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#497 – Naughty Christmas Songs

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on December 11, 2012 by scotthiga

naughty-christmas-songs

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of our savior. Our world was trapped in sin and darkness but Jesus came to set us free. Even though Jesus began the process of redeeming the world and putting everything back together, we still see the effects of sin. Our entire universe is broken and that is evident even in Christmas songs.

A lot of Christmas songs are religious and a lot are kid-friendly classics. However, there are a few naughty Christmas songs that remind us of what Jesus came to save us from.

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#491 – Nerdy Christmas Carols

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on December 3, 2012 by scotthiga

Christmas-Carols-Origin-and-History

I love Christmas time. I’m a sucker for all of the traditions, parties and especially the music. I love Christmas music and listen to it as much as I can. I’m a firm believer that Christmas music should only be listened to during the Christmas season. So, to that end, I start listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving dinner through Christmas day. After that all the Christmas playlists get retired for another 11 months.

There are a lot of great Christmas carols but here are some of the nerdier ones. Read more »

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#476 – Country Music Worship

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on November 12, 2012 by scotthiga

This past weekend in church we had a special guest worship leader. Matt Rogers, an American Idol finalist and television host, is the brother of one of our board members. Matt and his sister led worship for us this weekend and the music had quite the country flair. Matt said Jesus is a country music fan, which completely turned my theology on its head. I had always assumed that country music was the work of Satan, sent to melt the ears and souls of humanity. In spite of my feelings towards country music, I have to admit that Matt did an amazing job leading worship this weekend and the music was great. Read more »

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#459 – Live While We’re Young

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on October 18, 2012 by scotthiga

I love me some boy bands.

I remember New Kids on the Block but I was a little too young to really get into them. When NSYNC and Backstreet Boys were at the height of their popularity, I was too cool for school and pretended that I didn’t like their music. Now that I’m firmly established in my adult life, though, I’m more than happy to listen to NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. I love playing their music for VBS and youth group. I’ve really come around to loving me some boy bands.

That love really doesn’t extend to One Direction yet.

Since I work with students I have been well aware of One Direction for over a year. The boy band from England is incredibly popular and their song “That’s What Makes You Beautiful” was one of our summer anthems for youth group. “That’s What Makes You Beautiful” was a fun song with a relatively positive message about self-esteem. Their new song, though, has an extremely negative message about making poor choices. Read more »

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#426 – John Williams

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on September 3, 2012 by scotthiga

Thanks to the generosity of Alycia’s grandparents, this past weekend we had the tremendous opportunity to see John Williams conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic. We spent Saturday evening at the Hollywood Bowl listening to music from different movies.

This is the second time I’ve seen John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl and both times it was quite the experience. The crowd is amazingly diverse. There are a lot of nerds, a lot of senior citizens and a lot of trendy Hollywood people. As you can see in the picture above, a lot of the nerds brought their lightsabers and they were proudly swinging them during “Duel of the Fates”, “The Imperial March” and “The Star Wars Theme”. Read more »

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#399 – Disengaging from Worship

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on July 26, 2012 by scotthiga

One of my favorite parts about summer camp is the opportunity to worship God through music. There aren’t many sounds sweeter than a room full of students praising and worshipping their God. Last night in chapel the worship leader taught the students some different postures for worship: like hands raised, bowed down or jumping around. It was a great lesson for the students about more fully engaging with worship through music.

I was onboard with everything the worship leader said until the end. Read more »

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#384 – If Our God is for Us?

Posted in Uncategorized with tags on July 5, 2012 by scotthiga

This week at camp we have been singing Chris Tomlin’s song “Our God”. I really like the song but its bridge has made me think quite a bit. Here is the bridge:

If our God is for us, then who could ever stop us?
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against?

Every time I song those lyrics there’s always this voice in the back of my head. It’s a small voice of doubt. I don’t doubt that God is for his children. I don’t doubt God’s ability to stand up for his children. I doubt that God would want to stand up for me when I’m intentionally disobedient and walking away from him. Read more »

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#344 – Licensed to Ill

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on May 10, 2012 by scotthiga

Last week Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, passed away from complications with cancer.

It’s always interesting to see how we’re affected by celebrity deaths. Sometimes celebrities die and I couldn’t care less. Other times celebrities die and it feels like someone I know passed away.

When I heard that MCA had died I was really upset.

Even though it came out five years after I was born, the Beastie Boys album Licensed to Ill provided the soundtrack to my high school experience. Everyone in my group of friends had the album and we all listened to it, when we were alone and when we were together.

Hearing that MCA died was like hearing I’d lost one of my high school friends. Licensed to Ill really was that big a part of our lives. Read more »

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#238 – Unjust Christmas Songs

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on December 7, 2011 by scotthiga

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ who described his mission as this:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Jesus came to bring peace and justice; he came to set things right. Some Christmas songs reflect this truth. “O Holy Night” contains this line:

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.

And in his name all oppression shall cease.

But there are a lot more Christmas songs that reflect injustice and even encourage us to participate in those activities. Read more »

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#232 – Secular Christmas Songs

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on November 29, 2011 by scotthiga

I love Christmas music and now that we’re through Thanksgiving I am listening to Christmas music nonstop. Whether that’s on my iPod or tuning into one of XM’s holiday stations, I am filling my life with Christmas music. I love all of the traditional Christmas carols; a lot of them have really deep theological meanings. There are also a lot of great secular Christmas songs that don’t have anything to do with the birth of our Lord and Savior. Here are some of my favorite secular Christmas songs.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

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