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NEXT SERVICE
2010 Service - Friday, 5th March.
LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD
The Christian women of Cameroon have put together the 2010 service. They tell us that in their native context people praise God even in, or especially during, difficult times in their lives. "This is because generally we consider life to be God’s greatest gift to us. As long as one has breath, there is hope. So we sing in the hope that things will be better. Even Cameroonians who are orphans, handicapped, widows, and HIV/AIDS infected persons know that God accompanies them "in the valley of the shadow of death." .... We praise the Almighty, if for nothing else, for the gift of life... This is because generally we consider life to be God’s greatest gift to us." Because of this they have based their service on Psalm 150 and begins directly as the psalm does, ‘Praise God’.
The women of Cameroon encourage us to explore and develop together a deeper understanding of praise. Our response should add to the insights that have come from Cameroon so that it becomes part of the gift we give to one another in our participation on the first Friday of March.
This year we are asked to be more adventurous with music, to explore some of the suggestions from Cameroon as well as the many resources of our own country. The theme and the worship service provide us with opportunities for making music and we are encouraged to find even more ways to praise God. Let us engage choirs, musicians and dancers so that we are empowered to praise God with all our heart and soul and body.
The artist writes that he has highlighted "the different aspects of God’s creation in the act of praise to their Creator. God deserves to be praised by all creatures on earth, in the heavens and in the waters. The angels and all heavenly beings praise God unceasingly; human beings also praise God for the great things He does in their lives..... The big fruit tree in the picture represents our God who is the Almighty Creator, All-sufficient and Great Provider of all that we have and are. All who trust in Him have all that they need and can praise God at all times in whatever situations they find themselves. May His name be praised forever and ever!"
BIBLE STUDIES:
Each study begins with a song of praise followed by extempore prayer. Each study also ends with a further song of praise and then prayer.
1) Psalm 150:1-6
The word "Psalm" means praise. The Psalms have gained universal recognition among God’s people as a faithful articulation of prayers that are too deep for words of our own.
Psalm 150 is the last expression in a book that is a collection of praise and poetry. It emphasizes that the Lord is the one who deserves all praise. Based on this premise, we are called to worship and praise the Lord with all our material possessions; that is, everything must be put to the use of praising God.
Praise is the giving of a testimony of what God has done in your life. It is the honouring of God as an expression of gratitude for one’s life. In other cases, praise may be tied to more situational aspects like healing and prosperity. Praise is therefore any one of the following: to honour, to bless, to exalt, to glorify, to celebrate, to magnify, to speak reverently in song or writing, and to dignify the Lord in religious worship.
Why should we praise the Lord? (Ps. 150:2) We should praise God for his acts of power, greatness, and goodness. The Lord is very kind, loving, compassionate, and gracious to us and his mercy is extended to everything that he has created. God satisfies the desires of every living thing and we cannot place our trust in the help of people. God shows concern for those who are needy and oppressed. God also shows mercy to his creation. For all these and much more, it is good and fitting to offer our praise to the Lord and praising him gives us the opportunity to tell others about the wonderful works of the Lord.
Who should praise the Lord? (Ps. 150:6) The entire universe is called upon to offer praise to the Lord because we were all created by him. The universe includes the sun, moon, and stars; the clouds that hold the rain, the fire, hail, snow, and storms; mountains, valleys, hills, and fruitful trees; and every living thing that breathes including animals, birds, insects, fishes in the sea, and human beings.
How should God be praised? (Ps. 150:3-5) We can use many musical instruments to express our joy and accompany our praise to the Lord. In this Psalm, we have been given a list of some of the musical instruments that can be used to praise the Lord.
Where should we praise God? (Ps. 150:1) We can offer our praise to God at any time and in any place in his creation. In the time of the writing of the Psalm, the temple/sanctuary was the place where the people gathered to offer their praise to the Lord.
Cameroonian Context:
Cameroonian women in all ten provinces praise God in joy or in sorrow. We praise God while sowing millet or sorghum, while cooking, on our way to streams and rivers to fetch water, with water pots and vessels balanced on our heads, in canoes while fishing, in the forest, while tilling the soil, in cocoa farms, on our way to and in church, during traditional marriage ceremonies, for the birth of new child, and even during funeral ceremonies to celebrate the life of the departed. We praise God in the beauty of his holiness.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Explain why the book of Psalms shows us that music is a very important way of praising the Lord.
