Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  – James 4:8

-Ben

Could be you.  Could be your listener.  Right?

I was thinking about it today, and I believe this is one of the most confused, potentially damaging songs that Christians use in corporate worship.

Why?  It’s teaching bad theology.  The bridge and the chorus are from the Bible (though a bit out of context, perhaps), but the verse certainly isn’t:

I’m trading my sorrow
I’m trading my shame
I’m laying it down for the joy of the Lord
I’m trading my sickness
I’m trading my pain
I’m laying it down for the joy of the Lord

For some reason the author got caught up in the word “trading”.  Trading has very clear connotations – I have something, you have something, and we trade.  Thus, I get what you had and you get what I had.

Look how that works here: I trade with God, giving him my sorrow and He gives me His joy.  In one sense, using one narrow definition of “give”, that works.  And perhaps the song is trying to point to that with the words “laying it down” – I trust God to deal with my sorrows, and trust Him to give me joy.

But that requires too much inference and interpretation.  There is a more simpler, more blatant meaning, that we all know is false but are constantly hoping is true because we don’t know how to handle it. The song is telling us that  sorrow and joy are mutually exclusive.  You get rid of sorrow, and you’ll get a lot of Joy.  More than that, you need to get rid of sorrow to get joy.

WRONG!

America doesn’t know how to suffer.  We don’t know how to deal with being pressed and persecuted and struck down.  We barely know the meaning of sorrow.  But, did you know it’s something that the Bible says you should cultivate at times?

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. – Romans 12:15

You will ALWAYS know someone who is mourning, just as you will ALWAYS know someone who is rejoicing.  See the implication Paul is drawing?  Not only is it possible to be rejoicing and mourning at the same time, but we should always be both rejoicing and mourning!

Paul helps us by making this more clear.  In 2 Corinthians 6:10 he describes himself as “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”  And that is key.

We go through life trying to avoid sorrow, avoid pain, avoid sickness, avoid shame, when the Bible doesn’t call us to any of those.  The NORMAL Christian life is meant to be one filled with suffering for the sake of the Gospel.  Second Timothy 3:12 tells us that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  As the song says, we are blessed beyond the curse, for God’s promise will endure… and this is one promise, that does lead to blessing, that will endure!  “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” says Matthew 5:11.

We flee sorrow, pain, suffering, persecution… and we flee blessing.  And we flee Jesus, because He is the ultimate blessing.

Why do we keep singing it?  To borrow a phrase from a friend, CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) like this can give us “shameless emotional rides”.  We like the rhyme, and the rhythm, and the “Yes Lord!” chorus is upbeat and exciting.  But songs are not just noise – they are words, and words communicate truth… or lies.  And humans believe them.  And that belief affects our living, and we become unable to have either joy or sorrow in their proper form.

Joy is not happiness in sorrowlessness.  Joy is happiness in God!

-Ben

1. Song Length – Hip Hop tends to have very long verses.  With a lot of words, you can communicate a lot of information.  In the case of Christian Hip Hop, it is communicating true information (TRUTH) about the person and work of Jesus and our relationship to Him.
2. Beat - Hip Hop tends to have driving, regular beats.  Beats like this aid in memorization.  Couple this with long verses that contain truth and you can memorize a lot of good stuff just by listening to it.
3. The Artists - they generally have theological training at the college or seminary level (The Ambassador is actually a pastor in Philly and has an M.Div from Dallas)
4. Song Content - they are very explicitly theological, meaning they teach about and talk about God.  They are evangelistic, explaining salvation to nonchristians.  They are a great example of contextualization (at its best, I dare say).  They are discipling, encouraging Christians to grow in their faith.  They are sending, encouraging Christians to reach out and eventually GO on missions.

Beyond that, they actually are pretty good musically.  A comment from my friend Ayan:

Ayan: btw i listened to the song u posted a whilte ago
“were you there”
twas good
christina hip hop is actually good
its also wayy too good to be considered hip hop
or christian music

Some artists to check out:

• The Ambassador
• Lecrae
• 116 Clique <– a group
• The Cross Movement <–

And if you’re interested in checking out a concert, see Lukas from DG’s blog post about The Unashamed Tour.

