Praise and worship is an expression of the love of God upon the life of men. It is an ancient practice which has evolved over the years with the use of modern instruments unlike those used in the past. Praise and worship makes glad the heart of God and it can practically open doors which have previously been shut against us.

Each time we praise and worship God in spirit and in truth, the Devil become unhappy. He is angry because he remembers his lost opportunity while in heaven. Lucifer was the chief choirmaster in heaven and he had the most sonorous voice ever created, but lost everything due to disobedience. He was consequently stripped of his office and thrown down from heaven.

Secondly, God inhabits the praise and worship of his children. Whenever I am in the presence of God listening to praise and worship, he practically comes into my spirit with awesome manifestations. Ron Kenoly, Cece Winans and Shirley Ceaser are just few of God’s divine apostles bringing the presence of God to homes through the instrumentality of praise and worship.

The power of music can break burdens establish a point of healing for those tormented with varied ailments. When Paul and Silas were placed in prison according to the Bible book of Acts of Apostles, the desire to praise and worship God far outweighed their sorrow and pain. At midnight, it was recorded that they began to adore God and the presence of God consequently destroyed their bands and set the prison doors open. When our songs ascend to his throne of mercy, impossibilities become possibilities.

He loves to hear the praise of our lips and the best we can do to appreciate all he has done for us is to give him all we have. He deserves all our appreciation because he is the source of our existence and life. He is the love of our life and the more we praise him, the nearer he draws to us. It is practically impossible for a believer to stay a day without singing songs of adoration to him.

If given the opportunity, I will not hesitate to give him quality praise and worship, because he means more than this world to me. I would not trade him for silver or gold because he is the hope that I cling to each day I wake up. The deep secrets can be unveiled to an individual as the heart in poured in sincere worship to the one who loves us more than we can ever know.

Releasing New Levels of Corporate and Individual Worship

Roland Worton in his book “Emerging Worship” guides the reader into a new awareness of the presence of God. Worton introduces and celebrates the sounds of heaven and the emergence of the “Soundforger.” Worton has a Global three dimensional in function which reestablishes the tabernacle of David as a model for corporate worship with the multidimensional representation of priestly, prophetic, and apostolic worship.

Roland points out how Apostle John was exposed to the sounds of heaven and records the experience in the book of Revelation. These sounds of heaven include: the voice of the Father, the Bridegroom, and the angels.

Worton incorporates the concept of understanding the realm of Christ’s government to relate Kingdom principles and to help understand the decrees and declarations of the Apostolic Church today. Roland reiterates the strategic purpose, societal transformation, and role of intercession, impacting the transition of this emerging worship.

Roland incorporated the writings and concepts of highly respected leaders within today’s apostolic movement. I appreciated the depth of research and comprehensive end notes and credits Worton included. Appendix A was helpful. Roland listed the priestly Psalms, the prophetic revelatory Psalms, and the governing apostolic Psalms. These lists become an important resource tool for worship leaders.

In his book “Emerging Worship” Roland Worton invites every member of the Body of Christ to permeate their community, city and nation with the sounds and songs of Heaven. This is an important and timely book. I recommend it for anyone seeking a fresh approach and a fresh approach to gaining entrance to the presence of God.

Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., 978*0768426984

As Reviewed for Midwest Book Review

Tracey Bianchi is a married mother of three young children, living in Chicago. Her environmental concerns for both her family and future generations inspired her to write Green Mama: The Guilt-Free Guide to Helping You and Your Children Save the Planet.

Bianchi earned a master of divinity degree and is a frequent speaker and writer on topics of Christianity. Regardless of your religious beliefs or denomination, and whether or not you have children, Green Mama will enlighten you to the earth’s dwindling natural resources; and how you can make a positive impact. Here, the topics of greening your travel and worship, along with advocacy for planting a tree are discussed.

