SpiritSeek

Spiritual Sounds

2009-03-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

Music can affect us in many ways. For many years I played trumpet in a horn band and I played over 500 gigs, mostly wedding receptions. Then after I hung up the brass I dj’d for several years. I saw firsthand how certain songs transformed what appeared to be sweet innocent woman into sultans of the sultry. As I matured in my faith I got the point where I refused to play certain songs such as “Hot in Here” by Nelly or anything else that so forcefully appealed to the carnal within all of us.

There is a whole other genre of music that also has the power to transform. Contemporary Christian Music is a category that has transformed my life. How? The messages of countless songs have helped me learn about how God works and have affirmed my faith. I still listen to different musical styles but songs that speak of the reality of God and appeal to all within me that is spiritual while being presented in musical forms that are as good as anything I’ve ever heard is an added bonus.

If you have doubts about the existence of God, or are uncertain about the relevance of Jesus in people’s lives, or are searching for spiritual truth, here are some songs you may want to give a listen too. I only chose ten and they are by no means a top ten of Christian songs or anything like that. However I think all of them will speak to a searching soul in ways that may just rock (no pun intended) your world.

Check out the brief description of each song and then check out the ones that seem to be drawing you in. Before you listen though, ask God to reveal himself to you through the music. It’s ok to say “God if you are real, show me.” My prayer is that some of these songs will stir the hearts of the most hardened skeptics.

1. "Saving the World" by Clay Crosse: Rockin blues presentation of why “religion” is an obstacle to spiritual truth.

2. "Lose My Soul" by TobyMac & Mandissa: An anthem for all those who reject secular definitions of success with an R&B/rap delivery.

3. "Above All" by Michael W. Smith: For anyone who asks the question; Why is Jesus different than Mohammad or any other religious figure?

4. "One of These Days" by FFH: Alternative rock with a folksy twinge about hope after death.

5. "Cry Out To Jesus" by Third Day: Progressive rockers speak for anyone who has been wounded.

6. "Word Of God Speak" by Mercy Me: For anyone who says to themselves; Why bother with the bible?

7. "Where You Belong/Turn Your Eyes" by The Newsboys: A song for when the toils of life leave you feeling empty.

8. "People Get Ready" by Crystal Lewis: These days many people seem to have a sense that something BIG is about to happen. This song tells us what.

9. "One Drop of Blood" by Ray Boltz: Why would someone willingly die for all of humanity? This song explains why.

10. "Say So" by Israel & New Breed: A new breed of sound that answers the question; what is my purpose on the planet?

Bonus: "Rise Again" by Dallas Holm: Jesus is who differentiates Christianity from every other faith. Listen and learn why.

God's Grammy Winners

2009-03-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

The old adage “music makes the world go around” is always on display at the Grammy awards. The big winners at the 2009 Grammy awards were an interesting pairing. Old school rocker and the lead singer from “Led”, Robert Plant and folksy bluegrass bred singer of all trades Alison Krause teamed up to produce the album of the year Most critics have called that album “Raising Sand” one of the most original works of music in awhile. Other well known and chart topping acts such as Duffy, Katy Perry and Leona Lewis took home awards too. But I wonder how many people know who took home the award for best Gospel album of the year?

I find it interesting that long before Edison invented the phonograph or Bach composed his first concerto, music had been an integral part of humanity in most every culture. That is not surprising because the history of music began before the planet was even created. “Oh really” you may be thinking. Absolutely. Check it out.

In Job chapter 38 the bible tells us that when God was creating the heavens and the earth, the angels were singing. Even more mind blowing is that the bible seems to insinuate that before he turned into the bad boy head of demons that he is, Satan himself may have been in charge of worship and the heavenly choir. The two Scripture passages that describe Satan before he fell are Ezekiel 28:12-19 and Isaiah 14:12-15 it states Satan was the “anointed cherub”. The angels are in constant worship, Satan was the head angel before he fell, so seems to reason he could have led the worship, but it is unknown to us for certain.

Irrespective of Satan’s influence on music in heaven according to one rock legend it is alive and well on earth. Rock and Roll hall of famer David Bowie in Rolling Stone magazine (Feb. 12, 1976), stunned the music world, when he stated:"Rock has always been THE DEVIL'S MUSIC . . . I believe rock and roll is dangerous . . . I feel we're only heralding SOMETHING EVEN DARKER THAN OURSELVES." (Rolling Stone, Feb. 12, 1976)

While I do not think Satan is behind every rock song ever recorded, the point is, music has a big influence on many people and it seems to make sense that it can be used to promote good or bad. Back to the bible, there is this insightful passage from 2 Kings 3:15 “But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that he hand of the Lord came upon him.”

The “him” referred to is the mighty prophet Elisha. As the praise music was ascending, Elisha tuned into the voice of the Lord and received instruction regarding what Israel had to do in the face of a dreadful drought. I think this is so cool because it shows the Lord working in the midst of background music! It is the presence of worship and praise that the Holy Spirit is able to work most creatively and effectively.

For me this rings so true. I have an extensive music collection, played semi professionally in a horn band for 10 years and dj’d for several more. At each gig I saw firsthand the impact music has on people. After all, “if you want the people to move you have to pick the right groove.” Corny I know but it’s true. But the impact of contemporary Christian music on my life has been profound. More on that in the next SpirtSeek entry. But for now, I can tell you that my walk with God is strengthened in a powerful way when I tune into music that draws my attention to Him. So if you need to hear from God, pray, read His word and by all means, do like Elisha did and crank up some praise music and then listen to what God whispers to your spirit.

Oh, and by the way, the winner of the 2009 Grammy award for best rock/rap Christian album of the year was Toby Mac for his CD “Alive and Transported.” If you are not aware of what today’s Christian themed music has to offer check out Toby. You may even hear from God!

Obamanomics vs. God's recovery plan

2009-02-10T17:28:00.000-08:00

Obamanomics vs. God’s recovery plan

As the debate about Obama’s economic stimulus plan rages on, I wonder if the Ivy League economic wizards at team Obama have thought about consulting the greatest economic guru of all time: God.

God you say? Did you know He has provided us with a blueprint for economic prosperity and the total elimination of poverty? ? Now before you roll your eyes and write this off as the mutterings of a fundamentalist whack job, let me ask you a question, do you know what God’s economic plan is? Most people don’t so I’ll cover the basics here and point you in a direction where you can learn more details. When you analyze the plan I’ll think you will agree that it is as simple as it is radical.

The first time we see specific reference to God’s economic plan is in the book of Leviticus, chapter 25 vs. 8-54. That is where God prescribes an economic sustenance program He calls the year of Jubilee. At its core the year of Jubilee was meant to be celebrated every 50 years. It included canceling all debts and returning to original owners all land that had been sold. Then in Deuteronomy 15 vs. 1-18 we see an expansion of this economic prescription whereby debts were to be released every seventh year apparently for debts incurred just in that year. Then in Deuteronomy 14 vs. 28-29 we see that every third year a second tithe was to be taken to take care of people who were poor-the fatherless, the widow, the stranger. And that money was to be used for their well being and welfare.

That is God’s recommended tax rate. Check it out. It you add up all the tithes of Deuteronomy 14 and 16 along with Numbers 18 they come to an average of twenty-three percent annually. So, by canceling debts every seventh year, cancelling them completely every fifty years and giving money to the poor at the rate of 23 percent every third year, poverty would have been all but eliminated from Israel. But would that work in today’s sophisticated world of mortgage based securities, derivatives and hedge funds?

The beauty of God’s economic plan is that it builds in the kind of regulatory oversight that is needed to keep us in check. Here’s how. First off, the further away one was from the year of Jubilee, the more valuable the property was. For instance if the concept of Jubilee were in place today and you went to buy a home three years before the year of Jubilee, you would only pay a fraction of the price because that property would be restored to its original owner in three years. Conversely if the year of Jubilee was 45 years way you would pay full price. So, if the year of Jubilee were to be in 2010, someone who received one of those sub-prime mortgages three years ago would not have to worry about going into foreclosure now because the price of the home would have made it affordable to begin with and the home would have reverted back to the person who sold it in the first place. So in essence, the sub-prime mortgage buyer would have been renting for three years. That’s the point. The existence of the Jubilee process would have prevented the condition that created the subprime meltdown.

When it comes to debt forgiveness, think of how that concept would impact lenders as well as debtors. The amount of money a bank would be willing to loan and the interest rate that would be economically viable to charge would be regulated by how close the next Jubilee or debt forgiveness year was.

We hear so much about the need for oversight, whether it be of Wall Street or corporate behavior on Main Street. The same holds true for all of us. Every household needs to keep an eye on spending and how it manages its finances. But in the past 50 years we have gone from a producer nation to a consumer nation. Led by our government, as a nation we have spent ourselves into debt and will have a difficult and painful time repaying it.

Now some economists could probably come up with compelling reasons why the concept of Jubilee and a seven year debt forgiveness policy would not work. I bet some of those same economists are the ones who have prescribed policies that got us into this mess in the first place. But since Jubilee, debt forgiveness and a twenty three percent flat tax are God’s ideas, seems to me we would be wise to give them serious consideration.

Can you imagine if team Obama introduced an economic plan that included institutionalized self regulation via debt forgiveness, oversight of the real estate markets via Jubilee and a flat tax of 23 percent where every third year all revenues would be given to help the poor?

Now that would be change to believe in.

Click here for an article about debt forgiveness written by an economist.
Click here for a recent article on the concept of Jubilee by Rabbi Arthur Waskow.

Is Beer Better Than Jesus?

2008-02-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

The other day I was cruising a website and happened to run across a piece titled ‘Beer Is Better than Jesus”. Well, as an occasional partaker of Blue Moon, a smooth alpine brew cooked up by the Coors family, and a believer in Jesus, the piece caught my eye. It reads like a David Letterman top ten reasons why beer is better than Jesus. As I read through the list it became apparent to me that the author probably had never read the New Testament and if he did, he did not understand it properly. If he had, he could not have written his list. I find that to be true of a lot of people. They are so certain that the bible is wrong about this or that but when pressed, they admit they have never read much less studied the Bible. So the obvious question is how can someone refute a book they have not read for themselves?

With that thought as a backdrop I felt compelled to respond to each pf the ten reasons of why beer is supposed to be better than Jesus.

10. No one will kill you for not drinking beer:
Response: Jesus never advocated killing period, much less killing for not believing in him. Instead He taught us to repeatedly forgive one another (check out the book of Matthew in the Bible, chapter 5 verse 44).

9. Beer doesn’t tell you how to have sex.
Response: Neither does Jesus. Not once is He recorded as saying anything about sex. He does tell us to refrain from adultery and immorality though. If you have yet to read the New Testament you would not know that and I think you will be very surprised at what you read.

8. Beer never caused a major war:
Response: Neither has Jesus. He taught that we should love our neighbors as ourselves and forgive our enemies (see Matthew chapter 18, verse 21) and never started or suggested starting a war. It is man that caused war in the name of Jesus (i.e. the crusades).

7. They don’t force beer on minors who can’t think for themselves:
Response: Jesus doesn’t force himself on anyone. He extends an invitation to accept Him but gives us the free will to make the choice. If we don’t accept Him, he leaves us alone to live out our lives. He does say he will deal with our unbelief in the afterlife.

6. When you have a beer, you don’t knock on people’s doors trying to give it away
Response: Jesus does not knock on your door, people do. In fact Jesus says we are the ones who should do the knocking (see Matthew chapter 7, verse 7). It’s your choice as to whether you decide to knock and open the door of your heart to Him. Nor does our acceptance of Him come without a cost. It cost Jesus His blood and his earthly life.

5. Nobody’s every been burned at the stake, hanged or tortured over his brand of beer.
Response: Jesus was scourged 40 times, his skin ripped from his back. He was then nailed to a tree and hung there for 9 hours, dying a slow and agonizing death. All of his disciples except John died as martyrs, murdered for their faith. Throughout the ages millions of Christians have been burned at the stake, fed to lions, impaled and lit afire to serve as human torches, beheaded and killed in numerous other ways simply because they believed in Jesus. Christ never taught that unbelievers should be killed. It was misguided men that falsely accused people of being witches and/or heretics and killed them. They were not following the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Bible. Just like the atheist Hitler’s attempt to exterminate Jews wasn’t something most atheists would advocate.

4. You don’t have to wait 2000+ years for a second beer.
Response: You can experience the peace, power and joy of Christ in your life TODAY. How? Simply by confessing your belief in Him, asking for forgiveness of your sins (yes, all those men who started wars or killed and tortured in Christ’s names needed forgiveness for those sins) and if you earnestly ask, I guarantee you that you will begin to think differently as Christ becomes the owner of your heart.

3. There are laws saying beer labels can’t lie to you.
Response: Jesus can’t lie to you either. If you check him out, YOUR experience will be your personal truth barometer. If you have not given Him a close look, you will never know what He will do for you. How then could He be lying to you?

2. You can prove you have a beer.
Response: Jesus provides the best proof of himself there can be, his residence in your heart. But if you don’t invite Him in to your heart He can’t show himself to you and you won’t know His truth is real. If you are a skeptic, ask Him to reveal himself to you and earnestly seek Him out by reading the bible. Try it for a month and see what happens. What have got to lose? I’m betting He will reveal himself to you and he will provide all the proof you need.

1. If you’ve devoted your life to beer, there are groups to help you stop.
Response : Hmm, if beer was so good why would you want to stop drinking it? It’s also ironic that one of the most effective groups to help you stop drinking beer is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). AA was founded by two Christians. Jesus offers the gift of eternal life in heaven. Who would want to stop that?

So next time you are sipping an ice cold brew and you are not sure what you think about Jesus ponder this thought. Ultimately everyone on the planet has to answer this question; who is Jesus? There are only two alternatives. Either He is who He says, the son of God, or He was something else. Why does everyone need to answer that question? Because Jesus is the ONLY teacher, prophet etc to say that He is the only way to heaven (book of John, chapter 14, verse; Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.).