Last but not least, some Youtube clips:

-Ben

But on the other hand I find that, because I am a sinner, I have got to work harder intellectually and mentally to see there is an even richer vocabulary for grace. Under the principle of Romans 5:20—“where sin abounds, grace super-abounds”—has got to be a principle on which I will live my Christian life. I’m reminded of the hymn,

O Jesus! full of pardoning grace,—
More full of grace than I of sin.

And if somebody quibbles by saying surely the work of Christ is equivalent grace to sin, I think, “No. Paul is saying there really is more grace in Christ than sin in me.”

And then later on…

Grace is Christ. When I am in Christ I am going to become more conscious of my other sins and the same sins at deeper levels. I realize what I thought was the sin was actually only the manifestation of the real sin.

I am constantly being turned in this sin/grace, sin/grace, sin/grace cycle all my days.

Okay, now go read the whole thing.

-Ben

I’ve known many people whose relationship with God was significantly transformed as they started to speak up with their Father. Previously, “prayer” fizzled out in the internal buzz of self-talk and distractions, worries and responsibilities. Previously, what they thought of as prayer involved certain religious feelings, or a set of seemingly spiritual thoughts, or a vague sense of comfort, awe, and dependency on a higher power. Prayer meandered, and was virtually indistinguishable from thoughts, sometimes indistinguishable from anxieties and obsessions. But as they began to talk aloud to the God who is there, who is not silent, who listens, and who acts, they began to deal with him person-to-person. It’s no gimmick or technique (and there are other ingredients, too, in creating wise, intelligent, purposeful, fervent prayer). But out loud prayer became living evidence of an increasingly honest and significant relationship. As they became vocal, their faith was either born or grew up.

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. – John 2:18-22

The disciples were good Jews.  Surely they thought they knew and believed the Scripture (OT writings).  But we see here that it wasn’t until after “he was raised from the dead” that they “believed the Scripture.”  What was the problem here?  They didn’t understand the Scripture, and they didn’t understand what Jesus was saying about himself.  You can’t have believe without understanding.

To believe what Jesus says, you need to understand what Jesus says.

To believe what Jesus did, you need to understand what Jesus did.

Not a comprehensive understanding, but a correct understanding.

How?

For God… has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. – 2 Corinthians 4:6

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” – James 1:5

So we pray and ask God to give us understanding as we read the Scripture… and then we READ THE SCRIPTURE.  Two parts.  Gotta have both.

-Ben

 In listening to an old lecture recently by J. I. Packer, he made the comment that it was not until after the 17th century (as far as he could tell) that people started doing silent prayers and reading as opposed to praying and reading out loud.

For most evangelicals, silence represents the vast majority of our reading and praying. But I wonder if that’s to our detriment. One of the great enemies to Bible reading and praying is a wandering mind–and one of the great ways to make your mind wander is to do everything in your mind without involving your voice and ears!

(his original post is longer)

I think he’s spot-on.  My mind wanders way too much.  I bet yours does too.

-Ben

It’s hard to describe the impact it had on me, but I’ll try.

1. I went into the week a bit expectant but with a bit of cloud hanging over everything.  Many people had dropped out of the trip, and some of them were commenting on the fact – “I wonder what God’s protecting us from.”  That rattled me needlessly.  The trip was awesome.  God was real to us, He was faithful to us, He was breaking down sin in our lives that kept us from seeing Him and loving others.

2. I went into the week skeptical of VBS.  I built myself a theological framework that basically said that God “shouldn’t” save the children of unbelieving parents.  God destroyed that one real fast – Pastor Frank (who runs the organization we went with) was saved by his children telling him about Jesus.

