Tue Nov 10, 2009 … 8:02am

Even as young as ten years old I recall hearing teenagers say this in response to a concerned person asking them about the music they were listening to. More specifically the concern stems from the concerned person listening to “the words” that are in the music and considering the message of the lyrics. “I’m just listening to the music” the teenager would respond. Even in my early teen years I remember thinking about this statement. Thinking to myself “Is it really possible to just listen to the music and not be influenced by the words?”. And now almost three decades later I can understand where this is possible and where this is impossible. And as I write that now I think to myself, if they were really just listening to the music then why aren’t they listening to songs with lyrics in a language that they don’t understand. There are quickly a dozen answers to that latter question but the point I am making is still relevant.

“Music influences our soul” is just one of many related sentiments quoted by so many men and women that the world considers to be great people.

Now … just as music “influences the soul” so I believe everything that we look at, touch, taste, and feel influences us. Many a proud self reliant person has said that ‘they’ won’t be influences by outside stimuli such as music or television. However these same “I’m just listening to the music” people are the same people who time after time have not been able to see far enough in the future to know that they would one day be singing along with words that they (at that point) fully understand.

It’s unavoidable ! … I remember being a teenager and envying those that were able to remember and sing along with the words. It seemed that those that could remember the words got the attention of the other kids. I wanted that attention. I wanted others, especially girls, to be mesmerized as I parroted off a few lines of what was popular. But despite my best efforts I couldn’t remember neaerly a third of what “the popular” kids seemed to be able to remember. Now despite my inability to remember these words, I am to this day still have bits and pieces of songs go through my head when I am not trying. My point is I am influenced even now by words that I was incabable of memorizing; only because i listened to the songs so many time. Sadly there are those who do not believe they can be influenced by things on a “less than conscious” level.

And God, who I often remind others is a lot smarter than us, in His wisdom gave us some instructions regarding the things we should be influenced by. “… whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” … Philippians 4:8

And in another place “Everything is permissable, but not everything is beneficial” … 1 Corinthians 10:23 … Can we think for a moment that the songs of my past or the song of our children’s present are able to “fit the bill” of what God would say is “good, pure, holy, etc”. Here are a few modern examples from music on the charts this decade:

• I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas … It’s songs like this that I ‘hope’ are going to have a good message. I mean, it sounds putting good to begin with but then you get into the rest of the lyrics it doesn’t take rocket science to get that the kind of “good night” that this guy is talking about involves getting “wasted” and getting laid. Yes in my “B.C. days” this is the kind of thing that I would have looked ’so’ look forward to. But now I know that God is a lot smarter than I am and has great reasons why we should keep these kinds of things off our minds and out of our hearts.
• Your Guardian Angel – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus … again, a song about devotion to something (usually a someone) other than God. Yes from a world perspective you might easily say (so what’s the big deal). But then there is a reason the scriptures teach us to be devoted to nothing else other than the one that gave us life; our heart’s should be undivided. A human being makes a poor replacement for the place that God is suppose to inhabit inside each of us. … Admittedly the song is beautiful though. And this beauty is enticing. If I didn’t “know better” I would spend hours enjoying and filling my mind with songs such as these.
• Year 3000 – Jonas Brothers … This was a harmless song for me. But then I am open minded enough to know that it is harmless for me because I have no struggles with having my mind so full of science fiction fantasy that it would distract me from God’s thoughts in any given moment. For for someone else this song might not be harmless. The scriptures say in many places that ‘His’ people are continually praying, unceasingly remembering, and always rejoicing in Him. … That doesn’t leave much room for many other thoughts does it?
• One Time – Justin Bieber … “Love” songs are some of the most dangerous songs to listen to in regard to anyone seeking God’s will. The reason for this is that, of all things, God is spoken of as ‘being’ Love. This may sound contradictory but hear me out for a moment. Is God “a feeling”? Is got a beat of your heart or a bunch of “butterflies in your stomach”?; of course not. … The enemy has skillfully twisted what “love” ‘is’ into something that God is not. And as a result our ideas of God are often twisted into things that God is not. A hundred thousand words need to be written on this aspect of it.
• Voices – Randy Orton … What else can I say about this song that hasn’t been written. “Sorta like WWJD, only in this case Jesus would kick you in the skull instead of pull you up if he saw you down.”. ‘Nuff said; nothin’ “good” about that.
• You Belong With Me
  Lyrics by Taylor Swift … a song about a woman who is ’so’ consumed by the idea of convincing a man that she should be the one that is his. Whoah! If the reason we were put on this planet was to learn to be devoted to God, do you think that God wants us to instead live that life learning to be infatuated with another person?
• In The End – Linkin Park … Ok another one of those “debatable” songs in so many senses. But if your goal in life is a Philippians 4:8 thing, would you honestly choose to listen to this? If so I am looking forward to learning your reasons why ‘you’ do. Perhaps this will give me some incite into being better able to understand other’s reasons as well.

