Need to know. CAN A CHRISTIAN LISTEN TO WORLDLY SECULAR MUSIC? THE SHOCKING TRUTH MANY BELIEVERS ARE AFRAID TO DISCUSS Child of God, this is one of the most debated questions in Christianity today. Some believers say, "Music is just entertainment." Others believe anything outside worship is dangerous. But the real question is this: What is your music feeding? Your flesh or your spirit? Music is never just background noise. It shapes emotions, influences thoughts, creates atmospheres, and affects your spiritual sensitivity. Many people judge music by the beat while ignoring the message it carries. The Bible shows that music has spiritual influence. In 1 Samuel 16:23, David's harp brought relief to Saul as the evil spirit departed. If godly music can usher in peace, worship, and God's presence, shouldn't we also consider what ungodly music may be inviting into our hearts? This is why discernment matters. Not every secular song is evil, but neither is every song spiritually safe. The issue isn't simply the rhythm—it's the message, the values it celebrates, and the fruit it produces in your life. Much of today's music glorifies lust, immorality, pride, violence, greed, drunkenness, revenge, and rebellion against God's ways. Ask yourself honestly: • If I spend hours every day feeding on messages that oppose God's Word, how will that shape my heart? Proverbs 4:23 says, "Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Music enters through emotion and repetition. What you repeatedly listen to eventually shapes your desires, attitudes, and spiritual appetite. It is no surprise that many believers know every lyric of a worldly song but struggle to remember Scripture or spend time in prayer. At the same time, avoid legalism. Not every secular song promotes sin. Some simply tell stories about life, family, or human experiences. That's why believers need the guidance of the Holy Spirit—not blanket condemnation. Instead, ask these questions: • Does this music glorify sin? • Does it stir ungodly desires? • Does it weaken or strengthen my relationship with Christ? Philippians 4:8 calls us to dwell on whatever is true, pure, honorable, lovely, and worthy of praise. Romans 12:2 reminds us not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The truth is simple: • Not everything lawful is beneficial. • Not everything popular is healthy. • Not everything entertaining is harmless. Guard your heart. Protect your spiritual atmosphere. Let the Holy Spirit shape what fills your mind, because what fills your heart will eventually shape your life. What do you think? Can Christians listen to secular music? Have you seen music affect your walk with God?

Psalm 150:3–5 (KJV) 🎹 “Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.” Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD. — Psalm 150:6 🎹 Let my instrument become an altar of praise.🙏

Psalms 81:1-3 AMP [1] Sing aloud to God our strength; Shout for joy to the God of Jacob (Israel). [2] Raise a song, sound the timbrel, The sweet sounding lyre with the harp. [3] Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, At the full moon, on our feast day. https://bible.com/bible/1588/psa.81.1-3.AMP

Psalm 33:1-22 NASB95 Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. [2] Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. [3] Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. [4] For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. [5] He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.

Psalm 33:1-22 KJV Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. [2] Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. [3] Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise. [4] For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth. [5] He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

Psalm 33:1-22 JPS Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous, praise is comely for the upright. [2] Give thanks unto the LORD with harp, sing praises unto Him with the psaltery of ten strings. [3] Sing unto Him a new song; play skilfully amid shouts of joy. [4] For the word of the LORD is upright; and all His work is done in faithfulness. [5] He loveth righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD. [6] By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. [7] He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap; He layeth up the deeps in storehouses. [8] Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. [9] For He spoke, and it was; He commanded, and it stood. [10] The LORD bringeth the counsel of the nations to nought; He maketh the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect. [11] The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. [12] Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD; the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. [13] The LORD looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men; [14] From the place of His habitation He looketh intently upon all the inhabitants of the earth; [15] He that fashioneth the hearts of them all, that considereth all their doings. [16] A king is not saved by the multitude of a host; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. [17] A horse is a vain thing for safety; neither doth it afford escape by its great strength. [18] Behold, the eye of the LORD is toward them that fear Him, toward them that wait for His mercy; [19] To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. [20] Our soul hath waited for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. [21] For in Him doth our heart rejoice, because we have trusted in His holy name. [22] Let Thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we have waited for Thee.

