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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for February 17, 2009
“A Message for Church Song Leaders”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Hey church song leader.
Have you ever led a song at church, then just kind of felt depressed because no one really got into it?
I mean, you picked it out. You practiced it. You thought it was powerful. But then it hit the congregation and just sort of skipped like a rock, off the top of their heads and out the back door.
Well don’t quit just yet. Let me tell you how this often works for me.
I suppose I’m your average man in the congregation. I’m just not a big reactor. If you are going to base your feelings of success or failure on how I look on the outside, you might feel like a failure.
I think church song leaders often base their feelings of success or failure on the immediate response to a song. Now I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, the most powerful effect of the song usually comes later, after the service.
I don’t know for sure how it works, but here is what it seems like to me. During the service, as a song is sung, it’s like seed being planted inside me somewhere. Then it takes time to germinate. It sort of takes root and grows. In this way a song can really get a hold of me and effect me.
I will go back and look up the lyrics. It will hum along in the back of my mind throughout the day. It might bring tears or determination. It might make me rise up to new levels of faith and strength.
But you know what? You don’t know any of that. It’s all going on out of your sight, long after the song was sung.
Take for example a song called “Believe.” Our church choir sang it I don’t even know how long ago. I’m real fuzzy on the particulars. But the seed went in the ground. And it germinated.
And then finally the other day it broke through the dirt. For some reason a line from that song burst forth into my memory. I was suddenly singing to myself this little phrase, “to have the form and not the power.”
It caused me to pray, “Lord, I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to be one of those people who has the form of godliness but not the power.”
Then I went back to the Bible verse it’s talking about, Second Timothy 3:5, “Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof…”
To me, having the form of godliness means you look like a good Christian on the outside. You go to church, you provide for your family, you’re a good guy in the community.
That is having the form of godliness. But do you really have godliness?
I’m still talking to you, church song leader.
You see, it’s not too hard to be a church song leader who only has a form of godliness. You know how to behave. You know music and how to make it. You can get by in church from now until the day you die with just a form of godliness.
But wouldn’t you rather have the power?
The line in that song “Believe” goes like this:
“I’m not satisfied,
living in yesterday’s hour.
I’m not satisfied,
To have the form, but not the power.”
Please, song leader, don’t be satisfied to have the form, but not the power!
I’m talking about the power of godliness.
Second Peter 1:3 says God’s divine power gives us everything we need for godliness “through our knowledge of Him…”
We need to tap into God’s divine power source. We need to grow in our knowledge of Him. We need to draw near to Him and be filled with His Spirit. We need to walk with Him and live our lives for Him, all day every day.
Without God’s Spirit living and stirring within us, we are just shells. Oh, we might be very Christian-looking shells, but shells nonetheless.
We will have the form, but not the power.
So there you go, two messages for church song leaders today.
First, be encouraged that your work may be vastly more effective than just what you see as the song is sung.
And second, don’t settle for just having the good form of a Christian. Tap into the power! Grow in your knowledge of the Lord and walk with Him. Draw near to Him and be filled with His Spirit, then watch as His divine power courses through you and makes your ministry more powerful and effective than you ever thought possible!
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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