I was in an antique store recently (on vacation with my wife ok?) and I saw a little transistor radio. It was AM radio in a black case –kinda looks like an Ice Cream sandwich— it had one ear piece. I remember having that radio. I listened to 45’s on my single record player and LP’s. Cassettes, CD’s. I have always loved music.
One of the greatest inventions in my lifetime has to be the iPod. Music, messages and movies all in one place. The new version even has radio capability. I heard a song on TV and went to iTunes and downloaded it into my library. A while back I downloaded the Brown Sessions, listened to Steve interview Dan Allender, and Mark Driscoll. Amazing technology.
Most of all it’s the music though. Music is a means of grace… yesterday at church as we were singing I thought about how there aren’t any other places in our society that groups of people get together and sing. We have SomeOne and Something about which to sing. Steve says often, it’s the laughter that sets us apart from both the pagans and the religious elite. That’s true. But a close second is the music. Which leads me to another thought. The Gospel of grace—freedom from the penalty and power of sin in life through Jesus—is music to the soul. Radical freedom and love from God the Father toward us is more than words…or lyrics to the song. It is the music. It is the tune. Some of the preachers I have listened to have the words but not the music. “For God so loved…He sent His One and only Son, so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have Life”. Do you hear the music? The joy? The Tune of the Gospel?
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing! No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow, Far as the curse is found!
He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove, The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love!” Isaac Watts
Notice in Watts’ famous Christmas song the grand, cosmic significance of Jesus’ saving activity. The music of the gospel moves us out of the narrow realm of our self-preoccupation. My friend Bob Heppe wrote, “The Gospel is God’s message of liberation: from guilt, alienation, and every bondage that hinders the human race from being fruitful for and reflecting the glory of God. The good news that Jesus preached is that He, as Lord of the cosmos, is now in the business of recapturing a runaway planet. He came to destroy the works of the Devil — all of them, not merely the psychological one’s that plague middle class Americans — and to bring the world under His saving authority. That means He came to reverse the effects of the fall, “as far as the curse is found.” The gospel of the kingdom announces nothing less than God’s intention, and activity, to replace the effects of the fall (sin, guilt, sickness, hunger, injustice, oppression, poverty, bondage, dehumanization, and death) with His Kingdom righteousness; and His work will not be finished until His redemption covers the whole earth.”
Tom Wood has been a pastor for 25 years. He has planted and pastored two churches and has served as a church planting trainer and coach for the Presbyterian Church in America. He is currently the president of Church Multiplication Ministries, in Atlanta. His mission is starting, strengthening and multiplying grace centered churches and church planting networks, through coaching and consults with church planting pastors, leaders and emerging leaders.
Email This Post
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Read, Tom Wood.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
