Hola amigos and amigas!!
Wow has school been busy. Currently I'm on Thanksgiving break and still have 2 final projects, a 10 page research paper, 2 speech assignments, and a sketchbook assignment to do. So, like, that's been fun. Anyway I'm in the middle of writing the research paper (which is about how the work of architect Walter Gropius helped in the development of the modernist style. Exciting, I know!!), and I had to take a break, and blogging sounded great to me!
Also, I recently found my iPod after losing it for about 3 weeks, so I've been playing it nonstop since. In the past couple years, I've been listening to worship music a lot more often than I used to (top 2 most played worship songs on my iPod probably being Hillsong and Elevation Worship). Anyway, there are a lot of reasons I choose to listen to songs like this. I still listen to secular music, actually quite a lot of it, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. But the point here is worship music. Worship music. Worship music. Man, I need to stop my habit of rambling. I'll just get off topic and keep talking about it and go on and on and on...
So, here's a few things about worship music that I think are awesome:
1. It focuses my attention to God.
So this is definitely the first and foremost reason why worship music is awesome. The whole point of it is not to call attention to us, but to direct all the glory and honor and praise to Him. For me, music is a huge part of my life, and so it can very easily be used as a medium for me to understand what is being conveyed. In all things, His name should be glorified, and music is no exception. This isn't necessarily the case all the time, but for me, true lyrics coupled with music can be much more powerful than just the words alone. It is difficult for me to listen to worship music without constantly thinking about Him and the grace he's poured out on me.
2. It gives me ideas as a worship leader myself.
If you don't know me, I'm a worship leader at Cru at U of I. Before that, I lead worship for 3 years in my high school ministry. I've been around worship leading for a while, but I am far from an expert. In fact, I'm quite an amateur. But by God's grace people haven't kicked me out yet, so I get to continue doing it! Anyway, I've been given the privilege of leading around 250-300 college students in worship, which is a blast for me. Listening to people who are truly gifted helps me to get better, and be able to lead people better, and help them to focus attention on God (see #1).
3. It shows how people can use their gifts for God's glory.
I think it's so ridiculously cool how we're not tied down to specific acts we have to do to honor the Lord. Romans 6:14 says "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace". Basically, we are no longer condemned by Old Testament law, and there is freedom in Christ! So, in 2011, this can often mean using contemporary rock-style worship to bring glory to Him. Many people will criticize contemporary worship and praise old organ music-style worship as being the only "true" way of worship. To that I ask, what about before the organ was invented? Did people not worship then? My point here is that the genre of music doesn't matter, and they can all be used to worship him! And I love seeing contemporary music being used, because that's a style I really enjoy!
4. It can just be really great musically.
Worship music is so much more than just music. It's a conversation with God Himself through music. That being said, a lot of worship music is simply just really good musically! As a person who constantly surrounds myself with music, this is a quality that I really appreciate. Not as spiritually significant, but important to me!
5. It legitimately makes me get emotional.
Okay so I'm not an emotional guy. I can appreciate when things are sad, I can get really excited about things, but rarely will a tear come to my eye. This isn't because I think men aren't supposed to cry or anything, just in general that's not how I am. BUT, that being said, here's the exception. Worship music can really get to me. Sometimes I'll be walking to class listening to my iPod, and I'll start tearing up because of how the worship song I'm listening to will affect me. I've heard arguments against bands like Hillsong that they are a dangerous "worship band" to listen to because they appeal to people's emotions too much. I've heard that they will distract you from the purpose of worshiping God. This I think is completely wrong. We were made to have emotions, to feel both joy and sorrow, anger and passion. What is a relationship without emotion? By "relationship" I mean this could be anywhere from a romantic relationship or just being friends with the dude who lives down the hall. The point is that every real relationship we have with people involves emotions towards/with them. Our God is a very personal God who wants to have a legitimate relationship with us. Without emotion, we become nothing more than the holier-than-thou Pharisees who did not care about our relationship with God, but rather focused on what we can do ourselves to get the most out of it. My most intense moments of joy, of longing, of awestruck wonder, of righteous fear, of just being absolutely floored by how overwhelmingly HUGE God is, have happened to me when I'm worshiping. Of how much he cared for me to send his PERFECT SON to come and die for my sin. One of the greatest feelings ever is that tingling rush throughout my entire body I get when truly, deeply worshiping, when I'm not focusing on the people next to me, or the people in front of me when I'm leading. I don't know if this is simply adrenaline or the Holy Spirit rushing through me, but either way I know that God's the one doing it.
I'm not saying this happens to me every time. I'm very imperfect. I get distracted. I try to impress those around me. I don't process the words I'm singing. I try not to look at the screen so people think "Oh, he memorized it so obviously he cares more". These are all sinful behaviors that I fall into, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too. But man, I cannot wait for Heaven, for when we are free from worldly distractions, for a place eternal where there is no room for sin, for the day when I get to see God for who He is, fall to my knees out of how perfect and mighty and glorious and powerful He truly is.
Psalms 150 "Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!"
