Discipleship | A People for His Name

A New Song for Children

March 2, 2013

I recently wrote new words to be sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, a well-known children’s song. My song, Sow, Sow, Sow the Word, teaches children numerous truths that have great significance for this life and the one to come.

I have included footnotes in each stanza that give Scripture passages for the major ideas in the song. Explaining these biblical truths to children when you teach them the song should make their singing it much more profitable.

Sow, Sow, Sow the Word

Sow, sow, sow the Word
Ev’rywhere you go.[1]
Joyfully, joyfully, joyfully, joyfully[2]
Tell men what you know.

Sow, sow, sow the Word
Ev’ryone must hear.[3]
Solemnly, solemnly, solemnly, solemnly[4]
Tell them Whom to fear.[5]

Sow, sow, sow the Word
Ev’ry day and night.[6]
Thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly
Teach them all that’s right.[7]

Sow, sow, sow the Word
Ev’ry child of God.
Patiently, patiently, patiently, patiently[8]
Turn men back to God.[9]

Sow, sow, sow the Word
You who know God’s love.
Lovingly, lovingly, lovingly, lovingly[10]
Show that God is love.[11]

[1] Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Acts 8:4; 26:20

[2] Acts 5:41-42; 13:52

[3] Mark 16:15

[4] Acts 20:21

[5] Revelation 14:6-7

[6] Acts 20:31

[7] Matthew 28:20

[8] 2 Timothy 2:25-26

[9] Acts 26:18

[10] 1 Corinthians 13:1; Ephesians 4:15

[11] Matthew 5:16

In Discipleship, Music

New Book by Shelly Hamilton about CCM

March 1, 2013

I have worked with Shelly Hamilton at Majesty Music for a number of years now. For the past many months, I have had the privilege of interacting with her extensively as she worked to complete the writing of a book about CCM.

Shelly has researched this subject carefully for many years. Her musical giftedness, solid Christian training, dedication to serving Christ, and gracious desire and intense burden to help people with this difficult subject have uniquely prepared her for advancing the kingdom of God and His righteousness through her book Why I Dont Listen to Contemporary Christian Music.

In the 103 pages of this book, Shelly covers many key topics, including Is Music Neutral?; The Rock Beat; The Pop Singing Style; Intent and Motive; Biblical Teaching about Music; Rock by Its Fruit and Association; A Musical Line; The Power of Music in the Church; and What Are a Christian’s Musical Options?

If you are looking for some solid help to discern answers to the musical and biblical issues that CCM poses for believers, I heartily recommend that you give this work a careful hearing.

For more help with issues concerning CCM, please see my post Resources That Provide Answers to Key Issues Concerning CCM

In CCM, Christian Books

Amazing Grace Teaches Wretches to Deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts

February 27, 2013

John Newton’s song Amazing Grace highlights how God saves wretches who once were lost in their sins. Stanza 3 testifies of the ongoing work of grace in the life of saved wretches like us: “Thru many dangers, toils and snares I have already come; ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”

In our day, much Christian teaching and preaching focuses on the saving work of God’s grace in the sense of its delivering sinners from the penalty of their sins. Although that is certainly a vital dimension of the work of God’s grace for sinners, the apostle Paul emphasizes a key facet of its work that needs much more emphasis than it is currently receiving—God’s grace that saves sinners has a vital sanctifying teaching ministry in the life of every true believer:

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

¹² Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

¹³ Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

¹⁴ Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

In this passage, Paul stresses that God’s grace teaches believers to be denying ungodliness and worldly lusts as they live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. An examination of this truth brings out vital understanding for how we should live in our day.

GRACE TEACHES BELIEVERS ABOUT THE UNGODLINESS AND WORLDLY LUSTS OF OUR PRESENT WORLD

The teaching of Paul about grace in this passage implies that grace teaches us about the ungodliness and worldly lusts that characterize the present world. We understand then that our age in which we live has evil aspects that are ungodly (not like God) and worldly (opposed to Him, His interests, and the best interests of His people and focused rather on human desires that are either intrinsically evil or are perversions of God-given legitimate desires).

