Christian Praise Blog

Well, I don’t know how many of you watch American Idol, but I do. Last night there was a Worship Pastor auditioning as well as a woman pastor. Avril Lavigne was the guest on the panel of judges for the evening and showed up wearing a hoodie with devils horns on the top of the hood. As soon as the Worship Pastor was finished singing (And he did do a great job) Avril piped right up and said, “No, American Idol will be too much for him since he is working as a Worship Pastor.” NOTE: These are not her exact words I don’t think.

It bothers me that Avril Lavigne would judge according to his position rather than his skill as a singer. The whole point of American Idol is to judge them on their singing skills, not whether they feel they can make it out on the road away from their family.I suppose we will chalk the comment up to her young age and forgive her.

Have you noticed that there have been quite a few Christians who have been auditioning for American Idol in the last couple of years. The ones that stand out to me are David Gokey, Kris Allen and this year Tasha Latyon and Jim Ranger.

I know there is a lot of slack going around about how Christians should not be going after fame and fortune but on the other hand I see how churches expect their music ministers to perform their duties and yet many of them get no recompense for doing it. There are people who say that they should do it for nothing because their reward is in heaven, but even the Levites were set aside to perform the work for God and were paid to do it.

I don’t understand how anyone can stand back and say that these people are wrong to try and provide for their families. What they know is music, and they are good at it. If we don’t want them going to “the world” to make a living then maybe we better start considering how we are supporting them as a church.

Is it any worse for a Music Pastor to get a job singing “non-christian” songs than a Pastor who tries to provide for his family by working in the secular world such as bankers or politicians?

I really think that we as Christians should stop judging what other people are doing and keep an eye on our own lives.

What do you think?

Sharron

You can view the audition here. Jim Ranger comes on at 7:55 in the video. Pay no attention to the writing on the top right corner of the video.

Technorati Tags: American Idol, Avril Lavigne, Christian Praise, Jim Ranger, Worship Pastor

You are probably thinking to yourselves right now, What does the movie “Julie and Julia” have to do with Christian Praise? Please allow me to tell you how I personally think that these two things actually go together.

I rarely watch movies, or even television for that matter, but a friend thought I might be interested in seeing this movie so there we sat, together in my living room watching “Julie and Julia”. It is a movie based on a blog written by Julie Powell who wanted to try and make her way through Julia Childs cookbook “”Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and blog about it daily. She (Julia Powell) had an admiration for Julia Childs and the movie intertwines the lives of these two women and their cooking endeavors.

It was while watching the movie that the idea struck me: Why not write/blog through the Psalms. David is certainly one of the many writers in the Bible who is totally lovable. God himself called him the apple of his eye. Who cannot relate to David? He has moments of total abandoment to the Lord and then in another moment of weakness ends up sinning and crying out to God.

David, like many of us, is totally identified with God and yet he is soooooooooo aware of his personal downfalls and even mood swings. Paul summed this up nicely in Romans 7 when he said, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do, and if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work–when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7: 14-25

2 Corinthians 12:9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weakness , so that the power of Christ can work through me.

So, as Julie Powell did with Julia’s cookbook, I want to go through the Psalms with you and give you my perspective. Hopefully this will help us both to grow stronger in the Lord and in His mighty power. I don’t think I will be able to do this everyday like Julie Powell did in the movie, but I am going to try and do it as often as possible till we get through all 150 Psalms.

I will set up a special blog called “Psalms Blog” so that it will be easier to find and this will give it a special place where the Psalms are all together.

Keep your eyes open in the next few days for the first installment

Sharron

Technorati Tags: Christian Praise, David, Julie and Julia, Psalms