Archive for the ‘Worship Songs’ Category

Music has an unbelievable amount of ways it can positively impact on a person by inspiring them but it also allows people to show their faith and devotion. Using praise and worship guitar chords is a common way for an individual to create songs that indicates their faith and lets them pay homage to their God or way of life. Whether you wish to play music at your religious service or it is something that you, your family and friends would like to use at home, Christian guitar chords are an excellent way to show the world what you believe in.

Many of the songs that are associated with religions are very memorable and help people to get across their feelings and emotions when it comes to their faith. This simple way of showing faith has encouraged a great number of people to learn to play guitar as this allows them another outlet to show their faith and devotion. Having some simple chords and music to play and combining them with lyrics that praise God is a fantastic way for many people to tell the world just what they believe in.

Guitar lessons can help you praise

Another great reason that many like to play songs to show their faith is that it can help children learn easier. Studies have indicated that singing words over and over with a melody enables a child to learn faster and this helps them learn what their faith is all about. This means that praise and worship guitar chords are a great way to help younger people learn a bit more about their faith without them having to read too much or know all the ins and outs. As an introduction to religion, these types of songs have a great impact and can help a person praise and worship. It doesn’t take a long time to learn Christian guitar chords and doing so can really make a difference in the way that you, your family or other believers in your local church may show their faith. This devotion has inspired a great number of people to learn to play guitar.

Songs and music have always played a big part in religion and they help to bind people together in unity and make it feel as though there is a strong collective element around everyone. A great number of music fans enjoy the sense of unity that following a band can give them so you can imagine how this type of music makes a religious person feel.

Music and prayer go hand in hand

The vast majority of religions use an element of music in their services and ceremonies and this allows people to become more involved and interact with each other. Using praise and worship guitar chords is an excellent way to create a new way of praising your religion and helping new followers to feel as though they belong. It doesn’t matter if people can’t sing too well or go off key sometimes, it is more about the feeling they put into it but having a few people who know some Christian guitar chords will help everyone sing together.

If you want to add music to your daily or weekly routine of giving thanks and praise, it has never been easier. It doesn’t take long to learn how to play the guitar and by taking lessons to learn to play guitar, you will be able to add music to your religious offerings.

When it comes to playing the piano for contemporary worship, skill is less a matter of being able to play many notes quickly and more a question of choosing the right notes. If you want to improve your skill in playing the piano for the Lord in church, how can you do it? Other than practice your scales and try to learn new songs?

There are three ways to increase your skill in choosing the right notes to play for worship.

1) Learn a complementary style of music.

If you are a classically trained musician, take lessons in jazz piano. Learn a few jazz standards and how to do jazz improvisation. You will then learn how to feel what are the more appropriate notes to use on the piano to get the effect you want.

If you are more of a contemporary/jazz player, learn music notation and study two-part inventions. They will train you to use less notes to imply the chords, instead of banging out everything and crowding out the congregation’s singing, as many others do.

2) Sing and play.

Pay special attention to how the songs interact with the chords and rhythms created. Are the chords and rhythms you’re given the best fit for the song? If you are unable to sing a song comfortably using certain chords or rhythms, those chords and rhythms may not be the best fit for the song.

Singing and playing will also allow you to test out any ideas you may have, to see if they will work for supporting the congregation’s singing of a song.

3) Learn the guitar.

Many church pianists are weak in two areas: their overall sense of rhythm and their choice of notes. Learning the guitar strengthens you in these two areas.

Because the sound of a guitar is thinner than that of a piano, you can strum more actively on a guitar than you can comp on a piano. This allows you to get a feeling of rhythmic intensity, and you can carry over the effect to piano playing when you know what you are looking for.

On the piano, you can pile up the notes to create really thick chords. But these don’t usually work well for contemporary church worship. Guitars give you only six (or often five) notes to work with. You have to choose your notes really well, because you don’t have that many to work with.

Conclusion: These three tips are simple, but not easy. They require you to go out of what many pianists have as their comfort zone, and it’s tempting to rationalize away the need for these methods.

But if you are deadly serious about serving the Lord with the best you can give him, these three methods of increasing your skill as a worship pianist will give you the greatest growth in the shortest amount of time. So are you up to the challenge?

There are several successful habits of the highly effective Intercessor.

It goes without saying that if you intend on being an effective intercessor you must cultivate a lifestyle of prayer and worship.

