Some Never Get A Choice

Well, it's that time again -- the time in which American newspapers and televisions are focused on one thing in particular: politics. I used to be big into politics back in my high school days. But the older I get, the more and more I get dissatisfied with both parties. A man came by the house the other day giving me information about his beloved presidential candidate. When asked what issue most affects my family? I paused and said, "Quite frankly, I'll never vote for anyone who is pro-choice." So I've been thinking about abortion a lot lately...again. But have I been praying enough for the evil to end? No, not even close. It looks like John Piper has a lot to say about abortion lately too. I'm going to copy and paste his latest sermon below. But before you read that, take a moment at watch this video at Abort73.com. Pastor Piper plus the folks at Abort73.com can do a much better job than I can.

Abortion: The Innocent Blood of Our Sons and Daughters

January 27, 2008
By John Piper

Psalm 106:32-48

They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, 33 for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips. 34 They did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, 35 but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. 36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; 38 they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds. 40 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage; 41 he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power. 43 Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity. 44 Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. 45 For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 46 He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive. 47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord.

Psalm 106 is a summary of the history of Israel with a focus on her repeated sins and God’s repeated judgment and mercy. Psalm 106 is a picture of the Old Testament in miniature. It cries out for something more final, more lasting. The final verses (vv. 47-48) say, “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ Praise the Lord!”

Yes. And all that had been said before. Over and over, they called on the Lord to save them during the time of the judges, for example. And God did save them. He was merciful and gracious and slow to anger. But then over and over, they reverted to unbelief and disobedience. So the end of the psalm, just like the end of the Old Testament, cries out for something more. This psalm and the Old Testament itself are incomplete. They groan for something more. They point to the future. They are not ends in themselves. They are stories and books of promise.

Jesus: God’s Decisive Yes and Amen

And that is why the New Testament exists. Because the final, complete, decisive, lasting act of divine salvation happened when Jesus, the Messiah, came into the world. He was the final Adam (Romans 5:12-21), and the final prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22; 7:37), and the final Israel (Matthew 4:1-11), and the final high priest (Hebrews 7:23-24), and the final Passover sacrifice (1 Corinthians 5:7), and the final manna from heaven (John 6:31-32), and the final suffering servant of Isaiah 53 (Mark 10:45), and the final Son of Man of Daniel 7 (Matthew 24:30). His blood was the blood of the promised final new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31 (Luke 22:20). He therefore was the final, decisive Yes and Amen to all God’s promises (2 Corinthians 1:20).

So when we read the stories of the Old Testament like the one in Psalm 106 and we feel the oppressive weight of sin that never seems to have its final solution, we should think: It’s all pointing to Christ. This is not Christians reinterpreting the Jewish Scriptures. This is God revealing the completion of the Jewish Scriptures. And the point of the Jewish Scriptures and the long history of Israel was not in itself but in Christ.

God Has Come, His Name Is Jesus

Therefore, when this text ends today in verse 47 with the cry, “Save us, O Lord our God,” we should take it to mean: O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, rescue us from captivity wherever our enemies have the upper hand, and hasten the coming of the King, who will deliver us once for all from the worst of enemies, and make atonement for our sins once for all, and write his law on our hearts, so that we may fear him always and never rebel against him again.

And when we hear that cry, and understand that implication, we today should rejoice because he has come already. His name was Jesus. And he has revealed the mystery, long obscure in the Scriptures, that by his death and resurrection not only Jews but also all the nations of the world will be forgiven and justified and cleansed and reconciled by faith in him alone.

The Banner of the Cross

In other words, flying over this psalm and all its horrors and failures that are so relevant for our modern age, is the banner of Jesus Christ as the final Savior of the world who has died for sins and conquered guilt and condemnation and death and hell—for everyone who cries out from the heart, “Save me, O Lord my God.”

Flying over this message about abortion is the banner of the cross of Christ. Its color is crimson. Because the blood of Christ takes away the sin of abortion and the sin of not caring about it. So I don’t just end today with the call for repentance and the offer of forgiveness. I begin with it. I want it to hover over your head while I walk you through this text.

