Edited 12-28-24:
I added a video of ‘Hi Ren’ wherein the foul language has been edited out of it. The video was a critique video done by Rives Church. A pastor was commenting on the video.
There are two videos below, the Rives Church video is the first of the two.
Also, I’m going to offer a few comments on the second video, these are at the end of the post. Initially, I only posted the video to provide an example of internal spiritual struggle. But I have watched at least a dozen critiques by people with various types of skill sets (e.g., musicians, therapists, composers, etc.). In the process, I heard some ideas that sounded accurate to me, and I want to pass those along. I also formulated a few opinions of my own along the way, some of which I will share.
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Ren – Hi Ren (Official Music Video); from the YouTube site, Ren.
I’m posting this video because it is the best video I’ve ever seen for portraying the Roman 7 spiritual struggle. I stumbled upon it while looking at music reviews on YouTube.
Around the middle of the song, you will hear the voice of the tempter. At the end of the song, he spends about a minute explaining the spiritual struggle that had previously taken place in his life.
He certainly is a very talented musician, to say the least.
There are some F-bombs in the song, warning for those who don’t want to subject themselves to foul language.
I do not want to critique or praise anything except the element of spiritual struggle in the song. I have to also say that his manner of portraying the spiritual conflict was moving; you get the idea that he did live it and has learned to put words to the struggle.
I think it is very useful to see the impact of this struggle in his life, as all born-again believers are living such a struggle every day. Not that everyone’s struggle could be portrayed with such intensity, but the inner warfare is there, sometimes intense and sometimes subtle….
As he struggles, each side of himself speaks, when he turns either right or left. When turning to his left, his negative side is speaking; when he turns to his right, his better self is speaking in its struggle to do right.
Please consider the following words from Romans before hearing the song. These words tell us that the purpose of God’s commandments is to reveal our sinfulness to us and to show us that we are helpless to make ourselves good in our own strength.
Only by faith in Christ, and by His righteousness will we be free of sin, at the time of glorification. Until then, forgiveness via the gospel of Christ, the imputation of His righteousness to us, and the guidance of His Spirit is our only hope.
That is, we do not have to go through our lives burdened by guilt and shame; we can give that to Christ via repentance and personal confession in prayer. By doing so, we can know forgiveness from the only One who can give it.
Romans 3:20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
[No one can make himself righteous by keeping the 10 commandments…. The fact that we violate about every command every day enables us to see that such is impossible – if we have not, for example, redefined sin….]
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified [made righteous] by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith….
Romans 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. [See Romans 8 for the answer.]
Video 1, Rives Church, edited version of ‘Hi Ren:’
Video 2, by Ren, the Official version – explicit lyrics:
My thoughts about the video, ‘Hi Ren:’
- The video portrays spiritual struggle that Christians, in particular, experience
- The lyrics in the middle of the song indicated that Satan was greatly influencing the negative voice in Ren’s head (in reality, that is a bigger problem for Christians than for non-Christians)
- Christians need to be able to hear such foul language in the world, as witnessing Christ might cause one to encounter it, in addition to violence, bigotry, hatred…
- The struggle that Ren shared with us was largely a real experience that he underwent as he struggled with the effects of lime disease. It went undiagnosed for a long time and he came to mistrust the doctors with whom he interacted; so the video also reveals underlying emotions of mistrust, defensiveness, betrayal, disillusionment, anger, self-pity…
- It is possible that Ren suffered from some form of mental illness in addition to the effects of lime disease
- It seemed that Ren also experienced betrayal by the music industry for various reasons some reviews put forth (sorry, I wasn’t taking notes)
- Ren’s closing words revealed a few things to me, problems that have been clarified during my 20-year Christian walk, those are as follows:
- He had some knowledge of the Bible, not sure whether he is Christian: he spoke like someone who was making himself righteous; that is, to use Christian lingo, walking in the flesh
- I have learned that the Lord will not permit a Christian to succeed in his/her own strength, as that leads to pride, self-righteousness…
- ERRONEOUS THINKING IN HIS CLOSING THOUGHTS: these were mixed with some accurate statements such as, to paraphrase: the brighter the light shines the darker shadow it casts. In other words, the closer one is to the Lord, His light, truth, righteousness…, the more clear one’s sinfulness and the sin of the world stands out
