Have you earned the right to serve God's purpose?

I'm late with this article. Sure.. I know. I've been tangled up in other things (like debating why this was a GOOD thing (http://hcr.fm/forum/showthread.php?t=28202). So now I'm ready to give my formal opinion on this matter after having tested my opinion against the iron of other believers and I still feel the same way. This was a GOOD THING!

I could make sarcastic comments like "American Idol has already done more evangelism and witnessing than most of America's 'christian' population", but that wouldn't serve any purpose other than bolstering my pride (puffing up my chest because I feel "I'm right"), or offending my brothers and sisters in Christ. So I'm trying to discuss this in love, and being honest with myself and taking an honest look at scripture and what it has to say on the matter, and I don't see anywhere in the Bible where this can be viewed as a bad thing! In all of the questioning, the investigating, and the debating, I've found consistency on both sides. On my end, there seem to be plenty of Biblical examples that relate to the unsaved doing works in the name of God and it still being counted as useful for the Body of Christ, and on the opposing side, I can tell, there is this over all nagging feeling that something just isn't right about all of this! That's something I can agree with, but I think the mistrust is misplaced here.

I'll concede a bit, sure, I didn't rush out to buy the P.Diddy gospel album, and to this day I still wouldn't recommend it, but to me these are two seperate issues that do share a lot of similarities. So much so that it's hard to justify one without hypocritically denying the other if that's the road you want to take. The more I think about it, the more I want to take a universal stand on all of it. Either I'm okay with the lost (And we assume the role of judge here when we try to decide this) doing music for the worship of God, or I'm against it all. In all honesty, I'm leaning towards allowing it all. Take a good look at the title of this article... "the right to serve God's PURPOSE". I worded it like that purposefully because I wanted to make the destinction about my argument. I wanted to make it clear that I'm not in agreement with the view that sinners cannot be used by God. NO ONE has to EARN the right to be used by God. In fact, I believe EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL on Earth, is serving God's purpose. That being the case, God had already ordained that song to be sung on American Idol, just as God ordained Hurricane Katrina, or 9-11, or any other catastrophe that may cause us to look at God and shake our fists like "WHERE WERE YOU!!??!!??". Firstly, That's blasphemy and secondly God ordained those things. (Let me take this time to say also to anyone reading this that may have lost a loved on in a catastrophe, I mourn with you and you have my prayers! May God bless!).

I don't want to get too far off course of the topic, but very briefly, let me explain. I'm not saying God willed those things as some kind of punishment to those who were affected or lost their lives, or some kind of rebuke against the nation or anything like that. I believe, as stated before, that EVERY single thing that ever happens on Earth was planned and ordained by God... why? For his GLORY. The Earth is FULL of his Glory. To believe that anything can catch God off guard or by surprise, is to lower God in his position as... well... God. How can we believe that God knows all things but forgot about this one little thing that ended up hurting people. We have to believe that God knew and allowed it. God allowed the flood and saved Noah and the animals in the ark. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. God ordered the nation of Israel to go to war. Sometimes we may need to do a check on who we believe God to be. God can use the wicked like he used pharaoh to magnify himself! The Bible records that God himself, hardened pharaohs heart and made it wicked! So that God would be magnified by Israel! He used the sinful, to magnify His name for those He loved and chose! Same thing here. God used those who may be in sin to magnify His name before those he chose!

Of course there are a ton of arguments that would warn against this, but I have to side with scripture. It sends the wrong message! It opens the door to all kinds of people doing gospel albums! Again, I must side with scripture. Which to me clearly says "as long as it's done to glorify God..., as long as Christ is preached, I rejoice!" (Phl 1:18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.).

In my gut, I don't agree with people who are obviously living in sin doing gospel songs. My argument in the case of American Idol, is that these people didn't choose the song, it was chosen for them so holding them individually accountable for the merit of their worship seems silly to me. They were trying to win a competition, there may have been those who actually DID enjoy and WANT to sing the song out of worship for God.

This is still something I'm wrestling with, but overall, I'll need to submit my thoughts to what scripture teaches and what brings God the most glory. AMEN!