me that more of the churched members need to be guided more by the Holy Spirit, than by the likes of men and women who secretly desire the praise, honor, and glory, that should only be given to Jesus.

To date, I haven't met a truly humble servant that attends a church, only "proud" people. And these churched individuals are the first to say verbatim, "I am so proud of myself," or "I am so proud of my family," or "I am so proud of my church," etc. Proud, pride, prideful, "to me be the glory," me, myself, and I, I, I.........this is the standard worship of our modern day church folks.

I believe the visible church has a difficult time wrapping their brains and hearts around the fact that our Lord Jesus "humbly" went to the cross to save us from our sins....willingly, not coerced.

I have experienced much coercion and pride within the conservative religious churches...which I believe to be anti-Christ.

Martha