It may sound drastic but the Lord has been speaking to me about it for quite some time now. I just didn't listen to Him for a while, thinking that it was just ridiculous. Then I said to myself, "Okay, I hardly listen to any of them anyway and they are just taking up valuable space." So, I thought I would sort through them and decide what I didn't want and sell them all on eBay.
Well, they sat for three more months, and God started speaking AGAIN! Funny how sometimes you just want to ignore God, but you know you can't. This time, God said "throw them in the trash!" "WHAT? I paid good money for those CD's. There's about 200 of them, a few bucks a piece, that's a great hunk of change." I said "How about I sell them all and do something good with the money?" I'm a very frugal person. I try to save a penny everywhere I can, try to recycle, and trade and sell what we don't use to get what we need. It's ingrained in me. I grew up shopping at the Thrift Stores, and I enjoy it. I just don't like waste. So, God spoke again. Deuteronomy 7:25-26 The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God. Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.
So then I started looking through them, and the lyrics, ugh! I can't even believe I ever listened to that stuff! And most of them aren't even heavy metal types like Metallica and Ozzy. They were mellow, pop, alternative, etc. So, after reading many lyrics, I thought I would save a few of my favorite songs on my computer for when I finally get an mp3 player, and I would just resell the ones that didn't have cussing, and sexual lyrics, and weren't speaking out against God, surprisingly a lot of them were. Not to mention, the many artists that thank God in their credits, saying without the Lord they couldn't do what they do, etc. and are singing about booty dancin', sex, drugs, drinking, selfishness, cheating, jealousy, revenge, etc. Or they'll say that their music is a gift from God, but then don't even bother to thank Him in the credits. So they sat for a while longer.
But by this time I guess God was getting frustrated with me, because he finally said, If they're not Christian music, THROW THEM ALL OUT!
I've searched the scripture, searched the "Should Christians listen to secular music" websites, and every time, this verse kept coming back to me, over and over and over. 1 Cor 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
And then I decide to listen to a few of my old CD's, (Looking back, I can't believe that I was being so defiant!) I enjoy a wide range of music styles, from Dave Matthews to John Anderson, Jewel, Sinead O'Conner, Tracy Chapman, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Gin Blossoms, it's a huge variety. So, I put in John Anderson to listen to what used to be one of my favorite songs, Seminole wind. It talks about calling to the Seminole wind, and the ghost of Osceola. Glorifying? I think not. Then I listened to "Let go of the stone" which must have been God telling me AGAIN to dump them. Here are the lyrics.
you shouldn't wade out in deep water when you don't know how to swim
he told you it was over, and like a fool you followed him
into a world full of emotion, spinning out of control
****It's killing you, but you won't let it go.
Let go of the stone, if you don't want to drown,
In the sea of heartache, that's dragging you down,
its pulling you under, and you keep hanging on,
if I'm ever gonna save you, let go of the stone.
Don't you realize the danger and the hurt your headed for,
put your arms around me and swim with me to shore,
just let go of that old memory, i know its hard to do,
but I'll be here, holding on to you. ****
Now, mind you, this is a song about a man trying to save a girl from a bad relationship. but if you read the lyrics between the stars, that's what I heard. It's like God was telling me to let go of it! It's not important! It's almost like a symbol of all the junk that I need to let go of in order to be completely obedient and to follow God. No wonder Jesus told his disciples to "drop everything and follow me".
And another one, hard to give up, was my Creedence Clearwater Revival collection. In addition to Live, John Anderson, and Dave Matthews, they are (were) probably my all time favorite band. Now, mind you, I haven't listened to any of my CD's for quite some time, but I do catch the songs on the radio sometimes. Unfortunately I never paid much attention to the lyrics...until now. Mostly about voodoo, one night stands, bad luck, spells, paganism, being broke, being down and out, going to jail, every now and then there's a hint that they're looking for someone to save them, wanting to pray, that there is something else, but they just never get it. I noticed this on most of the music I had. But then there is this song that blew me away. Sounds to me like he might have came close to Jesus, but instead just ran away, not wanting anything to do with Him. Don't you think?
