I think i should copy this and paste here because we are something like that..Let's be different from today onwards!!
The praise here can be translated to mean "to boast, celebrate, approve, admire and commend". In the case of praising God, it is to express the actions or works of God. Common praise songs i grew up with (when i was saved in 1997) were like... "Celebrate Jesus Celebrate, He is risen (2x), and He lives forevermore..." "Arise Shine for Your light has come, your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon YOu, Arise Shine, Arise Shine, for Your light has come", "We serve a God of miracles, You heal the sick and open blinded eyes, We serve a God of miracles, the demons flee the moment You arise, Arise and show Yourself strong, Arise, arise and show Yourself strong". Today, i hear "praise" songs along the lines of these... "Searching the world, The lost will be found, In freedom we live, As one we cry out, You carried the cross, YOu died and rose again, My God, I'll only ever give my all... Jesus, we're living for Your name, We'll never be ashamed of You, Our praise and all we are today, Take take take it all, take take take it all" "All my days, i'm following You, in every way i live my life just to please You, all my praise will tell the world what You've done in me, cause i'll never be the same. All my days, i am honouring You, in every way, i glorify and exalt You, all my praise is an offering to You, and the nations crown You King, of all my days.." Ok, i don't mean to split hairs here, nor am i saying the youth worship songs today are not relevant or doctrinally sound. They are all well and good, BUT somehow i PERSONALLY feel that today's songs are more like telling stories about how we would like to praise God and why we want to praise God instead of actually praising God in the songs. The words are so many, and the tempo is so fast, if you heard the song for the first time, without lyrics flashed on the screen, you wouldn't even know what you are singing. The drums, keyboards, bass, electric guitars are all coming together to form a really attractive sound, so much so that it can easily pass off as a rock concert in the YouthPark and nobody could tell the difference. Some may say that it is about being relevant to the youths today, it is keeping in times, Jane, u're just too old. I beg to differ. Before i got saved, i went to nightclubs & i'm not proud of it, i had to struggle to get away from those things. So now that i'm more sanctified than i was back then, i really don't need the nightclub sounds & effects to come into the place where i worship God. If we are so relevant that non-believers are so comfortable when they come into our services and they say, "wow, this is as cool as a rock concert", then sadly, we are no different from the world. Aren't we called a peculiar people? Down right it is! Christians are peculiar, we stick out like sore thumbs, when we praise and worship our God, people think we are strange, and i'm proud of it. what's wrong with that? This is why we are not of the world! I'm not suggesting that we do away with all the trendy youth praise and worship songs, but i'm suggesting a balance of old and new. I'm suggesting that we teach our youths how to really praise and worship God and not rely on the cool rock sound, not rely on the catchy tune, and not rely on the upbeat tempo to get ourselves hyped up. Let's teach our youths to tell God how good He is, proclaim His greatness, with simple words. No need to tell long stories about the world-and-ay-ay-ay and my dreams and how God met my needs and therefore i give my praise to God. Just say "Praise God, YOu are good! You are majesty! You are God of all Creation!" How simple can that be! I've been struggling with this issue for weeks, and everytime, i tell myself, maybe i'm just old and not in sync, maybe i don't know the youth beat today. I remember how i used to like Petra and Jars of Clay when i was a young believer cause those were as closed to worldly music as i could find among Christian songs. So there is a place for hip, trendy Christian songs that sound like worldly music. But i also remember singing all types of other praise songs, and i remembered that after awhile, Petra and Jars of Clay were more for leisure listening when i'm cookin or cleaning, but not when i truly want to praise God. My goodness, Jars of Clay was excellent, i even attended one concert! but till today, i still don't understand what some of the lyrics were about. Youth ministry is really an exciting, cutting edge place to be, cause youths are just so versatile, vibrant and full of life! I’ve only recently moved to youth min, and I know the difference and I am convinced that I would rather serve in youth min than anywhere else because there is something about young people that’s just so moldable and teachable. And this is probably one of the best places to build God’s army for the last days that will very shortly come upon us.
So my plead to all fellow laborers in youth min, let’s build wisely and let’s build strong foundations. Let’s teach our youths how to be in the world, but not of the world.
By Jane's multiply blog
Hello! We're a bunch of God lovers, and we're called
We consist of:
Er Jiajian
Celeste Sng, Celia Sng, Cheryl Ho, Chien Kwok Seng, Choon Hua, Diane Tan, Eunice Joy, Fiona, Gideon Tam, Hasswin, Huimin, Jingwei, Joanna Chan,
Joanna Huang, Johnathan Kum, Jonathan Yeo, Kelvin Shieh, Kelvin Teo, Lee Kaiying, Madeline Tang, Melissa Ng, Mok Peijie, Nigel Tham,
Noel Yeong, Pei En, Poh Shu Juan, Rachelin, Rebekah Ong, Tatjna Ong, Vivien Sim & Yang Peida