An emphasis that downplays the reality of the ungodly and worldly aspects of the present world thus misleads believers into thinking contrary to what the Scripture teaches about God’s grace. Such teaching comes far short of rightly instructing believers to live the grace-filled lives that God desires for them.

GRACES TEACHES BELIEVERS TO IDENTIFY THE UNGODLINESS AND WORLDLY LUSTS OF OUR AGE

Also implicit in this Pauline teaching about grace is the reality that God’s grace enables believers to identify what is ungodly and worldly in the present world. Apart from that grace, they would be like all the lost people of the world who lack the ability and desire to identify accurately what aspects of our age are ungodly and worldly versus what aspects are not so.

Moreover, because of God’s grace working in their lives, Christians who are right with God desire to discern accurately what comprises the ungodliness and worldly lusts of our contemporary world. Based on these truths, an emphasis on living a grace-filled life that minimizes a believer’s need to discern what comprises the ungodliness and worldly lusts of our world is in direct opposition to explicit Scriptural teaching about what God’s grace effects in a believer’s life.

GRACE TEACHES BELIEVERS TO DENY THE UNGODLINESS AND WORLDLY LUSTS OF OUR WORLD

Beyond enabling believers to identify the ungodliness and worldly lusts of our day and teaching them to do so, God’s grace teaches believers to deny these aspects of our world! We thus do not live the grace-filled lives that God intends if we are not actively denying these things in our lives.

An emphasis on grace-filled living that does not stress a believer’s denying ungodliness and worldly lusts in his living is highly detrimental to the cause of Christ because it misleads believers about an essential facet of how they must live in this world. We must reject such teaching as unscriptural because it is not in accord with biblical teaching about what God’s grace effects in a believer’s life.

Is amazing grace teaching wretches like you and me both to identify the ungodliness and worldly lusts of our present age and to deny them? Or, has deficient teaching about living a grace-filled life misled us so that we are not actively doing so?

In Discipleship, Exposition

Did an Unholy Spirit from God Torment Saul?

February 14, 2013

When king Saul rebelled against God, God judged Him by rejecting him from being king of Israel (1 Sam. 15:23). After Samuel anointed his successor, David, the Holy Spirit came upon David from that day onward (16:13). By contrast, “the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him” (16:14).

Was the spirit from God that tormented Saul an unholy spirit or was he an angel who was sent by God to distress Saul? Some believers are troubled to think that this spirit was actually an evil spirit in the sense of being a demon. For them, for God to use such a spirit creates theological problems with their view of God and His separateness from sin.[1]

An examination of many similar Scripture passages helps to answer the question of the identity of the spirit that tormented Saul.

1. Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan, who could only have assaulted them had God permitted him to do so (see point 2 for Scriptural support for this interpretation):

2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

2. Job was assaulted by Satan on more than one occasion when God gave him permission to do so:

Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

3. Because of his sinfulness, God judged king Ahab through a lying spirit:

2Ch 18:18 Again he said, Therefore hear the word of the LORD; I saw the LORD sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left.

¹⁹ And the LORD said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner.

²⁰ Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith?

²¹ And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so.

²² Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee.

4. Paul’s affliction at the hands of Satan was divinely given him:

2Co 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

The use of the divine passive (“was given”) shows that God was the One who allowed Paul to be afflicted by Satan.

5. God will judge many people in the future who will have rejected His truth by sending strong delusion upon them, which will be the work of evil spirits:

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

⁹ Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

¹⁰ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

¹² That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

These five passages provide ample biblical support for holding that king Saul was tormented by an unholy spirit from God and not just a “distressing spirit” (1 Sam. 16:14 in the NKJV). In addition, the Spirit’s departure from Saul prior to the evil spirit’s coming upon him also points to his being an unholy spirit that came to torment Saul once the Holy Spirit was no longer upon him (cf. 1 Sam. 10:6).

