Sunday, November 9, 2008

words from larry norman

Article from the dust cover of In Another Land LP.



Once...there was a tune and everyone knew how it went, but as time went by, people began to forget, until at last no one could remember.


(The Tune, 1971 by L. Norman)

From the discovery and development of music by Jubal (Genesis 4:21) and the psalms of David up until modern time, music has been used to worship, praise and proclaim the majesty of God. Today, most of us think of the hymns as holy songs - both the melody and the lyrics written as a direct inspiration from God. We think of the hymns as totally separate from secular music, but in reality, when many of the traditional hymns were first composed, they represented the sound of their day, just as "Jesus Rock" might represent the sound of today.

In 1524, then Martin Luther borrowed popular drinking song melodies and grafted Christian lyrics onto them, he outraged his spiritual colleagues and no doubt gave new ammunition to his critics; but today these same songs, such as "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" and "Away In A Manger" are considered among the Christian classics.

THE MODERN CONFLICT
A young boy complains to his father that most of the church hymns are boring to him because they are so far behind the times. His father becomes angry and states that "the hymns are good enough for your Grandfather and me, and they will serve you just as well". But the teenager says that not only are the tunes boring, but the words are meaningless ... the songs are just too old fashioned. Putting an end to the discussion, his father says to him, "Well, if you think you can write better hymns, then why don't you?" The son says that he will. He goes to his room and writes his first hymn.

The year was 1690, the teenager was Isaac Watts, and the hymn was "Behold the Glories of the Lamb". During the next few years he wrote other songs. "We're marching to Zion", "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", and "Joy to the World" are among the almost 350 hymns he created. The lyrics were his own but sometimes the melodies were similar in origin to Luther's ... seized from the streets or from popular theatre.

THE ORGAN IS REPLACED BY DRUMS
A few centuries later, William Booth was moved to update the music of the church. Only, instead of writing all new songs, he rewove the fabric of religious music by discarding the organ and the piano, and in their place putting trombones, trumpets, tambourines, drums (drums??!!!), tubas, piccolos, clarinets etc. and the took this menage a brass out into the streets. His marching Salvation Army Band disguested and outraged many of the Christians in his day, but he was confident that Christian music should be taken where it was conspicuously absent ... to the people ... and played in a fashion that non-Christians could understand.

Music is a powerful and spiritially persuasive art form. The young shepherd boy David soothed the tormented mind of King Saul with his songs, and his lyrical psalms are still among the most poetically uplifting that we have. The music of the teenager Isaac Watts supported the large envangelistic thrust of his day. William Booth took his band out into the streets and reached thousands that had been overlooked by the religious community. His music and message helped harvest the soul of many a businessman as well as the skid row mendicants. And these are but a few examples from Christian church history.

CRITICS BE CAREFUL
The lesson is clear, or should be. Continually embracing the current musical forms to present the Christian message, religious music has again and again become relevant to a contemporary world that would accuse it of being outdated. Today, the new Christian music (Jesus Music, Jesus Rock, etc.) is accessible common ground between the religious and secular world. With the advent of the vinyl 45 and the non-stop disc jockey, music has become the second language of the youth. It has the power to lead or mislead. Just as it once influenced the misdirection of the youth into drugs and campus revolution, it can be (and is being) used to proclaim in a modern tongue a message that is almost 2,000 years old.

UNHOLY VESSEL?
There are some who wrongly feel that contemporary rock music is a satanic, destructive force and is not conductive to communicating the gospel. Some feel that the innate sensitivity and nobility of quieter musical forms, such as "classical music" is more calming and more appropriate for religious worship. This is not necessarily true. They are overlooking the fact that much of classical music, opera, etc. relies on murder, jealousy and immorality for their themes. When Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" was first performed on May 29, 1913, at the Theatre des Champs Elysees, the audience rioted and tore up the seats and curtains of the theatre. Yet, classical music can no doubt be used to glorify God when it chooses to. Handel did it with "The Messiah".

SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE
Music is one of the most strategic art forms we have today. It is more widely popular than literature, theatre, cinema, poetry, or any of the other art forms. It is also the most portable. Radios fit into back pockets, cassette players weigh less than a text book, and almost every car has a radio. Most people have access to some kind of a record player. And for many, the live concert has become the height of social excursion ... a place where you can not only see your favourite group, but be with your best friends and somehow feel close to the forty thousand other people seated around you.

