Does something stir your heart when music plays?
Do you feel very much like moving to it, expressing what you’re feeling?
Has this happened especially when the hiphop beats comes on?
Yet as you listen to the lyrics of popular songs that are all the rage with many of your friends, if you’re like me, you may have wondered, where is God in all of this? I want to live my life the way I see in Romans 12, a living sacrifice, holy & pleasing to my Heavenly Father, who saved me out of His great love and rich grace. Does that mean I have to give up dancing, in particular hiphop?
Can God be glorified through hiphop? What does the Word of God have to say in relation to this?
Join me for a time of discovering God’s heart, and of “praising His name with dancing” (Psalm 149)!

“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;” (Romans 8:5-6)

* I will listen to any genre of music, but I draw the line at the content of the song’s lyrics. * We are in a war, and the mind is the battlefield. * We win by setting our minds on what the Spirit desires.
How does music relate to this? * Every song we listen to tells us something about the world. * Everyone has a worldview.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

Putting this together with the above truth from Romans 8 about setting our minds on what the Spirit desires, the crux is: Are the songs you’re listening to presenting to you a solid biblical worldview? * Remember, the more of God’s truth you set your mind on, the more you are able to live by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit leads to life and peace. * Does this make you reconsider how you’re going choose songs to listen/dance to (when you dance you listen to the same song - many many many times)? ;)

The Artist's Towel and Basin
By Randall Flinn

In the Book of John, Chapter 13, Jesus Christ leaves his esteemed position at the table of the last supper, before His death on the cross, and completes one of the most significant acts and service of his earthly ministry. It is written in this passage of scripture that Jesus was fully aware of all that had and would soon be taking place concerning His purpose and mission. Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world, that Judas Iscariot would soon betray him, and that He had been sent by God and would be returning to His Father after fulfilling the mission he had been sent to do. Most amazingly, He knew that soon he would walk the road of suffering, and being beaten and scourged beyond recognition, would endure the death blows of crucifixion and take upon himself the wages of sin. Even in the knowing, and with the opportunity to escape it all, He still persevered for the joy that was set before Him, for our salvation and our restoration to God.

As all these dark tragedies were soon to be upon Him, still He was able to rest in the union and identity with His Father and the assurance of His purpose and passion for mankind. Here was the Master Artist Himself, the Word that had become flesh and blood, the glory of the Incarnation, and without hesitation, carrying out the sacrificial plan of His Father to reconcile the world to Him through the atonement of His Holy Son. At a time which could have been opportune for any other person's sense of self protection, retaliation, insecurity and identity crisis, Jesus leaves His place of authority at the table and girds himself with a servant's towel and fills a basin in order to wash the feet of those He loves. This act of Christ's love is filled with vast and