Good Friday and the Music that Saved My Life! (My Good Friday Playlist)

If you are expecting a profound Good Friday note - move on to someone else, because this ain't it!
Today is Good Friday, and as I was driving to the church this morning, I started listening to some old Christian rock music that influenced my life as a teenager. I absolutely LOVE music - I always have, and as long as God allows me to hear, feel and kind of sing, I believe I always will. In the early 1980s, I got my first taste of "Christian Rock" music, and my world was never the same again - Praise God! I truly believe that God allowed this type of music into my life to penetrate my heart and challenge me to live my life for Him. Music has been instrumental (no pun intended) in my life - a tool that God has used to speak truth into what can sometimes be a very hard head and an equally hard heart. This is not to say that I was a "saintly" teenager - by no means. I was often two-faced and hid my secret sins from everyone around me and put on my "good little Christian kid" face easily and readily. I am also not a "saintly" adult (I KNOW that may come as a shock to many of you...haha!). However, God by His infinite mercy and grace continues to work in my still often very hard head and hard heart to draw me close to Him and remind me of who He is, and who I can be through Him. So...now I'm going to post some links to what has become my "Good Friday Playlist." I listen to this music now, and some of it seems so cheesy...so "garage band kids with a Tascam four track recorder" type music - and that's what I LOVE about it! Enjoy...or not - I'm okay with that. However, if you are going to make fun of it - just remember: Jesus used this tool among many and saved my life through this music - so I might get a little sensitive! :)

1. Undercover, "Three Nails" off their "Boys and Girls Renounce the World" album...1984! So catchy..."Three nails, three days, one way to God!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToqOHfxaW_k

2. Petra, "It is Finished" off the "Beat the System" album...1985!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFvhjEO0Ao

3. Oh yeah...my absolute FAVORITE 80's Christian band - Altar Boys (Never to be confused with some other wacko band called The Altar Boyz), "The Final Hour" off the best ever Christian album of the 1980s, "Gut Level Music"...1986!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LduKZW7cbBw

4. Altar Boys...again - "Life Begins at the Cross" "GLM"...1986!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYWBvydSxYM

5. Could it be...Altar Boys...again - ripping out "I'm Not Talkin' About Religion" "GLM"...1986! My favorite line..."I'm gonna tell you like it is, Jesus is God! He died for you and He rose from the dead, and that's the way it is!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9gx5vj9KLQ

6. Undercover again..."Pilate" off their "Branded" album...1986!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njjiI6Wx6fM

7. Petra "He Came, He Saw, He Conquered" off their "This Means War" album...1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARHhDQ1tKc8

8. Life Savers Underground (LSU)..."Wakin' Up the Dead"...off the "Wakin' Up the Dead" album...1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFSWPOLMiQ

9. Deliverance "Weapons of Our Warfare"...off "Weapons of Our Warfare" album...1990(I think my mom thought I was crazy when she heard me listening to this!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDATFSeF47M&playnext=1&list=PL97BA5203239FAEA3

10. Whitecross "Because of Jesus" ...off the 1988 "The Hammer and the Nail" album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5ZhIhwfjc

Good Friday is the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ! These songs helped me do just that at a critical point in my life. The validity of certain types of music has been hotly debated in the church for decades - the debate misses the point. Music...of any style can be used by God to draw people to Him. I'm thankful for it all! I hope today you take time to reflect on the awesome sacrifice that was made by our Savior.