Music is important. It is one of the creative arts, an aspect of our "in the image of God" special creation nature. Music has the ability to move our hearts, and souls, and minds, and emotions. Music is one of the few things which can actually prepare a place for the presence of God, and has been linked with the house of God since before humankind. Music has for millenia been reserved simply for religious settings, whether Biblical or pagan. Music only recently (in the last 1,000 years) became disassociated from the religious setting and moved into the secular setting. Music is powerful, it can carry with it any number of spirits and open doors in people's lives.
So, with music being so powerful, my question to you is this:
Where do you draw the line when it comes to music?
Of course there are certain obvious lines, such as songs with cursing in the lyrics or with blatant sexually related lyrics, but what about the grey area. Not to be like a Pharisee, being all religious and condemning, I'm just curious as to where everyone draws teh line, because there is a large grey area, a lot of space to draw lines.
You can't just draw the line at Christian music anymore. It used to be "all good" but recent groups like Reliant K or Falling Up, while claiming to be Christian have songs that are all just about "my girlfriend" and "he said, she said" type songs. There's no diffrence between them and the world. Which begs the question, should there be any difference between Chirstian Music and Secular Music and what should that diffrence be?
Some people go all out (and this use to be me too) and only listen to Worship Music (a separate genre from Christian Music; Worship Music places focus on worshiping God (eg tree63, hillsong, david crowder band, jonathan stockstill), Christian Music places focus on issues people face from a Chirstian Perspective (eg Switchfoot, DC talk, grits, et al)) I have to say that teh times when my life have gone teh best and that I have grown closets to God was during those time is only listened to worship music.
Right now I'm still deciding where to draw my own line. So, where do you guys draw the line?
13 years ago
In regards to my line: As long as it's doesn't have curseing, sexual innuendoes, and is not going to have you stick pins in your wrists, it's usually okay. Look at the screamo type christian music, to me it's still screamo and the style still says kill people. But the words want you to do something else, that kind of music ...I don't know. But some of Jack Johnson's songs, for example, makes me feel less irritible, than some screamo christian music makes me feel.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to diffrence between Christian and Secular: I think things need to make sense and the line needs to be blatantly obvious between them. The difference should be the spirit that the music brings. I'm not trying to knock any style of music, because i've heard more secular groups that are known to be secular and write really bad songs, write really good songs, that really uplift you. But on the contrary I've heard plenty of Christian music by christian artist, that talk about nothing but sex. Soooooo.....
To wrap things up, it comes to standards and convictions...your standards and convictions. Be careful what you listen to because your going to be the one held accountible for what you listen to. And what you make otehrs listen to (your car, your music). There's the line.
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ReplyDeletemusic sets the tone and atmosphere of your soul. it's something that affects your spiritual life a LOT.
ReplyDeletehonestly, the line for me is at a different place in every season of my life.
sometimes, God asks me to just listen to worship music because of what He's doing in my life and because it really does create an atmosphere in my heart where He can best work.
other times, i listen to secular music and it's totally fine. honestly, there have been times God has spoken to me through secular songs. and like james said, some secular music is, quite honestly, more uplifting to me than christian music.
generally, i don't listen to songs that have excessive or extreme language in it, or songs that are just flat-out dirty.
my rule of thumb is to be aware of how the music i'm listening to is affecting me, and to guard how much secular music i listen to. because while some of it may not be bad, per se, it also may not be contributing to my spiritual health.
it's a sticky issue, to be sure!
p.s. couldn't agree more with james :)
My philosophy is simple. Garbage in = garbage out. Nowdays, with Christian Music on the decline and becoming more liberal everyday, really the only safe music is worship music. Honestly, no other music can bring God's presence. And nothing, no feeling your flesh can try to tell you is important, beats that.
ReplyDelete-TJ
My relationship with God has no bearing whatsoever on what kinds of music I listen to (voluntarily or not... try shopping for groceries without overhearing at least 3 secular songs in the parking lot, overhead radio, etc).
ReplyDeleteMy honest opinion is that most 'Christian' music is horrible... it's more about the words than the music. Imagine if Elvis made 300 albums and every single song was about Blue Suede Shoes this... and Blue Suede Shoes that... that's how Christian music seems to me, boring and unoriginal.
The way I live my life as a Christian is not influenced by my musical choices, and I wholeheartedly believe that God does not want us to just be mindless drones who are forever banished from receiving entertainment, as long as you are smart enough to live righteously.
Your choice, obsess over meaningless things like what types of music you should listen to, and go to heaven... or have fun and not worry so much about trivial things, and still go to heaven (because you still lived the gospel).
While I agree that music isn't the deciding factor in where you end up in eternity, it is still important. You can't compartmentalise your life, saying music has no affect on you. If you think it doesn't then maybe its affected you so much you don't even nottice anymore. And just so you know, the Bible never says that we're here on earth to have fun. We're here to please God. Thats why it's important to seek His will in ALL areas of our lives, especially something as impacting as music.
ReplyDelete-TJ