perverse things . You don ’ t want to fill your mind with perverse music , right ? There ’ s a difference between perverse music and innocent music .
I would say there ’ s plenty of non-believers making innocent music that is good , that ’ s talking about good things like falling in love with someone , that ’ s talking about life , everyday life . And some of you might not agree with me , that ’ s totally fine . I love you , Lord bless you . But they ’ re talking about everyday life . I ’ m not just a worship leader . I ’ m a Dad and I ’ m a husband and I ’ m in love with my wife . I need songs that inspire my relationship with my wife . I ’ m a Dad and I ’ ve got to be a good Dad . I work around people and I ’ ve got to be a good friend to people . So I need songs and art that I can have amazing moments with God listening to a Bono song or you can , as a mature believer , you should be able to look at things that are beautiful and be able to extrapolate out and go , well , there ’ s the beauty in it and that comes from God .
Here ’ s the things that might be kind of like … okay , whatever . I can spit that out because that doesn ’ t come from God . Or maybe that was a person that was just misled a little bit . They didn ’ t understand . There ’ s a difference between doing that and then protecting yourself from perverse things that are actually twisted .
And so the last thing I would say here is that sometimes we are basically saying without saying it , that beauty is not God ’ s territory . If we say things like , well , if something ’ s so beautiful it might distract me from God . Well , you ’ re basically saying that beauty doesn ’ t come from God . So if a song doesn ’ t have to quote a scripture for me ( as much as I love the Word ) a song doesn ’ t have to quote a scripture for me to move my heart and for me to experience the presence of God as long as it doesn ’ t have anything perverse in it , but it ’ s filled with beauty , it ’ s filled with goodness , and it ’ s filled with truth about life . And it ’ s done in an excellent way , in a beautiful way . Well , my goodness , I can meet God in that place .
One of my favorite songs right now that I am encountering the presence of Jesus in is a song by David Gray . I don ’ t even know if he ’ s a believer . I ’ m sure he probably comes from the UK . I ’ m sure he has that in his bones somewhere . But it is a song called “ Heart and Soul ”. And I wish I could play it for everyone in this room . It ’ s unbelievable .
[ Frank ] I hear what your saying , Leeland . Solomon says , there ’ s nothing new under this sun . I think it was Bob Dylan that said , “ Every poet ’ s a thief ”. So , I get the idea of that , but how do I stay true to myself and to who I am and I ’ m just not going to copy what Chris writes like , or what Brenton writes like , or how Leeland says things . How can I be me ?
[ Brenton ] I mean , the hard part is not being me . Everybody ’ s got their own history . I grew up in Cape Town , South Africa , lived in England , moved to California … just musically , if you throw those things together , you ’ re going to get something unusual on any given day . So for me , the real challenge is to write something that moves me . I mean , that ’ s what I ’ m after . And when you ’ re younger and you ’ re an earlier writer , everything moves you . And then as you get older , you have to work to be moved by something . It ’ s like , so it ’ s got to have something that moves me and then it ’ s got to be something that moves other people . If one
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