The Sins of Israel

Let’s get the bigger picture of the text and then focus on the sacrifice of innocent blood. First there are the sins of Israel, then the anger and judgment of God, and then the cry for salvation. First the sins:

Verse 32: At Meribah, Israel murmured against Moses because there was no water, and they provoked Moses to strike the rock instead of speaking to it, and God was angry that Moses did not sanctify his name by believing him (Numbers 20:11-12).

Verse 34: The Israelites did not destroy the peoples of Canaan as God had commanded them. This shows that the opposition to sacrificing the children we will see in a moment is not owing to a general opposition to killing. There was a place for killing. And the explanation for this horrific moment in Israel’s history is given in Deuteronomy 9:4, where God says,

Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, “It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,” whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you.

In that period of Israel’s history, God wielded them for his judgments. We may not follow them in this kind of judgment because things have fundamentally changed with the coming of Jesus. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting” (John 18:36). But the point I am making is that God’s anger at the killing of infants is not owing to a sentimental rejection of violence or physical force. There is another reason why God opposes it. We’ll come back to that.

Verse 35: “They mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did.” The root issue here is not intermarriage. That’s what we focused on last year in the racial harmony message. The issue is that mixing meant learning to do what the pagan nations did.

Verse 36 gives the general statement of what happened. And verse 37 gives the specific sin that expresses the corruption best. Verse 36: “They served their idols, which became a snare to them.” This was the overarching reason for God’s prohibition of mingling with the pagan nations. It led to idolatry—the abandonment of the true God and the worship of idols. And these idols, the psalm says, became a “snare.” They were a trap that led to their destruction.

Then verse 37-39 give the specific sinful behavior that this idolatry led to. “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.”

The Anger and Judgment of God

This is very strong language. This is God’s language. He is very angry. Verse 40-41: “Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage; he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them.” Idolatry led to a snare and the snare was the sacrificing of their own children in religious rituals and these rituals were spiritually whore-like in God’s sight and the anger of the Lord was kindled and judgment fell.

We need to feel the horror of this language: “sacrifice,” “demons,” “innocent blood,” “polluted,” “whore,” “anger of the Lord,” “the Lord abhorred his heritage.” We need to feel the force of this so that when we use such language today we do not communicate, any more than the psalmist did, that there is no hope for the guilty. That is the most amazing thing in the psalm.

The Cry for Salvation

Verse 44: “Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. So we need to hear the horrible language so that the grace that comes will sound as amazing as it is.

And just like the psalmist looked child sacrifice full in the face, so today we need to study abortion. We need the raw facts—just as raw as the language of this psalm. We need to watch the videos over at Abort73, and we need to look at beautiful pictures of the unborn. We need the statistics of over 40 million babies killed by abortion since 1973 just in our own country, with 90% of the abortion clinics in urban centers, and therefore wiping out massive numbers of minorities (over half of all abortions) with a kind of ethnic cleansing that pro-choice people cannot dare to think about. We need to know the procedures (suction-aspiration, dilation and curettage, saline abortion, intact dilation and extraction, RU-486, intrauterine cranial decompression, or partial birth abortion).

Some Sins Need Raw Language

The psalm is as raw as it could get before photography and DVD. The point is: There are some sins that cannot be comprehended without raw language or raw pictures. I once read in the Star-Tribune that if all Americans could be made to watch a live execution (electric chair or lethal injection), capital punishment would be abandoned. I don’t know if that is true. But if it is, the same thing applies all the more to abortion. If we were made to watch a doctor pull off the little baby’s legs and arms one by one and place them on the table like a dentist removing cotton from your mouth—if all Americans were made to see what it really is, the pro-life goal of abortion being unthinkable (not just illegal) would be much nearer.

Four Parallels with Abortion

So the psalm is raw when it comes to child sacrifice. There are at least four parallels with abortion.

