Stever: Excellent post! You DO understand the real battle is against the principalities of the dark side. I totally identify with your comment "how much do I want to pursue building relationships with people in their lost and ungodly ways?" Man...that's me. But, most of the world is lost and needs God's people to be there at the right moment to point the way to Him. Your comment on not understanding your wife is the common thread of all mankind. Women are truly a blessing...but also, a mystery in how they think about things. I have been very hurtful at times to my better half in the poor ways I have communicated with words or body language. They are generally sensitive creatures, true? God must have known what He was doing when He built a "being" to complement man. Your comment on "pride" is also spot on. I think I can detect it so easily in others because of the speck in my own eyes. Ha. Your comment on Josh McDowell is exactly the kind of things he was saying also. The guy is an awesome apologist for the Lord and truly a lover of our youth. He has a lot of passion. I agree with you about what worship is in God's eyes: It's presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to a living Lord to use as He wishes. Where we differ is our thinking is about corporate worship. God wants us to have fellowship with believers. He wants us to encourage one another. He loves when His people lift up their voices in praise to Him because Scripture tells us He is a jealous God who hates idolatry. When Jesus said, "My father’s House shall be called a house of prayer" He was contrasting what the thieves were doing. Just because He didn't articulate everything about His Father's House doesn't mean He would disapprove of His people not only praying to Him in His house, but offering themselves as living sacrifices, praising Him in their testimonies, and especially praising Him in song ("Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord" (Eph 5:20)). To suggest God is being robbed of His rightful glory when His people are lifting up their hearts/souls in songs of praise to Him with His own Scripture set to music is...insulting! (I'm a big boy. I can take insults, but prefer not to from a "brother"). Your mischaracterizations of "inventions of the world" misses the mark, Stever. Like any other man-made (God-inspired) tool, man can choose to use it for good, or for evil. The "worldly tool" is not inherently evil, but how we choose to use it could be. Can I kill someone with a hammer? Sure. Can I use the internet for eye candy vice information research? Absolutely. Can I write a song which glorifies Satan with dischordant notes, rhythms, and lyrics that are "sensual". Yes! But I, in turn, ask you, what kind of a God would ...give His people the gift of music; the passion to write a thank you song of praise to Him (using His words); the talent to learn to make beautiful melodies and harmonies with voices and instruments made from His creation; then despise these very "worldly" people praising Him in corporate worship? That wouldn't be a God I would choose to love. I guess we can agree to disagree. Romans 14:5-8 suggests as much. "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. FOR NONE OF US LIVES TO HIMSELF ALONE AND NONE OF US DIES TO HIMSELF ALONE. If we live, WE LIVE TO THE LORD; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, WE BELONG TO THE LORD." Stever, you're on the right track. Let's rejoice in Colossians 3:15-17, shall we: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another WITH ALL WISDOM, and as you SING PSALMS, HYMNS, AND SPIRITUAL SONGS with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, DO IT ALL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, giving thanks to God the Father through him." --Ziobuck better understanding his friend, Stever