God praising CCM

I'm glad these songs bring you so much joy!... I stay with the tried and true!... Jesus Lover Of My Soul... What A Friend We Have In Jesus... and Amazing Grace to name just a few!... God will be praised by all his children in various ways!... Brother Glen

 

Old Petra. Cool.

 

this is blasphemy!!!

it is stretching this verse beyond recognition!!!:
1 Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

to call Jesus a fool and "a madman who died for a dream"??!!?
Indeed, the love of Jesus is beyond comprehension but the way this song paints my Jesus just makes me mad.

 

Now even Michael Card's bad?

Where do they find these people?

 

Is Michael Card (whoever he is) above sin?

Is God going to say, okay, since it's Michael Card, he can write anything he wants about Me?

 

The whole point of these lyrics is to make an appeal to the world by portraying Jesus the way they see Him. It is not to acknowledge that the portrayal is correct, but to illustrate that God had to become and do the impossible in order to show us the way. To lay down your life for someone who by all accounts must have been mad is total foolishness. Yet Christ came and made himself the perfect sacrifice for us first. From the perspective of the world, one must be a fool to see it as truth.

Michael Card hit the nail on the head.

 

Up until 10 or 15 years ago I confined myself to hymns. At that time I was a member of what I call a "Green Beret" baptist church. We took the term legalism to new heights.

I was introduced to CCM and at first I was reluctant to accept it. I was told the lies about CCM being "worldly" and that the message was "watered down." Slowly I have come to see that CCM is, for the most part, simply today's people praising God with today's music.

My wife LOVES Praise and Worship music. Because of her influence I see now that this is an exceptional form of music that elicits praise, IMO, much better than hymns ever could.

Although I love many of the old hymns, I have come to the realization that I do not have to choose one form of music at the expense of another.

I have over 200 CD's so it is difficult to pick who my favorite artist would be. Perhaps among my top favorites are, Gary Chapman, Clay Crosse, Cademon's Call, Point of Grace, Crystal Lewis, and Wayne Watson.

 

Thanks for the explaination. (I happened to major in literature.)

There is such a thing as "artistic licence". But you've got to draw the line somewhere.

Portraying Jesus the way they see Him is not going to be who the Jesus of the Bible is! The carnal mind will never see Jesus as God. To portray Jesus other than who He is is character assasination of the worst kind because this is God Himself you are misrepresenting!!!

John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Again, Jesus said that the world will hate the message of the cross. Did He ever say to soften or change the message so that the world will warm up to Jesus??? Who got smarter than God and decided to help God out?
Sure, it's much easier to tickle the ears of the world and tell them what they want to hear. (Who likes to do things the hard way?) But that method is not approved by the Master.

This is the Bible way Peter and other Apostles before the council:
Acts 5:40-42 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

how does this compare to most modern churches???


And this is where the church falls into all kinds of error. Holding rock concerts in church just to attract the lost? Where is the purity? and staying "unspotted"?

Do we have that kind of "leverage" when portraying God???

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Galatians 1:8-9 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Let him be accursed!!!That is pretty strong, don't you think? But if by another gospel you lead many many people to hell, whilst they are thinking they found the true Jesus, the harshest judgement should fall on that false teacher!

 

Su what are you talking about? It's like you make up arguments. None of what you say even remotely applies to "God's Own Fool".

The song is not trying to present Christ or the Gospel in a new way.

Get off your moral high horse.If Michael Card really thought Jesus was a fool or "a madman who died for a dream" don't you think his theology would show elsewhere?

Again, there is no way that this song is suggesting that Jesus is a fool, or weak, or mad or what have you. It simply acknowledges (as does Scripture) that this is how the world sees Jesus, and the Gospel message, and uses that same language to appeal to the lost.

To the world, I am a fool for surrendering my will and my own aspirations to something intangible that requires faith to see. There is nothing wrong with saying, "Come be a fool as well".

 

Is Su Wei really the only one here who wouldn't be comfortable singing these words?

We all know what he's trying to say here but I think he needs to rewrite the lyrics. Christ may have been perceived as foolish by some, but that doesn't give Christians a licence to refer to our Lord as 'God's own fool'. I don't think that is being legalistic, its just being respectful.

I'm not condemning this because its CCM, and in the interests of fairness I would say 'Rushing Wind' has excellent lyrics.


God Bless

Enda

[ April 09, 2003, 10:59 PM: Message edited by: enda ]

 

I could agree with you enda if the song were trying to use 'fool' in a negatative connotation, but it isn't. To be a fool by the world's standards is a good thing. You might want to reconsider your faith if the world thinks you are wise.

I am glad to be a fool. I am also glad that the world see the Jesus I believe in as foolish. If it didn't, I would have to wonder just who I was following.

 

I beg to differ.

It better show everytime he writes anything about God!

Untrue. Be honest.

Scirpture reference please?

This is what the bible says about fools:

Proverbs 7:22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

Proverbs 10:8 The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.

Proverbs 15:5 A fool despiseth his father's instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.

Proverbs 17:10 A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.

I really should learn this one! :
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

 

Travelsong,

You seem to be the only other one here who's actually familar with Card's music.

I just went and downloaded the "God's Own Fool" because it had been a while since I had heard it. The usual suspects made such a fuss over it, I just wanted to be sure I was thinking of the same song.

Does it strike you how remarkably similar his pre-Celtic stuff is to Dan Fogleberg?

Every Christian should have his "Scandelon" and "Present Reality" in their collection.

 

Stronger than any mountain could be
Truer than any tree ever grew

hee hee, that's totally the Michael Card sound. I never even thought about it before.

Yep, truly inspired stuff. I remember seeing him in the 80's as a young teenager. I might have only been 11 or 12. He had this immense machine on the stage that played some of the music tracked. That might have been my first concert.

 

I was directly answering you.

Contradiction!

Still waiting for your scripture reference.

Thanks

 

There is no contradiction in the things I said. For a literature major you should be ashamed of yourself. Apart from that I have no intention of dignifying your comments with a response any further. You are just repeating the same challenges which have already been answered.