Secular music with a Christian Message?

Question

Hi,
I'm working on a project and am trying to find music done by primarily secular artists that have a christian message behind it- either blatently or a little more subdued... For example

U2 - One
Dave Matthews Band - You Might Die Trying
Train - Calling All Angels
Goo Goo Dolls - Better Days

Any and all help would be appreciated! Thanks!

A little more details. The project is based on God being everywhere and using everything. The music does not need to be written with a christian intent, but when you hear it you can hear the christian message screaming out of it. You know, the sorty we are all pre-wired to hear and accept. We want to show how God can use everyone even when they don't realize it, or even believe. Thank you all for your answers so far!

Answer 1

Here's a good site for exactly what you're looking for...

http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/features/glimpses.html

Simple Mind's "Alive and Kicking" is one

Another is Billy Joel's "Just the way you are"

from it...

"I need to know that you will always be
The same old someone that I knew
What will it take till you believe in me
The way that I believe in you. "

"I said I love you and that's forever
And this I promise from the heart
I could not love you any better
I love you just the way you are."

Answer 2

Just from a spiritual point, the Bible teaches if you mix two things together, one that is holy and one that is not holy, the holy thing does not make the unholy thing holy, the unholy makes the holy unholy. See Haggai 2 So why would you want to mix the secular with the things of God?
James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
2 Corinthians 6:14 "...for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?"

Answer 3

Dave Matthews has a lot of Christian influences in his music (his father was a minister) but what Dave sings about a lot is his internaly struggle with accepting god and not. Some songs he does, some he doesn't. I think You Might Die Trying is one of his more secular songs (I may be wrong), but there are other songs that have messages that point to this struggle.

Plus, no matter what songs you find, keep in mind that you might interpret the songs as having christian messages, when they aren't intentional. So there's a difference between reading christianity into a song and taking the song as having a christian message.

Answer 4

Lifehouse - Hanging by a Moment, Breathing, Everything
John Michael Montgomery - The Little Girl
Randy Travis - Three Wooden Crosses
Joe Nichols - If Nobody Believed in You
Martina McBride - Reluctant Daughter
Carrie Underwood - Jesus Take the Wheel

Answer 5

Carry Underwood - Jesus take the wheel
Creed - My own prison

My Own Prison
A court is in session, a verdict is in
No appeal on the docket today
Just my own sin
The walls are cold and pale
The cage made of steel
Screams fill the room
Alone I drop and kneel
Silence now the sound
My breath the only motion around
Demons cluttering around
My face showing no emotion
Shackled by my sentence
Expecting no return
Here there is no penance
My skin begins to burn
So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one
I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
A lion roars in the darkness
Only he holds the key
A light to free me from my burden
And grant me life eternally
Should have been dead
On a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time
So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one
I cry out to God
Seeking only his decision
Gabriel stands and confirms
I've created my own prison

Answer 6

Vince Gill-Go Rest High On That Mountain
Carrie Underwood-Jesus Take The Wheel
Heaven-Los Lonley Boys

Answer 7

Just the day before yestereday I got in my car to go to work, thinking that the radio was tuned to the Christian Gospel Station, I turned the radio on and there was James Taylor singing: YOU GOT A FRIEND

here i am heading on down the roadway, going to work, thinking how cool it is that the Gospel Station would be playing this song and thinking and praying about the significance of YOU GOT A FRIEND

just call on my name

and i'll come running

so cool...was totally immersed in the vibe, when the song ended and i discovered the radio station had been changed to the classic rock station by my wife while she was out on an errand

so cool



(it was a good trip)

Answer 8

Music has been described as the "oldest and most natural of all the fine arts." Like language, it is a remarkable gift that sets humans apart from beasts. Music stirs the emotions. It can delight the ear and linger in the mind. Above all, music can please God.
Music That Displeases God, This was music associated with idolatry, a practice that evoked God's displeasure
Pagan fertility rites, the doctrine of the immortality of the human soul, and the veneration of Mary as "mother of God" are often featured as themes of musical compositions. Yet, these beliefs and practices dishonor the God of truth, for they are contrary to what is revealed in his inspired Word, the Bible
Just be careful what you look for.

Answer 9

One does not have a religious message behind it. While it has one of the best lines ever written - Have you come here for forgiveness, have you come to raise the dead, have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head - it does not have a religious message. It's about the band almost breaking up while working on Achtung Baby.

If you want U2 songs with a religious theme there are TONS of them - off of Pop there's If God Will Send His Angels, The Playboy Mansion and Please, off of The Joshua Tree there's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, off of Rattle & Hum there's God Part II, off of Zooropa there's The Wanderer (which Johnny Cash sings, great single), off of All that You Can't Leave Behind there's Peace on Earth, off of How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb there's Yahweh, and there are many, many more, certainly.

But One is not one of them.

Answer 10

There are also a lot of stuff you here on the raido that is Christian but people do not know it. Switchfoot, we were ment to live is a christian song, by a christian band, Six Pence none the Richer, Kiss me, is a christian band, and song. Yet they are played in the mainstream music stations.