On 1 Peter 5:7 After a question asked of @CSLCHSnMore

The New International Version (NIV) translates 1 Peter 5:7 as 'Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you'.

J.B Philips' New Testament paraphrase rather beautifully expresses it like this:

So, humble yourselves under God’s strong hand, and in his own good time he will lift you up. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern.

But what does this mean practically?

I came to Christ in my late forties having spent a lifetime looking for meaning everywhere but in God. Initially my interest in the Bible was one of intellectual curiosity. But as I read that started to change, to a point where things flipped from curiosity to conviction and unequivocal faith.

It took a while for me to let down my defences and pray properly. But when I did it really felt like throwing myself at Christ’s feet and saying ‘here I am; I believe; you are real and I know you are there for me’.

To the question asked: when I share my burdens in prayer, or even just get on my knees, address God and mumble jumbled thoughts in my head (which happens when it’s all too much or I’m too tired to think straight) I feel lighter afterwards. Physiologically less stressed. Years ago I was once prescribed diazepam for anxiety and the result is the same (though without the disinhibition associated with medication). When I think about the effect that prayer has on my stress response, given how foreign the concept of prayer was and my initial skepticism about it's power, I still find it remarkable.

There is a reason why people over the centuries have got on their knees to pray, head bowed, hands clasped. It is a posture of submission. In some respects a posture of defeat; an acknowledgement that my works have failed; that I give myself to you, God. That you have authority and control over me and my circumstances and this world.

Prayer can be a balm, a salve.

Throwing your anxieties on God is something very real when you have true belief that He is listening and that in Him you will not be tested beyond your limit. We believers must remember that we have the Holy Spirit within us who strengthens us beyond anything we could have imagined before we were first saved.

But that is something for another day. You will know it when you see it.

One of the most painful things about coming to Jesus later in life are the nagging regrets about the lost years and the consequences of poor choices made before your eyes were opened to the truth and the light.

Habakkuk 2:3 describes how ‘revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.’

There was purpose and intent to the timing of God’s unveiling for me. Perhaps part of that purpose was that I would write these thoughts down and that they might touch someone. I know that the sadness I have about my lost years pales into nothing compared with the pain Job and Hosea endured in God’s plan.

Joel 2:25 tells us that God will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.

There is life after death. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

But still, as a husband and a father, there are things that cannot be changed, the consequence of decisions made by a version of me that was impetuous, immature and thought he had it all figured out.

When I was a child I remember being taught at school the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20). The underlying message that God's grace is not earnt but is a gift was not the one I recall being highlighted at the time. It always confused me. Looking back though, there's another element relevant to those of us called Christ late in the day. That we are as valuable to The Lord as those called early.

If I could go back and do things differently I would. So many things would be easier now if I had realised where the truth lay twenty or thirty years ago. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But would I have the character I have now, if it weren't for the journey I've been on? When it comes down to it my life is not my own. Christ and the Holy Spirit chose when to bring me to Him. There must have been a reason for that, after all Matthew 7:14 tells us that the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life (Matthew 7:14).

Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.

Psalm 39:4-5

Our life in this world is but a breath. Our inheritance is eternal, pure and undefiled.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance - an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

1 Peter 1:3-4

I came to Christ in my late 40's, just over two years ago.

My salvation and my yearning for Christ is not shared by my wife.

I'm not sure if this is a rare scenario or just one that people in my position are ashamed to speak about, but it is one of the hardest things to handle when you are committed to your spouse and understand how your marriage must model Christ's love for and commitment to the Church.

The article below is the first I've come across which seems to understand this situation, even at all biblically. I mean I wish it was just that my wife just didn't take my faith seriously, but the truth is that it is a massive bone of contention; something where we are diametrically opposed.

But Almighty God did not give up on Israel despite it's hardness of heart. Christ gave himself whilst we were still sinners. Ephesians 5 doesn't come with caveats: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

I am convinced that God placed me in this situation for a reason. If it were His will He would bring my wife to Him. I have tried. And there is time. Just because my prayers are not being answered now does not mean they will not be answered. And I know that we are going through other trials which are not lending themselves to the opening of her heart to the Holy Spirit, right now.

But can you imagine having to make a choice between going to Church and honouring your commitment as a husband? Or baptism and your marriage? It is that fundamental. I want to give myself to the Kingdom. But in a word, it ain't that simple.

You may be asking why I don't just put my foot down. I'd ask what kind of marriage would that be.

Yahweh had 400 years to bring Israel round; I don't have that long. There is also childhood trauma and hurt playing into her anger at God. Perhaps I was placed here, now, knowing that it would take time.

