fo·cal·ize

Gospel Music:

All information in this section is derived from Psalm 33:3 and from what I hope to be common sense. The verse reads, after talking about praising the Lord through music, "Sing to Him a new song: play skillfully, and shout for joy."

Gospel music, (mainly church music), has almost always been written with the same exact formula: 1. A 3-4 chord structure, those chords usually being the easiest and most commonly played chords in the music industry, (like G5, which almost every musician mistakes for as simply "G"), and 2. Contain lyrics that are straight Bible verses, derived from/inspired by Bible verses, or are just simple Christian cliches.

How can this be right? Of course, praising the Lord is praising the Lord, but honestly, how can every song that most people sing in praise of God be so simple as to throw together in minutes flat?

I understand that if these songs are written to be easy, then others can learn them quickly and spread the Word of God through music. (By the way, if you are learning any songs that use just the really easy chords, then you should expand your knowledge much more before you call it quits and start learning songs. Go get a teacher.) But Christian music, in essence, is the greatest music in the world. You cannot praise the Lord our God through singing to dance or pop that talks about sex or rap that talks about… sex.

Why is it that Christian music has gotten so easy? Can anyone answer that?

Why is it that all Christian music sounds the same? Can anyone answer that?

Writing music for God at all is bringing praise to Him and worshipping Him, but how joyous and proud will he be of His children who write songs that show no originality or work effort? Make music that both you and God can be very proud of; do not ever be simply a guitarist or a singer or a drummer, for you are doing what you do for God. Be a poet! Be a composer! Do not ever tell yourself you are not good enough to make your own music. Do not ever let yourself be told that you are not good enough to write music. Always remember that there is always more to learn. And, most importantly, one should never put a single limitation of any sort on one's self when doing something for our wonderful Lord.

To all musicians: Take risks when writing this grand form of music. Create your very own lyrics that people haven't heard before. Praise the Lord in ways other people may question. If you want to scream, scream. If you want to rap, rap. If you want to praise, praise. Use chords that make others come up to you and say, "Hey, what chord is that?" Struggle to write an amazing song. God will help you, trust me. There is no heartache in this song-writing process that isn't worth the while, because you will be answering the call of God. Sing Him a new song.

Old Testament:

I am very sad to say that I have heard this said many times: "Well, that is in the Old Testament, so it doesn't matter anymore."

I was trying to tell a friend why it is wrong to get tattoos, and a lot of my argument was based around a verse from Leviticus. Her response? "Well, that is in the Old Testament, so it doesn't matter anymore."

Let us ponder this idea for a moment. If things said in the Old Testament don't matter anymore, than I guess the widely used books of Proverbs and Psalms don't matter. Maybe the famous Ten Commandments don't mean anything anymore. Maybe all the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, David, Moses and Abraham do not matter. Maybe the creation of the world doesn't matter because it is in the Old Testament, so we should all just believe the evolution theory! Maybe the teachings of Jesus, which all essentially derive from the Old Testament, don't matter. Maybe the whole Christian religion is a big scam!

If you have ever said, "Well, that is in the Old Testament, so it doesn't matter anymore," than you believe every single thing in the above paragraph. Interesting.