This post will mark my final Rock n’ Roll devotional for this season of Church on the Edge. Of course, we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to the plethora of rock ’n roll music out there, both past and present, and I’m sure there will be more posts in later seasons.
“To the pure all things are pure,” Paul tells us in Titus 1:15. Jesus redefined purity and holiness, teaching that it is not what goes in but what comes out of a person that defiles them.
When I recommitted my life to Jesus in 1982, I stopped listening to rock ’n roll music for a long, long time. It wasn’t until, by chance, I stumbled across Kid Rock singing, “Only God Knows Why” that I realized the music which had once been associated my lifestyle, which was not brining glory to God no longer held that power over me. That’s when I began to listen once again. Only this time, I heard things, I’d never heard before.
Yes, rock ’n roll is often associated with a lifestyle that destroys the lives of those who give themselves over to it. At the same time, rock n’ rollers are people just like you and me. People like many of those who Jesus called and who chose to follow him - Mary Magdalene, Matthew the tax collector, Simon the Zealot, and Peter, who spoke for all of these when he responded to the call of Jesus, saying, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
I hope you have been able to hear the heart cry for God and salvation in the songs I have chosen to write about. And I hope you are able, like Jesus, to see beyond the music and the words and see the human beings in need of God who composed them.
With that in mind, I close this season with the words of an old, old song by Argent. You can listen to it here.
It’s good theology behind the words of “God Gave Rock ’n Roll to You.” Creation is always an act of God. And to be created in the image of God means to possess that same ability to create.
When the singer tells us that God put rock ’n roll in the soul of everyone, he’s talking about the power of music, its ability to express what is within and to speak to those who hear. And as he goes on to say, music helps make our dreams unfold, makes us glad to be alive.
It’s good to be alive. And it is especially good to embrace those things Satan distorts, corrupts, and uses for his dark purposes and put them to work for the glory of God.
I know it’s only rock ’n roll, but I like it, like it, yes I do. And through the power of Jesus, what was once a stumbling block is now a tool I can use to bring glory to His Name.
In Christ,
Dan
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