Wow has school been busy. Currently I'm on Thanksgiving break and still have 2 final projects, a 10 page research paper, 2 speech assignments, and a sketchbook assignment to do. So, like, that's been fun. Anyway I'm in the middle of writing the research paper (which is about how the work of architect Walter Gropius helped in the development of the modernist style. Exciting, I know!!), and I had to take a break, and blogging sounded great to me!
Also, I recently found my iPod after losing it for about 3 weeks, so I've been playing it nonstop since. In the past couple years, I've been listening to worship music a lot more often than I used to (top 2 most played worship songs on my iPod probably being Hillsong and Elevation Worship). Anyway, there are a lot of reasons I choose to listen to songs like this. I still listen to secular music, actually quite a lot of it, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. But the point here is worship music. Worship music. Worship music. Man, I need to stop my habit of rambling. I'll just get off topic and keep talking about it and go on and on and on...
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| Credit: Luke-rative via Flickr |
So, here's a few things about worship music that I think are awesome:
1. It focuses my attention to God.
So this is definitely the first and foremost reason why worship music is awesome. The whole point of it is not to call attention to us, but to direct all the glory and honor and praise to Him. For me, music is a huge part of my life, and so it can very easily be used as a medium for me to understand what is being conveyed. In all things, His name should be glorified, and music is no exception. This isn't necessarily the case all the time, but for me, true lyrics coupled with music can be much more powerful than just the words alone. It is difficult for me to listen to worship music without constantly thinking about Him and the grace he's poured out on me.
2. It gives me ideas as a worship leader myself.
If you don't know me, I'm a worship leader at Cru at U of I. Before that, I lead worship for 3 years in my high school ministry. I've been around worship leading for a while, but I am far from an expert. In fact, I'm quite an amateur. But by God's grace people haven't kicked me out yet, so I get to continue doing it! Anyway, I've been given the privilege of leading around 250-300 college students in worship, which is a blast for me. Listening to people who are truly gifted helps me to get better, and be able to lead people better, and help them to focus attention on God (see #1).
3. It shows how people can use their gifts for God's glory.
I think it's so ridiculously cool how we're not tied down to specific acts we have to do to honor the Lord. Romans 6:14 says "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace". Basically, we are no longer condemned by Old Testament law, and there is freedom in Christ! So, in 2011, this can often mean using contemporary rock-style worship to bring glory to Him. Many people will criticize contemporary worship and praise old organ music-style worship as being the only "true" way of worship. To that I ask, what about before the organ was invented? Did people not worship then? My point here is that the genre of music doesn't matter, and they can all be used to worship him! And I love seeing contemporary music being used, because that's a style I really enjoy!
4. It can just be really great musically.
Worship music is so much more than just music. It's a conversation with God Himself through music. That being said, a lot of worship music is simply just really good musically! As a person who constantly surrounds myself with music, this is a quality that I really appreciate. Not as spiritually significant, but important to me!
5. It legitimately makes me get emotional.
Okay so I'm not an emotional guy. I can appreciate when things are sad, I can get really excited about things, but rarely will a tear come to my eye. This isn't because I think men aren't supposed to cry or anything, just in general that's not how I am. BUT, that being said, here's the exception. Worship music can really get to me. Sometimes I'll be walking to class listening to my iPod, and I'll start tearing up because of how the worship song I'm listening to will affect me. I've heard arguments against bands like Hillsong that they are a dangerous "worship band" to listen to because they appeal to people's emotions too much. I've heard that they will distract you from the purpose of worshiping God. This I think is completely wrong. We were made to have emotions, to feel both joy and sorrow, anger and passion. What is a relationship without emotion? By "relationship" I mean this could be anywhere from a romantic relationship or just being friends with the dude who lives down the hall. The point is that every real relationship we have with people involves emotions towards/with them. Our God is a very personal God who wants to have a legitimate relationship with us. Without emotion, we become nothing more than the holier-than-thou Pharisees who did not care about our relationship with God, but rather focused on what we can do ourselves to get the most out of it. My most intense moments of joy, of longing, of awestruck wonder, of righteous fear, of just being absolutely floored by how overwhelmingly HUGE God is, have happened to me when I'm worshiping. Of how much he cared for me to send his PERFECT SON to come and die for my sin. One of the greatest feelings ever is that tingling rush throughout my entire body I get when truly, deeply worshiping, when I'm not focusing on the people next to me, or the people in front of me when I'm leading. I don't know if this is simply adrenaline or the Holy Spirit rushing through me, but either way I know that God's the one doing it.
I'm not saying this happens to me every time. I'm very imperfect. I get distracted. I try to impress those around me. I don't process the words I'm singing. I try not to look at the screen so people think "Oh, he memorized it so obviously he cares more". These are all sinful behaviors that I fall into, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too. But man, I cannot wait for Heaven, for when we are free from worldly distractions, for a place eternal where there is no room for sin, for the day when I get to see God for who He is, fall to my knees out of how perfect and mighty and glorious and powerful He truly is.
Psalms 150 "Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!"
Cool stuff bro! It's encouraging to see your passion for God here. Never stop praising!
ReplyDeleteAmen brother!!
ReplyDeletethis is an awesome post. so glad to read such refreshing thoughts from a fellow u of i student!
ReplyDeleteThanks Melanie! Worship is just something that gets me really excited, so it's easy to write about for me!
ReplyDelete