Greening Your Travel

Before traveling, ask yourself if you really need to get there at all. Monitoring your travel can reduce fuel consumption, carbon emissions and consumerism. U.S. residents are responsible for approximately 25 percent of the world’s carbon emissions even though we have only 5 percent of the population.

Before jumping in the car, ask these potentially life-changing questions:

• Have I chosen a green place to live? Answers vary according to circumstances. For you, that might mean multiple acres in a rural area or easy access to public transportation.
• Do I live close enough to the amenities I need or the places I frequently visit? Next time you move, consider not only housing costs and school district quality. Think too about the commute time to routine travel, including the grocery store, church and library.
• Do I really need to do this today or can I do it another time as part of another errand?
• Can I walk or bike there instead?
• Who else can I bring with me (i.e. a neighbor who needs to go grocery shopping a the same time)?
• Can I combine the trip with another errand?
• Am I shopping locally? Are all of my errands as close to home as possible?

Air Travel

The World Wide Institute states that one plane crossing the Atlantic Ocean uses16, 000 gallons of fuel. That’s enough to power one car for fifty years.

Before flying, ask yourself if you can travel by car or train. Take public transportation to and from the airport whenever it’s possible. Bring your own snacks and decline drinks, napkins and plastic cups offered on the plane.

Realize that you might be skiing at a resort that doesn’t monitor its carbon emissions. Long-term, the very commodity they’re selling (snowfall) could diminish with climate change. Eating at certain seafood restaurants, while enjoyable, may be purchasing their food from overfished waters. “Be an educated traveler and make a difference when you can,” says Bianchi.

Green Your Hotel and Resort Stays.

Bring home half-used bottles of shampoo and lotions. Use them up and recycle the containers. Look for water-saving tips from your hotel. Now, many offer water conservation programs that ask you to reuse your towels and bed linens the next day.

Vacation with a Purpose.

“Purposeful vacations take into account the social imprint of your vacation as well as the ecological practices of the places you visit,” says Bianchi.

Consider an Eco-Vacation, a Mission Project or a Conservation Trip.

Your local church or park district may offer trips and ecotourism vacations to destinations where you and your family can stay together. Cleaning up trails, helping to create a habitat for endangered wildlife and serving needy families worldwide are among the many vacation opportunities.

Buy a Hybrid Car; They Make a Difference.

The smaller and slower the car, the better the fuel efficiency.

Greening Your Worship

Your place of worship (or any other community setting you experience, including work) may ignore promoting an eco-friendly atmosphere. “Turns out the very buildings that were designed to proclaim the wonders of the God of the universe are some of the least green places in the country,” says Bianchi.

Styrofoam cups, individualized creamer packets and sugars, stir sticks, multi-page bulletins, and company newsletters printed with petroleum-based ink (instead of eco-friendly soy-based inks) are among the eco-savvy detractors.

“Greening up the church is not a fad or some hippie luxury; it is good stewardship and it is our future,” she says. Bianchi suggests two levels to start greening your worship:

1. Begin with your senior pastor, minister, rabbi, etc. A simple meeting with him or her can initiate the dialogue. Further talks can convene with committees, elders, trustees, and others leaders. Tap into your congregation’s professional talents, including architects, engineers and HVAC experts.

Discuss who will lead the greening efforts. It may or may not be you. The green team will need to research recycling options, reasonable tweaks in lighting and energy and other common sense, eco-friendly adaptations.

2. Use personal, covert greening efforts if you meet congregational resistance. This includes turning off lights in classrooms, and collecting and recycling church bulletins and newsletters on your own.

A universal response from churches, nonprofits and other organizations that resist going green is cost. Today, many establishments are working with limited funds.

Greening a place can appear to be pricey. Waste haulers may charge additional fees to remove recyclables. Recycling bins can be costly and purchasing fair-trade coffee and teas may sell for more, but, once done, long-term savings often result.

In the church, some will question if a greener life is theologically supported. Going green will have its detractors in any setting.

