What annoyed you about it? Did you not like what it said? Did it make you feel guilty? Or was it just on an aesthetic level (the sound of the music and the guy's voice)? And if you didn't like the sound of the song, why did that change? Did your musical tastes just change?
I really liked the lyrics, and it didn't make me feel guilty at all; I just really didn't like their sound altogether that much; and maybe I didn't like their sound much, because I really didn't like how "rock" music sounded that much altogether. My musical tastes have changed. Other artists/bands whose sound I didn't really like, I started liking after a while. So it changed overtime. Several months after I heard "Run" I heard "Sea of Faces" and "It's Like Me", I liked the lyrics again, but still didn't like the sound. About, maybe a year and half later, I heard their versions of a couple of worship songs that I knew, and I liked their versions of them. So I bought the Strong Tower cd (not something I was planning, but there was a bunch of other songs that I knew on there, and since I liked their versions of the previous worship songs I heard, I got it), and God started touching heart through their music; from that point on I started liking their music.
More detail is exactly what the song needs. What you explained is powerful, but the song doesn't actually explain any of that. So it makes sense to people who already know the theology behind it. However, to someone who is a non-Christian or a baby Christian, they might not know that, so I think this is where Kutless needs to take more responsibility for their craft. I don't think songwriters should necessarily explain everything they write, particularly if they're trying to be more poetic, but poetic has never been Kutless's M.O. They're trying to be straightforward and conversational, and still missing the mark due to their small vocabulary and tendency to describe things rather vaguely.
Well the song itself might not explain what I said, but that's something I've taken away from the lyrics that are present in it. I don't really think the song was written directly with non-Christians in mind at the time, the lyrics say: "whatever happened to love, the love you had for Me, when you first came to Me", and I've read that Jon Micah wrote this song at a spiritually dry point in his life. The song talks about how our love for God has grown cold, and how He's still reaching out to us, when we're not seeking Him. So I guess my question would be, how do you write songs that explain things well to unbelievers, but at the same time encourage those who are believers already to grow much deeper with their walk with God? Can you really do this with much detail in the same song, without making the song extremely long and sort of sounding like a run-on? Of course God can use songs that are more specified for Christians to reach the hearts of those who aren't Christians, and vise versa, but how do you think people should write songs, when they are trying to reach those who do believe and those who don't believe at the same time? What details should be given?
I see what you're saying here, but it sounds like about a thousand other Christian bands could have had the same effect on you, if not a more profound one.
Of course they could have, and God has used many Christian bands in my life....and not just Christian bands, but preachers, teachers, people, phrases, the list could go on and on. In my life, He doesn't just use one thing to impact me, though He might use one more than another many times, He uses a series of things. I still ask myself why I even started liking the music of Kutless, and why He has used them in my life so much, He could use anybody....but for some reason He chose them, to give me the right words and encouragment I needed to hear, at the right time.
Name another specific song and what you realized/changed/put into practice as a result of hearing it. You're talking in generalities and honestly, kind of losing me here.
Okay, I'll go with "Not What You See" this time. God has used this song to help change the conditon of my heart, how I respond toward things, and what my attitude is like all throughout the day. It reminds me (and God brings it to my mind when I need to hear it) that being the greatest is being the least, washing someone else's feet. That being the slave, the servant of all, is better than having pride come before a fall. We never like to give up our pride; doing that, makes us feel uncomfortable and and causes us to do things we don't want to do. Really, it reiterates the words of Jesus: be servants to all. Then, in the song, it describes that Jesus, the One
who is worthy of all exaltation, humbled Himself...."even He, He laid it down, to serve on bended-knee." Which in turn, reminds me of this Scripture: "...He humbled Himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Phill. 2:8 What Jesus did for us, leaves us with no excuse, for being proud and not resembling Him in humility everyday of our lives.
Speaking of pride and humility, let's go to "Pride Away". This song is like a prayer to me, especially the second verse: "Lord keep me only focused on You, make me a humble man. Don't ever let me take the credit, for what You have done." "In every single one of our lives, in every single day, we need to lay down our pride as God takes it away."
Yeah, and sometimes I think it's easy to just put that "Spirit" tag on things so that we won't have to do the work to describe what's really going on. I know God is working, I'm just asking what exactly He's doing and whether Kutless was really as big a part of that as you claim they were.
Well, it's true people do put the "Spirit" tag on things, but honestly how can you describe God's presence touching Your heart? No words can really describe what happens inside, when you know He's there, and He meets with you and inhabits you in that special way. It really is difficult to describe to you the things of the Spirit in natural terms.
"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 2:15
Yeah, and can someone please transmit this to the thread it relates to? I started typing this before that thread existed.