3. The day we got there (more like the hour we got there) we were brought out to the streets of Kensington to do contact evangelism.  More precisely, we went to the “number one hotspot” intersection in the entire city of Philadelphia – known for its violence, drug dealing, and prostitution.  We went with a group called Raven – “Recovering a Vision and Evangelizing Nations.” It was such an encouragement to pray with them, to listen to them, and to evangelize with them (more often than not simply watching them evangelize while we prayed).  They gave us needed hope to begin our trip – stories and experiences of how people (yes, real live people) got saved doing exactly what we were there to do!

4. Hernando Andreti – this man killed 7 people 31 years ago, was just released from prison a few months ago, and got saved through Raven’s preaching.  Pastor Frank’s been discipling him since then.  He hung out with us often, directing us in our construction, protecting us as we were out on the streets, entertaining us through his stories and guitar playing.  Most importantly, he reminded us of God’s grace – electing grace, saving grace, sanctifying grace, future grace.  He was a constant, visible reminder of the power of the grace of God to call sinners to repentance and grant us new desires to love and pursue Him instead of the pleasures of this world.

5. Nariely - One of the girls at VBS developed a crush on me.   She wrote me some pretty cute notes and made me a few cute drawings.  Sadly, she wasn’t my type – only a few feet tall and couldn’t recognize diagonals when playing Connect 4.  But she did show me that our interaction with these kids is important, and it is personal – not abstract.  In just a few days (we only had 4 with them), it is possible to connect with them and tell them about Jesus (and how they need more Jesus, and less Ben).

6. Stoch - I think that’s how you spell his name.  Friday was our day off – we went wandering around the historical areas of Philly, seeing the sights, ate Philly Cheesesteaks, etc.  God had a bit more serious business for us to take care of there, though.  After we split up into smaller groups to go browse through stores, my group (Ben, John, Paul, Sindri, Amy, Charlene) saw a sign for the Presbyterian Historical Society and went to track it down.  Turns out they were closed for Good Friday, so we kept wandering with a new goal: find a bookstore.  We found one – a liberal anarchist bookstore with a shrine to Noam Chomsky.  The small (30 books) Religion section had zero books on Christianity.  John Sullivan started reading off the titles, and then commented on how there was nothing there about Jesus.  We then hear a voice from the corner – “my theory is that Jesus was a pimp, but that didn’t work out for him so he became a prophet.”   Thus began a long (1.5-2hr) conversation.  We talked about a lot of things, got to share the Gospel with him, and in the end pointed him to Keller’s book The Reason For God.  Pray that he reads it – I think he embodies the center of its target audience.

I keep telling people that this is probably the best missions trip I’ve ever been on.  That’s quite a statement, as it’s the 13th (I think).  Part of the reason would be that now I have a much better theological framework and practical understanding of Christian Hedonism and its implications.  A lot of it has to do with the number of people praying for us, I’m sure.  But what it really comes down to is: I encountered Jesus.  He made each of the things we did (EV, VBS, construction, eating, hanging out, playing, praying, singing) impactful to me in specific ways.  I can agree with Paul and say, “your grace is sufficient for me.”  And I come away with memories of people – people who know Jesus and people who don’t know Jesus – and the confidence that what they really need is the light of the Gospel shining into their hearts to give them new desires.  I don’t think I’ve ever gone into or come out of a trip before this one with a good understanding of the reality that people need Jesus.

For lots more details, storytelling, and pictures, you can check out our trip blog here: http://cornellphilly08.wordpress.com/.

-Ben

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” – Luke 21:1-4

I think that too often I (all of us, probably) read this passage and think, “well, I’m not in poverty, so I don’t need to “put in” all I have. As long as I’m not as stingy as the “rich”, I’m alright.”

But then I read down a little farther and am further warned:

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life” – Luke 21:34

The woman who put in all she had to live on was not weighed down with the cares of this life. The rich were.

I am.

But that, too, is a sin for which Jesus died.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. – 2 Corinthians 8:9

By Jesus’ poverty – not by my own wealth accumulation – I become rich. Rich in what? I get to enjoy Jesus, forever, in heaven – that’s true richness.

-Ben