Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christians' armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome back, fellas. This week's The Daily Blade episodes dive into music that doesn't fit the typical contemporary worship mold. So, like it or not, we are called to sing to the Lord, and I want to expand your category of what qualifies as worship music. So yesterday we looked at the song Awake and Alive by the rock band Skillet. And today we're looking at the song Blame Jesus by country music artist Drew Parker. Now, before we get into the song, we need to have a little talk about country music. So I grew up in Oklahoma, which means by default I was around a bunch of country music. And when you listen to country music, really from any era, you get a bunch of kind of vague references to prayer and the man upstairs and the big guy in the sky and that kind of thing. And what a lot of that leads to is something that I call country music theology. So basically, what that is, uh, especially for people in the South, is that they think that because they believe in God, they go to church from time to time, they were baptized when they were a kid, they have an American flag hanging up in their garage. When they vote, they vote Republican and listen to country music, that they all get to go to heaven when they die, right? Basically, if you check those boxes, you get to go to heaven. Now, that might seem a little funny, but that is actually the way that a lot of people think from where I'm from. They think, well, God is pro all these things, and I ain't never killed nobody, so I guess I'll get to go to heaven. But that's just not the case, guys. I mean, all of us, including the good old boys that you may have grown up around, have a sin debt that they owe to their heavenly father. And they simultaneously have no way of paying the debt. So each one of us, regardless of the music we listen to, has to reckon with our own depravity. And we must put our faith in Jesus for the propitiation of our sin debt in order to spend eternity with him in heaven. And my buddy Drew Parker knows this full well. So Drew Parker had a successful career and still has a successful career as a songwriter in Nashville, and he worked very closely with one of the biggest country music artists of all time, Luke Combs. But he got to a point where he wanted to make music for country music fans, but as opposed to writing songs about red dirt and horses, he decided to write songs about red blood and the cross of Christ. So let's actually get into his Blame Jesus song that he just released earlier this year. Verse one. So I mean, guys, this is the story of the prodigal son, right? So let's actually go to Luke 15, starting in verse 11. And he said, This is Jesus talking, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. I mean, man, some of y'all have been right here, right? You've been right there where this guy is. You've made a boatload of bad decisions, you made a dirty, nasty bed, and then you have to lay in it. But let's go to the pre-chorus of blame Jesus by Drew Parker, and then into the chorus. These days, if you look at me, and what you see ain't what you used to see. Now the chorus, blame Jesus, blame the cross, blame the blood that washed it all, blame mercy, blame the scars, blame the Savior who changed my heart, blame the stone that rolled away, blame that old amazing grace. If you're wondering why I can't be who I was, blame Jesus. So let's go back to Luke 15 to the parable of the prodigal son, verse 17 now. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. I mean that's pretty crazy, right? I mean, I remember hearing this story for the first time as a teenager and actually rooting for the kid to get his due punishment, right? I thought that would have been just. I wanted him to pay for his actions. But what happened? The father rejoiced that the prodigal had returned. The father covered him with his best robe. I mean, you could even say that the father covered his son with his righteousness, right? When the son did nothing to deserve it, nothing to earn it. And that is the scandal of the cross. Romans 5.8. But God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And that's not all we have, 2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here. So, guys, when you are saved by grace and people look at you and they don't see what they used to see, there's only one explanation. Blame Jesus. Alright, guys, come back here tomorrow where we will wrap up the week by, believe it or not, looking at a pop song.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.