Now I’m not daft enough to believe that anyone should make an “off limits” list of music that no one is permitted to listen to. There are have been times in my life that songs like the above have been good for me to listen to just for a couple of minutes because they reminded me of something other than the intended message of the lyrics. While listening to songs like the above I have had thoughts like “Wow, the world is so subtly twisted. So skillfully and subtly twisted by the enemy as to get music lovers to redefine “good things” and no longer be able to recognize something of God.

And especially regarding “love” songs, I can think of many men and women that have an “innocent crush” on someone other than the person they are supposedly in a “committed relationship” with. This is a mindset that has been taught to us as innocent by a twisted modern culture. God has another plan regarding male female relationships. It goes along the lines of devoted yourself to God and then, when ‘God’ is ready it will make it clear to you if He has chosen someone for you to be with. And amazingly God doesn’t even need you to “date” in order to help Him figure that out :-)

It’s hard not to look at fasting like it’s a way that will help me lose weight, or to associate fasting with the “oh what a great” feeling that I had at various times I’ve fasted in the past. The temptations to look at it in some other way other than the way that I ’should’ look at it adds to the difficulty of looking at it the way that I should.

Naturally I am a man that wants to go my own way. I want to figure things out, resolve problems, and feel good about what I’ve been able to do. About what ‘I’ am able to do. This is my nature, my self reliant nature that is by and large separate from God. To go my own way is in it’s own admission, to go in a direction that is separate from God’s. It is impossible to go my own way and be submissive to God’s will at the same time. Here is where fasting comes in for me; at least in one aspect of it. If you could imagine for a moment, my sinful nature;strong looking, just a little off light colored, attractive but murky. However keep in mind that though it ‘is’ attractive, and it’s qualities can be twisted to look good, that these qualities are all in their essence separate from God.

In my illustration I used the phrase “strong looking”. Now it is my sinful nature’s nature to feed itself. It is hungry and it’s nature is to satisfy it’s desires; paramount in this is it’s desire for pleasure. It doesn’t matter what kind of pleasure as long as it can find a weakness in me to exploit. If my weakness is food then it will exploit my desire for it, if my weakness is the desire for women then it will try to fill my heart with it’s desire for them. Whatever it is, it will be motivated at it’s core to feed … on what is carnal (see, hear, feel, touch, taste). This might include any number of things that would, in a non Christ following context, be labeled under the category of “fun”. Nothing against fun by the way, it’s just a poor reason to get up in the morning when compared to the riches of knowing Christ. That however is another subject entirely.

But now I know it’s weakness; it can not be denied. It can not have it’s appetite dispossessed. This is where fasting comes in. Food, is such a basic desire of human nature. If you take it away from the sinful nature the body will live much longer than the sinful nature can stand. Even after a day or two that dark inner personae can ’start’ to deflate. And forget it, if you have the regular habit of fasting one day a week, that dark symbiont will have no desire to hang out in a body that isn’t devoted to listen, taste, and touch; everything that it wants.

By and large in my life I have always had more food than I needed. Even by the standards given by many nutrition charts that I’ve examined over and over again in my life. And so often I’m not eating to feed my body. If I am honest I realize that I am eating to feed my desire. Jesus set an example for us of denying ourselves of what the body desires Mark 8:34-35. We are called to do the same Gal 5:24. “If you fast” was never a question for the 1st century believers, it was a question of ‘when’ you fast Mat 6:16–18. And spiritual food from the father is more important than physical food for the body. Jn 4:32

Wow … I just got deleted off of the friend’s list of a previous pastor; or should I rather say ‘my’ previous pastor. wow. …. All I did was send him an email asking him a few questions. Questions that are so honest that I’ve even posted them here on my blog so that others can see.

I changed the name below because I’m not interested in slandering the guy. And although there is a ‘part’ of me that wants to “bring him out”, I realize that I don’t have to bring anyone out. That God is fully capable of bringing things to light if ‘he’ desire it. And God isn’t interested in being impatient with anyone; in this life God has taught me that He takes his time because he wants everyone to “turn around” from their own ways and give in into His ways. Thank God He ‘has’ given me His patience.

Timothy L. Gott November 4 at 9:50am
One of the things that I like about Facebook is the open forum, a sort of a group discussion where everyone is able to learn and grow from each other.

