BASH

The topic last night was music!

We discussed that though the primary purpose of music in the Bible is for worship to God, we see that it is not limited to just that (1 Samuel 16:14-23, Nehemiah 4:20, Judges 7:16-22, Ephesians 5:19). We also discussed that music has an affect on our emotions (1 Samuel 16:14-23).

We also talked about that the Bible does not limit music based on style or instrumentation. We see percussion and stringed instruments very early in the music making in the Bible. We also discussed that in the same way there are different genres of Christian art (Abstract, representational, realist, surreal, etc.) there is liberty for different genres of Christian music (Rap, Pop, RnB, Hip Hop, Country, Rock, Classical, etc.). The Bible is not biased towards a different genre.

We finally discussed that the content of the lyrics is the thing we should be evaluating when talking about music.

Philippians 4:8 says “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Frank said that when listening to music we should put every lyric to the Philippians 4:8 test. Does the music you listen to line up with what Philippians 4:8 promote?

Frank said, “Whatever a person allows to occupy his or her mind will sooner or later determine his or her speech and his or her actions.” The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ” If a song promotes something other than what is noble, lovely, pure, etc. than take captive of your mind and don’t listen to it. If we don’t we are at serious risk of being controlled by it. Your speech and your actions will reflect the music you are listening too.

We also talked about how there “secular” bands (bands that don’t claim to be Christians) that can fit in the Philippians 4:8.

We then broke down the top 25 itunes downloads of 8/24/10 and talked about the content of most of the music being downloaded. The list consisted of Katy Perry, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, and more.

The point of the night is that we as Christians don’t have to live in a bubble of music where everything is Christian Contemporary Music but as Christians we have the liberty to listen to any genre with any kind of beat to it. The thing we must be careful of is the content of the music. As Will said last night, “all songs have a message”. We have to determine as consumers of music and more importantly, as sons and daughters of the Father, what is the song promoting and if it lines up with the morals and principles Scripture promotes. If it does, listen to it until your IPod explodes. If it doesn’t, then get rid of that cd (or if you are like me who don’t own cds, right-click and hit delete).

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