Tag Archive for 'music'

On worship music

Published
by
Graeme
on July 29, 2008
in Ramblings
. 4 Comments

From what I can tell there is still lots of discussion about the place of contemporary music within the church. I know this because of a conversation I overheard a relatively short while ago. So here’s something I read yesterday on the subject of modern worship!

There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasent as the more established style. There are so many new songs, you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scam and some of these new upstarts are lewd and loose.

Who were these words written about? Well it appears that they were actually written about Isaac Watts, the 18th Century writer of classic hymns such as “When I survey the wondrous cross” and “Joy to the world”. Strange how things seem not to have changed much for well over 250 years!

Don’t worry!

Published
by
Graeme
on August 2, 2007
in My Pilgrimage
. 2 Comments

With the stress of moving the family across Northern Europe the words of a Marty Mikles song have been a real source of peace in my life over the last few weeks. They are well worth posting here:

to live is Christ, to die is gain
you believe this, but you can’t ignore your pain
it’s hard enough to make it through another day
now you need someone to hear you when you pray

don’t worry, child, I’m right here by your side
i’ve been here all along, in me won’t you abide
is your grief too much to bear? give it to me
i can heal your heart, your soul; i can set you free

when you wake up each day, my promises are new
have faith in me, and i will see you through
is your burden heavy? here, take mine, it’s light
my yoke is easy, come and have this life

so, you’ve fought until you’ve nothing left to give
every ounce of energy, you have spent
though your heart, it breaks inside, more than anything in life
i long for you to know…

my child, i’m right here by your side
i’ve been here all along, in me won’t you abide
is your grief to much to bear? give it to me
i can heal your heart, your soul; i can set you free

i know the pain that this has caused
i gave my son upon a cross
no, nothing has been lost, believe in me

© 2007 marty mikles

As well as this I have returned several times in recent days to Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount and of course Jesus’ words about not worrying about anything. I’m finding the more I focus on Jesus the less I worry! It’s only taken the best part of 30 years since I was first saved to get to this stage!