The following are some of the things that will help you cultivate such a lifestyle.

a) A Time and Place to Pray – Having a special time and place to pray speaks about your discipline and consistency in meeting with God. It shows that you honor God and are committed to building your fellowship with the Holy Spirit!

Also, we are creatures of habit and when you meet with God regularly your spirit actually begins to anticipate the meeting and prepares itself for that meeting.

As your regular prayer session draws near your spirit literally begins to prepare to meet with God and to receive all that He has to share with you. This is what faith is all about it’s about being in an atmosphere of total expectancy, ready and waiting to receive from God!

This one activity alone will aloow you to explode with the power of God when you begin to pray.

b) A Habit of Praising God – I am continually amazed every Sunday morning in church, witnessing how it’s possible for Christians to be in the manifest presence of God and not be moved to physically respond to Him.

I am even more amazed at how some of these same people will cheer at a football game or weep at the movies while defending their not praising God by saying they’re not very emotional or expressive.

First of all lets clear up one myth. You do not have to be very emotional or expressive to openly praise God! Praising God is primarily an act of your will – you choose to praise Him! Whether you feel to or not, you make a decision and then carry it out!

Here’s some information that will facilitate a habit of praising God. There are (7) seven ascensions or steps of praise leading up to the experience of worship! Each step typifies a different kind of praise or a different action in praise and is identified by a different Hebrew word.

For instance, the first step of praise is identified by the word “Towdah” and it means “To lift your hands as a sacrifice of thanksgiving.” Right here is where most people fail “Praise School” they go through the entire church service waiting on a feeling to praise God that never comes.

In the Old Testament the priest were actually taught how to praise God and the first thing that they were taught was how to “Towdah” how to give SACRIFICIAL PRAISE! That means praising God when you don’t FEEL like it, ESPECIALLY when you don’t feel like it! This is the first ascension of praise on the way to experiencing worship!

Ps 50:23 Whoso offereth praise (towdah) glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

The second step of praise is called “Yadah” and means “To throw up your hands intensively in reverence.” The meaning is almost the same as “Towdah” the main difference is shown by the word ‘intensively.’ What this says is that it’s no longer a sacrifice to raise your hands but now it’s a joy to do so. In other words, it’s same action but with a different attitude!

Ps 107:15 Oh that men would praise (yadah) the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

The third step is identified by the word “Halal” and it means, “to boast, to rave, to celebrate, to be clamorously foolish.” To put you more into the picture lets get the meaning of some of these words.

The word “rave” means, “to speak out wildly, to talk with extreme enthusiasm, to move or advance violently,” the word “clamorous” means, “noisily insistent” so when you see Sis. ‘X’ running around the pews in the church or Bro. ‘Y’ jumping up and down at the back they’re simply manifesting the third ascension of praise, which is called “Halal.”

Ps 150:1 Praise (halal) the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; Praise him in his mighty expanse. Ps 149:3 Let them praise (halal) his name in the dance…

The fourth ascension of praise is characterized by the word “Shabach” and means, “to shout, to address in a loud tone, to command, to triumph.” This is what the army of Israel did to tear down the walls of Jericho, they were commanded to “Shabach!”

This is what you need to do sometimes when you’ve tried everything else and nothing seems to work for you. You need to SHOUT!

“Shabaching” is really cheering on the host of heaven to work on your behalf to bring to pass the things you have been praying about all along! And this shouldn’t be anything strange to us; we do it in the natural all the time when we cheer on our favorite team to win the championship or our favorite player to score that vital point! Now we need to do it for Jesus – and for ourselves!

Ps 145:4 One generation shall praise (shabach) thy works to another and declare thy mighty acts.

The fifth dimension of praise is called “Zamar” and means, “to play upon a musical instrument, to celebrate in song and music, to sing praises.” This is particularly interesting to me because it’s not until we reach the fifth ascension of praise that we see music being introduced to the act of praise. Yet some people act as though you can’t praise God without music!

The fact is, it’s the actual offering of the person playing the musical instrument that makes the sounds or melodies acceptable praises to God! Not the actual sounds or melodies in and of themselves.

The act of praising God is supposed to originate from within the person and manifested through the skillful playing of the instrument! But it’s what comes from within the person that is really accepted by God, not so much the external sounds or melodies being played. He accepts the music because of WHO is making it and what that person’s motive and attitude is at the time.

