Everyone's buzzing about the fact that the contestants sang "Shout to the Lord" as the finale on American Idol last night. I was stoked about it myself, until a few moments ago...
Why? A pastor just pointed out to me...(can't believe I missed it!) they left out one important word in the song...JESUS. No kidding, they left out the name of Jesus. My gosh, HOW could I have missed that? I guess I was just too spellbound by the fact that the American Idols were actually doing a praise and worship song on national TV before countless millions.
For the record, the lyrics are supposed to be, "My Jesus, My Savior, Lord there is none like you." This was strategically left out.
I know, I know, there are all different religions represented by Idol. Brooke is Mormon, and I'm sure there are many other religions represented, but still...just another example of our PC society.
Make no mistake I do think it's great that they chose to do that song. What a song it is! I've led it countless times in worship and think Darlene Zschech is AWESOME. Some probably think, "we should just be grateful the song was on there in any form at all..." Maybe so.
But Darlene wrote that song with one purpose in mind -- lifting up the name above ALL NAMES, the ONLY NAME, the name of JESUS. When she writes shout to the LORD she doesn't mean Mohammed, Allah, Rev. Moon, Joseph Smith, Oprah or ANYBODY ELSE but JESUS!
Truly nothing compares to the promise we have in...HIM.
I have often said you can see who's who and what's what by whether they just talk about God or whether they dare to bring Jesus, the son of God, into it. Notice when the Grammys and all those award nights come, a zillion people say, "I'd like to thank God..." but rest assured there are many who say that who aren't Christians in the least. They may claim to love God, and even talk to Him on a regular basis, but the question is, is JESUS THE LORD AND SAVIOR OF THEIR LIFE? When I want to know if somebody is just religious or if they have a real RELATIONSHIP with Christ, what I listen for is somebody who talks about JESUS because that right there...well, that's the lightening rod. Nothin' against God, but I'm just sayin'...
Apparently they thought Jesus would cause quite a stir in the atmosphere last night because they...left Him out.
Indeed, He does cause a change in the environment. That's because He's DA MAN!!! Forever and ever, amen.
I just heard some news today that really inspired me. A church here in Tampa, Relevant Church is doing a new thing this month called the "30 Days Sex Challenge." (I've never visited the church but Pastor Trinity - our children's pastor - has visited or has met some people from this church and he was very impressed.) Realizing that this is a major element missing from some marriages (the frequency factor) their lead pastor, Paul Wirth, has issued a challenge for all the married couples to have sex for 30 days in a row. At the same time he has issued a challenge for all unmarrieds to completely abstain from sex. Of course we know the Bible says that those who are unmarried should not have sex in the first place but the point is, a lot of unmarried's aren't obeying the Lord's command to abstain and this is just one pastor's way of trying to get them to see that indeed, there is a better way! (God's way!) At the same time, many married couples are not
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