tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888282.post7905802776706179077..comments2024-03-07T00:03:12.584-07:00Comments on John's Corner of the World: Is there room in evangelical/Protestant churches for committed communities that seek to do "great things" for God?John Holzmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14849211055450293089noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888282.post-67316217431847449692007-09-15T06:39:00.000-06:002007-09-15T06:39:00.000-06:00Thank you! I was just thinking of Now Unto the Ki...Thank you! I was just thinking of Now Unto the King...the song... last week and could not remember Joey's Holder's name. We met him about 17 years ago, at a conference at his home church. Will McFarland put the song on an "album" he did and we have it on tape...somewhere! Singing scripture corporately benefitted me as a new believer; to learn the Word; God's heart and character. Janny Grein was a favorite psalmist of mine back in my younger days. She sang the Word of God and ministered.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888282.post-83983892692325183942007-09-06T22:29:00.000-06:002007-09-06T22:29:00.000-06:00My problem with this song was that it was complete...My problem with this song was that it was completely unhelpful and wrong. Not incorrect, but wrong in focus and end. Sure, we should want to get through the doubts, fears, shame, and whatnot; but more than that, we should get over it. Just drop it. As you say, "Move on".<BR/><BR/>Yes, God is brighter than our darkest moments, and stronger than the stuff we go through, and, yes, if He were to touch us we would change... However, the problem I have with "dark nights of the soul" is that God does not seem to be there, so little good His brightness does me then. Similarly, He may be stronger than my battle, but am I? A better line to sing here would be something about how "God does not tempt us beyond what we are are able"... Scripture! Imagine that. Also, I was thinking, 'If we really believe that one touch would radically change us, then obviously we have never been "touched" like that... so, why are we even singing about it?' Not to say that we don't need God in our lives, but that we've gotten off focus when we're looking for that "feel good" change that just doesn't happen. God doesn't work that way, in my experience. Someone once said it really well, "Perhaps we are too busy seeking God's hand that we no longer see His face."<BR/><BR/>Last major issue: This song does nothing for those who are actually struggling. For anyone who really gets hit with something (loss of a child, or a dissolution with religion, etc) this song means nothing. It sounds like a lie, and probably is; God is much more than just a feeling of "breakthroughedness"... there is much more thought, reason, purpose to God, and so our songs should reflect that.<BR/><BR/>Or so I think.<BR/><BR/> ~LukeLuke Holzmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07799632321310461828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6888282.post-66501641640704132512007-09-04T23:49:00.000-06:002007-09-04T23:49:00.000-06:00Honestly, I think the song itself is sort of odd, ...Honestly, I think the song itself is sort of odd, though I'd never heard of it before reading your post. I don't know what it means to "break through" my guilt and shame. I have real guilt because I'm a real sinner who sins daily (hourly!) against a holy God. Shame also, well, my sinful self is my shame and it ought to be! I don't want Him to break through it, I need Him to forgive it and sanctify me that I might be more like Him every day. I cling to His promises that in the next life I will not have the burden of remaining sin and will be able to love and worship Him with a purity of heart that I cannot have now.<BR/><BR/>I find a lot of modern American evangelical books annoyingly unbiblical with their emphasis on personal purpose and release from guilt and shame. It's all about me! Oughtn't it be all about GOD?<BR/><BR/>I find the emergents equally wearying with their emphasis on the nobility of doubt--as if old-fashioned unbelief has somehow become a Biblical virtue.<BR/><BR/>Now trials, those are inherently different from doubts and fears and they are to be embraced as from the hand of a sovereign God who is to be trusted with every circumstance He brings into our lives.<BR/><BR/>In that sense we <I>can</I> and <I>do</I> embrace whatever His Providence holds for us, for pleasure or for pain.<BR/><BR/>How can we rejoice and embrace the circumstances that the Lord brings us, even when they are painful? Because we believe in a completely sovereign God who promises to work all things for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.<BR/><BR/>How many of us would choose to have a gang knock us out and slice into our brains with a knife? Yet I chose to pay a group of doctors to do just that when I had a brain tumor. Living was more important to me than the short term pain of neurosurgery.<BR/><BR/>I trust that the pains of this life are temporary and are for my greater good <B>because He promises that they are</B>. When He performs His surgery, He does it with perfect love, wisdom and power. I'm not saying I love the trials the way I love a trip to the beach. I'm saying that I embrace them with the same thankfulness with which I embraced the modern technology that meant brain surgery to save my life instead of a tumor that would have killed me if I'd lived 100 years ago.<BR/><BR/>The trials of this life are <I>good</I> for us if we are His children. We joyfully submit to them as He brings them because we trust His loving hand. Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. We trust in it because His Word says we must, and in Glory, we will see that all the promises are yes in Christ.<BR/><BR/><I>Whatever</I> He does to me, may our Lord Jesus be glorified.<BR/><BR/>I'm sorry this is so long. I keep trying to cut it short but brevity is like totally not my strong suit. :(Jenneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10013776661922139219noreply@blogger.com