Planting a Tree

None of us can save the world on our own, but we can each make a difference. Bianchi mentions Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan activist who, in 2004, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai says one thing we can do to fight environmental injustice, is plant a tree. It’s something we can all manage. Plant something green whether you live in a high rise, farm or anywhere else. Plunge your hands into the dirt and bring forth life.

Greening your travel and worship offer a variety of ways to reduce your carbon footprint on earth. Consider planting a tree to promote perpetual life among nature.

Green Mama offers a gallimaufry of websites to help you live more consciously and reduce consumerism. One of the best is the Center For A New American Dream. Visit them here: http://www.newdream.org/.

Every good thing in our lives is a gift from God. He has given us the beautiful gift of music. As a guitar instructor for over 30 years, I have seen how music blesses people.

One of my students was a Beverly Hills lawyer studying classical guitar. He told me that playing music on the guitar always took him to another place and he felt the stresses of his work disappear. Relieving stress is a benefit of playing an instrument.

There are many studies proving that playing an instrument causes your brain to develop in both hemispheres. At a homeschool fair I exhibited in, one of the moms stopped by our booth to tell us how much her teenage daughter loved my worship guitar instructional program. She came back later to add that all of her daughter’s grades went up and that she believes it was related to learning the guitar.

There are many good reasons to learn to play an instrument, but adding real worship puts the music in a whole new and deeper category. You see, we were created to worship a Holy God. There is a depth of fulfillment in worshipping Him that secular music will never touch.

When we worship Him we fulfill Hebrews 11:6. This is the scripture that says without faith it is impossible to please God and that He rewards those who believe He exists and earnestly seek Him.

What are those rewards? There are too many to list here, but a big one, and the third benefit in this article, is peace. We have peace with God and can experience peace regardless of what is happening around us.

One morning, while I was worshipping, the phone rang. It was an obscene phone call but because I was in God’s presence and peace, instead of reacting negatively I told the caller, in love, that what he was saying was sin.

I told him that Jesus died on the cross for his sins and if he gave his life to Christ that he would be forgiven and that God could meet all of his needs.

Well, he hung up on me, and I noticed that I did not feel slimmed or disgusted with the call. Instead, I prayed for him for a while.

The fourth benefit of developing a daily time of worship is that it’s easier to hear from God. When we practice being in His presence through prayer, worship and meditating on His Word, we recognize His ways and desires for our lives.

What is the result of aligning yourself to God? Joy. Joy is not the same word as happy. Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before Him. He knew that dying for our sins would be painful and horrible, but necessary to redeem us back into a relationship with a Holy God.

We can experience that joy in the trials of our lives. In the book of James, we are told to count it all joy when we face trials of all kinds. Consistently worshipping puts our hearts in alignment with our Creator and He gives us the strength to endure all things with His peace and joy.

The next benefit I thought about was the fact that we can please God! Again, in Hebrews 11:6 it says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Hence, with faith we do please God.

When I give a special gift that I know someone wants it is so exciting. Many years ago, my voice teacher mentioned that she and her husband wanted a Troy-Bilt rototiller but that it was too expensive. I approached one of the leaders of a group she was involved with and 30 of us paid for the rototiller. I couldn’t wait to see the expression on her face when she saw their present!

How much more is our Father in heaven pleased when we give of ourselves by giving Him our devotion every day? Realizing his pleasure should bring a smile to our faces as we come before Him with our daily worship.

The last benefit is that it is a tangible way we can say ‘Thank-you’ for all the wonderful gifts God gives us. I usually end my Newsletters with the words ‘Worship Him with all your heart because He loves you with all of His.’ God Bless.

**St. Patrick’s Day- A reminder of how faith has always played a role in the human experience. St. Patrick’s Day-Celebrated because a saint cared enough about the importance of spreading his faith- to spread, “THE WORD OF GOD.”- Building ministries and places of worship around IRELAND. Pray at any time of day or night. Meditate, feel great, reduce stress and unplug for a few moments a day! Do it your way, your time and respect a few moments a day for your own space!

