Dear Sisters & Brothers

I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

There is a great deal of buzz being created around certain secular artists and the lyrics of their most recent songs. Most recently Jay Z’s “New York State of Mind”. This song has caused a great deal of commotion within the Christian community, and has upset many, leaving people confused, angry and speculative about Jay Z’s motive for making the statement in the first place. While his statement is certainly offensive to the household of faith, it does not in any way rob God of his power, glory, or authority. If it were possible for any human to dethrone the Savior, then he would not be the Savior to begin with. So while these kinds of statements should get the blood pulsing through your veins, it should not at all rock your foundation and most certainly should NOT shock or surprise you.
I would rather not focus on those who purport the power to disclaim the sacrifice of the Lamb. I would however like to focus on the scriptures. Let’s pay special attention to the book of Jude. Verse three of Jude’s only chapter states, “Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.” If we are looking for the faith community at large to send a spokesperson to address every offense against our belief, then we are abandoning the commandment of the scripture to “defend the faith”. As believers we have been entrusted with the truth. If every believer, would live holy, and speak the truth then we would be effective in obeying this commandment. The greatest testament to the fact that Jesus has and still does “save” is by the power to live a holy and sanctified life, observing the scriptures, and by loving those around us. Perhaps our inability to demonstrate this consistently may lend to the idea that someone else needs to stand up and defend Jesus. I assure you brothers & sisters; Jesus does not need us to defend him. He has already overcome, has the victory, has been given all power and when he returns he is coming to make war and establish peace. So our task is not to defend Jesus, but to defend the reason why we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must defend the doctrine and teaching of our Master so that others may come to believe on him as well. We must be the written testament of Christ’s saving grace, in word and deed!
As I stated before, we must not be shocked when we hear these things. As you read further in the book of Jude verse 4 clearly tells us that what we are witnessing has been long foretold. “I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Regardless of what others may say about Christ it isn’t a surprise to God and should not be to us. Honestly speaking we must get a grip on our thinking. We want to believe that those who thank God for their awards and success acknowledge the same God of the scriptures that we do. The same “artists” that glorifies crime, fornication (pre-marital sex), drinking, smoking (of every variety), the degradation of women, clubbing, etc. are often the ones who claim to have a personal relationship with God. The simplest way to remedy this duplicity is to watch the fruit of those that claim to know God. And by the way, neither money nor bling are fruit of the Spirit.
Simply put, our job as believers is to defend our faith, and watch out for false teaching. We must constantly Live, and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s settle ourselves and continue to be the only bible some may ever read!

Blessings,
Pastor J. Banbury