One stunning question

It's probably been over a year since I stopped choosing to listen to any secular music. To most people this seems like a thing to do based on a pride that shows how good of a Christian I am or that I'm just crazy. To me, not listening to secular music has been amazing. There are so many incredible songs that I have found by being picky enough to only listen to Christian music. For me, listening to Christian music means listening to songs with lyrics that are intended to glorify, worship and praise God. There are a lot of different artists who claim to be "Christians". There are significantly less of them whose lyrics are always meant to glorify and praise God. I usually choose to not listen to those self proclaiming Christians who write music that has no obvious purpose of glorifying God. I don't want to stir up disunity, but I do want to ask a question. "Why would you choose to entertain yourself with an act of rebellion against God that's ultimate purpose is self-glorification?" Yes, I did (intentionally) make that sound really bad. For those of you thinking about how you can defend your choice of entertainment, honestly ask yourself why you are enjoying this feeble entertainment when you could be spending your time storing up treasures in heaven. There are a lot of people who are really smart and can probably figure out a way to argue with me. There are lots of good things to do, there are very few things that are the best you and I can be doing. I have heard (from a very close friend) an argument for the fact that he can glorify God through secular music. I think it "might" be possible, but why settle for something like music made to defy the ultimate being in the universe when you have so readily the option of entertaining yourself with music made to glorify, praise and worship? Think about it, what type of music will be heard throughout heaven? How many scriptures talk about shouting to the Lord and singing praises to His name? If in the PERFECT state, we will be hearing and singing music that is made FOR THE PURPOSE of glorifying God, why would we choose anything less than that while on earth? If any of you are thinking to yourselves that I don't know what I'm talking about and think I haven't heard any secular music so I have no idea what I'm missing out on, your wrong. I'm a little sad to say that I have heard tons of secular music. I have a brother that was at one point looking into being a professional musician. I have heard such a large variety that I don't honestly know how one person could like so many different types of music (my brother that is).

But if our purpose is to glorify God, shouldn't that always be our goal?

Psalm 34:1 "I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth."

A man after God's own heart, inspired by God to say this. What sort of songs would he be listening and singing along to? How can we be blessing the Lord at ALL times when we have idle lyrics stuck in our heads?

Psalm 33:34 "Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God."

The reason that God has blessed this earth with music is to glorify Himself. Why would we use it for anything else?

I am no better than anyone else. I have committed sins that are worthy of eternal damnation. I have sins that I struggle with constantly. I don't want to make it sound like I am so much better than you, I feel that God has given me grace to see how often my actions are rooted in sin.

This may completely change the way you think about music and it may do absolutely nothing. Please think about this question "Maybe you can use secular music for good, but can you use it for the best?"

After writing everything up to this point I talked to some other Christians. Now I want to make sure I am not misunderstood. I do believe that it is "possible" to glorify God through listening to secular music. I just think that usually our intent in listening to secular music is not glorifying God. Thinking about whenever I listened to a secular song, I don't think my intention was glorifying God. In fact, I know that my ultimate desire was self-pleasure. The reason I chose to point this out is that it is an area in which we can very easily represent Christ or represent ourselves. When we are representing Christ we don't look like the world. When we represent ourselves, we usually do. I think there could be a great witnessing opportunity towards those who don't listen to the same things. Maybe they will even ask you why you are so "weird". What an amazing opportunity to share your faith!

My goal in posting this is to make us as Christians think about why we do what we do. Why do we choose to listen to secular music? Is our ultimate goal glorifying God or just entertaining ourselves? I don't want to say that entertainment is bad, just that EVERYTHING we do should have the ultimate purpose of glorifying God.