Hallelujah, What A Savior - The Glory of the Cross

"The Lord Jesus Christ did not come into the world to meet with his friends. He came to die for his enemies. He came to a people who had rejected his law and killed his prophets, who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, trampling his courts in the hypocrisy of their self-righteous religious observances. He came to nations that had exchanged the truth of the living God for a lie, the glory of the immortal God for man-made images, and the fountain of living water for cracked and broken cisterns. He came to a world stained with violence, to a people whose hands were full of blood and who righteous deeds were like filthy rags, to a complacent humanity who proclaimed 'Peace! Peace!' while they waged war with God.

This is the portrait of the people for whom Christ died. We were objects of wrath, rightly facing the unmitigated, everlasting fury of an incensed God, but now in Christ we have found mercy. We have been brought from death to life, from corruption to glory. We were slaves of sin, the world and the devil, but are now adopted children of our heavenly Father. We were stained with the filth of a wicked life and tormented by the pain of a guilty conscience, but are now pardoned and forgiven, standing blameless before him as a pure bride, clothed in clean, white robes of Christ's righteousness."

Pierced For Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution, p 152

Using Music Intake For God's Glory

How can we as families, parents and students, evaluate whether we are potentially drifting into worldliness in relation to music or with our music intake? Here are some signs that you're already there:

1. You seldom or never use Scripture to evaluate your decisions about music.
2. Your music listening is characterized by objectional content or ungodly contexts.
3. Your priorities and schedule revolve around music.
4. Your passion for Christ has waned; your passion for music hasn't.

Music is meant to bring honor and glory to Christ. Both as parents and students we have the responsibility of evaluating our music choices and growing in our discernment, in this case, as it relates to music. As a family, talk with your student about the music they are listening to, the time they spend listening to music, and whether the content and context of the music they enjoy is drawing them closer to the Savior.

(from Worldliness, C.J. Mahaney, ed.)

God, My Heart, Music

I couldn't be more challenged and passionate about this series on worldliness we have undertaken on Wednesday nights at 10:31. A great quote in the book we've been using as a resource as we look at the Scriptures reminds us of the place that music should have in our lives. "Ultimately, music is a means of deepening our love for and enjoyment of the One who gave us this gift in the first place. In The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis expressed it like this:

The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them.....For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a county we have never yet visited.

No music, however beautiful, however impressive, however technologically creative or emotionally moving, can rival the wonder and breathtaking beauty of the Savior, who came as a man to live a perfect life and die an atoning death in our place" (Worliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World, C.J. Mahaney, p 88-89).

Music is a gift from God...that should move us to think great thoughts of God, leading us to live for the glory of Christ, and live worthy of the Gospel.

New Video Today

Check the website this week for a funny new video plus more information on upcoming events and happenings within the student ministry program!