I want to honor God through my music. Advice?

While it is true that there are some sins that lead to death and others that don’t, it is a very dangerous line to walk, and if a Christian can “habitually sin” I would be concerned that that believer is close to shipwreck concerning the faith.

BTW, let me submit to you that there’s a HUGE difference between a Christian who is unaware of their habitual sin and one who is actively aware and struggling against it. I am far more concerned about the one who is unaware rather than the one who acknowledges his sin and is trying to resist his own weaknesses in God strength or if in futility his own. The first is not in tune with the truth about his life and the second is and needs our support and prayer.

• This reply was modified 118 days ago by  Dave Richards.

glm, I’m not going to judge your pastor as it is imprudent.  I don’t intentionally speed because of the reason stated.

Dave I don’t see how a life of an unsaved person can have anything in it that is pure, true, just, honorable, etc at least that comes from within that person.  

And concerning sin…

When I find that I’ve sinned, it is normally after conviction of the Holy

Spirit or that the Lord shows it to me because it is out of ignorance.  It

wouldn’t make sense to keep doing something that I knew to be sin.

sorry Dave, I was under the impression that the “habitual sin” was not out of ignorance.

glm, I’m not going to judge your pastor as it is imprudent.  I don’t intentionally speed because of the reason stated.

But you are more than willing to judge non-Christians and their efforts?

Dave I don’t see how a life of an unsaved person can have anything in it that is pure, true, just, honorable, etc at least that comes from within that person.

Ever been to an art museum? I’m not being sarcastic, but there are plenty of pieces in a museum by non-Christians that fit that Philipians 4:8 perfectly. Usually, they’re an artistic representation of what is found in Nature. In other words, images of things that God created. 

sorry Dave, I was under the impression that the “habitual sin” was not out of ignorance.

Arrogance would be an example of habitual sin out of ignorance.

So if the content in the mass is the same with believer and unbeliever  except for their spiritual state, then the unbelievers version is disqualified? Please answer this as I have been trying to get you to answer forthright. 

Graphite, GLM wasn’t asking you to judge his pastor. He was using it as an example which you just totally dodged because it shed light on the very thing you were trying to argue.

 

And what about Paul quoting a pagan poem and using it to share the truth of God? This was a peice of pop culture in it’s time. The one who coined it wasn’t pleasing to God by your standards but now it is known as Holy scripture. Explain this by your understanding?

by the way, I had already written an article on this very subject which will be released in a couple weeks so don’t think that I wrote it because of this thread. The Lord had put it on my heart a while back. For good reason I guess. The scripture can be found in Acts 17:28

Yeah. this came up on the old forum…

One big thing I learnt from the Orthodox church, was that they NEVER say where the Holy Spirit is not. 

Also, I think that the Idea of a person who has repetitive sin being ‘not’ saved, is dangerous theology for anyone with addiction and mental health issues. Its just not that simple. Black and white theology is less likely to work in a context different from that of the teacher of said black and white theology. 

I also know there are people on this forum (maybe even me) with mental health issues and or addiction issues. 

So in encouragement to them, Lets remember Jesus, who challenged the religious organisation at the time who were making it difficult for people to come to God. He let children sit on his knee, and told the story of the Samaritan, someone who was ‘black and white bad’ as the good guy in the story. Jesus didn’t seem to be as swept up with the details as we sometimes are. 

The Kingdom of God is a already here, but not yet. Our healing therefore does contain an element of mystery. Some things are instant. For me, I was healed of depression in a day. on the other hand, I struggled with addiction for a long time. addiction is not just succumbing to temptation, its generally connected to a long term unmet need, or wound. Sometimes those wounds take time to be even seen let alone healed. 

Its a serious thing to say where the Holy Spirit isn’t. Don’t do it lightly.

well said Xen, I appreciate what you wrote.

Nail on the head Xen! Another Orthodox saying goes like this, “”We know who is in the Church but we do not know who isn’t in the Church.”  There is a big difference between the Church empirical and the Church eternal. My lot is to love God and to love man.

Xen = rockz!

