Hello and welcome to my blog! I know you have many choices of things to read so I'm grateful that you've chosen to read today's article.
Today I received an email that had some encouraging and disturbing news at the same time that I was unaware of.
Evidently, prominent 'Christian' leaders and Worship leaders have recently been posting their disavowal of their beliefs online.
This is disturbing but not without precedent. I will explain as we unpack this together.
My initial discussion point - What is a Christian Music Artist?, is what I'd like to discuss first.
Before I start, please forgive me if what you read here seems strange, foreign, or even contrary to you. I'm going to try to explain in a nutshell what I've believed now for more than 40 years, which is no easy task.
I am human as we all are and in my journey of faith, I've learned a lot. I'll do my best to dispel some misconceptions that many people have about Christianity and also about being a Worship leader knowing that I'm as imperfect as anybody on this side of heaven.
Now that that's out of the way, let's discuss this more at length.
For us to understand what a Christian Music Artist is, we first need to understand what a Christian is.
Christians believe that Jesus Christ died for the sins of everyone on a cross, was raised by God on the third day, and is the savior that man needs to save us from ourselves. The fundamentals of these beliefs have been recorded by the disciples - Matthew, Mark, and John as well as the Apostle and Doctor, Luke. These are called the four gospels and are contained in the 66 books of the Holy Bible. Christians believe these books were inspired by God's Holy Spirit and were recorded for our teaching, instructing, educating, and correcting during our daily lives as written in 2nd Timothy 3:16. - See https://www.bible.com/bible/111/2ti.3.16.
The Apostles and believers were first called 'Christians' or little Christs in the book of Acts, Chapter 11, verse 26: "and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch."
There are so many more facts about the Christian faith that I could write but don't have the space here to do it. I encourage you to find the facts out for yourself by praying, seeking, and reading God's inspired Word. Don't just take my word for it!
The next part of the title Christian Music Artist, is music.
Most of us can agree what music is. From a young age, we've all been exposed to it. Dictionary.com defines music as: "an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color." https://www.dictionary.com/browse/music
The last part of the title is Artist. What is an artist? Again, the Dictionary.com definition kind of helps: "a person who works in one of the performing arts, as an actor, musician, or singer; a public performer." https://www.dictionary.com/browse/artist?s=t
Let's put it all together then - Christian Music Artist = A little Christ who expresses ideas and emotions through rhythm, melody, and harmony and may do it as a profession.
That's it! There's no fanfare, no big splashy sign on someone who does this.
What it comes down to is a person who has chosen to follow Christ and express their music as an artist does.
Some do it professionally and others do it for the love of their craft without monetary compensation.
The definition of a Christian Music Artist is why I felt compelled to build this website. Many people need to know they're loved and have hope that life can and will be better. That's the faith I have everyday. And my life is a testimony to what God alone can do to make it better. He's awesome!
What I first mentioned at the beginning of this post is that there are 'Christian' leaders who for whatever reason have decided to deny what they believe is true. That in itself is sad. And it has eternal consequences.
But beyond that, I would simply ask you to not be swayed by those who so easily have given up on what they believe.
Close to 2,000 years ago, the writer of Hebrews spoke of this very dilemma in Hebrews 6, verses 4-6: 4 "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."
I believe what this comes down to is simply: Who do you put your faith in? Putting your faith in a person other than Jesus will never satisfy. Putting your faith in something will also never satisfy.
But, putting your faith in Jesus Christ will satisfy like nothing else!
Have you ever been so thirsty that water tastes like the most refreshing thing you could have ever found? Well, that's the same with Jesus. He alone satisfies!
And the reason why I'm a Christian Music Artist is because I was created by Him to worship and glorify God. Not myself. Anyone who does more than that or willingly allows that to happen doesn't know what it means to truly worship God. They worship the creation instead of the Creator.
As you go through your day and your week, remember that you are loved beyond words by a compassionate God who created you and adores you!
And, He's always thinking about you... always!