Music Monday - Christmas Edition

Third Day is a band I grew up with as a teenager. I loved them, then just liked them, then got tired of them as contemporary Christian radio played them ad nauseum.

I really like this version of "What Child is This?" though. Mac Powell's powerful voice is tempered just enough to gently confront us with the convicting message of the song.

I have come to love this song because it doesn't keep Jesus in the manger. It speaks to the supernatural reality of this birth and the awe-inspiring plan of God that would unfold with this child. The complete version of the song points us to Calvary and the reason why Jesus became flesh in the first place.

Hail, Hail the Word made flesh
the Babe, the Son of Mary.

Music Mondays - Christmas Edition

"Joy to the World" is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all-time. I don't have any metrics or surveys to back that statement up, but I feel pretty same in making that point. 

Some in my particular camp of conservative evangelicalism have objected to it's theology, it's implicit theology. They disagreed with the theological point of view of the author and claimed that it's lyrics were not a true reflection of God's (dispensational) plan. I've always found those arguments wanting and I've become more and more perturbed that those leaders and scholars were nit-picking a beautiful song that extent. I'm all for good theology, but why make a mountain out of a mole-hill and why over-analyze poetry? They weren't the only ones or the first ones to do so as it turns out.

Anyway, I've fell in love with this song again, specifically to this particular modern version by Chris Tomlin:

It's all about JOY. The JOY that Christ's birth, life, death, resurrection, and rule bring. JOY! 

Bonus - here's the version you can hear on the radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8xxQX4-7I.

Music Mondays - Christmas Edition

I hate the "Christmas Creep" where stores and businesses begin hawking their Christmas products before the leaves have hit the ground.  I have a personal rule that I won't listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. 

And while the calendar still says "November", we have made it through Thanksgiving and now I will allow myself to get in the holiday spirit. As part of this, I'll do my best to weekly feature some Christmas songs on Music Mondays. I'm not sure that there will be a theme, but these will be selections that just kind of speak to me. 

Today's feature is "Light of the World" by Lauren Daigle. 

It's a great worship offering honoring Christ and (in the Christmas tradition) inviting him to "O Come Emmanuel".

 

Music Mondays

With all the pre- and post-election political craziness going on, I find worship music to be a refuge. Ok who am I kidding, most of these Music Monday posts involve worship songs. But they are especially cathartic when our society turns all shades of ugly.

So with that in mind, I share this song, one that resets my focus on the grace and love and sacrifice of Jesus, my King.

The Cross meant to kill is my Victory.

Music Mondays

This week's Music Monday is unlike any other I've featured. Last night my wife and I had the opportunity to attend a live concert featuring Big Daddy Weave, Plumb, and We are Messengers. 

It was a fun concert that also spoke to my soul. Each artist transparently dates about their lives and struggles and pointed us to the grace of Christ that can transform all people.

 

Here's a short snippet from the concert (bear with me while I figure out how to format it).

*Update - it doesn't look like I can properly rotate it...oh well I tried.

"Of when justice was served and where mercy wins. Of the kindness of Jesus that draws me in." That's my story and I hope it is yours too.

Music Mondays

I typically share modern/current favorite song selections on this blog. That's just what my tastes are. 
Our latest passage in Ecclesiastes has led me to highlight a classic song penned long before I was born.

In Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:3, the injustices of life are pondered and ultimately decried. As is common throughout the book, there aren't a whole lot of solutions offered. There are some, to be sure, but the overall style of Ecclesiastes is to offer more questions and answers. This is an especially effective approach when the subject of injustice and unfairness come up. Sometimes we just need to lament and sympathize with those who suffer.

Bob Dylan took a similar approach in his song "Blowin' in the Wind". It's known as a Civil-Right's-era protest song. While it certainly protests, it also just ambiguously presents the problems and the uncertainty of their solutions. 

Here's what Dylan said about it himself:

"There ain’t too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain't in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it's in the wind — and it’s blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won't believe that. I still say it's in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some ... But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know ... and then it flies away. I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it's wrong. I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many ... You people over 21, you're older and smarter."

 Gray (2006). The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. p. 64.

"Blowin' in the Wind" sure seems parallel to "striving after the wind" (Ecc. 2:17, 26; 3:16) and both express frustration at the fact that life is unfair. Again, we can find answers (see the latter part of my sermon for three) - but lamenting injustice has it's place too.

Music Mondays

When a band plays a concert, they typically save their most popular song for last or for the encore. 

Twenty-One Pilots buck that trend, which is fitting because they are the sort of band that rejects labels and lanes.

When they put on a concert, they play "Trees":

This is a song that fits the Ecclesiastes passages we looked at yesterday. "Trees" is a song that is aware of our mortality ("I can feel my death"). Yet it is a song that yearns for an encounter with the Divine ("Why won't you speak where I happen to be?, "I want to know You, I want to see, I want to say 'Hello!'").  I could be 'over-theologizing' and over-interpreting here, but knowing as much about the band as I do, I don't think I am.

Ecclesiastes 2-3 laments how death is like a dark cloud hanging over our life's activities but points us to the 'eternity' that God has placed in our souls. This song highlights the same and celebrates it in fact. And for a final statement to be made to your adoring fans, I admire the approach T.O.P. have taken.