When Peter wrote his first letter and addressed wives in the early Church (1 Peter 3:1-2), I believe he was considering the situation where wives were coming to Christ first. He didn't tell them to get indignant, he told them to win their husbands by their behaviour, 'without words'.

And he ended with a note to Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. (1 Peter 3:7)

As I finish writing, I'd appreciate your prayers. It is my fervent wish that God works a wonder in our lives and brings my wife to Him. In His time is fine, but it would be nice if it were sooner rather than later 🙂

In Jesus' name.

[www.americasfamilycoaches.com/blog/2020...](https://www.americasfamilycoaches.com/blog/2020/3/27/ani0idyaa68uoajwev4hqjyp4fm3sn)

Christ found me when I was 48 years old.

For almost all of that 48 years music was fundamental to me, something around which I built my identity. I identified tribally with the bands and groups I listened to. I dressed in ways that were influenced by the bands I liked and I prided myself in the eclecticism of my taste, and the depth of my collection. When I wasn't listening to music, I was obsessively focused upon amassing the gear to play it. I had a reputation in certain collecting communities for my work archiving old recordings. But in my heart I knew that I was finding my meaning in all the wrong places, and that my hobby was an idol.

I want to write this down because it might resonate with others out there. The intention of this is not to get legalistic. You listen to what you like. Do not feel that you must listen to worship music only to be a 'good Christian'. Do not be embarrassed about the fact that you enjoy secular music. Do use discernment though, and ensure you don't make others stumble, if they have more concerns than you. Much modern music and modern culture hates God, either through it's obsession with hedonism and sexual themes, or through the antics of stars themselves and the culture that raises them up. There is much to be discerning about.

For me, I want to focus on some specific areas where I have been convicted. These come from the heart of real music obsessive, not a casual fan or young person with posters on their wall. That was me when I was 15. Thirty five years later, I believe that there are a number of different dimensions where a new Christian may feel conviction: Identity, Collecting, Focus and Distraction, Content, and Motivation.

I will cover all of these areas as we work through this topic together. 

Identity

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

1 John 3:1

Christians by definition should find their identity in Christ.

When I was 15 I thought of myself as an 'Indie Kid'. I grew up in the 80's and was lucky enough to live through the golden age of post-punk independent music: Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Pussy Galore, Godflesh, Loop, Prong, Carcass, Bolt Thrower. My Bloody Valentine, Pale Saints, House of Love, Fields of the Nephilim. The Sugarcubes, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Darling Buds, The Shamen.

For a long long time, since I first heard Dark Side of The Moon as a five year old, I was into seventies Progressive rock.I collected Pink Floyd obsessively, trading live tapes with people around the world before easily sharing music on the internet was a thing. 

Bands like Consolidated were a gateway to anti-establishment politics, to the point that I went on to study politics at university, becoming very active in left-wing politics and protest. That had been another major identity for me, surrounded by like minded friends affirming the truth of our outlook, against the rest of the world. And dreadlocks.

As time went on and I settled, got a job, and had children going to Festivals would allow me to live out the fantasy of being a new age hippy, with beat-up camper van and military surplus boots. I loved 'festival scene' bands like Radical Dance Faction and Ozric Tentacles. I got into IDM, electronic dance music, bands like Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and Eat Static.

My identity was always through the music. As time went on I found new music but never left the old, resulting in a tendency to kaleidoscope between different genre based identities depending upon what I was listening to or who I was with. 

There was pride in being the biggest fan with the most interesting stuff. Which brings me onto...

Collecting

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

Jonah 2:8

Collecting by its nature elevates objects to something more. Idols. This distinction can be discerned by how you would feel if you lost that item, or if it were damaged. How would you feel. Does your collection own you, or do you own your collection. 

For me I had a passion for two things. Old reel to reel tapes, and old live recordings. Both were scarce. The former expensive, the latter just difficult to find. Both rewarded patience and work to track down and obtain them. This work, and the fixation on finding them resulted in an emotional investment which is difficult to break from. 

Over time there is a tendency for any effort to collect to become like train-spotting. A tick-box exercise in filling the gaps. When collecting music this is an easy trap. There are amazing online databases that tell you exactly what there is to find. Both official and unofficial. And with such things as live recordings, there is the pursuit of 'quality'. Of getting a copy closer and closer to the original recording. And once the original recording is tracked down, getting a careful copy on the best equipment is the ultimate objective. In this pursuit I may have collected 20 or more copies of the same show, all in the pursuit of the 'best copy'.

The snare of the collector is not confined to music of course, nor secular music, but the collector mindset is one that Christians should be aware of. We should be able to walk away from our collections without feeling like we are losing a piece of ourselves.