Faith is the fabric of our being; we all believe in something, or someone outside of ourselves.

**St. Patrick was a messenger, and through his medium, wanted to share the joy and peace that his faith brought him, sharing and caring, with all those souls who gave him a chance, by listening to his internal message to design buildings for people to congregate and worship in peace and through unity.

**St. Patrick listened to his internal message to initiate the building of houses of worship for others to have and to hold time, gathering and praying in an interconnected way to empower each other, while learning and sharing by internal revelation and shared-spoken messages.

St. Patrick was an inspirational English or Scottish missionary to Ireland, he offered Pagans and Christians and many people alike the knowledge, arming people with information and how he processed his faith was one way, that many Pagans realized of the truth of the HOLY One and they made their own decision to follow and believe in the words in the message that resonated with them the most. Convert is an inappropriate term; a verb wrongly used to describe many saints, as nobody can ever be converted against their own,”FREE WILL.”One may be physically prohibited from movement, though faith or lack thereof is not a conversion, but a choice and an internal freedom that we are all born with that NOBODY can control. ** We are all-equipped with the mental acuity to discover, learn, challenge or dismiss any word, directions, instruction, enlightenment or guidance that we do or do not accept as our own truth as individuals.GOD bless St. Patrick and all of those others that came before him for challenging popular beliefs and for hosting their own road to guide followers and to serve as a transmuted energy, guilt-free and done with finesse and clarity. ** HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY; THIS YEAR; AND FOREVER… ~ thanks for reading today_ St. Patrick’s Day-Celebrates the Building of Ministries and Places of Worship Around IRELAND.

***I enjoy learning from you and from others offering me knowledge continuously!

If you want to learn how to lead praise and worship that flows there are some things that you can do to encourage this. One of the most common problems I see in many praise and worship leaders is that the service does not flow naturally and gently from song to song, either because of the church service format all because of the leaders in experience.

Programming the Church Service

One of the most significant barriers to learning how to lead praise and worship that flows can be the church service structure. Many churches see the music as punctuation around the other areas of the service, so the church service program allows only one or two songs to be sung in a sequence before the flow is broken up by other activities, such as announcements, the offering, prayer, missionary spots, and so on.

If you want to learn to lead worship that really flows, the first step is to approach the pastor about the format of the meeting. Ask him if he would mind combining all of the above listed activities into one particular place in the service, allowing you to run three or four songs together in worship. This simple change in format can change the way you learn how to lead very significantly.

Blending Songs

One of the key elements in learning how to lead worship effectively lies in song selection. If you select songs in a similar key, or songs that are easily able to be blended together, then you will be going a long way towards a worship service which flows naturally from song to song. This can transform your church because they would no longer be singing a selection of songs that they will be able to flow from song to song and enjoy an entire worship experience. Learning how to do this effectively is one of the great keys in learning how to lead praise and worship in an anointed way.

Speaking Less

One of the most frequent problems I see with inexperienced leaders who are learning how to lead praise and worship is that they speak too much. If it is not going well they speak to the audience, in telling them to get involved or praying with them. Please do not misunderstand, I am not saying it is wrong to speak during the worship service.

However, my experience is that as you learn how to lead praise and worship you will also learn how to keep quiet and let God draw people’s hearts into the service, not your words. This allows people to concentrate on the world and not on your thoughts, prayers or opinions. Most of the truly great worship times I have ever experienced, with myself or someone else leading, have involved little or no talking between songs.

There is much more to learn about how to lead praise and worship effectively, but these three points can start you getting the right direction.