Ps. 57:8-9 Awake my glory; awake harp and lyre, I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord among the peoples; I will sing praises (zamar) to Thee among the nations.

The sixth area of praise is none other than “Barak,” which means, “to kneel down, to bless God as an act of adoration.” This where we begin to get silent before the lord and nothing else seems to matter, the world around us disappears and everyone else ceases to exist. We are caught up in His presence and He alone matters at that time! This is where our body, soul and spirit are being prepared for the final dimension of praise!

Ps 34:1 I will bless (barak) the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Number seven is “Tehillah” which means “song of the spirit,” it comes from a root word meaning, “to shine with the favor of God.” So in other words “Tehillah” is the realm of praise where God begins to respond to the attention that you have been showing Him all along.

“Tehillah” is the seventh and final ascension of praise where you begin to enter into worship!

Praise is you giving something to God – Worship is God giving something to you in response! Praise is you wooing God – Worship is God responding to your courtship!

I call praise and worship spiritual intercourse. Don’t you Christians confess that Jesus is the sweet lover of your soul? Well, what do you mean by that? I’m simply giving you the explanation for what you already feel inside and know to be true.

“Tehillah” is the experience of rapturous spiritual love making between you and your Lord Jesus, which is what the act of worship really is!

Ps 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises (tehillah) of Israel.

Isa 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise (tehillah) for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Praise and worship draws you closer to God. It is in the atmosphere of worship where your spirit is open to receive revelation from God. Revelation from God makes for accurate and powerful intercessory prayer.

A lifestyle of prayer and worship helps you to become a highly effective Intercessor.

Acts 15:3-5

3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren.

4 And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they reported all things that God had done with them.

5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

In Acts 15:3-5 we read how the church receives the news about the Gentiles being saved, at first the church reacts with joy to hear about how these Gentiles have been converted to Christ, but after hearing the idea of a new type of people being brought to Christ, a sect in the church rises up and demands these Gentiles adhere to the Jewish traditions. The Gentiles were different in every way from the Jews; the Gentiles dressed differently, behaved differently, probably spoke differently and had different customs and traditions than the Jews. When the Gentiles came to Christ a sect in the church demanded the Gentiles be circumcised and take on different customs and traditions to be accepted into the church.

This scene almost reminds me of some churches. Some churches place such a burden upon people in the church, often we see people who resemble the Gentiles come to Christ and begin attending church, and some of these people can often be very different from the average church goers. You see sometimes people with pink or multi colored hair come into the church, and there always seems to be a group of people in the church who treat them with partiality. They often tell these people to change the color of their hair, or to take out their piercing or to wear more formal clothes so they can fit in with the norm of the church.

Often traditional and long term church members want to place unnecessary burdens and customs upon new church goers who are different from the norm, its unethical and unbiblical to place heavy yokes upon new church members. Today’s church should really take note of the words of Peter when he said, “Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”(Acts 15:10)

Today’s churches are really testing God when they treat people with partiality when they don’t adopt the churches traditions that have been picked up over the years. Some of the churches traditions are: worshipping in a certain type of way, dressing a certain type of way, having the same type of political perspective, supporting the same sides in an international conflict or war, earning over a certain amount of money per year, having the same hair style and watching the same television programs.

When people come to Christ a light burden and yoke should be placed upon them, and they should even feel less burdened and yoked when they come to church because Christ’s yoke is easy and light. A new convert should feel free to be himself in Christ and be free to seek and worship Christ in his own unique way.

When long term traditional church goers start telling new converts to Christ that they need to dress differently and wear what they wear and do everything the way they do; they place a heavier yoke than necessary upon the new believer. Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt 11:29-30). The burden and yoke Jesus places upon us when we come to him is easy and light, his yoke is not full of: traditions that require the believer to kneel down when they pray, to dress in the same type of clothing everyone else wears, to have the same type of hairstyle that everyone has, to pray the same as everyone else does or to worship the same as everyone else does etc. A new believer should have his own unique personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

If a new believer wants to pray or worship standing on his head nobody should tell him that he cannot do that, if a new believer wants to jump up and down and dance in the aisles of the church nobody should stop him from doing this. Every human being is different and unique and we all act uniquely from one another, as long as the person is not blatantly sinning in the church, then he should be allowed to behave in Christ as he likes and worship and seek God in his own individual and unique way.

