Playing with Skill and Professionalism is just another “wind of doctrine”

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I just can’t find anywhere in the bible any emphasis on individual skill and professionalism or comparing ourselves with others.  Every so-called “proof text” people have sent me over the years to justify playing with skill and professionalism turns out to be another “wind of doctrine” started from some poorly translated bible to justify people’s actions, completely unsupported by careful analysis of the text from the original languages and context, other related verses, and early Church history!  I also find it interesting that so many people pull verses from the Old Testament (OT) to prove their doctrine, when we have seen from the Conversational-Prayer and New Covenant Way pages that the NT and early Church restricted use of the OT scripture to prophecies of Christ and the completely different-in-kind New Covenant, and warned against teachers using the gramma writings collected into graphe scripture of the old covenant, especially the Torah Law of conditional-favor.

So much of this talk about skill and professionalism is just us judging ourselves or others by outward appearance, even though God looks at the heart (a).  So much of this is just the “cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that choke out the logos gospel message so that it becomes unfruitful” (b) because some musicians Christian music solely to make money, so they double whammy themselves!  So much of this is really just the “desires of the sarx flesh including . . . the pride of life that is absolutely not in fact from the Father but is from this world” (c).  But Jesus includes “pride” in the list of “evil things that come from within, out of the heart of man, that defile a person” (d).  And the Apostle Paul says “In the last days, people will become lovers of self, . . . proud and arrogant” (e).  Both the Apostle Peter and James quote Proverbs 3:34 “God oppose (f) the proud, but gives unconditional-favor-of-grace to the humble (g)” (h).  So much of this is just the “might and power” of the old covenant’s “antiquated” way of serving God (i).  So much of this is just a rigid obsession with our own plans, programs, and schedules, saying: “Today or tomorrow we will  . . . [accomplish such and such] . . . yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (m).  So much of this is just showing favoritism or partiality to the “wise and learned” at the exclusion of the “little children” (j) or the other “least among us“ (k).  But God shows no partiality, so why should we (l)?  So much of this is just the “nations seeking [and striving after] all these things [we say we need], but our Heavenly Father knows that we need them.  Instead we should seek [and strive after] first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and [trust that] all these things will be added to us.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” – like being a skilled and professional musician good enough to play in church. (n). <Notes> a) 1 Sam 16:7, b) Matthew 13:22, Mark 4:19, c) 1 John 2:16, d) Mark 7:21-23, e) 2 Timothy 4:6, f) stands firmly against, g) the lowly who are teachable, h) 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6, i) Zechariah 4:6, Romans 7:6, j) Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21-23, k) Jeremiah 31:34; Matthew 25:40-45, l) Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9; 1 Timothy 5:21; James 2:1, 9, m) James 4:13-14, n) Matthew 6:32-34.

As Christian musicians, what have you heard taught to you?  Have you really researched to see if this is legitimate?  Have your actually heard from the Lord otherwise?  It sure seems from the info above, there are a lot of things working against this “required skill and professionalism” theory, and the other BLOG links on the Skill page will dig even deeper.  Well you can start commenting on this page below!

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