Looking to the heart of the matter.
(This is a blog post I posted a few months ago in another blog I had not long after finishing Blue Like Jazz.... I dunno, it had some good stuff I think and I don't feel like coming up with origional material at the moment so here ya go!)
Having come from a very very conservative Church of Christ there were certian beliefs that were bred into me from the start that until I had a falling out with that church I wasn't able to see past... coming from the other side of all of that and looking back on who I was and who I am now it's kind of cool and kind of scary all at once.
Funny things that I never saw quite bought in the first place, like how no one clapped at all, not even after baptisms... To things that I was dead set against, like instrumental music... So many of our rules it seems now were self implemented and had nothing to do at all with God...
Matthew 22: 34-40
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The Church of Christ has a bad reputation as "thinking we're the only ones who are going to be in heaven" and while that is not at all the intent it is easy to fall into that way of thinking and not even realize it.
There are staples that are listed in the bible : That you should love one another, that you help the needy, that you need to repent and be baptised for your sins, that you love others more than yourself, that you should not forsake the assembly.
There are things we are told specifically not to be in the bible. (1 Cor 6:11)
But then there are things that God left up to us to figure out.... I've been tought my entire life that Ephesians 5:19 was a proof text forAccapella Music now more and more I realise that verse telling you to be sincere in your worship, putting your entire heart into it it is not saying make music with your voice, it is saying make music with your heart... God doesn't pay attention to the way things look, he pays attention to the heart and the intent.... if you can worship God better with instruments then that's fine.... if they just distract from true worship then don't use them... that's just as good... the Bible gives as much permission to use instruments as it does microphones and pews.
Instrumenal versus Acapella music is a prefrence it is one of those matters that God left up to us... I prefer Acapella music and I wouldn't feel confortable in a church that uses instruments, but that doesn't mean I think it's wrong to do so. You can't condem someone for using or not using instruments and you can't force one way or the other upon someone... doing such is counterintutiave Christ's work .... you're not going to hell simply because you used a piano to praise God..... would you rather that piano be used to play some Marlyn Manson or something?
God did give us some fundimentals of worship but he really did leave so much of it to us, it's intresting to go to all the different churches out there and see the different ways that they worship God. I think God really did want to leave it so open so we could express individually our love for him. If there could be no creativity in that then would it really be an expression of love?
I didn't mean to turn this into a rant about music, and I could have picked one of many topics but the main point is this... Christians spend so much time fighting amongst themselves that they don't even try to take the message to the world. They are so caught up in their own self rightousness that people are drowning around them and they can't see past their own nose. And what kind of message does that paint for those that haven't come to know Jesus? Are they going to even want to learn when all they see is brother fighting brother and sisters who won't even talk to each other? And this too goes to a deeper root.
To better the group, one must first better themself, infact that's all one really can do. It's easy to point out the flaws in others, but as Jesus said do we have a plank in our own eye when we're point out their speck? Others can worry about theirself. One must be so Christlike that others can't help but notice and wonder how they too can be like that. A true Christian example will do more good than a thousand sermons ever could. So my goal is to work on me. to make me who I'm suppost to be... (and geez I got a long way to go...)
I also want to take this chance to say to all who read this that if I have ever hurt or offended you by being a narrowminded self rightous punk myself that I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. I love you and I hope you will forgive me.
I just think how wonderful a world this would be if we could stop trying to Fix each other and just Love one another.
Your Brother in Christ,
-Ross-
Having come from a very very conservative Church of Christ there were certian beliefs that were bred into me from the start that until I had a falling out with that church I wasn't able to see past... coming from the other side of all of that and looking back on who I was and who I am now it's kind of cool and kind of scary all at once.
Funny things that I never saw quite bought in the first place, like how no one clapped at all, not even after baptisms... To things that I was dead set against, like instrumental music... So many of our rules it seems now were self implemented and had nothing to do at all with God...
Matthew 22: 34-40
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The Church of Christ has a bad reputation as "thinking we're the only ones who are going to be in heaven" and while that is not at all the intent it is easy to fall into that way of thinking and not even realize it.
There are staples that are listed in the bible : That you should love one another, that you help the needy, that you need to repent and be baptised for your sins, that you love others more than yourself, that you should not forsake the assembly.
There are things we are told specifically not to be in the bible. (1 Cor 6:11)
But then there are things that God left up to us to figure out.... I've been tought my entire life that Ephesians 5:19 was a proof text forAccapella Music now more and more I realise that verse telling you to be sincere in your worship, putting your entire heart into it it is not saying make music with your voice, it is saying make music with your heart... God doesn't pay attention to the way things look, he pays attention to the heart and the intent.... if you can worship God better with instruments then that's fine.... if they just distract from true worship then don't use them... that's just as good... the Bible gives as much permission to use instruments as it does microphones and pews.
Instrumenal versus Acapella music is a prefrence it is one of those matters that God left up to us... I prefer Acapella music and I wouldn't feel confortable in a church that uses instruments, but that doesn't mean I think it's wrong to do so. You can't condem someone for using or not using instruments and you can't force one way or the other upon someone... doing such is counterintutiave Christ's work .... you're not going to hell simply because you used a piano to praise God..... would you rather that piano be used to play some Marlyn Manson or something?
God did give us some fundimentals of worship but he really did leave so much of it to us, it's intresting to go to all the different churches out there and see the different ways that they worship God. I think God really did want to leave it so open so we could express individually our love for him. If there could be no creativity in that then would it really be an expression of love?
I didn't mean to turn this into a rant about music, and I could have picked one of many topics but the main point is this... Christians spend so much time fighting amongst themselves that they don't even try to take the message to the world. They are so caught up in their own self rightousness that people are drowning around them and they can't see past their own nose. And what kind of message does that paint for those that haven't come to know Jesus? Are they going to even want to learn when all they see is brother fighting brother and sisters who won't even talk to each other? And this too goes to a deeper root.
To better the group, one must first better themself, infact that's all one really can do. It's easy to point out the flaws in others, but as Jesus said do we have a plank in our own eye when we're point out their speck? Others can worry about theirself. One must be so Christlike that others can't help but notice and wonder how they too can be like that. A true Christian example will do more good than a thousand sermons ever could. So my goal is to work on me. to make me who I'm suppost to be... (and geez I got a long way to go...)
I also want to take this chance to say to all who read this that if I have ever hurt or offended you by being a narrowminded self rightous punk myself that I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. I love you and I hope you will forgive me.
I just think how wonderful a world this would be if we could stop trying to Fix each other and just Love one another.
Your Brother in Christ,
-Ross-
posted by Ross at 10:50 PM
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