By the Book

A WAY OF LIFE
As I listened to the radio this morning, I heard an interesting story. It was about a middle east country where a new leader may be coming into power and would bring the muslim religion into the forefront. A citizen of that country said something like this - you'll have to excuse the paraphrase... We believe in God, we are all muslim here but we don't want it to be in every part of our lives. What strikes you as wrong in that statement?
I have run across this very attitude many times within the United States. We are all Christians but we must know when to separate our secular lives with our "religious" beliefs. I don't know about you but my "religious" beliefs impact ALL areas of my life. As true Christians aren't all our lives sacred? There is no separation! Didn't Jesus tell His disciples to "Follow Me!", meaning every aspect of your life is going to be influenced by Him.
How does this fit into our lives as artists? Does God influence every aspect of our performing life? It is easy to see how God is part of the music we do at church or part of a special concert at our church but how about those performances we do that are in our communities? Does what we believe impact what we are willing to perform? Are there things we can NOT do because of what we believe? I am not advocating that we only sing "scared" music but there will be times we have to make a choice. We can not put our spiritual life on the shelf because we think it interferes with our everyday life, our everyday life needs to include and be fully run by our spiritual lives. Isn't that what being a Christian is all about, following Jesus every moment of every day?

SCRIPTURE READING
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Matthew 19:16-30, Romans 8:5-17, 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Colossians 3:1-3

BOTTOM LINE
Your spiritual life is not ONE area of our life but is something that permeates ALL areas of your life.