1) It Is Called Sacrifice

One is that it is called “sacrifice.” Verse 37: “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.” Sacrifice means that you give up something ordinarily considered valuable (a sheep or a bull) to gain something better—usually from a deity. Abortion in America is not done consciously with any desire to get blessing from a deity. But it is done to gain something “better” than the baby—that is what the whole debate is about. Is the gain greater than the loss? We need to be sure to see it in those terms: The life of a child is being sacrificed for something. What that “something” is defines the barbarity of our culture. I say that knowing full well how unimaginably difficult many unplanned pregnancies are. I do not make light of that. The issue is: How precious is the child? And will we trust God to make a way? This is what crisis pregnancy centers are devoted to.

2) They Are Sons and Daughters

Second, the child sacrifice in the psalm is described as the sacrifice of our sons and daughters. Verse 37: “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.” He could have said “children.” But he says “sons and daughters.” This draws attention to two things. 1) They were sexually different. They were little boys and girls. And 2) they were family. This baby that is being sacrificed is family. And so it is with abortion. It is always a little girl or a little boy. And it is always family.

3) There Was Innocent Blood

Third, the psalm calls the sacrifice “innocent blood.” Verse 38: “They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters.” This is the difference between the Canaanites who are to be punished and the babies who are to be protected. This is not a statement about original sin or the lack of it. This is the ordinary legal statement that we all depend on in court: Did I do anything to deserve the punishment other people are about to execute on me? Among other people babies are innocent. They do not deserve to be mistreated by other human beings.

God himself has an absolute right to give life and take it. And we may be sure that if he takes the little ones, he deals with them according to what they could know (Romans 1:18-20). I believe they are saved. But we today have no right to take their lives. In relation to us, they are innocent. And we are guilty if we take their life.

(I insert here a qualification so you will know where I stand. There is no time to develop it fully. If God is already taking a baby’s life inside his mother—through some catastrophic anomaly or mishap, and if it is clear that the baby cannot live outside the womb and that leaving the child will imperil the mother’s life—under those circumstances I do not think we sin against the baby or God by taking the baby and saving the mother. But that is not the case in 99+% of the abortions.)

4) It Is to Demons

Fourth, the psalm says that this innocent blood is sacrificed to demons and to idols. Verses 37-38: “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.” In 1 Corinthians 10:19-20, Paul deals with this connection between idols and demons. He says, “What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”

In other words, Paul sees behind all idols not any true God, but only a world of demons that promote idolatry and therefore, without the worshippers even knowing about it, these demons receive tribute from their sacrifice. Two years ago, a group of Catholics and Protestants produced a document called “That They Might Have Life.” In it, they said this about abortion:

The blindness of so many to this moral atrocity has many sources but is finally to be traced to the seductive ways of evil advanced by Satan. Jesus says, “He was as murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).¹

I think that is right. Which means that the sacrifice of our sons and daughters today is in a very true and profound sense a sacrifice to demons. The religious part of paganism may have fallen away in our modern Western world. The devil does it that way in today’s secular world. Otherwise, he would be laughed off the stage. And of course he wants me to be laughed at, not himself. So it all appears very secular, very rational, very non-religious, very high-sounding, when in truth it is very demonic.

Abortion: Sacrificing Our Sons and Daughters to Demons

It is the sacrificing of our sons and daughters to demons. And someday we will see this. And we will be as amazed that it could have endured so long as we are that the enslavement of Africans lasted as long as it did. The issue is just as clear as that one was. And we are just as blind today as they were then. The big difference is that the babies can’t run away. The underground railroad is entirely dependent on you, not them.

The strength to stand up and make a difference in this cause comes not mainly from the raw horrors of abortion, but from the amazing grace of verses 44-45: “Nevertheless [that is, in spite of sacrificing their children to demons], he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” This is what Jesus Christ came to achieve for all who will receive it.

Take Up the Challenge

I pray that the horrors of abortion and the glory of God’s grace will move you to take up the challenge of prayer on the back of the worship folder and to extend yourself in other practical ways for life, both temporal and eternal. Amen.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the rights of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
(Psalm 82:3-4)

For free resources, visit the website: DesiringGod.org.