Massive responsibility rests on the shoulders of every Praise and Worship leader across the globe because God’s presence in a church meeting depends on it and the destinies of church members depends on it. If worship is done in such a way that God does not show up and minister in a meeting, someone on the brink of disaster or tragedy will leave church the same way they came and that becomes a missed opportunity for them to receive from God. It is time for us to get serious about this fundamental pillar of ministry in the house of The Lord. In order for the worship experience to be different, I think its time we did things differently.

I share ten reasons why you must do praise and worship the correct way.

1. Man was created for praise and worship not just for Sunday, but on a daily basis. The reason why a lot of people do not have a divine encounter when they worship on a Sunday morning is because they do not do it at home. Therefore they have not nurtured an intimate relationship with God even though they are good Christians.

2. Worship has more to do with the one who is giving it and his vertical relationship with the one who he is worshipping (Jehovah God).

3. Anyone can sing songs that talk about God, but it takes a special relationship with God to be able to access the presence of God through the medium of worship.

4. Sometimes you praise out of an overflow, but other times you may have to bring a sacrifice of praise. David says in Psalms: “I will bless the Lord at all times”! You don’t have to feel like doing it when you begin, but if you begin, and you worship him with all your heart, God will come through for you.

5. God can accomplish more in the life of an individual who is connected during the time of worship than one who is connected and disassociated from what he is doing.

6. One doesn’t need to have exceptional talent but a heart that loves God, a melody and a life that is surrendered to God. There is a cost to being a Praise and Worshipper in the house of God. You have to be separated from the world, totally devoted to your relationship with The Most High God

7. Ability can help you to sing but it is the anointing that gives you access into the presence of God. With so much emphasis on excellence and putting on a show, many do not get into the Holy of holies because they are busy showing each other how good they are. You cannot impress God with your skill; He is the one who gave it to you in the first place.

8. The key job of a praise and worship leader is to open the heavens, which is the reason why we gather, to have an encounter with our God. When He shows up He doesn’t leave us the way He found us.

9. There are songs that encourage us to worship and songs that carry the presence of God. These are not the songs that you sing because they are in the “top 20”. They are God inspired songs, not your songs.

10. Miracles, signs and wonders begin to take place in an atmosphere that has been created by worship; therefore worship is not a warm up to the preaching. It is ministering to God and when God is ministered to He honours us with His presence

In conclusion, I urge you to be consistently constant in worship. Worship God in your homes, with friends, in you cell groups and soon it will become a powerful lifestyle and when you come together in church, what an awesome time it will be.

I did a performance thing one Friday.

Those you who have been with me for some time or listened to me teach know that I firmly believe that worship is meant for the congregation to participate in, not for a few people to perform in. Over the years I have focused more and more on worship ministry, rather than performing, and thus have gotten better and better at worship leading rather than performing.

And so the moment before I went up on stage for the Living Faith Church “Honor the Servers” event to perform two worship songs I wrote myself, I had stage fright again.

Yeah, even after all these years.

What I was told later was that I did well, so that means that the methods I use to conquer stage fright work. Thought of sharing them with you in this article.

The MOST important thing you MUST know: ALL stage fright is based on two factors: 1) that people are all focusing on you; and 2) the feeling that you are losing control. So the secret to overcoming stage fright is dealing with these two factors.

So in a worship context, you need to shift people’s attention away from you and to God AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Firstly, because that’s your job as a worship minister, and second, because that takes away from you pressure that you don’t have to undergo in order to get the job done.

If you are a worship leader, get the people to start singing or to do something together as a congregation as soon as possible. In general, praying and exhorting the congregation before worship is quite unnecessary, in my opinion. It adds to the pressure on you (which you don’t want) and delays the start of worship (which THEY don’t want) and means that you have to put in even more work to generate the momentum in worship later once they do get started.

So if you can do it, do it well and yet generate the momentum later once you start the worship, great! Personally, even after all these years of leading worship, I don’t do all that kind of stuff.

Now, if you are a worship musician or your mouth volunteered you for something before your rational mind kicked in (as happened in MY case), your struggle will be more of the second factor, the feeling that you are losing control.