- “Eternal dance” suggested he would just embrace the dark and the light forces when they impacted him because standing against evil hurt him too much: he is wrong to embrace the dark, and to not take a stand
- He was correct that he could not win against the darkness, in his own strength. Such observations are meant to convey a message from the Lord, that no one can stand against evil if he / she is not fighting in the Lord’s strength, via prayer, exercising faith by trusting the Lord’s promises, reading the word… partaking in the Lord’s appointed means of grace
- That is, all things are possible in the Lord’s strength:
- Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Other scriptures saying the same: can: Joh_15:4-5, Joh_15:7; 2Co_3:4-5
through: 2Co_12:9-10; Eph_3:16, Eph_6:10; Col_1:11; Isa_40:29-31, Isa_41:10, Isa_45:24 - His words, “the more I cursed my clumsy footsteps, the more I struggled” conveyed to me that he had a wrong view of failures:
- That is, spiritual failures should be considered carefully in light of scripture. Jonathan Edwards carefully looked at his feelings and conduct to discover his motives. He could thereafter pray and strategize to struggle against such things (see 3 posts in the Category, Jonathan Edwards, ‘glimpses into his spiritual struggles’); beating oneself up after failing is futile because it keeps one stuck in ignorance of motives, wrong thinking… and keeps one feeling helpless about improving (progressing in sanctification)
- Those are my big takes
- Ren is an extremely talented musician and singer, I discovered as I sampled some of his other songs that aren’t as raw as “Hi Ren”
Reviews of the song at YouTube:
The Charismatic Voice: this lady analyses songs from the perspective of her knowledge of voice and musicality. Her reviews are helpful. I was looking at her review of Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4, and afterwards stumbled onto this song.
Her link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twUZCctHwJU
Search link to reviews on the song:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Reviews+on+the+song+Hi+Ren
Links and narrative that accompanied video 1 at YouTube:
We Weren’t Ready! Pastor/Therapist Reacts To Ren – Hi Ren
From the YouTube site, Rives Church.
The following narrative and links accompanied the video at YouTube:
Thanks for watching, let us know what we should react to next.
If you’re struggling and need help, you can contact us by entering your email in the form linked below: https://form.jotform.com/232637437340051
Our Website: https://www.riveschurch.org
Follow us on Instagram: / rives_church
Like us on Facebook: / riveschurch
Video-page link: https://www.youtube.com/@riveschurch/videos
Links and narrative that accompanied video 2 at YouTube:
Help support me by joining my Patreon: / renmakesmusic
Subscribe Now! – https://bit.ly/RenYTSub
http://www.sickboi.co.uk Ren – Hi Ren (Official Music Video) Hi Ren is out now on all streaming platforms https://renmakesmusic.lnk.to/hiren
Creating this song wasn’t easy, but I’m so proud of how it turned out.
Want to say a big thank you for everyones support over the years. During the years trapped inside with chronic health problems the main thing that kept me going was a belief that one day I would come out the other side, and be able to achieve success through music. I don’t have a label, and sometimes pushing these things as hard as I want becomes a massive challenge, and I find myself frustrated that there aren’t enough hours in the day to push it as far as I want to.
I would love to ask a favour to anyone who has ever enjoyed my music over the years, and it will only take a few minutes of your day.It would mean the world to me if you shared ‘Hi Ren’ as much as you can, over social media platforms, with friends, over email.
Together, and with your help I can hopefully reach people all over the world, and get one step closer to the dream I always had!
Thank you so much for the support so far!
Raising money for RNLI : https://www.justgiving.com/page/ren-g…
Freckled Angels Album: https://renmakesmerch.com/products/fr…
Song written, performed, directed by Ren Cinamatographer – Samuel Perry-Falvey
First A.C. – Joshua styles
Lighting – Jacob Neller
Location – Will Rumfitt Website: https://www.renmakesmusic.co.uk/
Store/Merchandise: https://renmakesmerch.com YouTube: / @renmakesmusic Instagram: / renmakesmusic Tik Tok: / renmakesmusic Ren Music Videos:
- “Hi Ren” – • Ren – Hi Ren (Official Music Video)
- “Sick Boi” – • Ren – Sick Boi (Official Music Video)
- “Animal Flow” – • Ren – Animal Flow (Official Music Video)
- “Illest Of Our Time” – • Ren – Illest Of Our Time (Official Mu…
- “Jenny’s Tale” – • Ren – Jenny’s Tale (Official Music Vi…
- “Screech’s Tale” – • Ren – Screech’s Tale (Official Music …
- “Violet’s Tale” – • Ren – Violet’s Tale (Official Music V…
- “Genesis” – • Ren – Genesis
- “The Hunger” – • Ren – The Hunger (Official Music Video)
- “Chalk Outlines” – • Ren X Chinchilla – Chalk Outlines (live)
Video-page link: https://www.youtube.com/@RenMakesMusic/videos