Last Saturday night until 5:00am. The mandolin player is slowly departing, the guy on his right is gone, my grandson on his left has doubts and the guy in the hat is a nevermo from Ogden. Gorgeous blonde on right side is the woman I sleep with.
Posted on 09/04/2009 6:17:18 AM PDT by Colofornian
If you asked me who some of my favorite artists are right now, without hesitation I would say Natalie Grant, Nichole Nordeman and Britt Nicole. I know many of my friends haven't heard of them. I love to introduce people to these artists because they just might love their music too.
Grant, Nordeman and Nicole are widely known in the mainstream Christian contemporary music world. There is so much talent in and outside of the church. This week, I wanted to share some artists with you who are not LDS but are fellow Christians with a faith-promoting message.
In addition, I think LDS artists can be inspired by other Christian musicians. Their music has definitely inspired the way I write my songs. The Christian contemporary music genre has developed and grown in popularity over the last 50 years. I see that same development and increase in popularity happening in LDS music in the next 50 years. So we can look at the strengths of CCM music and integrate them into ours.
If you are looking for fresh, hip music with a positive message for yourself or your teenagers, here are three great suggestions. Or if you are a songwriter in need of a little musical inspiration, I hope that this will help.
Natalie Grant
Natalie Grant is my favorite singer/songwriter. I fell in love with her music a couple years ago when I heard "In Better Hands" on the radio. Grant's music recognizes human imperfections and adversity, but always has an overlying positive theme that Christ is our hope and our strength.
My favorite Grant songs: "Perfect People," "Our Hope Endures," "The Real Me" and "In Better Hands." Listen here: http://www.myspace.com/nataliegrant
Nichole Nordeman
Honest, hopeful lyrics that can turn a frustrated mood upside down and help you have a more positive outlook are the stamp of Nichole Nordeman's music. Her melodies are unforgettable, but her optimistic and poetic lyrics are what really stand out.
My favorite Nordeman songs: "Why," "Every Season," "Legacy" and "Finally Free." Listen here: http://www.myspace.com/nicholenordeman
Britt Nicole
Britt Nicole is my most recent favorite discovery. I bought a couple of her songs a year ago. But when I heard the single from her latest album released in August, it blew me out of the water. I pre-purchased her album on iTunes, and I have been listening to it ever since. You can hear her honesty and faith in every note.
My favorites from Nicole are: "Walk On Water," "The Lost Get Found," "Set the World on Fire" and "Have Your Way." Listen here: http://brittnicole.sparrowrecords.com/
Well, there you have it. These are three artists whose music I never get tired of. I turn it on when I need a pick-me-up. I turn it on when I need an extra reminder that I can completely trust God and things will be OK. And as a songwriter, I turn it on when I need some extra inspiration. It reminds me to be honest in my writing -- not afraid to acknowledge my imperfections because that is why I need my Savior.
I'd love to hear your responses to their music and who your favorite artists are. Feel free to e-mail me and let me know what you think of their music.
Nicole Sheahan is a singer/songwriter and is studying media music at Brigham Young University
Well, praise God that Ms. Sheahan -- and I assume many other young Mormons -- are listening to contemporary Christian music! And, I might say, it's rather bold for Ms. Sheahan to come right out & write about this. Prediction: Christian music can be a key vehicle to lead Mormons into a firsthand faith with the living God who doesn't share that title with mere mortals.
From the article: These are three artists whose music I never get tired of. I turn it on when I need a pick-me-up. I turn it on when I need an extra reminder that I can completely trust God and things will be OK. And as a songwriter, I turn it on when I need some extra inspiration. It reminds me to be honest in my writing -- not afraid to acknowledge my imperfections because that is why I need my Savior.
This last line is where Christian musicians can show a great impact upon the broader culture. The culture of Mormonism -- and too often within the Christian community as well -- breeds perfectionism. (It's just more concentrated among Mormons because of the self-help ladder they need to become "gods" ["Man can transform himself, but he has in him the seeds of Godhood that can grow. He can lift himself by his very bootstraps" -- Lds "prophet" Spencer W. Kimball (Tribune, Sept. 18, 1974)])
From the article: This week, I wanted to share some artists with you who are not LDS but are fellow Christians with a faith-promoting message. In addition, I think LDS artists can be inspired by other Christian musicians.
Well, what a switch. Hit the rewind button to the very first "vision" of the Mormon church. Besides later calling Christians "apostates," from the get-go Mormonism's founding leader referenced Christian professing believers as "corrupt" -- all of them; he found all their creeds as an "abomination" to their god -- all of them. A generation later, Lds leaders enshrined those words into Mormon "scripture."
And now? What do you think is the source for Christian recording artists' inspiration? Why, it's the same Bible that has informed the historic Christian creeds!