2. What are the various musical traditions in our country for praising God.
3. What can you learn from music that is new to you?
4. Read Psalm 150 again and write down the three most important lessons you have learned from these verses.
2) Acts 16: 16 – 34
In this well-known passage Paul and Silas are imprisoned and made to suffer a great deal because of their faith and their steadfast proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Despite their mistreatment and false arrest, Paul and Silas slowly transform the minds and hearts of their captors and others who are imprisoned through their deep sense of faith and especially their behaviour. Acts 16:16-34, relates a connected story in three parts, each of which teaches us a life lesson as Christians.
Part 1: Read Acts 16:16-18
While Paul and Silas are on their way to a place of prayer, they meet a slave girl who has the gift of divination or "fortune telling." We read that her service to others came with a fee that went to her owners. It is this same gift that gives her insight into the faith of Paul and Silas, which she proclaims loudly for many days. Finally, Paul gets annoyed and casts out the demon that brought the gift of divination to the girl.
Was the girl wrong in her proclamation? The answer is not as clear cut as it seems. From what we know of Paul in the New Testament, he was not a person who was enticed by praise. Paul immediately understood the girl’s plight and considered her gift as spiritual slavery and exploitation by her slave masters. To do so, Paul had to ignore the praise showered on him and do the right thing.
Cameroonian context:
In Cameroon, young children are exploited in many ways. Most come from poor homes and are put into service and denied their human rights and rendered sub-human by their employers. Some are tortured by their mistresses and some are raped by their masters. Other girls are sent out at an early age as street vendors and hawkers. They are sometimes sexually abused by their male customers. Some girl children suffer sexual harassment in schools from teachers and male counterparts. Some teachers threaten to fail attractive girls if they refuse to grant them sexual favours. More often than not, this leads to unwanted teenage pregnancies and even more serious problems. See Children on page 11 for more information. We invite you, our sisters all over the world, to join us in praying for humanitarian organisations which are fighting these ills in our society and country.
Question for Reflection: Throughout the world, the girl child faces many issues. Have you learnt about any new issues while preparing for this service?
We should always strive to do the right thing even when it means silencing the many praise singers that permeate our church women’s groups and make our heads swell.
Part 2: Read Acts 16:19-24
The owners of the slave girl realize that she has lost her powers of divination and they have lost their source of income. In their anger, aided by the crowd, they seize Paul and Silas and bring them before the magistrates, who charge them with disturbing the peace. They are stripped, flogged, and thrown into prison. What is interesting here is that even though Paul and Silas have been praying, witnessing, and sharing the gospel in the community where they healed the demon-possessed girl, the same crowd turns against them.
This part of the story tells us that doing the right thing is not always appreciated. Sometimes we are surprised by the negative attitudes of those whom we thought we were helping. We need to be reminded by the example of Paul and Silas that if we follow the crowd, we lose our principles and integrity. From this part of the story we realise that we are likely to receive positive and negative responses but we should always act with as much spiritual integrity as possible.
Part 3: Read Acts 16: 25-34
This section focuses on how Paul and Silas react to their imprisonment. We are told that they are "praying and singing hymns to God." To them God is a reality, and they believe in their hearts that God is with them even in their imprisonment and mistreatment. More importantly, they believe that God will use their imprisonment as an opportunity for them to witness to his power and might. As they pray and sing, we learn from the text that the prisoners are listening to them.
The way we respond to difficult situations as Christians is noted by those who watch us and can be an opportunity for us to bring them to the Lord. It does not mean that everything was wonderful for Paul and Silas, nor will be for us. Paul and Silas praised God and hoped for his intervention, believing that He listens and responds because of his love for us. We can learn from their example that faith is not the absence of adversity, injustice, or mistreatment; rather, it is a path through them. It teaches us that nobody can take spiritual freedom from us. It also assures us that sometimes when we experience an "earthquake" in our lives, when the ground on which we stand is shaking violently with all sorts of problems, it may not always be bad news; those may be the footsteps of God coming to open new opportunities for us to witness and bring souls to Christ.
Questions for Reflection:
1. Let members of the group share any other insights into the text which they have gained.
2. Based on your earlier reflection on issues that girl children face, what positive steps can be taken towards changing how we treat the girl child and children in general our community?
3. Why do you think people continue to commit acts of trafficking, forced child labour, etc. even though there are laws against them?
4. What do you think you could do to help the girl child in Cameroon and in other places in the world and particularly children in our own country?
3) Isaiah 42:10-17
If possible read this text in a least three different versions.
