Darrow Shares Why He Wrote LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day

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The Universe is Ultimately Beautiful

The Aesthetic
That God is the first and perfect artist is attested by the beauty of creation. The fact that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” establishes the metaphysical foundation for all of the arts (painting, writing, composition, sculpting, dance, etc.) and  for human creativity. Beauty enriches our lives and brings a [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 9 & Final

Does our King rule arbitrarily?  No.  He governs through His eternal laws and ordinances.  People and nations will prosper, living within the framework of God’s order.  They will suffer impoverishment and enslavement by choosing to live outside of this order.  We are measured against God’s laws and ordinances.  The Lord’s Prayer reminds us that Christ wants Heaven [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 8

We are coming to the end of our look at the New Year’s Carol – Joy to the World.  We have celebrated with Isaac Watts, the author of this wonderful carol, the joy and reason for the joy:  Jesus is the Messiah and His Kingdom is coming.  Christ is both Savior and Lord of both the [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 7

I mentioned earlier that years ago I had a “revelation” when I was singing this hymn.  This was the stanza that startled me.  There is an imperative here, “No more let sins and sorrows grow!”  How far?  “As far as the curse is found.”  Here in this hymn are marching orders for Christians.
No more let [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 6

How are we to respond to this good news?  The answer is found in the second line of the stanza:  ”Let men their songs employ!”  What does this mean?
To employ is “to use as an instrument of means” (Noah Webster’s 1828).  We use a saw for cutting, a pen for writing, a brush for painting, [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 5

Let me continue to unpack the words of this incredible New Year’s carol.  The second stanza reads:
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy
In Watts’ original lyrics, the first line of this stanza reads “Joy to [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 4

In the second line, Watts says “Let earth receive her king.”  Note that the object of the first two lines has changed, from world to earth.  I don’t think this was a slip of the pen or poetic variation in his writing.  Watts was not only a hymn writer, he was theologically grounded.  I think he [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 3

Now I want to look in detail at the New Year’s carol – Joy to the World.  In the next installments of this blog series we will examine the significance of each stanza for our lives as we enter this New Year.
As we have said, this hymn celebrates the coronation of King Jesus and announces [...]

Music that Writes Culture, Part 2

Like so many young people today, Isaac Watts (1674-1748.) was frustrated with the quality of the hymns at his church.  After one Sunday service, he complained to his father, who challenged Isaac that if he did not like the hymns, he should produce something better.  The next Sunday, at age 18, young Watts brought his first [...]