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Walk On The Water Lyrics:
Late last night, I went for a walk,
Down by the river near my home.
Couldn't believe, with my own eyes,
And I swear I'll never leave my home again.
I saw a man walking on the water.
Coming right at me from the other side.
Calling out my name; "Do not be afraid."
Feet begin to run, pounding in my brain;
I don't want to go; I don't want to go.
No, no, no, no, no...I don't want to go.
Mmmmmmm...
and I say "hmmmmmmmmm..."
And then there's 'Sting'. You think mellow, love songs and such. Some of his recent stuff almost seems religious, I guess that's because it is. Any religion, whatever feels good. The following are quotes from Sting about his religion:
"In a sense I am more of a Hindu ... I like the Hindu religion more than anything else at the moment."
"I would not consider myself a Christian any longer. My beliefs are much wider than that. I don't believe God is necessarily a Catholic or Islamic or anything else...it's a much larger concept than that..." said this latest Champion of the Universal Religion.
As I continued hesitating about this big difficult task that God has given me, I went to church on Sunday and within the scripture that went along with the sermon was Psalms 10:3 He put a NEW SONG in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Then that evening reading my bible I came across Psalm 118:14 The Lord is my strength and MY SONG; he has become my salvation. Then these two showed up out of the blue, Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things above, NOT ON EARTHLY THINGS. and Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us THROW OFF EVERYTHING THAT HINDERS AND THE SIN THAT SO EASILY ENTANGLES, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let me add another: Psalm 91:1 Sing to the Lord a NEW SONG, for He has done marvelous things.
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Now the LORD has spoken in my life again and I want to be obedient to Him in every way. So, I DID IT! 200+ CD's in the trash. And guess what, it feels good!
Oh, and I was able to keep just a few, a four CD collection of classical piano masterpieces, a Christian music mix CD, a spa/music/nature sounds CD, a Christian CD by Rick Cupoli that my mom gave me and I have yet to listen to, and some Toby Mac on my computer. (but I'm not all that into rap these days.) I was going to keep Simon and Garfunkel but God said "ALL". I wanted to keep 'Live' too. It even sounds on the most recent CD that I have that they are getting closer to God, but still there's all that cussin' and other junk. But God said "ALL" so, hopefully I can find a good Christian band that I will like their music just as much.
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The following are just a few other things that provoke my thoughts about this subject:
- I saw a photo of Brittney Spears wearing a SixSixSix tee-shirt at a MTV party. and many others sporting shirt's, tattoos, and album covers with this sign.
- The many deaths in the 'industry' due to suicide, and drugs and alcohol.
- Blasphemy and denial of God in secular music.
- Kurt Cobain was into satanism, look what happened to him. You might say he was just joking around, but seeing his demise, I think not.
- A lot of musicians are questioning the existence or searching for God in their lyrics. They may not even realize it but read some of the lyrics in your secular music and see what they say.
- Even the 'milder' music leans toward non-monogamous sex, hanging out at bars and night clubs, homosexuality, and lust, etc.
- Madonna- we all know the blasphemy she performed and is still spreading. Do you think secular musicians sell their souls to the Devil for riches and fame? Read the lyrics to 'Beautiful Stranger'. Don't think the Devil still makes that offer to people? He offered it to Jesus, why wouldn't he offer it to people in current times?
- The average age of a rock star is 36.9 years? Can that be true? http://www.av1611.org/rockdead.html Is it possible that the rock stars are selling their souls for Rock n Roll? A thought to ponder.
- I could go on but why bother? I'll just read 1 Corinthians 10:31 again!
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Here's a nice little blog post from a pastor, that I found about listening to secular music (mainly country). Usually people think country music is better to listen to than other secular music. Read this for another perspective: http://shanekastler.typepad.com/pastor_shanes_blog/2006/07/should_christia.html
He poses the question; “Would I be listening to this song if Jesus were sitting next to me?” Definitely something to think about.
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