Good even ing, brethren. 1. Evening devotion for today. ED.i. *DAILY WALK WITH CHRIST* (COCIN DEVOTIONAL) *DATE:* SUNDAY 26TH JULY, 2026. *SUB-THEME:* THE CONSEQUENCES OF REJECTING GOD'S GRACE. *TOPIC:* MENTAL AFFLICTION. *TEXTS:* 1 SAMUEL 16:14; 18:6-11 *1 SAMUEL 16:14.* 14. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. *1 SAMUEL 18:6-11.* 6. When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 7. As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” 8. Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands, he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 9. And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David. 10. The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand. 11. and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice. *TOPIC:* MENTAL AFFLICTION. *THE MESSAGE:* Rejecting God's grace leads to mental affliction. Excessive jealousy can lead to mental disorders or health issues. Today's text reveals how God gave David victory over Goliath and was praised for bringing honour to Israel. But King Saul became jealous of him. Consequently, the Spirit of God left Saul and an evil spirit possessed him that he became mentally disoriented and loss the path of peace. David sang and played the harp to bring respite to Saul. But Saul always wanted to kill him. Are you jealous of your neighbour's achievements and will want to harm them? Be careful, and do not incur God's wrath upon yourself. You stand to enjoy peace and other benefits when you rejoice and celebrate the achievements of others. *REFLECTION:* Jealousy devastates the mind. *PRAYER:* Lord, may your Spirit continually dwell in me. Amen. *MEMORY VERSE FOR THE MONTH:* HEBREWS 10:29. How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace? *TODAY'S BIBLE READING PLAN:* Isaiah 44-45. ED.ii. WHAT MAKES YOU A GOOD FATHER? "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." - Proverbs 22:6 A growing problem in the world today is fathers who are absent. For some reason, more and more fathers are leaving their families. Another problem is that though fathers are physically present, they are not available for their children. Of course, there are many fathers who take good care of their families, but they are only a provider and not an educator. Every child needs a good upbringing. A father has an important role in the family structure. Love, time and attention Dear fathers, your children do not envision you as a good father because you bring home a bag of money. They do not judge you if you give an expensive gift or not. The most important thing for your child is your love, time and attention. Is your career, sport or hobby more important than your children? Children sense this and are deeply hurt if there's a lack of love, time and attention for them. When you give birth to a living soul, you have to understand in advance that there will be sacrifices too. Many fathers think they are indispensable at work, but nobody is indispensable. As the father of your children though, you are irreplaceable. You are the only father they have on earth. Yet I want to tell all fatherless children that God in heaven wants to be your Dad. He is the best Father. He will never leave you. Children copy behavior Fathers, if you acknowledge this message is for you, go also to your Heavenly Father. Read the Bible, you will find the answers there. Children copy behavior, they imitate you when they hear you talk, swear or curse. When they hear such things at home, they think it is normal. However, they will also copy you if you pray and read the Bible every day, if you forgive, love, attend church meetings, etc. Are you willing to adjust your lifestyle when needed? God will help you and give you strength for this. https://www.theblessingdevotional.com 2. Evening prayer for today. ED.i. Evening Prayer Come unto me, all [ye] that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ⏤ Matthew 11:28 If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest. ⏤ Corrie Ten Boom This quiet Sunday evening, our Father, we come to You with glad hearts. We thank You for the Sunday that comes after six days of work, giving us the opportunity for rest and renewal of strength. If we had to go on without rest, we couldn't bear the burden. Sunday reminds us of Your love for us, providing little sanctuaries among the days. We thank You for Sunday because it keeps the memory of our Savior's victory over death alive in our hearts. It tells us that we have a living Savior, who lives to be our Friend, Companion, and Guide! We also thank You for all the Sundays that have been part of our lives. We thank You for this Sunday, now ending, and for all the grace, comfort, and renewed strength it has brought us. We have looked into Your face and received blessings in Christian fellowship. We have read and heard Your word, and its truths linger in our hearts. We have sung Your praise and called upon You in prayer. May all this day's impressions stay with us as part of our character from now on. May the strength we have received make us stronger in body, mind, and spirit for the tasks of the coming week. May the songs of this day keep singing in our hearts for many days to come. So may this day indeed be a blessing to us, leaving us with a richer character, new visions of beauty, and higher ideals to strive for. Draw us close to You now for a blessing, then fold us away in Your love for the night. We ask all this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. https://www.youdevotion.com/daily-prayer/miller/21/evening #taptapstudio #youdevotion.