Today, Christian writers like Andrae Crouch, Randy Stonehill, Malcolm and Alwyn, and Steve Camp are redefining the cultural context of Christian music and often find themselves facing the same resistance that Luther, Watts, Booth and others have had to face. Innovation and creative direction are not always appreciated, because they are both often misunderstood. But the critics of modern Christian music should keep in mind that today's young Christians may be writing the hymns of tomorrow.

Larry Norman
January, 1975





by Larry Norman



What is ART? God is the Creator of our World, Our Universe. His art is LIFE. He has made a visible world around us, full of detail and complexity, and He has lavished the same intricate care on the world outside of our periphery. High in the mountains where men seldom walk, God has always given rich colours and delicate perfumes to each flower He has made. He didn't smudge the definition, forget to cluster the priapic pistil with pollen kissed stamen simply because explorers and their sherpas might not see them.

Deep in the ocean where the pressure-per-square-inch prevents any man's eyes from watching, unseen and uncategorized fish-things enjoy their life cycle in God's gaze, particulate, fluorescent, soft-boned and shimmering in gilled glory, not for the approval of man but for God's pleasure.

Life is God's art. God has rendered His art in our universe in three dimensions; revealed Himself to us in the Trinity, Given man the triune aspects of body, spirit, soul; set us in motion on the planes of time, space and matter, bonded our entities with the protons, neutrons and electrons; translated matter catalystially into energy through proteins, carbohydrates and fats; supported our life on land, air and sea with food, oxygen and water.

He has given to man an woman a child, and the three perceptive senses of touch, sight, and sound. While textbooks errantly include taste and smell and scientists debate the presence of quarks and balck holes, God moves on and doesn't move at all. He is the Alpha, The I Am, and the Omega; The Past, The Omni-Present and The Future.

There were three crosses on that hill. One man was perfect, one man repented of his imperfection, and the third man embraced his sin in wilful death lock, unrepentant. Christ spent three days in the grave. He broke the gates of death and arose, sealing the resurrection, redemption, and salvation for the cause of our body, spirit and soul. Now we have good, great reason to walk in faith, hope and love in this three dimensional realm He fashioned for us. One third of the angels fell and the other two-thirds stand against them in the strength of that majority, while God sustains us as we wrestle not against flesh, or blod, but against spiritual principalities; that wickidness ascribed to high places.

What is the art of man? It is sufficient as a pale copy of God's visible Creation. No painter ever brushed, colored, and shaped at his canvas with any original vision. No sculptor molded the clay, chisled the marble, or smelted the metal with any unimaginable result. We are God's unbound art, His Creation. Let us reflect this in our own art; His Love, His Mercy, His Forgiveness.



East Berlin, 1990

2 comments:

PRiSCa said...

I do not know English very well but your blog has many things in common with my way of thinking,I have a project about art and I think we need to rescue the art because it is a gift from God for his creation,we must ensure this legacy, where all we can reflect that God is the art itself.
I will continue visiting and reading your blog
God bless you

http://prisca-artejoven.blogspot.com/

Steve Finnell said...

THE THIEF'S PLAN OF SALVATION BY STEVE FINNELL

Can men living in the 21st century steal the thief's plan of salvation and be saved? No they cannot. The thief was the one and only person saved by his plan.

What did the thief do to be saved?

1. The thief obviously believed that Jesus was the Christ.(Luke 23:39)
2. The thief feared God.(Luke 23:40)

3. The thief asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom.(Like 23:42)

THAT WAS THE THIEF'S PLAN OF SALVATION! Yes he was saved (Luke 23:43)

What was not in the thief's plan of salvation?
1. The thief did not believe in his heart that Jesus was raised from the dead by God the Father.(Romans 10:9 that if you confess with they mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead , you will be saved;) The thief could not believe that God raised Jesus from the dead; because Jesus was sill alive when the he was saved.

2. The thief was not baptized for the forgiveness of sins. (Acts 2:38)

3. The thief could not be baptized in water in order to be saved. (Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21)

THE THIEF DIED UNDER THE OLD COVENANT AND GOT A DIRECT PARDON FROM JESUS. Men living today can only be save by the terms of pardon under the New Covenant.
The terms of pardon are: FAITH John 3:16---REPENTANCE Acts 2:38---CONFESSION Romans 10:9-10---WATER BAPTISM Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21, Mark 16:16.


PEOPLE OF THE 21 CENTURY CANNOT STEAL THE THIEF'S PLAN OF SALVATION AND BE SAVED!

YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY BLOG. http//:steve-finnell.blogspot.com

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