If a person is truly in Christ and truly in the Holy Spirit they should be in liberty and freedom, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”(2 Corinthians 3:17). If they are dancing in the aisles of the church during worship anybody stopping them is stopping the liberty of the Holy Spirit, if someone is dancing in the aisles of the church as they praise the Lord, and they are moving in the joy of Gods spirit as they dance, anybody stopping them is stopping God Himself.

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

If someone is moving in the Holy Spirit then they are not under any law and man has no right to put any traditional church law upon them. The reason there is no law when your truly moving in the Holy Spirit, is because you cannot sin when you move in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh when your moving in the spirit.

Gal 5:19-21

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,

20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,

21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries etc.

Dancing in the aisle of a church with a pink Mohawk in the genuine Holy Spirit God sends down is not a work of the flesh or sin, because the works of the flesh show us all things that are outside of the Holy Spirit. If a person is not fulfilling any works of the flesh then they are in the spirit of God and are not under any law you place upon them, and you have no right to restrict them from dancing or expressing their love for God, even if it’s outside your normal way of perceiving church. The church needs to stop restricting God from doing new things, because its often only the new converts God can do new things with, because the traditions long term church goers have picked up make Gods ability to move in their church none effectual. “Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.” (Matt 15:6)

If a new believer attends church for the first time with a pink Mohawk hair style, wearing fluorescent clothes and sunglasses and during the praise and worship he begins dancing in the aisle of the church, this person should be encouraged and accepted into the church. If the person demonstrates a genuine love for Jesus Christ and demonstrates the fruit of the spirit, then he should be accepted for who he is. Having a weird haircut that you have never seen in church before is not a sin, dancing in the aisle of a church to a praise and worship song to a shocked traditional church congregation is not a sin, yelling out, “I love you Jesus” in a usually quiet and stable church is not a sin, laying down in tranquility on the floor as you listen to praise and worship is not a sin, and laying down on the floor with your eyes closed in the aisle when you pray is not a sin.

The problem with today’s church is that they put people in a box, which means they put God in a box. God wants to do new things in peoples lives and bring new types of people into his church, but the traditions of mans church is preventing God from doing new things with new types of people in the church. Today’s church doesn’t want their church to step over the boundaries of what they perceive as the norm, so God is starting to do new things outside the usual types of churches Christians are used to.

Sometimes the traditions you hold so dear to in the church often create a blindfold over your eyes. Those new comers who are brought into the body of Christ you always thought were blind, are the ones who are truly going to be made to see by God, as their liberty in the spirit breaks through your old traditions as they are truly set free in Christ. Lets make new coverts to Christ welcome into our churches and lets accept them for who they are.

For so long in churches praise and worship have been stereotyped as ‘praise being the fast songs, and worship being the slow songs’. I don’t know about you but this has never sat right with me – because sometimes I feel like I am praising even during slower songs at church and worshiping in parts of the faster songs. There has to be a better way of describing the difference between praise and worship.

Let’s take a quick look at a couple of verses that mention praise and worship, then we will discuss them as well as a few dictionary definitions to try and find the difference between praise and worship – when we look at it from a music perspective in church.

Verses On Praise:

By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, this is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. – Hebrews 13:15

Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. – 1 Chronicles 16:8-10

Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the LORD your God.” So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king. 1 Chronicles 29:19-21

The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.” Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud. 2 Chronicles: 5:12-14

You can see from these 4 verses how large the scope of what praise really is. We have:

* A sacrifice of praise

* Singing

* Telling of his wonderful acts

* Bowing – being prostrate

* Musical instruments

That is from4 verses on praise. However praise is mentioned 351times in the Bible and gives us a lot more ways to praise God. The reason for this is because of our English language. The english language has one word, praise, for 7 Hebrew words – each giving a different definition for praise. They are:

* Hallal: “to laud, boast, rave, to celebrate” – It is used approximately one hundred times in the Old Tes tament.

* Yadah: “to worship with extended hands, to throw out the hands” – It is used over ninety times in the Old Testament. (Yad means “hand.”)

* Barak: “to bless, to declare God the origin of power for success, prosperity, and fertility” – It is used approximately seventy times in the Old Testament as praise to God.

* Tehillah: “to sing or laud” – It is derived from hallal and is generally accepted to mean “the singing of hallals.” It is used over fifty times in the Old Testament.

* Zamar: “to pluck the strings of an instrument, to praise with song” – It is used almost exclusively in the Psalms and occurs approximately forty times in the Old Testament.