I had a friend once, many years ago, who was born again and gave away their collection. A seriously good collection of live recordings that they had invested much time in, and which they were well recognised for. I respect that. If the loss of your collection would break your heart, then your heart is not for Jesus. You need to be able to walk away.

Focus and Distraction

"What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself."

Blaise Pascal, Pensées

When I was younger I would spend hours, weeks, months, listening to music, reading about the bands and the scenes, chasing leads on recordings or releases. In my teens, in the days before the internet I would trade tapes with contacts around the world, copying cassettes in real-time. I had 500 Pink Floyd live tapes alone, by the time I went digital. I would listen to albums obsessively, reading the sleeve notes and transcribing lyrics. Writing to fan clubs. There were admittedly worse things I could have been doing with my time, but looking back, and now, it was wasted time and focus. It was time spent looking in the wrong place for peace and meaning.

It is very easy to get fixated on a new target, a new band or acquisition and it's easy to find that this has pushed everything else out of mind. And when, finally, you find what you were looking for, the satisfaction almost immediately pales. And a new target takes its place. It is an ultimately empty pursuit. It is empty because in the end, these things will never satisfy. The hole we are trying to fill is God-shaped, to paraphrase Pascal.

Content

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 15:19

This is the thing that most Christians seem to focus on when considering the threat from secular music, modern secular music. When I was 16 I met my father's brother for the first time. My uncle was Plymouth Brethren. I was wearing a Joy Division t-shirt and he warned me earnestly that rock music was demonic. That struck me as very weird at the time. Very little of the music I listened to was overtly anti-Christian. Joy Division had no demonic agenda. Thinking back, my t-shirt had 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' on it. I can see how antithetical that notion is to a Christian worldview. And it's that borderline that I currently find troubling.

There is an awful lot of overtly un-Christian secular music, mostly hedonistic, self-centred, hyper-sexual, or provocative in terms of symbolism, imagery or lyrics. That stuff is obvious. Christ sought out sinners but not to affirm them. We are called to be in the world, but not of the world.

One of my favourite albums was Geogaddi by a duo called Boards of Canada. They do quite chilled-out electronic music that evokes childhood and the countryside. They sample seagulls and campfires. But they also flirt with themes like numerology, and The Branch Davidians. These themes are very cleverly interwoven, knowingly clever, I think they want people to find the clues. They have a track called The Devil Is In The Details, where according to one fan-wiki "The bassline and melody of The Devil Is In The Details are an octave and a major sixth apart. The bassline/melody repeats the first note three times, yielding three consecutive "sixths" in a row, i.e. 6-6-6.". The album is 66 minutes, 6 seconds long. This has come to make me feel deeply uncomfortable. Knowing jokes or not, the devil is insidious.

Pink Floyd interpolated a rewriting of Psalm 23 into 'Sheep' on their 1977 album Animals. I understand the point they were trying to make with that song, but again, it has made one of my favourite songs by them very difficult to listen to. Their intention with that song doesn't just target establishment religion and it's place within societies control structures, it targets me and God's word.

Another of my favourite albums was Arif Mardin's musical interpretation of The Prophet by Kahil Gibran, with Robert Harris reading the text. Harris' voice is sublime and Arif Mardin was a master arranger, who assembled a stellar cast of 70's jazz musicians for the project, but I find the concept troubling now, as if in defiance of Biblical truth. Mystical works such as Gibran's risk replacing God's truth. I find that difficult.

A lot of the music I now listen to is instrumental. I love jazz. Music is a gift of God. It is a universal language and can speak directly to our emotions in a very profound way. This is not an accident. Just as God made beauty in the rules of mathematics, he made beauty in music. The first for the head, the second for the heart. 

It is interesting how some of the most beautiful music is created by some of the most troubled, and flawed individuals. Conduct for me becomes a problem when it is held up as an example to follow. We all have aspects of ourselves that we would prefer others did not know about, and the lifestyle of the musician puts them in temptations way more than many occupations. One of my favourite musicians is the jazz pianist Bill Evans. Bill died tragically at the age of 51 after what one friend called 'the longest suicide in history'. He first used heroin in the late 50's, and this, plus cocaine addiction was the blight his life until the end. But he never glamourised it. Few outside his circle knew about it and he remained prolific, performing has last show 5 days before his death. It is a dreadful shame that he didn't live into old age, particularly as the shows of his final year are amongst the best of his career.

Motivation

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

Just as we give glory to God through how we do, not what we do - as a cobbler gives glory in the quality of his stitching not simply by putting a cross on each shoe - we can use our love of music, whether secular or not, to reach others. We do not do this by assimilating to the world, excusing the excesses of modern culture, and holding on to our passions like wooden gods, but by being a light to the world, an example to others. Pointing to the cross.