I checked for the comment that I made on your profile and it is gone. … That actually hurt a little bit because I put a lot of thought and effort in my comment and thought it was valuable. There is always the possibility that there was some sort of Facebook glitch or you deleted it on accident, or perhaps I’m looking for my comment in the wrong place.

However the likelihood of the former seems a little less than the likelihood that you intentionally deleted my comment. If that is true, would you have “deleted” my comment during a small group?

Pastor G. November 4 at 7:13pm
Tim, don’t take it personally. I use facebook to just communicate a simple, friendly, positive message…like God wants to bless you. I don’t have the time to debate through multiple comment exchanges. If someone honestly doesn’t know where I’m coming from and asks a question is one thing. But someone like you, who is a theologian and is just wanting to wrangle about the prosperity message…that’s not what I use FB for…sorry. Again, I’m keeping it simple and delete “counterpoint” messages like this frequently. I’m not interested in this forum for that. Thanks for understanding.

Timothy L. Gott November 4 at 7:48pm
What do you mean by theologian … I’m not even in the possession of a business degree let alone a doctorate in theology :-)

I’ll let this sit and digest this for a little while. … My wife just got home and I should get her to sleep early tonight (there’s twelve hours difference here).

Thank you for taking the time out for a thoughtful reply to my email. Have a good night … well night for me day for you :-) … take care and do God’s stuff !

Pastor G. November 4 at 7:58pm
cool

Timothy L. Gott November 5 at 8:57am
> I use facebook to just communicate a simple, friendly, positive message…like God wants to bless you. I don’t have the time to debate through multiple comment exchanges.

Do you often have people that are interested in debating through multiple comment exchanges? If you do then that might explain why you might have thought that was my intention. As far as debates go, I picture a “debate” being something where there are several exchanges back in forth where no one benefits.

Though I am eager to learn and to help others to learn, I can’t think of a single time over the last several months that I have responded more than twice in any facebook exchange. I figure one response to “put my thoughts out there”, and a second response might be needed to add clarification. However after that I don’t think a multiple goings back and forth would be edifying for anyone. In everything I pray that God will lead me by His Spirit.

My intention relates to this Facebook medium. I’m hoping for a ‘group’ discussion where everyone learns from each other; sort of a virtual smallgroup … I’m certainly no theologian. That is as long as the definition of a theologian hasn’t been reduced to what the Bereans did (the whole daily examination of scriptures thing),.

Before God gave me faith I used to use the sentiment of others “not taking things personally” quite often. I used to use this management technique as a buffer between myself and the statewide organization that I was running. Specifically as a buffer between the rules that I had set and the people that were affected by them. It was a way of emotionally detaching myself from the way that others were affected by those rules so I could focus on what I thought was best for the organization.

God changed that when I realized what he has done for me. He gave his ‘Son’ for me. He has loved me so much and there is ‘no’ buffer between him and me. He ‘is’ affected by the way that I feel; and even as I write these words I can’t help but be affected by the way He feels. Yes, I love him because he loved me first. He has taught me by his example that there is no exchange too little or too great for me to address with as much time or as little time as He would lead me to use to address it. To the world and it’s “time management” philosophies, this is foolishness; but God is my “Executive Director”. He has laid out where and how my time should be used and I will submit to Him as best as I can get this sinful nature of mine to do so.

As far as “a lot of back and forth” goes you don’t have to be too concerned about that. If you reply to the above (in whatever way God leads you) then I am appreciative of that. If the Spirit leads you to not reply at all, then I am appreciative of that. However if you or anyone says that they are my brother in the faith and they come up with their ‘own’ ideas about how they should manage ‘their’ time (as if that time really belonged to themselves) then I am here to correct them if it is the Spirit of God that leads me to do so. I am even more eager to be corrected. I find so few followers of Christ are willing to be used by the Spirit to that however; they’re too busy.

Be Blessed!

Just got information about our laundry woman’s husband. She showed up here in tears just a couple of hours ago when I was not here.

One of the problems after the flood is so many people with previous problems (like diabetes) have had wounds that were infected by the dirty standing water as they attempted to save items from their homes and/or clean their homes. Her husband’s wound on his leg has become ’so’ infected that it is already purple now all the way up to the knee.

They may need to amputate later, but for now he needs a shot that will ease the infection and the pain. Our laundry woman is only asking that she can borrow the money. That she will work it off later. But for now her husband is in urgent need.God has given us enough to help with this but it is still hard. I think about the money that I have set aside for the purpose of helping others according to God’s will; but then I also think about money that we were saving for other medical and education “needs” of the family and how that is going down faster than it is going up.