* Todah: “to extend the hands in thanksgiving, a thank-offering” – It is used only a few times when trans lated “praise” but occurs many other times in connection with thanksgiving.

* Shabach: “to commend, address in a loud tone, to shout” – This is the exclamatory form of praise in a special sense and is found only about seven times in the Old Testament.

You will notice ‘Yadah’ which actually means to worship with extended hands. Does this mean that worship as we know it is actually just a form of praise?

As we continue to discuss the difference between praise and worship lets take a look what the Bible has to say about worship.

Verses On Worship:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. – Romans 12:1

Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD. – Genesis 24:25-27

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” – John 4:23-25

I guess when we are looking at the difference between praise and worship from a worship service perspective that praise seems to be more an outward showing with hands raising, clapping, dancing, bowing and singing. Whereas worship is something much deeper. It is where we are offering our bodies, and ourselves, giving them to God to have his way.

Luke 9:23-25 (New King James Version)
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

Do you wish to follow Jesus?

Do you honestly want to follow Jesus?

Then you must take up your cross each day and deny yourself. Self denial is not popular in this modern day we live in. The idea of a prosperous Christian going without for the sake of the gospel seems so foreign. It seems that this passage is left out of the modern prosperity gospel preachers Bibles.

If you do not follow Jesus, who are you following?

Popular false teachers? False prophets? Satan?

Lets get back to scripture.

We are told to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.

That is not to live without tithing, ignore the great commission and sin constantly. Jesus wasn’t a sinner, so sinning all the time is not following Him.

How do we deny ourselves?

We need to deny ourselves TV time. We can start by reading the Bible or good Christian books. We can give more to the Lord and deny our lusts of the flesh. We can give to the poor and save money when we purchase things, not always insisting on the best. We can also fast by denying ourselves food to get closer to the Lord. We can also choose not to associate with the wrong sort of people, peoples whose habits are not good for us.

Taking up our cross.

Denying ourselves is a major part of taking up our cross. People who are used to having everything they want, will experience a cross like encounter when they go without for the sake of the Lord in their life. When you start to live a crucified life before the Lord, people notice who are close to you and this can result in being called weird. Taking up your cross might mean giving out tracts on your way to work and on your way home. Taking up your cross might mean sharing the truth of the gospel with someone at your place of work.

For Jesus taking up his cross was a very painful experience and resulted in his death. So too, joining the Lord at his cross we put to death our natural passions and take on the passions of the Holy Spirit. For walking in the Spirit is well pleasing to the Lord.

Losing your life

Losing your life for Jesus’ sake is not the average Christian life. Losing your life is a whole life devoted to the gospel of Jesus and the power of the Word in your life. Losing your life is getting on your knees in the morning and devoting each day to the Lord and then during the day living devoted to the Lord. Losing your life for Jesus, is not a comfortable Christian life, it’s a radical change, it’s letting go of flesh and all its lusts and living totally for the Lord and His precious gospel. It’s letting your light shine, letting everything pure about Jesus shine through you to a lost and hurting world. It’s a radical change. It’s a decision many people have never made despite the praise and worship songs they sing each week.

But if you try to save it you’ll lose it

This is a verse that shows people that will not deny themselves for Jesus will themselves be denied when it comes time for judgement. If they try and keep their wealth and live in the lusts of the flesh, they will inherit death or hell. That is why Jesus goes on to say what point is it that he gains the whole world and loses his very soul. It’s a sad thing to say but many people though the lusts of this world will not go to heaven and they might even attend church right up until the day that they die.

Counting the cost

Luke 14:28-33 (New King James Version)
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it- 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

If you interpret this scripture as a person entering the Christian life that is building the tower you’ll see that Jesus is warning about the foolishness of embarking on a Christian life without being prepared to pay the cost.

Jesus uses both illustrations to emphasize So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
Forsaking All.

Did you know that you had to forsake all to follow Jesus?

Do you know that means your finances and possessions also?

We are to deny ourselves and take up our cross and forsake all to have hold of Jesus.

Let me pray for you.

Father I want to give my life to you in a fresh new way. Show me what areas of my life that I need to deny myself in order to please you. Give me the courage to take up my cross daily and to walk with you and follow your Son’s footsteps each day. I repent of my fleshy attitude and my carnal living and desire to walk in a state of holiness. Please refresh me and lead me I pray.

In Jesus name I ask. Amen.