"I just believe, I just believe it. Sometimes I don't know why... Not just a feelin'; it's a reason: you know a line is crooked 'cus you know what's straight. A little voice inside."

So, the idea of this post is to discuss CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) and "Modern Worship" (as opposed to very strict, traditional worship styles such as hymns accompanied only by piano & organ).

I've talked about CCM before (sometimes negatively)... The above lyrics are from a Newsboys song entitled "Believe". What I like about lyrics like these is they express great spiritual truths in succint, easy-to-understand ways that are accessible to the average Joe in society (even if these lyrics are sometimes surrounded by what I admit is nothing more than clean, good-humored silliness... for an example of silliness used in a song that I believe glorifies Christ see "Who?" by Newsboys).

We claim to have hearts that beat for the glory of Christ. Well, Christ is glorified when His creatures (i.e., human beings) are most satisfied in Him. How will they be satisfied in Him if they aren't first reached for Him?... I think simple, pop-culture-ish Christian music has its place. In fact,we even need more bands like Relient K and Switchfoot who are ceasing even to call themselves a "religious band". We need this because they are able to smuggle in spiritual truths to the general populace in ways that your pastor never could because people aren't listening to your pastor.

But enough about secular bands like Switchfoot. What I'm mainly focused on is:

• Contemporary Christian Music (Newsboys, Third Day, Audio Adrenaline, Jars of Clay, along with all the new bands coming out that I can't even keep up with, INCLUDING Christian rock, rap, etc.), &
• "Modern-style" worship (Hillsong United, David Crowder Band, almost anything on a 'WOW Worship Cd). I put "modern-style" in quotations because I'm not sure exactly how new it is. I tend to think it may be very similar to the music style encouraged by the Psalmist when he wrote Psalm 150: 

¹ Praise the LORD!
         Praise God in His sanctuary;
         Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
         
 ² Praise Him for His mighty acts;
         Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
         
 ³ Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
         Praise Him with the lute and harp!
 ⁴ Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
         Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
 ⁵ Praise Him with loud cymbals;
         Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
         
 ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
         
         Praise the LORD!  (Psalm 150, NKJV)

Another thought: what exactly is dishonoring to God about the following:
(i) loudness of music
(ii) an abundance of different instruments in music
(iii) music that is JOYFUL and happy and exciting and (God forbid!) FUN!... Are we not supposed to enjoy worshipping God?

Isn't it weird that the people who say you should not listen to Christian pop/rock (because it's dishonoring to God) will turn around and listen to secular music which is *obviously* dishonoring to God?

Conclusion
It is the surest way to reach the whole world for Christ -- to include in our arsenal of tools the medium of catchy songs with messages that point to Christ, which can fit in amongst the mainstream yet be different enough to show that we have what the listener needs. We have Christ. And if we claim to be interested in reaching the lost, isn't it only wise to use means and mediums that will catch their attention?

I've been reading this book. In the endnotes for one of the chapters, Piper puts forth the idea that in heaven, we will go "from fullness unto fullness" in terms of enjoying God. He says that since we will forever be finite beings, and God is forever infinite, we will spend eternity going from full satisfaction in God, to an even fuller satisfaction, to a yet fuller satisfaction in God, and so on. [You can see how saying "from low satisfaction to high satisfaction" would be a problem -- it makes out that at the beginning we are somehow deficient in happiness; and happiness deficiencies don't exist in heaven].

Seeing as I'm overdue for a new post, and seeing as I lack the resources necessary to do my own research on this matter, and seeing as I thought this stuff was an interesting enough topic for discussion, I pose this question to you people: have you ever heard about these thoughts/conjectures/whatever they are?

"If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' what is the opposite of 'progress'?" - Paul Harvey

btw, I've decided I like the Coulter book. The most un-Christian thing in the book is her laughing at the idea of people burning in hell (like it was a joke, ya know?)... Anyway, I ended up reading most of the book in the span of 24 hours. I really liked the last four chapters, they all deal with evolution vs. intelligent design.