My experience since accepting Christ is that I no longer yearn for the sanctuary I found in music, collection and tribalism, like I did. It just stopped being that all-consuming passion that it once was. My heart turned to Christ, to understanding God's word and how it applied to my life. 

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new

2 Corinthians 5:17 

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That 'infinite abyss' that Pascal wrote of no longer demands it be filled with the work of human hands.

As with all things of this world, we must use discernment to ensure we keep our eyes focused on what is right, and what is good. We cannot hold on to the old idols. But there is glory in all of God's creation, whether nature, or music, both secular and non. It is possible to give Him that glory without removing ourselves completely from the world He has created. We must ensure though that our hearts are pointed towards the right place.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'

Matthew 16:24-25

I've just finished reading Miller & Soden's 'In The Beginning ... We Misunderstood', which promised much but ultimately left me stronger in my view of a young earth, literal six day creation.

The book states that it seeks to interpret Genesis 1 as the ancient near-easterners did, the Exodus era Hebrews to whom Moses first presented Genesis.

In a nutshell it says that Genesis 1 is figurative, and that it 'recasts' Egyptian and Mesopotamian creation stories to show that Yahweh is the one true creation God.

The bottom line though is that this rips both the divinely inspired nature of Genesis, and the fundamental truth of Genesis from the foundation and heart of scripture. 

While the authors claim that theirs is not an attempt to rewrite Genesis in light of modern scientific understanding, that science is not fixed, and that to force scripture to align with science is a fools errand, their flimsy theological arguments and assertions do suggest that their master is science and the theology is being made to fit. The same points are made repeatedly and are less argued than just stated.

I'm just a regular guy, but I feel strongly that regular people have just as much right to an opinion as 'educated theologians'. I do feel that I am in good company though. Soden and Miller say nothing about what the early Church fathers might have thought, and repeatedly imply that young earth creationism is more of a modern concept, popularised by the book The Genesis Flood by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb published in 1961.

This is a serious omission, but I can see why they chose not to, as the young earth, literal six day view of creation was the consensus view within the Church all the way through until and even well after The Enlightenment. Serious challenge to the literal reading of Genesis 1 is a very modern phenomena.

Miller and Soden make some interesting points about the numbering of the creation days - the first being 'one day' rather than 'first day'  and the importance of the sixth day, as determined by it being 'the' sixth day. But these are minor points.

Fundamentally I think the reviewer on 'Thinking to Believe' has it right when he notes in passing that 'If Genesis 1 is a recasting of the Egyptian creation account, then no revelation would be required for Moses to write what he wrote. If God was inspiring the book, we would expect for God to make a theological point using actual history, not fabricated myths.'

And this gets to the heart of the matter. 

Genesis is not just another creation story. It is THE creation story. Jesus believed it to be literally true, quoting Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:24, and Genesis 5:2 in Matthew 19. Why would the early Hebrews believe Moses 'recasting' of the old stories? Jesus certainly wasn't scared of confronting pre-existing cultural norms, why would Moses, when under direct inspiration and regarding the then most important story ever to be told?

It does not surprise me that there are parallels between ancient creation stories and Genesis. Flood narratives abound because The Flood actually happened and that experience is seared into the memories of many ancient cultures, who preserved it in their own oral traditions and historic narratives. Likewise stories of the Creation.

Creation happened. Humanity's collective consciousness about the event will have carried it's shadow down the generations from Adam and Eve into the four corners of the Earth over the 2,500 years or more until Moses committed the truth of the event as God chose to share it - around the time of the Exodus. 

No man witnessed creation, and The Bible does not say whether Adam and Eve were told about the events prior to their creation, but the stories of the pre-man world predated the revelation of Genesis, and this common consciousness will have informed many creation narratives.

Almost at the end of the book there is a quote from a friend of Johnny Miller's, a 'top-notch geneticist who retired from Cornell University. He had been an atheist most of his life, and said that even after becoming a Christian, for a long time he remained a “compromised” Christian and a theistic evolutionist. He wrote:

I am now a creationist. I am getting stronger and stronger scientific reasons to defend my position, but these are not the real basis of my faith. As I have studied Scripture I have seen that believing God is “counted as righteousness,” and that unbelief really is sin. Salvation comes from surrendering: 1) our will, 2) our heart, and 3) our mind to the Lord. Have you done step 3? Would you be willing to be a fool for Christ?'

And that sums up how I feel. 

Useful resources:

Read the book on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/323339414

Answers in Genesis article on the Early Church Fathers view on  Creation.

Creation Ministries International rebuttal of Miller and Soden.

A review of the book on the Thinking to Believe blog which makes some interesting points, but who's view ultimately I disagree with.