[1] Additionally, the identification of this spirit as an evil spirit versus a distressing spirit has vital bearing on determining the moral character of the instrumental music that David played for Saul (see my post Correcting a Wrong Handling of the Accounts of David’s Music Ministry to Saul).

In CCM, Interpretation, Music, Theology

Guitar Chords and Melody for "Sublime Gracia"

February 11, 2013

Here are the guitar chords and the melody for Sublime Gracia in my simple number format (in the key of Sol).

In Guitar Music, Spanish

Let Us Sing to the Lord All Our Days in His House!

February 9, 2013

King Hezekiah was one of Israel’s best kings (2 Kings 18:5). Faced with divine revelation that he was soon certainly going to die (2 Kings 20:1), he entreated God for mercy (2 Kings 20:3) and was heard (2 Kings 20:5-7).

After he had recovered from the illness that originally was going to end his life, Hezekiah wrote a song to thank God for healing him (Isa. 38:9-20). He climaxed that song by saying,

The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD. (38:20)

Because the Lord saved him, Hezekiah purposed that he (and others with him) would sing his songs accompanied by stringed instruments throughout the rest of his life and do so in the house of the Lord.

This marvelous resolve points us to multiple truths that every believer should profit from:

1. In gratitude for His saving us, we should sing to the Lord all of our days.

2. Singing to Him individually is not enough; we should do so corporately (“therefore we will sing my songs . . . all the days of our life” (38:20; bold added).

3. Our corporately singing to Him should be accompanied by the playing of stringed instruments.

4. Singing corporately to Him with such accompaniment in our own homes is not enough; we should sing corporately to Him with such accompaniment all our lives “in the house of the Lord” (38:20).

Surely, God intends these truths from Hezekiah’s resolve to profit every believer to the end that we all would praise Him faithfully in grateful corporate singing to Him in our local churches, which are His house today (1 Tim. 3:15). If God has saved you, be faithful to worship Him in singing in the services of a local church all the rest of your life.

Let us sing to the Lord in His house all our days!

In Exhortation, Music

From Heavy Metal, Soft Rock, and Pop to Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

February 6, 2013

As an unsaved child and junior high, high school, and college student, I listened to a wide variety of music, including heavy metal, soft rock, and pop. Growing up in an Indian home, I also had very extensive exposure to Hindi music, especially music from Indian movies.

Music was an especially vital part of my life from about junior high onward. At one point, I even wanted to be a lead guitarist and vocalist for a rock band.

In college, I took guitar classes and lessons and longed to learn how to play rock music. Although I tried very hard to learn how to play it, I never was able to figure out how to play the rhythms of that music. Most of the few rock solo parts that I did learn to play, I learned from a few close friends who also played guitar.

In contrast to my very limited success in learning to play rock music, I was able to develop extensive abilities in note reading and strumming and picking chords for songs that did not have a rock beat to them. In addition, considerable exposure to classical music during these years, both through my guitar lessons and through close connections with many college friends who were classical musicians, developed a deep love and appreciation in me for classical music.

Although I had listened to many different styles of music in my life, I did not have much exposure to Christian hymnody before I was saved. In the years leading up to my conversion, I did attend services occasionally at an Assembly of God church, but I have no recollection of the music that I heard on those occasions.

Shortly after I became a Christian, I began attending services regularly at an independent Baptist church in Cookeville, TN. In that church, I first experienced extensively Christian hymnody and other sacred music that was sung and played in a way that was distinct from all the music (except for the classical music and the other sacred songs that I had heard before) that I can recall ever having heard prior to that point in my life.

My experience of this new music was not just that I was singing words that I had not sung before—there was an entirely different feel to this music. This sacred music did not bring back to my mind the earlier styles that I had saturated my mind with over the years.

