Music and Sermons: Food For the Soul

Men cannot live without food for long but the same applies to the soul, the seat of reason.

If all the music that we listen to is full of all sorts of abusive words, then let’s not be surprised when words that were off limits decades ago are now considered normal in our everyday discourse.

The bible says, “above everything else guard your heart, because from it flow the springs of life”.

We all have a responsibility whether we are Christians or not to protect our souls from pollution.

Just as we are very careful when it comes to feeding our bodies we should also exercise the same care when it comes to our souls.

The soul has its own food and to a Christian like me that includes among others, good Christian music and Christian sermons.

There is nothing that touches a restless and stressed out soul than listening to good music and sermons.

We however need to know that music and sermons can also be abused and used to promote all sorts of evil things.

Since time immemorial music has been used by politicians and Christian preachers and other religionists to reach their targeted audiences with their messages.

So both Christian and secular music has been used as vehicles to reach the hearts and minds of people especially the youth.

Therefore, while music has been used for what I as a Christian may call positive ways it has also been abused by dictators and evil people to convince others of their evil views.

I once read a story about how Adolf Hitler used loud rock music in open air meeting to indoctrinate the youth and to prepare them for his speeches.

His chief propagandist Josef Goebbels is quoted as saying "Music affects the heart and emotions more than the intellect. Where then could the heart of a nation beat stronger than in the huge masses, in which the heart of a nation has found its true home?”

Since music is viewed more of a leisure thing it is very easy to use it to present subtle dangerous messages that would not wash if presented in a speech or sermon.

Therefore, while Christian music can be used to present message of God’s love and other positive things to the masses, it can also be used to present error and hatred.

It therefore cuts both ways in that it can be both positive and negative and we all have a duty to protect our soul from being polluted with hatred and negativity.

We all therefore have to be very careful when choosing our music and whatever we choose to listen to.

Let’s make sure that we provide our souls with good food.

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