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I'm sure that many of you who have been around the church for any length of time at all have heard the song "Thank You". It's a great song. When you hear it you cannot help but be moved emotionally. You know the one I'm talking about - the chorus goes like this:
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.
The author of the song, Ray Boltz, was a Christian musician who sold about 4.5 million records before retiring several years ago. And one more thing - he came out last September and declared he was a homosexual. If you want all the details, you can Google his name and you can read all about it, but I've got another point to make here.
Discernment takes work. You can't just flip on the Christian radio station and say "I'm safe. I know this is good teaching because it's on Christian radio." You can't just pick up the book in the Christian bookstore and assume that it contains sound doctrine because it's sold in a Christian bookstore. You can't assume that just because a person is a skilled song writer or author that they are going to lead you down the right path.
Many influential Christian artists and authors are very good at writing songs and books that speak directly to our emotions. They are very good at describing problems in our lives and in the church. It seems that they can write in such a way that your heart really resonates with what they are saying because they are describing your life, your exact feelings and emotions and even the questions that you have.
But just because they describe all that so well does not mean that the solution that they give you is going to be a right one. Just because they can seemingly walk through your life and describe all that you've been through does not mean that you can turn off your discernment and just blindly accept what they say. You can't assume that the prescription that they give you will be true to God's Word.
We must be like the Bereans in Acts 17. We are told that they searched the Scriptures daily to make sure that what Paul said was true. If they would verify the words spoken by Paul, how much more should we verify the things we hear?
These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. - Acts 17:11.
Powerlessness and the Church
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If the Church in America wants to stem the tide of declining attendance,
restoring supernaturalism isn’t the only fix. “Can’t someone do something?”
seem...
1 week ago
A very post. Very good. I agree with everything you have said. I do have a question though.....would we have been able to discern in listening to the songs or writings of someone like Ray Boltz?
ReplyDeleteYou are right...we should be like the Berean's.
Yes and amen. A good reminder, Derricke.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really familiar with Ray Boltz - in fact I had never heard of him until I ran across an article on the Internet. So I can't really point to any particular works of his that may be good or bad. As far as I can tell the song "Thank You" is a really good song (of course I'll never be able to listen to it quite the same again unfortunately).
ReplyDeleteBut my point is that the authors of songs and books can create really good stuff - but their lives can be in turmoil. They can be very good at describing your feelings - which in turn makes you think that they may have the answers you are looking for. But in fact the answers they provide may be far from doctrinally sound. We just need to be careful.
Your response is well put.
ReplyDeleteDerricke, several of your postings have addressed integrity of leaders, making sure of our salvation, becoming who God wants us to be, various topics of being God's child and I have found them all to be balanced scripturally, interesting and thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the ages, there have been people who have been deceptive, but we are living in a day and age that it seems even more deceptive.
It seems that more and more people are making the Grace of God cheap. Rather than a false religion as such, folks want to make you think you can live and think as you want and God still loves you and will accept you.
The refrain from people seems to be - God made me this way and God would not excpect me to change. He loves me and wants the very best for me.
Integrity. Changed life. Discernment.
Keep writing.