Like most people I have this part of me that wants to believe that it is money that I need in order to provide for what my family needs. The part of me that is unfaithful to God’s promises wants to trust that the money we have set aside is what I will find my security in. However, just as my phrases ablove alludes to, I know that instead I need to trust in God.

Though there is an unfaithful part of me that wants to say trusting in what God has given me is the same thing as trusting in God; I know better. I know that “trust” is intricately bound to the very essence of “love”. So, if I trust in what God has provided me (and my mind is on the wealth that He provided me) then what I am actually trusting in is the wealth itself; as if God was only able to work through money. Though there is nothing wrong with money, the ‘love’ of the stuff is the root of all things that separate us from God.

God has given us the opportunity to give. And moreso I need to remember that He loved me so much through His son to give us life eternal. That was a very hight cost that was paid. And it’s not this world that we are taught by Him to invest in. It is the kingdom that will be prepared for all those that believe.

In regard to the very old argument about which English version of the scripture is better I won’t deny that KJV & the ASV and a few others are closer to the more literal meaning given to us in the Greek and Hebrew. But what I am suggesting is that to get into a heated divisive debate about how one translation is better than another, you can instead say what can I do to care about this person who says they are my brother or sister in Christ; who admit that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and who was risen on the third day from death to life.

In the new testament you can read in Acts 16 and other chapter how brothers were already debating about issues even as unimportant as circumcision. Those who were the spiritual leaders, apostles and teachers at the time knew that these issues were of less importance than issues of how Jesus was the Christ the Son of God. 1 John 4:1-3 … so, just in one example in Acts 16 the spiritual leaders decide to submit to this lesser important matter of circumcision just so it would not be a “stumbling block” to their delivering the more important message of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins.

There are a lot of things in this world that are “wrong”. And a lot of people that have problems which “need to be solved”. If we as individuals chase after each one that we think are worthy of our time and attention then we will do little more than wear ourselves out and help them little (if at all). God is a whole lot smarter than us. If we can learn to listen to that quiet voice that comes from Him, we can direct our individual efforts where they can make the most difference.

God knows much more than we do; what the most important things are. If there is the one that ‘God’ is leading you to be a part of, then do it with all of the effort and strength that He is able to give you. He deservedly gets the credit for everything that has been corrected and/or what He has given us the strength and inspiration to correct. And we deservedly get the credit for everything that we’ve messed up.

I think mothers and fathers look at the pain that their children go through a little differently. I think, in general, mothers would do anything so that their children would not have to experience pain. Father’s on the other hand, with varying philosophies, believe that certain amounts of pain and hardships are good for their children and prepare their children for future hardships that they might have to endure in life.

Consider for a moment the many scriptures that speak of our faith being refined the same way that fine metals are refined (through intense heat) … 1 Peter 1:6-9 is one of them. Intense heat is ‘not’ comfortable! :-) Now consider a God whose long term objective is ‘not’ our comfort in this world (though He does often comfort us), but rather a goal of the eternal salvation of our souls.

If we allow the tragedies in life to turn our hearts toward God then what we call tragedies have not been wasted. Look to the long term objectives and promises … 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

If we are defined by one thing then we have focus, if we define ourselves by more than one thing then we do so with the detriment of being divided regarding some decision that we must make either now or in the future. We try to condone our self serving natures (me too) by self imposing a tier-system of one thing being more important than another.

I think about the examples we see in the New Testament scriptures. I have never read any disciple in scripture taking pride in their country or their citizenship. There were ones that admitted their worldly citizenship (for instance Paul as a Roman citizen) but only when it allowed an opportunity for God’s will of sharing the gospel with the Roman officials).

As for myself I am only a U.S. citizen according to the paperwork of the U.S. and the governmental rules of this world. In my heart and mind however I can borrow the words of a favorite praise and worship song; “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through” … Galatians 3:28

The greatest benefit of serving those that are in need is that it will bring you toward a greater opportunity for a relationship with God.

James 1:27, Acts 9:36, Acts 10.

Notice how God not only ’says’ that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and .. is …to look after orphans and widows in their distress”; but he also shows us in other scriptures how ‘He’ has reached out to those who have reached out to those who are in need.

Also consider Matthew 10:42 and Mark 9:41.

In mind of those last two, notice that it does ‘NOT’ say “anyone who gives money to an organization and has that organization give a cup of water in my name” … Instead it speaks to the individual doing it.

When was the last time that ‘you’ gave to those that needed food and/or clothing. Jesus gave us an example to follow. His command is that ‘you’ follow that example. So, either you need to follow it or stop dirtying His name by not following it but still calling yourself a Christian. … ME TOO!