The Heavy-Laden's Top 50 Hymns

Wow...where to begin? My wife has already made fun of the fact that I literally spent hours making this list. That's alright. I'm passionate about many things, and great God-glorifying music is at the top of the list. The world should know that hymns are available today that are not only biblical and God-honoring but also fantastic to listen to. I know there are many great songs that I left out. It was hard to trim the list to 50. See two posts below for how I came up with my rankings. The system is surely flawed, and newer songs probably have an advantage in the replayability category. Like I said before, everything is completely arbitrary. If I didn't like how a guy sings, then the song suffered.

Ranking) Hymn Title / Artist / Album / Score

50) Why Should I Fear? / Red Mountain Church / This Breaks My Heart of Stone / 87
49) Isaiah 40 / Auburn RUF / Love Unknown / 87
48) There Is A Land Of Pure Delight / Red Mountain Church / This Breaks My Heart of Stone / 87
47) Grace Upon Grace / Sandra McCracken / The Builder and the Architect / 88
46) Out Of The Deep I Call / Auburn RUF / Love Unknown / 88
45) Jesus Whispers / Red Mountain Church / The Gadsby Project / 88
44) Jesus, Thou Joy Of Loving Hearts / Red Mountain Church / Depth of Mercy / 89
43) Beneath The Cross Of Jesus / Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken / Indelible Grace V/ 89
42) Pearly Gates / Red Mountain Church / Heaven / 89
41) What Wondrous Love Is This / Matthew Smith / Indelible Grace II / 89

40) Depth Of Mercy / Red Mountain Church / Depth Of Mercy / 90
39) She Must And Shall Go Free / Sandra McCracken / Indelible Grace III / 90
38) Go To Dark Gethsemane / Sandra McCracken / Indelible Grace V / 91
37) The Gospel Brings Tidings / Red Mountain Church / Help My Unbelief / 91
36) Face To Face / Matthew Perryman Jones/ Indelible Grace V / 91
35) Lord, Dissolve My Frozen Heart / Red Mountain Church / Help My Unbelief / 91
34) Nothing But The Blood / Matthew Smith / All I Owe / 91
33) Abiding City / Sandra McCracken / The Builder and the Architect / 91
32) Come Ye Sinners / Matthew Smith / Even When My Heart is Breaking / 92
31) Jesus, I Am Resting / Matthew Smith / All I Owe / 92

30) Arise, My Soul, Arise / Matthew Smith / Indelible Grace I / 92
29) God Be Merciful To Me / Jars of Clay / Redemption Songs / 92
28) Friend Of Sinners / Red Mountain Church / The Gadsby Project / 92
27) I Need Thee Every Hour / Sarah Catherine Brooks / Indelible Grace I / 92
26) Come Ye Disconsolate / Rachel Briggs / Indelible Grace IV / 92
25) And Can It Be / Sandra McCracken / Indelible Grace I / 92
24) Laden With Guilt And Full Of Fears / Sandra McCracken / Indelible Grace II / 93
23) O Love That Will Not Let Me Go / Sandra McCracken / Indelible Grace I / 93
22) Jesus, Lover Of My Soul / Red Mountain Church / Depth of Mercy / 93
21) Come Thy Fount Of Every Blessing / Matthew Smith / All I Owe / 93

20) Weary Of Earth, Myself And Sin / Red Mountain Church / Help My Unbelief / 93
19) All I Owe / Matthew Smith / Even When My Heart is Breaking / 93
18) Be Thou My Vision / Matthew Smith / Even When My Heart is Breaking / 93
17) Windows Of Thy Grace / Red Mountain Church / This Breaks My Heart of Stone / 93
16) Sometimes A Light Surprises / Derek Webb / Indelible Grace II / 93
15) This Breaks My Heart of Stone / Red Mountain Church / This Breaks My Heart of Stone / 94
14) The Love Of Christ Is Rich And Free / Sandra McCracken / The Builder and the Architect / 94
13) My Jesus, I Love Thee / Red Mountain Church / Depth of Mercy / 94
12) His Love Can Never Fail / Derek Webb / Indelible Grace IV / 94
11) Help My Unbelief / Red Mountain Church / Help My Unbelief / 95