The key term you used there Xen was “wound”. If you look at the first year of the Men’s Fraternity program, that’s exactly what Dr. Robert Lewis talks about and focuses on.

Replying to the original post…

@liberatingpulse:

If you are feeling a need to write deeper lyrics… get deeper. Get into the Word of God to the point that it’s uncomfortable. To the point that it costs you something. Understand that if you are potentially leading others, that you will be held to a higher standard. Make sure you are as correct as possible.

Focus on growing in Christ. Write your lyrics from that. Write what you learn. Make it personal and uncomfortable. Write from the point where you break. Be willing to put down on paper the words that make you openly weep. If you want to write praise and worship music – write from the overflow. Put down what you are actually thankful for. Write down those things about Jesus that take your breath away.

Lyrics writing is a craft – practice. Be willing to throw some away. Be willing to re-write.

Just my two-cents. Thanks.

Be willing to throw some away.

Most… throw most of it away.

Now that this thread woke up again a bit, I thought maybe I should actually respond to the original topic and not just what I wrote in the off-topic debate.

I didn’t re-read the thread, so somebody might’ve said this already…. Don’t rule out using a collaborator on the lyrics to work with you on them or even to write them for you. Different people have different skills. A lyricist could talk with you to get a sense of what you’re looking for in lyrics, help you refine your ideas, even bring up thoughts and ideas that you hadn’t considered, and then put words to paper for (or with) you.

As an example, but not to sound like I’m pitching for the job…. I did something like that for my sister when she got married. She and her fiance just wrote out thoughts and feelings about each other and gave the pages to me. I reviewed what they wrote and found common themes and differences that demonstrated the unity of marriage and the uniqueness of the individuals. From that, I wrote lyrics for their song.

Even look outside the box of those that like EDM. You’ll handle the music; she/he will handle the lyrics.

Something else occurred to me…..

How you handle the lyrics should mostly be determined by your intent for
the song. Specifically, is your intent to express your worship to God
or to lead others to their own worship of God? That might sound like an
odd distinction, but to me, it’s worlds of difference. Most of what is
called “worship” in Sunday morning services would be better referred to
as “praise”.

While they’re very often lumped together, I use the terms “praise” and
“worship” to describe two different manners of giving glory to God. For
the listener/congregation, “praise” is more passive and more of a
outward verbal expression of worth. Praise leaders will say things like
“Really focus on the words you’re singing.” “Worship” is fundamentally
active. There are no listeners, only participants. It is an active
expression of the heart that often is internal or even wordless. Worship
leaders will say things like “Really focus on God and giving Him the
glory He is due.” In one, the focus is on the lyrical content; in the
other, the focus is on directing the heart to actively glorify God on
its own. Praise isn’t bad. We are to do it, but it shouldn’t be all that
we do. We must actively worship God as well.

Okay, now that glm’s “Praise & Worship 101″ is over, how does that
apply to your lyrics? Simply put, if your purpose is praise, you want
more words; if your purpose is worship, you want fewer. You’re already
familiar with “praise” song examples. They’ve got lyrics pretty much the
whole way through and keep you singing. An example of a worship song
that is really powerful for me personally is an ldie but goodie”, DBAs
“3-d”. In this 7:37 track, the entire lyrics are:

Holy, holy, holy
The Was, The Is, The Coming
The Is, The Was, The Holy

That’s it. Of course, They’re not sung just once, but most of the song
is instrumental, often with female vocal harmonization. The lyrics come
in pretty early in the song, serve the purpose of filling the mind with
thoughts of God, then the lyrics get out of the way to allow worship to
occur. A several minutes later, they come back in to refresh the
thoughts. That’s it.

That, to me, is worship. It takes action, involvement, and focus. It, in a sense, costs something.

If you want to praise God, fill your song with lyrics that give Him
glory. If your purpose is to encourage active worship in others, then in
lyrical terms, give them a nudge, then get out of the way.

Thank you all for the interesting discussion. Even though it hasn’t been that long, I feel as though I’ve grown a lot in this area since my original post. It really takes the pressure off me to know that anything that I create will honor God because I am using the talents he gave me.

“Worship is fundamentally active” nice GLM, I like that wording.