The acceptance of the fact that Christian existence is based on and permeated with God’s forgiveness in Christ through the Holy Spirit strikes simultaneous deathblows to attitudes which can be described as musical legalism and musical lawlessness. Musical legalism can...
We image God in the music we make and perform. When the program is hit-or-miss, we show forth a God who lacks purpose and direction;…when our performance of music lacks vitality or artistic grace, we portray God as inert; when our musical choices revolve around taste...
Music is a demanding art. To achieve excellence in it requires hard discipline and unremitting work. Yet with all his devotion to it a Christian musician must keep his priorities clear. God is the source of all talent. When God gives talent, including musical talent,...
At times a choir may sing to or for a congregation of worshipers, but God remains the ultimate audience. However, a presentation from a choir can qualify as Christian proclamation every bit as much as a sermon. Intended as a gift to God, such a musical declaration is...
Has it happened yet? Has the music of your skill and practice unlocked the music of your heart? We’ve all had moments when the music of our heart has seeped out and been a part of a performance. But have you been able to access that music and use it in praise and...
Glory is to God what style is to an artist. A painting by Vermeer, a sonnet by Donne, a Mozart aria—each is so rich with the style of the one who made it that to the connoisseur it couldn’t have been made by anybody else, and the effect is staggering. The style of an...
Where the Spirit of God is, there is also singing. The early church was characterized by its singing; so also in every generation where there is renewal by the Spirit a new hymnody breaks forth. If most such songs do not have staying power, some of them do, and these...
Should we not remind ourselves that worship is a transitive verb? We do not meet to worship (i.e. to experience worship); we aim to worship God. “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”; there is the heart of the matter. In this area, one must not confuse what...
Since worship is focusing on and responding to God, regardless of what else we are doing we are not worshiping if we are not thinking about God. You may be listening to a sermon, but without thinking of how God’s truth applies to your life and affects your...
God supports diversity in our worship, not imply for the sake of including everyone, but so that we might understand and experience the truth more profoundly.