10) Come Heavy Laden / Red Mountain Church / This Breaks My Heart of Stone / 96
9) In The Secret Of His Presence / Sandra McCracken / The Builder and the Architect / 96
8) No Sweeter Subject / Red Mountain Church / The Gadsby Project / 96
7) A Debtor To Mercy Alone / Sandra McCracken / Indelible Grace I / 96
6) Whatever My God Ordains Is Right / Matthew Perryman Jones / Indelible Grace I / 96
5) Rock Of Ages / Sandra McCracken / The Builder and the Architect / 96
4) Abide With Me / Matthew Perryman Jones / Indelible Grace V / 98
3) There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood / Red Mountain Church / Depth of Mercy / 98
2) Thy Mercy, My God / Sandra McCracken / The Builder and the Architect / 98
1) Jesus, I Long For Thee / Red Mountain Church / The Gadsby Project / 102

The Hymn CD List

In the creation of The Heavy-Laden's Top 50 Hymns list, I struggled with the question - "What qualifies as a hymn?" Technically, the definition is much more broader than the one I use. Most hymn definitions are simply "a song praising God." Well, if that was the criterion I used, I'd need 100,000 more CDs to listen to. So I narrowed it down. Plus, I think there is a lyrical style difference between what I would call a hymn and what I would call a praise song. So, with that in mind, I also took a couple more tough stances: 1.) any hymn ranked must be on a CD that contains primarily other hymns, ruling out great ones such as Psalm 131 by Waterdeep, and 2.) I must own the hymn on CD, which unfortunately probably rules out some great ones, but I can't rank what I don't have. So...here are the CDs that I used to make the rankings that will follow this post:

Indelible Grace I
Indelible Grace II - Pilgrim Days
Indelible Grace III - For all the Saints
Indelible Grace IV - Beams of Heaven
Indelible Grace V - Wake Thy Slumbering Children
Red Mountain Church - Depth of Mercy
Red Mountain Church - Heaven
Red Mountain Church - The Gadsby Project
Red Mountain Church - Help My Unbelief
Red Mountain Church - This Breaks My Heart of Stone
Sandra McCracken - The Builder and the Architect
Matthew Smith - Even When My Heart is Breaking
Matthew Smith - All I Owe
Matthew Smith - My Song Is Love Unknown
Auburn RUF - Love Unknown
Jars Of Clay - Redemption Songs

While I may be missing some good ones, I feel confident that the above list encapsulates the very best of what is offered today. If anyone knows of a CD I should add to my collection that fits the lyrical style of music in the CDs above, feel free to comment.

Judgment Day Is Coming

Lest you think this post may actually be about the upcoming judgment day of Christ, it's not. It's a much lighter subject. A couple of things before I get going: 1.) Nolan's blog has been updated. 2.) Sorry I haven't posted in so long. Christmas traveling plus baby care makes it hard to get away sometime.

So what's this post about? I'm currently chilling in my home, just me and my new MP3 player, listening to all my hymns and rating them for my upcoming rankings (that frankly are for my own amusement as an excuse to use Excel at home). But nonetheless, it's only fair for my millions and millions of readers plus those who sing the songs to know how the songs will be judged. So I will explain myself now and hopefully get the rankings out no later than the end of next weekend.

Each song is rated on a 100 point scale - based on 6 categories (but with a chance for bonus points). The categories are lyrics (25 points), vocals (25 points), music (20 points), replayability (15 points), sound (10 points), and depth (5 points).

One bonus point is rewarded for each category, for the top song in that category. For example, the song that I say has the best lyrics gets the 25 points plus 1 bonus point. Songs will also be rewarded one bonus point for including the phrase "heavy-laden." Please note that I am by no means a music expert and all ratings are completely arbitrary.

Lyrics (25 Points): This is probably the most important thing considered in a good hymn. Let me perfectly clear here. Almost every song I listen to has great lyrics or I probably wouldn't be listening to it. With that said, I might give a song a 20/25 in lyrics, but it may still have good lyrics. There has to be some separation between songs here. What I'm looking for is first and foremost a biblical and God-glorifying song. Also, I like when the song lyrics aren't simply repetitive but have meaningful verses to go along with the chorus. A few well placed lines or a few great unique word choices may go a long way to a great rating. Sometimes, stripping lyrics from the Bible isn't even enough! I like originality too. Song with the best lyrics and that will receive one bonus point: A Debtor To Mercy Alone, Sandra McCracken, Indelible Grace I.