Besides. What would Mormons think if the flds wrote articles calling Mormons "fellow Mormons" and "other Mormons"...think they'd be satisfied about that?
Speaking of which there are other types of artists; 30 or them were here in Utah last week. We didn't ask them whether they were Christian or not as it makes no difference. Several are proudly post Mormon. Not one of them suggested that we do the work for Maynard Dixon
Certainly some misguided soul will most likely do that.
I think LDS may have a big hurdle to jump to try to clone CCM - Donnie and Marie.
Im waiting for i tunes to cary the following hits
"My peepstones done broke on the wagon trail"
"where dem plates, dem holy plates"
and "Daddys got 14 brides, aint he holy"
Lots of Maynard Dixons here, LOL....no matching birth date...yet!
Inman Ping
No. But if you can get a young adult Mormon to darken the door of a Christian church with such music, we'll see more & more Mormons leaving the stale Sundays @ Lds meetinghouses in favor of such lively churches.
Cultural music styles always impact religions -- and if the the religions won't budge, the people will.
LOL You know it will happen now. Any spies out there?
Last Saturday night until 5:00am. The mandolin player is slowly departing, the guy on his right is gone, my grandson on his left has doubts and the guy in the hat is a nevermo from Ogden. Gorgeous blonde on right side is the woman I sleep with.
Picture didn’t come through...try again.
Most contemporary Christian music is forgettable and derivative.
No thanks.
Sorry, I meant priesthood meeting Sunday morning at 5:00am
From what I can see, it looks like a pretty fun time!
Oh that looks so fun, and with so many who are leaving or have left.
Did you sing “Red River Valley,” or “Utah Trail,” or “Tell My Why?”
I long to sit by a fireside and sing those old songs. We always ended the night with “Show Me the Way to Go Home.” As a Mormon, I wondered about the lyrics....
...show me the way to go home,
I’m tired and I want to go to bed,
had a little drink about an hour ago,
and it went right to my head....
Oh My Love......”Unchained Melody” “My Favorite Spot is Utah”
Also "This Magic Moment"
Wow, look at the cliffs, unbelievable! They look like fire.
Maynard paid a visit on Saturday night to show us the light from heaven. Actually the forest fire created a reflection in the clouds that looked like reverse sunset. It was spectacular. Strengthened my belief in Mother Nature.
AHHH...much better.
WHY??
Joseph Smith stated that God told him: "they [other churches] were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt" (from Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History 1:19).Joseph Smith continues: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses, 18:172).President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses, 10:127).James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p.196).
oo bad that fellow was just into painting.
If he’d been also a sculptor, and made a statue of the King of Beasts, then you could determine whether you lived North or South of the Maynard Dixon lion!
Is that ex-MORMON time for Sunday morning?
If you didn't KNOW it was 'christian' you may think is was written for the teeny-bopper Hannah Montana 'fans' swooning over their latest Jonas love object.
Ah!!
More better!!!
I’m headin’ out your way next week!
Get ready!
Temple Mountain, in the Swell, is also getting a visit.
Got an old truck up there I want to inspect.
Between marker 83 and 84 highway 89. If you know about what time of day, I'll prepare my larder and/or my bar. If you need a place to stay, that too. Ask cc. Put your date and time on the calendar.
I’ve taken advantage of Mr. and Mrs. Binger’s good graces on more than one occasion. I hope I don’t wear out my welcome. They are awesome hosts!
I’m almost outta here for the weekend. I’m goin huntin in the mountains again.
I don't even know which DAY it'll be yet.
(I'm not much on pre-planning stuff ;^)
Listening to actual Christian Pop/Rock (Stryper, Amy Grant and others and yes it shows how old I am) while I was LDS planted several seeds that helped lead me out and to the Cross of Christ.
I remember one of my favorite Amy Grant songs was “I have decided”. At the time I didn’t understand the lyrics and knew it went against my LDS beliefs, but I couldn’t help but keep singing the song. Part of my struggle in leaving was trying to reconcile the truth of the song (and how it reflected what I felt) with LDS doctrine. After I left the LDS and became a Christian, I understood the song.
I have decided,
Im gonna live like a believer,
Turn my back on the deceiver,
Im gonna live what I believe.
I have decided,
Being good is just a fable,
I just cant cause Im not able.
Im gonna leave it to the lord.
Theres a wealth of things that I profess,
I said that I believed,
But deep inside I never changed;
I guess Id been deceived.
cause a voice inside kept telling me,
That Id change by and by,
But the spirit made it clear to me,
That kind of lifes a lie.
So forget the game of being good,
And your self-righteous pain.
cause the only good inside your heart
Is the good that jesus brings.
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