How can you deal with that situation? First, have a familiar preparation routine. That can range from a familiar song intro style you use or even something as simple as washing your hands and drying them exactly the same way every time. This tells your subconscious that you ARE in control.

For me I’d either keep moving (if I have to do something that doesn’t involve me talking) or pray for a relevant joke to use (Lots of people present that evening enjoyed my joke about my voice inspiring thanksgiving). When the people started laughing I knew I was still very much in control.

The keep moving method is one I don’t really use these days, because people in church tend to freak out when they see me do stretching exercises (“Is he doing Tai Chi? Is that YOGA???”), but you can easily find other ideas you can adapt and use in YOUR situation.

There were some points I slipped up. For example, I had a mike in front of me during my singing, so to keep myself from going cross-eyed looking at the mike I just closed my eyes while singing (and played some chords wrong). But overall I did OK. Sometimes it’s a question of how you choose to see the whole experience.

As I mentioned before, the worship songs were those I wrote, so I could see the whole experience in two ways. I could choose to see the experience of performing my own worship songs as being judged. Composing something is very personal because you put a lot of who you are as a person into it, and it’s very easy to interpret people rejecting it as rejecting who you are as a person.

Or I could see it in this way: because it’s MY song nobody else knows it. Therefore no one else will know if I get it wrong. A lot less pressure, right? I chose to see it this way…

Of course all these ideas are not meant to replace proper preparation. The two songs I used are songs I wrote from Scripture passages very dear to me (from the book of Psalms, surprised?) and for two weeks before I was using those two songs in my daily devotionals and discovering what songs could be effectively linked with those two songs. (Hey, once a worship leader, always a worship leader).

But sometimes even after we’ve prepared a lot we still get the jitters. That’s where the ideas here come in useful. Try them out and let me know what you think?

Praise and worship has been an integral part of life in Nigeria for ages. This used to happen even before modern Christian missionaries set foot in the country. At the time, the natives used to sing songs in praise of their god(s). These songs were sung when rain came after a long period of drought, after a good bountiful harvest and birth of a child.

Other praise songs were sung during different occasions. When a local king died and a successor chosen, special songs were sung in his praise, asking the god(s) to give him long life and wisdom. Special songs were also sung for young men who were considered heroes after heroic acts as in wars. In Nigeria as in many African countries, praise songs are still sung, especially for national leaders.

The advent of Christianity and Islam in Nigeria never eradicated praise songs. Some praise songs were transformed to reflect the change in worship, and most praise songs today are used to praise God (both Christians and Muslims alike).

These praise songs were transformed into worship songs and are common throughout the country. While modern praise and worship songs have found their way into the society, the traditional ones still abound, where traditional instruments such as drums and horns are used. It is not surprising to find modern praise and worship songs being sung comfortably in the local languages.

In today’s Nigeria, praise and worship songs have been arranged in such a manner that particular songs are sung during certain occasions.

1. Family praise and worship songs. These are common in most Christian homes and will be heard being sung in the mornings and evenings. These are meant to give God thanks and praise for his care and protection during the night and for his guidance during the day. They are very popular with children
2. Marriage praise songs. These are sung during wedding festivities and are meant to give thanks and praise to God for such an opportunity. They are also meant to prevail upon God to bless such a couple.
3. Thanksgiving praise songs. These are sung to give God thanks. They are mostly sung when the first harvest is brought into the church as offering for God.
4. Worship songs. These are sung in the church. Some will be sung at the opening of worship, others during the church service and the rest at the end of the service.

It is important to point out that Muslims also have their own praise and worship songs and like Christians, those songs are meant to give praise to Allah.

Some of the modern praise and worship songs that are sung in the local languages are;

(a) Joy, Joy, Joy (c.s.s.m. 236), Wide, Wide as the Ocean (c.s.s.m. 269) and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus (c.s.s.m. 305).