Many Christian musicians have fallen into the trap of asking themselves how do they become a better artist and glorify GOD more through their music. I have found this question to be one of interesting nature. One who seeks the answer should always ask themself, are they seeking to glorify God through their music, or through their life as a whole. Although GOD is glorified through music, He values our lives reflecting his holiness as far greater than anything our lips can say. I offer a humble solution and tiny steps toward beign more God centered in your lyrics and Christ centered in your music...
Get your weight up!
Theolyricism/and Christocentric music ____________________________________
Part One... Why be a theo (GOD centered ) lyricist or make Christocentric (Christ centered) music?
1. Becoming a solid believer is an expectation of the Christian faith.
Hebrews 5:11-14 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Whether we claim to be a "Christian rapper," a "Christian hip hopper," or just a "plain Christian," the question should be asked of us, "just how Christian are we?" -William “The Ambassador” Branch
2. Although we do not attempt to replace or supersede the authority of those God has placed in Church leadership (i.e. pastors, elders) as artists preaching and teaching the word of God before the masses we will be judged with a greater strictness.
James 3:1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
“I’m trying to help you learn a new route, every rappers a preacher only question, what’s your sermon about?” –Shai Linne
3. We are called to be public with our Christianity.
Matthew 5:13-16 "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
“Christians are "cities on a hill which can't be hid" not under-cover agents… Christians are considered "light" and "salt" partly because both their presence and the absence are readily detectible and significantly impacting.”
-William “The Ambassador” Branch
4. It gives God glory.
I Corinthians 10:31Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God.
Humans are "partakers of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4)--Imbued with the attributes of God in limited measure. Our purpose is to interact with God, forever--Commune with Him; worship Him; serve Him. Whatever we do for Him; however we relate toHim, becomes a part of His glory--the radiant stream of His splendor. -David Morsey of The Harvester
Part Two... Becoming a theolyricist or a Christocentric musician
1. Remember… Life on life discipleship is the pattern used by Jesus in order to equip his followers. Paul and the early church also stressed authentic fellowship for growth. Majority of hip hoppers already roll in crews so use your crew as your discipleship/accountability team.
a. Sit and go through scripture together without the intent of writing a rhyme. Exegesis (God’s agenda) vs. Eisegesis (your own agenda)
b. Find out what is essential to God’s heart and communicate it. (What is he speaking to you?) Prayer is essential here.
c. Be able to defend every lyric with scripture!
2. Share not only testimonies and stories about your own life; but essential doctrines of scripture. (i.e. salvation by grace through faith, the deity of Christ, the necessity of scripture and the person and work of Christ)
Here are a couple of lines and the doctrine it corresponds to:
"The Word of God, it stands firm in the heavens" -The Authority of Scripture (Psalm 119:89, Luke 21:33) "Cats come into this world serving a death sentence" -Original Sin (Romans 5:12-14) "The Holy Spirit keeps the furnace lit- thank You for granting us repentance" and "By the grace of God I've been regenerated"- The Sovereignty of God the Spirit in Salvation (John 3:7-8, 2 Timothy 2:25, Titus 3:5-6)
*Excerpt from The Intro on Shai Linne’s “The Solus Christus Project” Listeners guide where he gives the musical, lyrical and theological background of every song on the album.
3. Keep up with the times. We must stay relevant to today’s culture but solid in Biblical principles.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
“Being cool is cool but being Christian is essential.” –William “The Ambassador” Branch
4. It is the power of the gospel of Christ which changes hearts and minds and points men and women to righteousness, therefore, in order to be a Theo lyricist you must clearly understand and be able to clearly communicate the gospel message.
Romans 1:16-17 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith.
I pray that this short synopsis on Christocentric music and theolyricism aid you in taking steps in becoming the most GOD glorifying believer you can possibly be, then in turn you will have no choice but to be the most GOD glorifying musician you can be.
Stand firm in "The Faith".
Jonathan "Amen" Brooks
A just trying to give all my people a realistic view of why we need Jesus. First of all in Genesis 3 there was something that took place that has seperated man from God, its called sin(yeah I know Duh!) But this is not something to laugh at because, this God we used to have a flawless relationship with cannot stand sin and when it enters his area it must be removed. But the tripped out thing is that's just the beginning of the problem, now we need a savior to get the relationship tight again. Yes, we needed a savior but what kind of savior? Moses in the OT was used by God to free the Isrealites(God's chosen people) from bondage(slavery) under Pharoah. And then eventually Moses died and Joshua had to take over and he to eventually died. But another thing is they were sinners peep Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Which means that the only one who can save us is someone sinless! So in part 1 the point of this one is that you need a savior because we are not perfect, who is? Part 2 ....
The last thing we dealt with in part 1 was how our sin has seperated us from God and that we desperately need to be forgiven for our sins in order to brige the seperation. How do we get our sins forgiven? Lets look at Hebrews 9:22 which says 22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. We'll if a situation needed to be reconciled between two people the only way for that to happen is if the 2 people work on that reconciliation process and since All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts our like filthy rags; And like the wind our sins weep us away. That would mean that not only must our savior be perfect but only God is perfect which means God would have to reconcile the beef between us even though its our fault! How did he do this? Well John 1:1 says In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Nothing new righ but John 1 : 14 says 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. Who became flesh, the Word, God became flesh! Came into the world as 100% God and 100% man because sin entered the world through man it had to exit the world the same way but it had to be sinless blood, remember romans 6:23! Sin earns death period, but the bible says that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord! Understand that God is so Holy that he cant accept you and your sin. Please understand that God has not changed his standards are still the same you need a savior because without one you face a worste raph than God imposed on his own son (or like I like to say himself). We need a savior for the same reason a person who cant swim and he gone out to deep needs one because without a savior we will die! Please know Jesus Christ is God, and he willingly allowed himself to be treated unmercifully to show his love for us, yeah but thats not all he showed he also showed that sin doesnt deserve mercy it deserves death! Christ died so that whoever believes in him as the savior of the world will NOT perish! How do you know if you believe simple by a total reliance on Him, a love for Him, so much so that you are never the same again, as a matter of fact its kinda like when your in a relationship with someone and you want everybody to know that whoever that girl or boy is, is with you, you might be holding hands or kissing in public whatever the case is the bottomline is you dont care what people say because you believe that your significant other is more important than anybody else its a total disreguard for the world!!! I like that because why do people think that it changes when it comes to God? Isnt God more glorious than anything on earth or in heaven? Let me answer that for you he has to be because he created it!! Please get to know Jesus as your Lord and savior, please because he cant be savior if he aint Lord. And if He is not savior for you then you are saying I want to take on God, but guess what you WILL DIE in your sins to face the Judgement of God who says that any sin youve commited deserves the death penalty.
Example