Vocals (25 Points): Wow, if you knew how bad of a vocalist I am, you wouldn't put much stock into what I say here. You know the guy on American Idol that sings so bad it makes the show and everyone makes fun of him? Yeah, that's me. But, I have an ear, and I like to think I know good vocals when I hear them. And since this is my blog, I get to judge the vocals too! It's probably unfair to most of the vocalists because I know what Ashley Spurling of Red Mountain Music sounds like. She's the best - hands down. And I heard her sing at my church once too. Unreal. Every song she sings as the lead vocalist will receive 25 points. There are a handful of others that get a 25, but for the most part, everyone is judged with her songs in mind. Songs that are more difficult to sing get that consideration. Song with the best vocals and that will receive one bonus point: Jesus, I Long For Thee, Red Mountain Church, The Gadsby Project.

Music (20 Points): I have a hard time with this one. Much like the vocals category, I am completely unqualified to judge what "good" music. I was the only kid in my 4th grade class to not try out for band. My reasoning? They didn't have the electric guitar..which sounded good to me, and I never gave it a chance. With that said, most of the songs get a rating in between 17-20 depending on what I think sounds the best. It's pretty much that simple. The fact that some of these guys wrote the music to these obscure lyrics just blows my mind. To me, that's like someone telling me that Albert Pujols batted .327 last year and having me reconstruct every pitch he saw from scratch. Impossible. So let's not dwell on the music too much. What is clear to me is that I favor the style of music from the Red Mountain Music CDs a little over the Indelible Grace CDs (by two biggest sources of music, 10 CDs in total). Song with the best music and that will receive bonus point: Come Heavy Laden, Red Mountain Church, This Breaks My Heart of Stone.

Replayability (15 Points): Yeah, I don't even think replayability is a word. But it means a lot to me when I rank these songs. When I make a top 50 list, I am seriously considering a desert island type of scenario -- that if I had only 50 hymns to listen to the rest of my life potentially, what 50 would I choose? Songs that received a 14 or 15 in this category, I can literally listen to 30 times in a row with getting tired of it. And I can listen to them every day without getting tired of the chorus nor having a desire to skip to the next song. I think this category really shows my preference and starts separating the best from the good. Some hymns got docked here because I have noticed myself skipping over them from time to time. Song with the best replayability and that will receive one bonus point: Jesus, I Long For Thee, Red Mountain Church, The Gadsby Project.

Sound (10 Points): Ah, the joys of my new Sony Walkman! The sound quality on those are great by the way. This category may be kind of lame, but I use it to separate two types of songs: those with the wow factor and those with the what? factor. Some songs simply have a great sound to them (which is usually a factor of the vocals and the music). Some songs have a weird combination of music and vocals or some might just not have the sound quality as others. Some songs are a little hard to hear clearly. This is only worth 10 points, and most songs pulled a 9. I think newer CDs have an unfair advantage here, but it's alright. Sometimes, the vocals are so good that any decent music causes a great sound. Song with the best sound and that will receive one bonus point: Jesus, I Long For Thee, Red Mountain Church, The Gadsby Project.

Depth (5 Points): This might be confusing. Sometimes, a song just doesn't have a lot of depth. Perhaps it's only one verse and a chorus, or perhaps the meaning isn't really that deep. So I can kill two birds with one stone. Really short songs just don't have the impact they need to be high on the top 50 list. Songs that just scratch the surface don't either. Here's where I can separate some songs. Most songs will get a 4 here...with a few 3s here and there. A few of the really deep songs will get a 5. Song with the most depth and that will receive one bonus point: In the Secret of His Presence, Sandra McCracken, The Builder and the Architect.

Am I crazy for giving songs with "heavy laden" in the lyrics an extra bonus point? Yeah probably, but like I said before, this is mainly being done for my own amusement. One of these days, maybe people will start sending me free hymn CDs to listen to.