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This week’s Cephas Hour start with a snippet from this, uh, classic, which seems appropriate given the still-raging furor over the 2023 Grammy Awards broadcast.

Have no fear; it quickly shifts to something far more palatable.

Since this is the show’s 88th episode in its current format, the music portions features the 77s deservedly acclaimed live album “Eighty Eight,” which is once again available at the band’s Bandcamp page. You can hear the show in its entirety at its website. Hope it helps.

It’s getting very tiresome seeing people running around screaming at and about the Grammys. “Look — satanic! Look at Sam Smith’s outfit, look at this, look at that!“ Gee, the entertainment industry using pseudo-Satanism for shock effect? Wow, how original. The entertainment industry thinking it can play with the hellfire it doesn’t believe exists and not get burned? You don’t say.

It would be nice if people had a vague sense of history. This shtick has been going on since at least 1967, when the Crazy World of Arthur Brown did the song “Fire.“ Solomon was right. Ecclesiastes is true. There is nothing new under the sun.

The only genuinely objectionable aspect of the Grammys is how it obscures the actual satanic activity in our midst. The homeless wander and sleep on our streets, crazed with mental illness and fentanyl’s poisonous grip. The increasing belief that other human beings are not individuals created in God’s image but instead are nothing more than walking replicants of video game characters, fleshed-out disposable digital images who can be attacked, physically or otherwise, and discarded without concern. The deification of self. These are things about which we should be concerned. The Grammys? Other than how most all contemporary music is garbage on all levels, not a big deal.

Some years back, I read an interview with Annie Lennox, best known as the singer for Eurythmics. She was discussing some trauma in her life and how a counselor had greatly helped her through these dark times. She sadly added that, unfortunately, the counselor could not apply their measures of healing to themselves, eventually taking their own life.

The story might seem extreme and inapplicable to Christians, but it is not. Christians, too, struggle with self-worth. It is one of Christianity’s most bitter ironies that the same forces inside our heads that drive many of us to Christ also serve to drive us away from Him. As difficult as it can be to forgive others for their transgressions against us, how much more difficult is it for some of us to forgive ourselves?

It’s easy to quote chapter and verse about how Jesus has declared us worthy. Believing it, and acting on it, can be far more complex. But do not lose heart. Keep fighting the lies. You are loved, and you are worthy. Always.

We need revival in this land, to put it as mildly as possible. However, we must remember that a public revival begins with personal commitment. Remember Christ’s words: “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’” Note this is not a reference to not following Mosaic law but God’s law, which declares right and wrong. It’s good to talk God talk. It’d bad not to walk in His footsteps.