Sharing Worship and creativity in Avian Park

by Tony Copple

This week at My Father's House Worcester: Our new helper Daniel Mendes from Brazil shares a greeting, and Tony held a quiz with the kids - the prizes were homemade bed socks knit by Jan Buchanan's mother. Since there aren't furnaces in South African homes, what a lovely way to keep your feet warm at night.  Later we mention rainbows.  Worcester has a lot of them when it rains, and we were able to catch this one in central Worcester.

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We have been singing songs, we’ve been singing songs to Jesus.  Why do we do that? That’s what I want to talk about today.  If you went to church yesterday, Sunday;  I think they probably they had singing.  Did they have any singing in your church?  In churches, they always sing songs. And why do we do it, that’s the question for today.  The Bible is where we go to answer questions.  The Bible says that in heaven, there is continual singing of praises to God. So all day long, they are singing in praise to our God. Why would they do that?  Many great poets and musicians, composters and painters… they have written music for God, and painted for God. Tony asks L-A, “have you ever painted a painting for God?”  L-A answers, “yes, many times.”  She’s going to be a famous artist one day, for God!  

People write great poems for God, and it’s the same thing – they want to say to God, thank you.  When we understand what God did to create the world and then to sing a song to Jesus here, because Jesus came to earth and then was killed, so that our sins can be forgiven.  And so we are really, really grateful to God and Jesus. We thank Holy Spirit too.  And that’s why we sing songs to him.  We sing, thank you God, thank you Jesus, you created the world, you created me, and then you died for me, so that I can live forever in heaven.  And one day I will see him in heaven.   So of course, we’re going to sing songs to him in praise and gratefulness. It’s very, very important, and it’s very natural.  In fact, the Bible says that if people didn’t sing praises, then the stones and the earth would start singing.  They know they were created by God.

You could say thank you to God in a prayer.  You could say, dear Lord Jesus, thank you for making me.  Of you may want to write a poem that says, (Tony sings) Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for creating me.   And some may sing the song with you, or you may have a whole orchestra.  Here’s the incredible thing – we want to sing thank you to God and Jesus, but he also wants to tell us that he loves us.  He cares about us, even more than we can possibly care about him. So it’s a two way thing.  We are thanking him, and he is thanking us for loving him.  It’s all to do with love.  We love the Lord God, we love Jesus, and he loves us in turn (although He loved us FIRST).  If something happened to one of you, if something bad happened, maybe if you fall over and hit your head, Jesus cares about that.  And if you ever cry any tears, Jesus feels compassion for you.  So he’s that kind of a God,  that he cares about each one of us.  And even if we are someone who doesn’t believe in God, he still cares about us.  There are people who don’t believe that God exists, but he still loves them.  Some people think that songs are the most important part of a church service.  Where Laurie-Ann and I go to church, Worcester Christian Church,  we spend about half of the service singing praise songs, and then half with teaching. Now something interesting yesterday in church:  Laurie-Ann had a vision.  A vision is when you think you see something, but it’s not there in front of you.  God’s Spirit instead puts the picture in your heart and mind.  I’m going to tell you a little bit about Laurie-Ann’s vision.  It’s to do with the same thing that we are talking about.

The vision was to do with a man who is a worship leader in our church.  She told him that she saw him and the worship team in the Spirit.  She saw him in the throne room with God, and the light was blue all around them. Father of Lights was shining into them with love and power.  Holy Spirit was flooding into him like a waterfall that would not stop.  The light streamed out of him in all kinds of colours, bringing rainbows into the church, like he was the prism.  The light was also living water.  It was an amazing combination of light and water.  Power and nourishment bringing life from the Lord.   She saw the colours fill the room, birthing prophetic creativity into the church.  It was to touch not only our church, but all of Worcester.  Yet it was just beginning to be birthed here.    She asked Holy Spirit, what was the blue light, and it was the prophetic, coming from the throne of God, from the heart of the Father.   The colours are prophetic creativity.  That fits, since she says she's been seeing and drawing rainbows for over a year now.  

So that’s how God feels about us singing to him.  He loves it. And when you’re singing a song like “I have Decided to Follow Jesus,” you’re making him very, very happy.  He loves it when we sing to him.  That’s why we sing songs of praise in church and also here in this club with you.  

Laurie-Ann then shared what the vision was like and about the rainbows.  She asked if they liked the rainbows they see in Avian Park when it is raining and sunny at the same time.  They nodded that they did.  So L-A described heaven and the throne room as being a place full of colours and wonder.  And that God wants to bring that colour and creativity to them too very soon!