Now, after 23 years of being immersed in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, I am readily able to detect a difference between what I first heard in my first church and what I hear today in Christian music sung and performed in contemporary styles. Whereas the former never recalls to my mind secular music that I have heard, CCM readily does so.

As one who first had his mind immersed for many years in the world’s music and then immersed for many years in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, I find it regrettable that good brethren assert that CCM is acceptable music for divine worship. Not having the background that I have, many of them do not understand the harmful effects that the musical styles of CCM—regardless of the words—are having upon them.

Furthermore, even after years of being a believer, I find that I still have within me a deep affinity for rock music, pop, and other music that is played and sung in worldly styles. Based on my extensive experiential knowledge of the world’s music and of sacred music that is clearly distinct in style from the world’s music, it is clear to me that CCM has no place in the life of a dedicated believer and should be eradicated from every church that desires to glorify God in its worship.

See my post Resources That Provide Answers to Key Issues Concerning CCM for much more biblical information about issues concerning what music God accepts in corporate worship.

In CCM, Music, Testimony

An Unexpected Benefit of Spanish Bible Study!

February 4, 2013

I just finished reading and translating through Matthew in the Spanish RVR60. In this translation, Matthew 16:23 reads,

Pero él, volviéndose, dijo a Pedro: ¡Quítate de delante de mí, Satanás!; me eres tropiezo, porque no pones la mira en las cosas de Dios, sino en las de los hombres.

While translating this verse, I looked up poner in my Spanish dictionary to see if there might be some idiomatic expression used here that I did not know about. Not finding any such idiom, I then looked up mira and found the help that I was looking for:

“poner la mira en : to aim at, to aspire to”

Using this basic idea, I translated the latter part of the verse as follows: “because you are not aiming at or aspiring to the things of God, but the things of men.” Immediately, Colossians 3:2 came to my mind, so I checked the Spanish rendering of the verse to see if the Spanish might use the same idiom there:

^R60Col 3:2 Poned la mira en las cosas de arriba, no en las de la tierra.

To my great delight, I discovered that both verses used the same idiom! By reading Matthew 16 in Spanish, the Spirit thus quickened my mind to connect two passages that I do not remember ever connecting previously.

I had read the KJV of both passages numerous times before but not connected (as far as I can remember) the verses, perhaps because they use different expressions (in bold):

Matt. 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

The relevant parts of the Greek text of both passages, however, do read similarly, so I could have made the connection in the previous times that I have read the Greek NT:

^SCRMat 16:23 ὁ δὲ στραφεὶς εἶπε τῷ Πέτρῳ, Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ, σκάνδαλόν μου εἶ· ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

^SCRCol 3:2 τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖτε, μὴ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.

At least on this occasion, the Spirit thus used my studying the Spanish RVR60 to illumine my mind to see parallel ideas that are in the Greek text and also are in the KJV through the use of conceptually similar wording (savour . . . the things vs. set your affection on things).

From my studying these passages in Spanish and English, God challenged me that I need to set my mind on the things of God, especially on the things that are above. I also learned that studying the Spanish Bible can help me see things that I have not previously seen in Scripture through my study of it in English and Greek!

In Bible reading, Biblical Languages, Spanish

Learning from Isaiah’s Remarkable Dedication to Divine Service

January 30, 2013

Isaiah 20 provides a striking account of the willingness of a servant of God to do His will:

Isa 20:1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;

² At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

God spoke to His servant, Isaiah, to walk around naked and barefoot! Was Isaiah, in fact, actually required by God to be naked to in his service to God? The following verses explain the remarkable dedication that he had to have at this time:

Isa 20:3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

⁴ So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

That Isaiah’s service to God involved actual nakedness at least to some extent[1] is made clear by the comparison that the Lord makes (“Like . . . So . . .” [20:3-4]) between what he did for three years (20:3) and what would happen to the Egyptians and the Ethiopians who would be taken captive by the king of Assyria—they would go into captivity “even with their buttocks uncovered” (20:4) to their shame!

