Making a Joyful Noise...

Praise and Worship...that moment in time when He invites us to reach up and touch the Divine Essence in an intimate embrace.

It’s like prayer, that is, communicating with our Heavenly Father, except with a tune. It’s a time when we can allow the music to stir us so that our emotions are engaged thereby expressing our genuine love for who He is and all that He has done.

It’s about being authentic in the most important relationship we can have. 

Paul expressed it well when he wrote “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God…” Romans 12:1

…Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips… Hebrews 13:15

If we are to present ourselves as a “living and holy sacrifice”, we need to find out how to fulfill that. Thank goodness that in Scripture, God has revealed to us His nature and power and glory and love and grace. He gives us great details in how he wants us to worship Him today.

Here is the key… “Without Blemish” (Leviticus 1:3; 3:1; 4:3; 5:15)
God expects the best fruits of what you can do.

As a body of believers, we are constantly in pursuit of the ‘heart of worship’; that sacrifice of praise, that living and holy sacrifice, without blemish.

Yeshua instructed us in this very subject when he explained to the Samarian woman that “the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” John 4:23-24

This means we worship from the heart and the way God has designed. True worship is felt inwardly, and then comes out through our actions.

Yeshua said it well in his prayer in John 17, “That they may know Thee, the only True God…”

Expanding out the word “know”, we might understand it like this… “That they might experience Your intimate embrace…”

In the words of one of our new songs this year, this is expressed so innately:

• You are all, big and small, beautiful, and wonderful
• To trust in grace through faith, but I'm asking to taste.
• Your fullness is mine, revelation divine
• But, o, to taste, to know much more than a page, to feel Your embrace.

Do you want to have a part with those who participate on stage during Praise & Woship? Do you want to assist in helping others to “Cross Over”?

Here, during the Feast of Tabernacles, we use music as a tool, not to define worship, but rather as the melody upon which the liturgy will dance. Musicians, singers, dancers, signers, technical personnel, and many others combine their unique gifts to magnify the worth of God and the redemptive work of Yeshua, presenting a delectable treasure for the gathered ecclesia to join in becoming that living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God.

In the SOOJ Feast services, participation is more important than perfection ..but minimum requirements for the singers and players on stage help keep them (the singers and players) from being a distraction to those trying to enter in.

If being about authenticity and genuine love, about presenting God in a clear and compelling way, so that emotions are stirred, about authentic worship and artistic action, then consider the Praise & Worship team to share your gift.

Lee Miller
Prase & Worship Coordinator