The Religious System
I accepted the Lord as Lord and Savior of my life in 1977. For 15 years I tried to have a full time music ministry. I even graduated from Christ for the Nation Bible College in Dallas and was license as a minister. I stop playing jazz and began to write Christians songs. Even in these writing I maintained the jazz influences. But as far as my instrumental compositions, they were place on the shelf. For the “religious system” tells you that you must have words or play instrumentally the “familiar church songs”. For 7 years my wife, who writes lyrics and sings and I ministered in prisons both nationally and internationally as well as other church events. I was doing what the “religious system” was telling me do, thinking and believing it was God. I was not fulfill musically, I felt “box in” having to fit in a mold. After much frustration, I decided to step back and take a close look at my life, as well as looking at the church from a different perspective. The perspective was as a Christian looking into the Church instead of looking out. At that point I begin to see the “religious system”. This is when the reality hit. When I accepted Jesus in my life as Lord and Savior, I entered into “full-time ministry. God gave me a musical gift to be use not only to glorify Him but also to touch people lives, allowing the Holy Spirit which dwells in me to bring healing, peace and comfort to those who I encounter.
And the music I play does not have to be label Christian or be Christian music. Music is neither moral or immoral. It is amoral. Music can be use in any way. And I can choose how and for what purpose I want to use it. In 1994 I began working on my first totally jazz CD. I had recorded 5 albums previously, 2 that were instrumentals of familiar hymns and praise songs. These are just a few of the realities that “set me free” or got me “out of the box” from the “religious system”. When I really knew who I was in Christ Jesus and that my life is the ministry, I no longer needed to “justify” or “spiritualize” what I do. What you are is God’s gift to you... What you make of yourself is you gift to God. This is why I now say I am a musician who is a Christian.
Copyright 2001 Ray L. Baker / Producer
I accepted the Lord as Lord and Savior of my life in 1977. For 15 years I tried to have a full time music ministry. I even graduated from Christ for the Nation Bible College in Dallas and was license as a minister. I stop playing jazz and began to write Christians songs. Even in these writing I maintained the jazz influences. But as far as my instrumental compositions, they were place on the shelf. For the “religious system” tells you that you must have words or play instrumentally the “familiar church songs”. For 7 years my wife, who writes lyrics and sings and I ministered in prisons both nationally and internationally as well as other church events. I was doing what the “religious system” was telling me do, thinking and believing it was God. I was not fulfill musically, I felt “box in” having to fit in a mold. After much frustration, I decided to step back and take a close look at my life, as well as looking at the church from a different perspective. The perspective was as a Christian looking into the Church instead of looking out. At that point I begin to see the “religious system”. This is when the reality hit. When I accepted Jesus in my life as Lord and Savior, I entered into “full-time ministry. God gave me a musical gift to be use not only to glorify Him but also to touch people lives, allowing the Holy Spirit which dwells in me to bring healing, peace and comfort to those who I encounter.
And the music I play does not have to be label Christian or be Christian music. Music is neither moral or immoral. It is amoral. Music can be use in any way. And I can choose how and for what purpose I want to use it. In 1994 I began working on my first totally jazz CD. I had recorded 5 albums previously, 2 that were instrumentals of familiar hymns and praise songs. These are just a few of the realities that “set me free” or got me “out of the box” from the “religious system”. When I really knew who I was in Christ Jesus and that my life is the ministry, I no longer needed to “justify” or “spiritualize” what I do. What you are is God’s gift to you... What you make of yourself is you gift to God. This is why I now say I am a musician who is a Christian.
Copyright 2001 Ray L. Baker / Producer