I spend time with my closest friends not because of what they can do for me but for the pleasure of their company. How can I do that with God?
00929 – There is Wonder All Around Us
There is wonder all around us, and it is God’s will to fill us with that wonder that makes life enchanting and sacred. We cannot help but sing when that happens. Maybe that is why, of all the religions in the world, there is none with the wealth of music that the...
00927 – Church Musicians are Spiritual Dieticians
Music has the uncanny ability to burrow its way into our spiritual bones. When it comes to matters of spirituality and faith, we are what we sing. There is no need to overstate the case. Music is not all-powerful. Many things shape our souls, including our parents’...
00926 – The Church Musician & Stewardship
If we faithfully followed God’s example, there would no longer be the crassness and cynicism of the throwaway or the false pomp and pretense of art for the ages. Nor would the Holy Spirit be continually pestered to turn poor work into blessed work. The Christian...
00925 – Which Music/Worship Style Please God Most?
Which style of music pleases God the most? This basic question has generated innumerable different answers from sincere Christians. In the first 800 years after Christ, most worship music was simply unison melody. One day someone added a second part, and harmony...
00923 – Life–New Life–Goes On
The sense of being stranded in the midst of life . . . is enough to drain a person’s very personality until there is little left to recognize. Where did the joy go all of a sudden? Where did the feeling of self-confidence disappear to in the midst of this emptiness?...
00920 – Coworkers, but Not Co-Equals with God
Ignace Jan Paderewski was, at one time, both the prime minister of Poland and a virtuoso pianist. A story is told about a mother who brought her young son to hear him perform. The boy was just beginning to learn the piano and she wanted him to hear a master, so she...
00918 – Artists Collaborating with God
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.
00915 – Worship is a Decision
We’ve made worship self-centered instead of God-centered. We lobby for what we want: “I don’t like the songs.” “I don’t like the volume.” It’s as if we’re worshiping worship instead of worshiping God. If worship is a decision, then the greatest worship happens when...
00912 – Music: The Church’s Greatest Ornament
Music is as well or better able to praise Him than the building of the church and all its decorations: it is the Church’s greatest ornament…religious music without religion is almost always vulgar. from Conversations with Igor Stravinsky ———————————Gender-neutral...