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In Spirit and In Truth

Oh Look A Poisonous Tree – Let’s Eat!

How must God be worshipped?  If we go to the book of John 4:24 we have our answer.  In spirit and in truth. But can we do it with music?  Yes!  May we do it with the way we live?  Yes!  How about how we speak?  Sure thing.  There are only two recognizable parameters and one of them is truth.

When most of us think of worship, we think of songs sung to God.  Yet for most of us, thinking hasn’t had that much to do with it.  The worship team leads the way and off we go.  Why get uptight when everyone is having a good time?   

“Worship with loud guitars.  Praise with thunderous amplification.  Deafen the heathens.  Let the drums rattle the enemy.  Let thy guitar solo be heard over the whole earth”.  1 Opinions 23:7 (Amplified Version) ~  Ken De Vries  

That’s surely good enough for Sunday mornings, but is it what God requires?    If the beat is strong, if the sound is amplified, if the light show is rocking it, do we really need truth?  Tragically, the answer coming from most American churches is “no”.

Music bypasses all of the intellectual barriers.  Don’t think, just sing.  Truth be damned.

“Johnson’s statement undermines one of the most common defenses made by pastors and worship leaders who allow Bethel Music to be used in their churches.  They say they are fine using the music from NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) churches (even though they may disagree with those churches’ theology) as long as the lyrics are sound.  In other words, they believe the source of the music doesn’t matter.  They point out that no church or songwriter has perfect theology (which is true, but there is a big difference between expecting a church to have perfect theology vs. expecting them to not promote harmful and dangerous teachings).  Ironically, those same pastors would probably never allow their churches to use music from a controversial church like Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.  They (rightfully) would not want to look like they are promoting the hateful rhetoric spouted by that church.  So, though they say the source of a song doesn’t matter, it’s doubtful that they truly believe that.”  -Counterfeit Kingdom

Does the source matter?  The Bible says it does.  “You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ~Matthew 7: 16-18

Bethel Church is a tree full of poison but it has great music if you count high emotions and 249 million Spotify downloads as a qualifier of greatness.  I don’t, which doesn’t matter, but neither does God and that should matter a great deal.  I say ‘should’ because it doesn’t, not to the vast majority of churches in America, including mine.

A cookbook written by Jeffrey Dahmer may have 1 good recipe in it, but I wouldn’t know because I wouldn’t read the book after realizing the source. ~Dan Mullin

A tad graphic but I couldn’t resist.  This was a comment on a previous post I made and the point is stark.  Why are we internalizing death-dealing doctrine?

“Music is a means of worship.  Music reinforces beliefs.  And music prepares us for action.  Lyrics, rhythm and beat all contribute to the effect that music has in our lives.  Heartfelt song expresses our outlook on life, the things we believe, our expectations and emotions.  Music inclines us to be receptive or unreceptive to certain messages.  Our experience of God is conditioned by the songs we sing.” -Counterfeit Kingdom

I’m begging you, let our worship be worthy of the God we serve.