When studying the Bible it is important to notice the punctuation, as obvious meaning is conveyed through these means. In Exodus 32:32, there is a punctuation mark that is found nowhere else in the Scripture.

There are those who would tell us that evangelism is a gift—some Christians may have it, and others do not. Yet neither Romans 12 or 1 Corinthians 12 list evangelism among the spiritual gifts. The office of the evangelist is mentioned in Ephesians 4, however, this is not a listing of spiritual gifts, but of gifted persons. The reason for the omission among the spiritual gifts is simple. God gave His command to every believer to preach the Gospel (Matthew 28:19–20). How can we personally and effectively share this Gospel?

But these are all the wrong questions—at least the wrong starting questions. If we desire to be consecrated followers of Jesus, we must evaluate music with a different set of questions: Does this music glorify Jesus? Does it draw us closer to Jesus? Does it make us more like Jesus?

Although we don’t all have physical attics, we each have an intangible attic where our past is stored. It’s called our memories, and within its recesses are storage bins that represent a virtual timeline of our past. There are bins we like to revisit—memories of joy and fulfillment. But there are also bins of failures, disappointments, rejection, and hurts. These can come back to haunt us to the point that we feel unacceptable and unusable.