Discipleship | A People for His Name

Excellent Cello CD

March 10, 2013

I love to hear good cello music! At work, I have had the privilege of listening multiple times to an excellent cello CD, Selah. If you like sacred music played on the cello accompanied by the piano, this would be a great CD to get. Here is more information about the CD from the Majesty Music website:

Selah, an expression used frequently in the Psalms is a term indicating musical direction or a musical pause. These beautifully arranged piano and cello meditations invite listeners to pause and reflect on God’s love and blessings.

16 Selections include: What Wondrous Love • I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say • Jesus, Lover of My Soul • Poor Wayfaring Stranger • More Love to Thee • When This Passing World Is Done • Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing • Give Me Jesus • My Song Is Love Unknown • Amazing Grace • I Will Arise and Go to Jesus • Abide With Me • Of the Father’s Love Begotten • I Love Thee, Lord Jesus • Be Still, My Soul • O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

You can listen to several selections from the CD here.

In Music

The Wilds Songbook: Eight Edition

March 9, 2013

THE WILDS Christian Association, Inc. has updated their songbook to make this excellent music resource even better. The Eight Edition includes the following:

MANY NEW SONGS

The book now has 221 songs (23 more than the seventh edition), including 64 public domain songs. Many good new songs have been added; one of my favorite ones is By the Gentle Waters.

FULLER INFORMATION ABOUT THE GUITAR CHORDS IN THE SONGS

Each song includes the guitar chords, including many songs with a much fuller indication of what chords to play to make the song sound even better than when it is played with just the basic chords!

A new notation that shows what chords are optional in the songs helps less advanced guitar students know what chords they can omit to make the song easier for them to play.

The fuller chord information allows greater variety when playing the song because the guitarist can vary between playing all the chords on certain stanzas and omitting the optional ones on others.

Songs that are in difficult keys for guitarists are much easier to play than they would be otherwise because they have information about where to put the capo and what chords to play the song in for the easier key.

EXPANDED CHORD CHARTS

The Standard Guitar Chords chart provides diagrams for 63 basic chords arranged alphabetically in rows by key, from A to G (9 in each key – Major, Sus, Sus9, Aug, Sixth, Seventh, Major Seventh, Minor, and Minor Seventh). Additional information with the chart explains the choice for including Sus9 chord diagrams in this edition in place of Sus2 chord diagrams in the previous edition.

The Diminished Chords chart shows the same chords as before but now also has a helpful explanation about how they have been notated consistently in the book “to simplify your chord usage.”

The Additional Guitar Chords provides diagrams for many more chords than the previous addition did (170 versus 114)!

SONG INDEX

The book ends with a comprehensive alphabetical index of the songs. Comparing this index with the one for the seventh edition readily shows that many new songs have been added and some have been removed, which makes it valuable to have and use both editions.

PROVEN VALUE

I have been using the Wilds Songbooks with nearly all of my private students for many years. My students have really liked using these books!

Recently, I began using the Eighth Edition as one of the main books for some of my students in a class in a local church. I highly recommend it for all guitarists who like to play Christian music!

In Christian Books, Music

Christian Health/Fitness Quotes II

March 7, 2013

1. Robert Burton on the lack of exercise:

Opposite to exercise is idleness . . . or want of exercise, the bane of the body and mind . . . the chiefe author of all mischiefe, one of the seven deadly sinnes.

—The Anatomy of Melancholy, 242

2. R. Jaeggli on Proverbs 31:17 -“She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms”:

This woman is no couch potato. In order to achieve all the activity she has planned, she knows that she must be in peak condition. In addition to developing strength, also she has trained herself in special abilities.

—Biblical Viewpoint, 11/01, 8

3. Charles Bridges on slavery to carnal appetites:

If the unsaved Seneca could say, ‘I am greater and born to greater things, than to be the servant of my body’ – is it not a shame for a Christian, born as he is, the heir of an everlasting crown, to be the slave of his carnal appetites?

—A Modern Study in the Book of Proverbs, 502

4. Jerry Bridges on the lack of holiness in body:

Twentieth-century Christians, especially those in the Western world, have generally been wanting in the area of holiness of the body. . . . Quite possibly there is no greater conformity to the world among evangelical Christians today than the way in which we, instead of presenting our bodies as holy sacrifices, pamper and indulge them in defiance of our better judgment and our Christian purpose in life.

—The Pursuit of Holiness, 110-112

5. J. Oswald Sanders on the importance of bodily discipline:

Paul believed he could be disqualified not merely because of errors of doctrine or misjudgments of ethics, but because of the body’s passions. Paul worked toward mastering the body’s appetites through disciplined moderation – neither asceticism on the one hand (such as causing oneself harm by denial of basic needs) or self-indulgence on the other (losing strength through careless diet, for example).

—Spiritual Leadership, 160

6. Richard S. Taylor on self-indulgence and character:

The person who is habitually self-indulgent in eating and drinking, without regard to health or need, almost as if he lived to eat rather than ate to live, is very apt to be weak and exposed in other phases of his life. Flabbiness in one area of character tends to loose the whole.

—The Disciplined Life, 92

7. E. Fitzpatrick on losing weight in a way that glorifies God:

Godly motivation and sacrificial living must be at the core of any spiritual discipline program, or it is doomed to failure. The failure isn’t only in not losing weight; even if weight is lost, if it is done for self-centered reasons, the fruit of this action will not be eternal or bring glory to God.

—Uncommon Vessels: A Program for Developing Godly Eating Habits, 10

8. William & Colleen Dedrick on hygiene and cleanliness:

When we care for our bodies with nourishment or good hygiene, we prevent disease and preserve life. We must love our families and neighbors enough not to bring sickness and disease on them.

—The Little Book of Christian Character & Manners, 82

See also my post Christian Health/Fitness Quotes I

In Discipleship, Health, Quotes

What If Almost $6,000,000 Worth of Books Were Burned at One Time Today?

March 5, 2013

Acts 19 records an occasion when people who became Christians showed their genuine repentance in a remarkable way:

Act 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.

¹⁹ Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰ So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

To put these numbers into some perspective, consider that one of the pieces of silver mentioned in this account was worth roughly “a day’s wages.”[1] According to the US Social Security Administration, “the national average wage index for 2011 [was] [$]42,979.61” (http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html; accessed March 5, 2013). This works out to an average US daily salary of $117.75.

For books to be burnt today that roughly would be worth the equivalent of what was burned in the account recorded in Acts 19, people would burn $5,887,617.81 worth of books ($117.75 x 50,000)! Such a public display of true repentance would be an amazing testimony of the power of God’s word.

Although I did not do so publicly, after I was saved, God led me to destroy a large amount of ungodly music items that I had accumulated over more than two decades. I have no way of knowing what the total value of that material was, but I am sure that it was worth a fair amount of money.

If you profess to be a Christian, have you truly repented by ridding your life of any ungodly material possessions that you may have had over the years that were a vital part of your past sinful ways?

May God grant us all the grace to do whatever we may need to do in this respect in our lives today.

[1] “A drachma was a silver coin worth about a day’s wages.” (Footnote in The Comparative Study Bible, 2831)

In Exhortation, Testimony

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

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