Buddha never said that. Mohammad never said that. The Book of Mormon does not say that. The Torah does not say that. So much for all religions being similar but showing different paths to the same God. Then there is Satan who says, you/we can become like God on our own. That’s the New Age mindset. But again, that’s not what Jesus said.

What do you have to lose by taking some time to give Jesus a fair shake? I can’t think of anything except, some time. What do you stand to lose if you don’t check Him out and….you are wrong? By the time you realize He is who He says He is, it will be too late and you will only be able to knock on heaven’s door, not enter through it. Are you willing to risk trading eternity so you can save some time? If not, instead of cracking open the next six pack, crack open a Bible!

Is There More To Life?

2008-01-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

“There’s gotta to me more to life, than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me.” So goes the beginning of the chorus of a hit song by Stacie Orrico. Similarly, the country group Sugarland scored a chart topper with their song “There’s gotta be something more.” The chorus to that song goes like this:

There’ gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I’m gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I’ve been looking for
There’s gotta be something more”

How often do you find yourself thinking the thoughts reflected in those lyrics? If the answer is often then you are not alone. Seems like both songs have captured the longing of a generation, if not a nation. According to the World Values Survey, conducted by sociologists in 65 nations since 1981, “We see a religious attitude when we ask how often people spend time thinking about the meaning and purpose of life.” Ditto for George Barna, a well known sociologist specializing in researching the state of spirituality in America who noted in a recent study that “millions of young adults are more interested in truth, authenticity, experience, relationships and spirituality than they are in laws, traditions, events, disciplines, institutions and religion.”

This blog gets its title from the emotions expressed in the songs by Orrico and Sugarland and also reflects the reality of a large and growing number of people who are seeking the meaning of life and truth to fulfill that longing in one’s soul to connect to the spiritual. According to Barna, “Spirituality is in vogue in our society. It is popular to claim to be part of a faith community.” But what do people mean when they claim to be “spiritual"? Is it a New Age type of spirituality where God is the same in all forms of religious expression and there are no absolute truths, or is it a spirituality manifested in a Scientology class? Perhaps it’s a kind of “I’d like to teach the world to sing” while connecting to a “higher power” I feel good and I’m a good person kind of spirituality. Then again, Wicca, a form of withcraft, is rapidly growing and so is atheism for that matter, and what about the Christians?

Last year’s Grammy awards were perhaps indicative of a breakdown between self-perception and reality for some who profess Christ. The members of the group that won for best song of the year thanked God for their victory then immediately followed with profanities that had to be bleeped from the broadcast. It seems as if God is in, but living for God is not. Many Christians are living a dual life–one filled with good feelings about God and faith collaborated by some simple religious practices, and another in which they believe they are in control of their own destiny and operate apart from Him. That’s what Barna’s research reveals.

So what to make of this? In his new book “unChrsitian” author David Kinnamin documents the growing cynicism towards Christianity, fueled in part by a growing sense of disengagement and disillusionment, particularly among young people. The numbers are revealing; just 16.5% of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a “good” impression of Christians. Why such a low percentage? This quote from Brennan Manning sums it up: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Kinnamin’s research supports Manning’s claim as it reveals Christians are viewed as being judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned and too involved in politics. There is a general perception that something is broken in the present day expression of Christianity. According to Kinnaman, “I was surprised at how many perceptions were rooted in specific stories and personal interactions with Christians and in churches. The title to the Black Eyed Peas hit song “Where Is The Love?” captures what the people surveyed by Kinnamin say is missing in their interactions with Christians.

Christians can focus on defending themselves and trying to prove God’s existence. Or they can show people grace and truth, loving sinners while admonishing the lost to turn from their sin. Jesus was the best example of this. The Bible gives us many examples of how Jesus won over many an unbeliever by the way he loved them. If you are looking for examples, stay tuned.

The mission of SpiritSeek is to communicate a biblical worldview to the unbelieving, the unchurched and to unsure Christians, challenging them to consider examining the reasons why following Jesus and adopting a biblical truth is the most meaningful choice among competing worldviews. Heavy stuff, I know, but by filtering commentary on events of our times through the lens of a biblical worldview and doing so with a pinch of humor and some sprinkling of levity, it is my hope that SpiritSeek will inspire people to reflect upon the core of their beliefs in ways they may have never done before.

Yes, Stacie, there’s got to be more to life and if this blog is successful in helping just one person come to the realization that the “more to life” can be found in Jesus Christ, then I will have considered this work a success. So if your curiosity is even remotely piqued, come on back and check out the many true life stories of Christ alive in the lives of people all around you and discover why Sugarland had it right too. Because there is more to life, so much more.