This passage comes from what is referred to as the second book of Isaiah which is made up of chapters 40 to 48. Chapter 40 announces comfort for God’s people with words of tenderness and love. Chapter 41 describes the coming of the Helper whose task is to conquer Babylon and set Israel free. In chapter 42, we have a new character, the servant of God. He is the one who will bring salvation to the world and the people of Israel.
The passage divides into three sections:
Invitation to praise God for he is to come and judge his enemies and deliver his people (Isa 42: 10-13).
The Lord rebukes Israel the unfaithful servant (Isa 42:14-17).
Promise of salvation (Isa 42:16).
Q. What is praise?
Praise is to speak with approval, to give honour and glory to someone or to a thing. Praising God is therefore to declare him worthy of honour, worthy to be admired and exalted. In a nut shell, it’s to glorify, exalt, and magnify him.
Q. Who has to praise God?
Those who go down to the sea and all that is in it.
Islands and all who live in them.
Desert and its towns.
The settlement where Kedar, the second son of Ishmael, lives.
The inhabitants of Sela. The name comes from Se'lah, rock. Sela was the capital of Edom, situated in the great valley extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea (2 Kings 14:7).
In summary, Isaiah calls on the whole creation, human beings, animals, and all living creatures to praise God. Everything that was created by the Almighty that is on earth is convened to this celebration.
Q. How must we praise God?
There are many words and expressions here to express how we should praise the Lord:
Singing a new song, singing his praises (new melodies, his majestic works);
Shouting with joy at the top of your voice (so as to be heard), moving and jumping with joy;
Glorifying (acknowledging with respect and admiration the qualities of God: his power, love, and holiness);
Praising him in the open (declaring in public the virtues, the majesty and holiness of God);
There is no universal way of doing it. It all depends on each and everyone’s talent.
Q. How do we praise God in our culture?
In Cameroon, many instruments can be used: Mvet, calabashes, xylophones, drums, sticks, hands etc. For more information see the section on musical instruments from Cameroon.
Q. Why do you praise God?
The passage does not give us explicit reasons why we should praise God, although from the context it may be deduced that it’s because of the promise of deliverance given by God that the whole creation is called upon to celebrate him. (See verse 9) Psalm 150 calls us to praise God for His great deeds, things He has already done. Isaiah asks us to praise him for the promise. We should not just praise God for things he has done but also for his promises which are true and certain.
In Cameroon culture it is customary to work at convincing someone to do what one needs or wants. They use complements and present reasons and arguments. But with God, our praise is our testimony that God does care for us and God does move and intervene on our behalf.
Questions:
1. In which situations must one praise God? Give concrete examples.
2. Should we praise the Lord in hard times? Why?
God’s Intervention: Verse 13 gives the prophet’s vision of the Lord’s majestic arrival. The Lord is coming like a hero who is sure of his victory. (See Rev.6 v.2) The background in suggests a hostile environment, that of war (hero, warrior, power, enemies). But this war is not carnal; it is spiritual and we need adequate weapons for it (See 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:11-17).
The Lord comes in after a long period of silence. However, it is difficult to understand that God can wait for such a long time before acting, especially when evil and oppression are at their worst. The Lord comes to judge his enemies and to set his people free. In verse 14, He proclaims that He has kept silence for a long time not because He wasn’t able to act, but because he lovingly wants everybody to repent (See 2 Peter 3:9). The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.
The promise of God’s intervention in the lives of his beloved ones is a unique occasion for celebration. Let’s praise him for such a great love.
Cameroonian Context:
The people of Cameroon and particularly the women are living under many conditions which need God’s intervention. As human beings, we have no solution to all the problems we face; to name some, we have sexual immorality, criminality, corruption, poverty, commodity prices, all kinds of sects, violence against women using tradition and culture as a pretext, rapes, widowhood rites, early marriage, illiteracy of girl children and women in some parts of the country, genital mutilation, polygamy, etc… It is in this context of ours that the women invite you to praise God for our country. It is praise to the Creator of the universe who is the only one who can set us free from this situation in a permanent way.
Testimony:
Share one or two short testimonies on how God made miracles in your life through praise.
Conclusion:
We have studied a message from Isaiah that gives us confidence. We can praise God at all times and no matter what the situation is. At the appointed time, God always comes in to deliver those who persevere. Our praise should therefore not depend on the nature of the situation; it must be the deep expression of our feelings towards our Creator and Saviour who promised to be with us now and forever. He is faithful. He will surely intervene: let’s praise him!
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