Noting the extremely humiliating nature of the service that God called Isaiah to render to Him should challenge us to do readily whatever God may call us to do for Him, even though it may be quite challenging in various ways.

[1] “For three years Isaiah did not wear his outer garment of sackcloth (also the attire of Elijah, 2 Kings 1:8), or his sandals. (He was not completely naked.)” (John A. Martin, BKC: OT, 1067; emphasis in original). “Isaiah is to walk about partially naked and barefoot, v. 2.” (Peter A. Steveson, A Commentary on Isaiah, 167).

In Exhortation

Behold! Jesus Has a Profound Relationship with His Churches!

January 25, 2013

Revelation 2-3 provides striking information about the ongoing relationship between the glorified Jesus and His churches. Walking among His churches (Rev. 2:1), He knows them profoundly (Rev. 2:23).

If you belong to any kind of church that professes to be one of His churches, you would do well to meditate on all that Jesus knows about you and your church:

He knows the leaders of the churches (Rev. 2:1; 3:1)
He knows the works of all those who are in His churches (Rev. 2:2, 9, 13, 19, 22, 23; 3:2, 8, 15)
He knows of those who cannot bear evil people (Rev. 2:2)
He knows of their efforts in dealing with false teachers in the churches (Rev. 2:2)
He knows the profound dedication to His name that some in His churches have (Rev. 2:3, 13; 3:8)
He knows their minds and hearts (Rev. 2:4, 10, 23; 3:16)
He knows the causes of the problems that all who are in His churches have (Rev. 2:4, 20; 3:2, 15, 17)
He knows the solutions for their problems (Rev. 2:5, 10, 16; 3:2, 3, 18, 19)
He knows their righteous hatred of the deeds of evil people (Rev. 2:6)
He knows the importance of their overcoming (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26: 3:5, 12, 21)
He knows their past, present, and future (Rev. 2:4, 10, 13, 19; 3:5, 10)
He knows their enemies, both human (Rev. 2:2, 10) and supernatural (Rev. 2:10, 13)
He knows the blasphemies of their enemies (Rev. 2:9)
He knows their sufferings (Rev. 2:13)
He knows those among them who hold to false doctrines (Rev. 2:14, 15) and those who are false teachers (Rev. 2:20)
He knows who are His bondservants (Rev. 2:20)
He knows those among them who have accepted the false doctrines of the false teachers among them (Rev. 2:22, 23)
He knows those who have not known the depths of the false teaching that some have taught among them (Rev. 2:24)
He knows who among them are not true believers (Rev. 3:1)
He knows the weaknesses of those who are in His churches (Rev. 3:2)
He knows their failures (Rev. 2:4, 14, 20; 3:2)
He knows what they have received and heard (Rev. 3:3)
He knows when those who refuse to get right with Him will not be watching for His coming (Rev. 3:3)
He knows those who have not soiled their garments (Rev. 3:4)
He knows those who will be worthy of walking with Him in glory (Rev. 3:4)
He knows those whose names are in the Book of Life (Rev. 3:5)
He knows what open doors He has set before those who are in His churches—doors that no one can shut (Rev. 3:8)
He knows what their enemies know and who they really are (Rev. 3:9)
He knows the faithfulness of those who have devoted themselves to Him (Rev. 2:13; 3:10)
He knows what all the people who are in His churches do not know about their own true state before Him (Rev. 3:17)
He knows those who are zealous for His sake and those who are not (Rev. 2:3, 19; 3:15, 16, 17, 19)
He knows the glories that await those who are truly His, which they have no ability to know about apart from what God has revealed to them in His Word (Rev. 2:7, 10, 11, 17, 26, 27, 28; 3:4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 21)

Because of Jesus’ amazingly profound relationship to His churches, we who are in His churches should commit ourselves wholly to the cause of Christ’s glory in the world through His churches!

In Exhortation, Exposition

Archives For Discipleship

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: