GOD on Your iPOD: "If Today Was Your Last Day" by Nickelback

Well, I know, some of you think Nickelback is cheesy. I have to admit, I like their stuff, and this one is a really good one. It sounds some of the same notes as in "It's Not My Time" by Three Doors Down, so I won't rehash all the themes I pointed out in that one. If you want to hear the audio from that message, you can listen to the podcast here.

"If Today Was Your Last Day" is simply a song about making the most of the time you have here on earth. That is certainly a biblical concept. The Bible tells us repeatedly that our lives are short that they are determined and that we must make the most of every opportunity for doing God's work while we are here on earth.

I really like some of the stuff happening at the end of the video as people take opportunity to do some things to make a difference. I hope we as the church will start doing more things like this.

GOD on Your iPOD: "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day

The newest offering by California-based punk rock band Green Day is 21st Century Breakdown. "Know Your Enemy," the first single released from the album came out in April of this year.

The repeated tagline of the song is "Do you know the enemy? Do you know your enemy? Well, gotta know the enemy, wah hey." The song is actually about anarchy, common fodder for the antiestablisment tendencies of punk. Other lines in the song that further the anarchic theme are: "Violence is an energy against the enemy," "Revolt against the honor to obey," "Overthrow the effigy, the vast majority," "Silence is the enemy against your urgency, so rally up the demons in your soul."

So, seen through the lenses of punk, the song sounds a common call to rise against the status quo, against the control of restrictive government or any other system that seeks conformity.

But, if you look with God lenses, there's much more that can be gleaned. The basic question is a vital one: "Do you know the enemy?" Let's make this simple. Far too few people really understand who the enemy is in life. We spend our days fighting with other people, fighting with traffic, fighting with our government, fighting with our finances, fighting with worries and stresses. And as a result, we lose sight of the real enemy, Satan.

And the refusal to acknowledge his reality, his activity, and his presence, is exactly what he wants. If we do not recognize him, we get caught up in things that don't matter. We make other people, people created in God's image, the object of our hatred and anger. We get frustrated over things that we aren't supposed to try to handle in the first place. We allow little goadings by the devil to "spur us on to hate and evil deeds." We spend our time on things that don't matter. We listen to lies that he tells us to discourage us, to keep us silent, to keep us from taking action, to keep us from following our God-given dreams.

It is vitally important that we know our enemy. Who is he? A few things the Bible tells us about him. He is the father of lies and everything that comes from his mouth is a lie. He is the accuser of the saints, standing before God always making accusations against God's people. He is a deceiver. He makes evil look attractive. He is a serpent and a dragon, but he masquerades in resplendent beauty as an angel of light. He has set himself against God and God's people and seeks to devour us like a lion on the prowl.

From the punk rock standpoint, the anarchy encouraged in the song is certainly a tool that our enemy loves to use. But, I think you can probably make something else out of the song, turning it on it's head entirely if you see Satan as the real enemy instead of an ordered society. I'll leave it to you to make the rest of the applications from the song. Let me know what you get.

GOD on Your iPOD: "Lifeline" by Papa Roach

Wow, it's been a reeeallly long time since I blogged about anything, but I got an idea for a new feature on the blog.

In May, we finished up a message series at The Crossroads called "GOD on your iPOD" in which we looked at the message of God's love that is written into so many of the songs that connect with us and that we listen to each week. Now, a little more explanation, I'm not talking about explicitly "Christian" songs. In fact, that was one of the requirements. The songs had to be from artists that did not exclusively bill themselves as Christian artists, although some of the artists may have been Christ followers. The songs also had to have charted well in some area within the last year. Beyond that, we were just looking for songs that showed that God speaks through and to people through music. If you'd like to hear more, you can listen to all of them on The Crossroads' podcast at http://www.welcometothecrossroads.com/.

I had more fun with this message series than any I have ever done before. We already have committed to doing a message series like this each year. I was really sad to see the series come to an end, and there were still so many songs that could have been a part of this series.

So, I've decided to just keep you posted on some of the music out there that peaks my interest, that causes me to think, and that connects me with the greater story of God's love as I encounter them. Maybe I'm the only one that will see the message in some of them, but I hope it will start some discussion and keep you listening to music with a discerning ear and listening for the still, small voice of God as he sings his love songs over us.

Alright, well, the first song I want to introduce you to is by the punk/hard rock band Papa Roach. The song is called "Lifeline." I first heard the song a month or so ago and immediately was captured by it. It talks about someone who has had some really big struggles in life and wants someone to throw them a lifeline. Listen and let me know what you think.

Beautiful and Truly Amazing

Il Divo performs Amazing Grace in the Colisseum in Rome. As you watch this, just consider the fact that they are performing it in the place where hundreds, maybe thousands, of Christians gave their lives in obedience to and love for their Lord.

Last.fm

I've been checking out Last.fm over the last couple of days, and so should you. Basically, it lets you build a radio station that is totally customized exactly to your tastes. You end up with a radio station that only plays the music you like. In addition, it recommends new stuff to you based on your previous musical preferences and constantly updates based on new stuff you are adding to your library. It is totally cool, totally free, and totally tubular, dude! You should get online and spend a few minutes playing around on it.