Preach the Word..

"Preach the Word" this saying more than anything else is at the heart of who I am.  I was always taught by my former pastor as well as other ministers of the faith to always, Preach the Word.  This single statement are the first three words of the text in 2 Timothy 4:2

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

I love this charge Paul gives his son in the ministry, Timothy.  The truth of his statement really is a safeguard from anything the devil, your flesh, or the world may throw at you.  Regardless of what people may think or how even my own pride may step in and try and deter me; I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, I preached the word of God.  This personal known truth keeps the minister at peace with himself and his work.  Sure we can scrutinize and nitpick on what we could of done better; but at the end of the day, we preached the word.

I say this because CHH (Christian Hip Hop) is taking the world by storm.  To me; being a fan of rap, I love it.  Now I do not care to listen to secular/worldly rap music anymore because of the message it brings and the fact I don't want to feed my spirit things that I know will warp my way of thinking.  So the advance of CHH is great for me because I can still get my rap "fix" but also get fed uplifting gospel.  Now for me; I am pretty particular in what I listen to now.  Beats and rhymes are not enough for me.  If I don't hear sound biblical teaching with no compromise; I will turn it off and pitch it into the trash.  There are many, many, many CHH artists that are on the up rise; so much so that MTV is apparently making a segment strictly for CHH artists to showcase their faith and music.  At first I had a very negative attitude with this because the only thing on my mind is separate but equal.  After some prayer and reflecting on my thoughts the Holy Spirit began to help me see things from a different perspective.  "A slice is a slice" is what came to mind.  Here's why....

When Rap/Hip Hop joined the scene 40 years ago (yep I am getting old) it was impossible to deny its force in society.  Because of rap/hip hop everything changed.  Every genre of music started to adopt rap, commercials began using rap (think fruity pebbles), movies began using it in soundtracks.  Hip Hop became so big that it became the premiere place to showcase art, clothes, alcohol, movies, anything.  Whether people like it or not; Hip hop has invaded the very nature of life as we know it.  So when I see CHH making such a loud booming voice that the world has no choice but to acknowledge; I say praise God.  But I also say Preach the word!!!

The beats may be nice and the rhymes are tight, but if their is no word then it's just noise.  If at the heart of the song it's not to educate the lost, uplift the body of Christ (the church), praise Jesus Christ, Worship God in all that you do; then it's........just.......noise.  I stand by CHH 100% but I am also watching and praying for these laborers in hopes that they are laboring for the kingdom and not just for themselves.