Praise and worship

God Has Given You a Song to Sing

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The Angels had a song

two silver angel figurines

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:13-14

The Shepherds Had a song

Luke 2:20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

photo of woman holding lamb

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Mary Had a Song

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant  For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Luke 1:46-49

Kyla as Mary 2

 

Some of us sing soprano like the angels with every hearing everyone note. Some of us sing alto and with  in  middle notes like the shepherds. Not everyone appreciates our harmonies but whey hold the melodies together. Some of us have bass notes; like Mary who was thankful that God regarded her low estate. But no matter what part we are given in God’s heavenly choir he has assigned each of us our place and He is waiting for us to sound the next note as together we are singing His song!

 

Beginning Our Day With Worship

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Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. John 9:37-38 ESV

Discipleship begins by faith but it will only grow as we worship. One pitfall in our churches today is that we connect worship in our minds to a hushed mood, a moment in the worship team’s performance and a time to settle back into our comfortable seats. But in the Bible we see Moses worshiped bare foot in the desert by a burning bush. We see Elijah worshiping God at a stone altar even when the crowd was loving the 400 man worship team at the 1st church of Baal. David worshiped while he watched sheep and Daniel worshiped with only an audience of lions. All of these people were worshiping because they had met an awesome God and they wanted Him to get all the glory, no matter what their circumstances.

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Dial it forward to when Jesus met a blind man in John chapter nine. First, while the disciples were debating why he was blind, Jesus healed him. Later when he was rejected by the local religious leaders, Jesus became His friend. Last of all, when Jesus showed the man who He really was he began to worship. Before we can walk down the road with Jesus we must learn what it means to truly worship Him. No ministry can be more important, no goal more vital, no relationship too precious to stand in the way of our worship. When we see that He is so worthy of all we have to give and begin to uncover the truth of who He really is; what else can we do but worship?

Are We Losing Connection?

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Are We Losing Connection?

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. Psalm 145:4 KJV

David talks about singing praise as something older believers must do in order to let the younger generation know what God has done for them. Of course young people in our churches usually know five or six of the hymns and maybe even a few Christmas carols but they think of that as the music belonging to the old folks. Hymns which connected parents to children for hundreds of years today are on the verge of vanishing away. The entire concept that older have anything of value is being forgotten. So before the baton of faith meant to be passed from one generation to the next is dropped; let’s spend a few days focusing on how to ensure that we pass it on.

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This past Sunday at our church the worship team deviated from its usual contemporary selection to close out the service with two entire verses and the chorus of “How Great Thou Art.” It was so wonderfully refreshing to hear older voices not just joining in but doing so with gusto! We were singing loudly not only because we liked that song but for once we felt as if someone remembered that we were there! It’s not that I think we ought to forget about the new worship songs; but in those few moments we began to make a closer connection. As young tenors blended with older slightly faded baritones; the hymn made us realize that together we are God’s family. As some of our voices weaken from having sung the songs of faith for decades; may others take up their melody. Together we tell the world the unchanging message of God’s love and faithfulness to every generation.