Jelly Roll Knows He’s Not Perfect, But The Gospel Is Still Being Presented: “Live A Little Too Secular To Be Releasing Christian Music”

Jelly Roll is admitting he has some shortcomings when it comes to his relationship with God.

That’s something a lot of Christians can relate to, am I right? Christianity calls for all Christ followers to lead a life that’s dedicated to the Lord. A lot of times, that “life-leading” is reserved just to a couple of hours on Sunday. The rest of the week is dedicated to the busyness of a worldly life.

The rapper-turned-country-artist certainly feels like he could be doing more, and one of the ways he’s trying to contribute is by releasing gospel music. Chances are you’ve heard his collaboration with Christian artist Brandon Lake, “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” which earned Jelly Roll his first nomination for a contemporary Christian music (CCM) award.

Then you’ve got some of Jelly Roll’s other songs like “Need A Favor” and “Son of a Sinner,” which have underlying Christian themes. The singer is helping others discovery their faith, and he told the AP that he feels as though that’s something that’s happening more and more in the modern day:

“I think there really is a revival happening in America right now where people are being re-presented the Gospel in a digestible way. And it doesn’t seem as finger waggy and ‘You’re all going to hell,’ you know?

I really don’t care when the organized religions wave their finger at me. I’m just glad to see the message, the Gospel getting presented.”

All believers can agree on that.

That’s a basic examples of towards motivations versus away motivation. Jelly Roll believes that, for so long, churches have been pushing this “do this or you’ll go to hell” agenda when they’d be more successful encouraging non-believers to move closer to God. It’s through his music – both in the Christian and country genres – that he’s planting seeds for fans to explore their own faith. He’s touching people’s lives in a positive way, no way to argue against that.

All that being said, Jelly Roll recognizes that he’s not perfect. He’s put his criminal history behind him, but the singer doesn’t run away from it. Jelly is constantly talking about where he came from, in hopes that he can inspire others that may be in a similar place that he used to be. And every time he discusses his rags-to-riches story, he gives glory to God for leading him to where he is today. His story is not unlike of number of people we read about in the Bible. Paul persecuted Christians before he became the world’s greatest missionary. King David slept with another man’s wife and then had him killed when she got pregnant, Moses killed an Egyptian and buried him in the desert, Abram lied and offered his wife up to other men TWICE, Rahab was a prostitute… the list goes on. God has always used broken and imperfect people to further the kingdom, and Jelly Roll is no different.

And even so, Jelly Roll admits that he could be doing even more to live his life like Christ. He even told the AP that he feels some guilt about releasing worship music, but knows that God recognizes his heart and his intentions:

“I definitely live a little too secular to be releasing Christian music. He’s got my back. God knows my heart.”

That takes a lot of guts for Jelly Roll to say that. A majority of Christians can probably relate to living of the world, but not every Christian is going to admit it. Just goes to show that Jelly is very comfortable with his relationship with God, even though he knows it can still use some work. But hey, that’s what sanctification is… that lifelong process of getting better and better, day by day, all the way to glory.

“Hard Fought Hallejuah” by Brandon Lake & Jelly Roll

The post Jelly Roll Knows He’s Not Perfect, But The Gospel Is Still Being Presented: “Live A Little Too Secular To Be Releasing Christian Music” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.