Psalm 150:1-6 Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! [2] Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! [3] Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! [4] Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! [5] Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! [6] Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL DATE: THURSDAY, JULY 23RD, 2026 TOPIC: SUSTAINING YOUR FREEDOM I AUTHOR: PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE MEMORIZE: "I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High." Psalm 9:2 (KJV) BIBLE READING: PSALM 149:1-9 1 Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. 2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. 4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. 5 Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; 7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; 8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; 9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. MESSAGE: When someone who is under the burden of the yoke of satan cries out to God genuinely for help, God steps in and delivers such a fellow. However, after receiving the deliverance, there are certain things the person must do and continue to do so that the 'taskmaster' (the devil) will not lay a heavier burden on him or her. For example, God heard the cry of the Israelites when the Egyptians enslaved them, and He came to their rescue (Exodus 3:7-9), but there were steps they had to take to ensure that they were not re-enslaved by their Egyptian taskmasters. Matthew 12:43-45 tells us that if a person becomes free from a burden of demonic possession and remains empty, the burden will return in a worse form because the evil spirit that left the person will return with seven other spirits that are more wicked than itself, so that the latter end of the person will be worse than the first. I pray that in any area the enemy wants your latter end to be worse than your beginning, the Almighty God will frustrate his plans, in Jesus' name. When a fellow has been freed from a burden, the first thing that he or she must do to keep the enemy away and ensure that the burden that has been lifted does not return is to praise God continually. Acts 3:1-8 tells the story of a lame man who lay by the Beautiful Gate of the temple. When God visited him and took away his burden of stagnation, poverty, and shame, he began to walk, leap, and praise God without caring about anyone who was watching him. This man was born lame, and before his healing, he was already above 40 years old (Acts 4:22). This means that he was being carried from one point to another for over 40 years and must have been unable to enter the temple unaided. He might have been praying silently, "God, I wish I had legs so I could enter the temple and dance and praise You as You deserve." This must have been why he leapt and praised God with so much joy when he received his deliverance. Beloved, has God been good to you? Has He taken away your burdens? Praise Him abundantly, everywhere, and at all times. As we see in today's Bible reading, fill your mouth with high praises to God. Dance and use musical instruments to praise Him, for He alone is worthy of your praise. KEY POINT: Praise is a powerful weapon for sustaining your victory and freedom. BIBLE READING IN ONE YEAR: ISAIAH 32 - 34 HYMNAL 18 - PRAISE TO THE LORD, THE ALMIGHTY, THE KING OF CREATION 1. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the king of creation; O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation; all ye who hear, brothers and sister draw near, praise Him in glad adoration. 2. Praise to the Lord, who doth proper thy work and defend thee; surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee; ponder anew what the Almighty can do if with His love He befriend thee 3. Praise to the Lord, who, when tempest their warfare are waging who, when the elements madly around Thee are ranging, biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace, whirlwinds and waters assuaging. 4. praise to the Lord, who when darkness and sin is abounding who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding, Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night, saints with His mercy surrounding. 5. Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore Him! All that hath life and breath come now with praises before Him! Let the amen sound from his people again; gladly for aye we adore Him.

Psalms 95:1-2 AMP [1] O come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. [2] Let us come before His presence with a song of thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with Songs. God is to be woshiped. With songs with praises also with joyful shouts. Around God their are 24 elders and a multitude of Angels They never siz bowing down day and night . Also their is a multitude of Angels singing around the throne of God.. Revelation 5:11 NKJV [11] Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, Revelation 5:12 NKJV [12] saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” This makes me belive that GOD only is to be worshiped with praises and songs. So why do we sing secular songs and dance and jump in joy and shout,i think we are worshiping in our so called secular songs. one day moses came down from the mountain with joshua Exodus 32:17-19 NKJV [17] And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” [18] But he said: “It is not the noise of the shout of victory, Nor the noise of the cry of defeat, But the sound of singing I hear.” [19] So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. ___........ The Israelites were dancing and singing and shouting to a golden calf. Which is Evil in the sight of our God. Also king nebchadrezer.made an image Daniel 3:5 NKJV [5] that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up; This brings me to a conclusion that when we sing dance and joy to music we are worshiping or praising some entity . Gospel we praise and woship God Secular we praise and worship......lucifar or satan.. I don't know how to express this but look at it this way Ezekiel 28:13 NKJV [13] You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. ezekiel 28 speaks about a cherub or son of God , 1) He had beauty. 2) He was in eden the garden of God 3) Timbrels and pipes (for his music) If we take adeeper context 1) the king of tyre was not in eden 2) The king of tyre was not a cherub(angle) so we are left with one option.a very beautyful angle.a cherub. Then he had music instruments made for him,timbrels and pipes. He is judged and we can read about his judgement..he is cust away. Isaiah 14:12 NKJV [12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! Here we see lucifar Son of th morning,fallen he is also a son of the mornig. Job 38:3-7 NKJV [3] Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. [4] “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. [5] Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? [6] To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, [7] When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? God speaks in Job 38. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? God is asking Job if he was their at the beginning of maybe the recreation. then God asks 7] When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? when the moning stars sang.. who was the morning star lucifar Isaiah 14v12 And all the sons of God shouted for joy? who are the sons of God the cherubs or angels Job 2:1 NKJV [1] Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. so when we sing songs we worship God or lucifar depends on the choice of your songs or music. ..plz if am wrong correct me...