“A Year of Praise”

December 31, 2006

By 
Melanie Ching

I’d like to begin by reciting the words to the song by the Hongo’s that I will be dancing hula to later during the Worship Service:

“When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams
And your hope has been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes
And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears
Don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear

Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him
Praise the Lord for our God inhabits praise
Praise the Lord for the chains that seem to bind you
Serve only to remind you that they
Drop powerless behind you when you praise Him

Now Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think
That we are paupers when he knows himself we’re children of the King
Lift up the mighty shield of faith for the battle has been won
We know that Jesus Christ is risen so the work’s already done

Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him
Praise the Lord for our God inhabits praise
Praise the Lord for the chains that seem to bind you
Serve only to remind you that they
Drop powerless behind you when you praise Him

Quite simply, this is today’s message: “Praise the Lord”.

2006 has been quite a challenging year for me. Recently, I’ve shared with you just a couple of the struggles I’ve faced: (1) my brother, who has been on drugs and was in OCCC, he’s out now and I’m still helping him get on his feet; (2) my uncle Bill, who did pass away Dec. 9^th, my aunty asked me to plan the entire funeral service which was on Dec. 23^rd.

Though I have been exhausted and despite these and many other trials and tribulations this year, I want to end 2006 praising God. I see this past year as “A Year of Praise” because He has brought me through each challenge and strengthened my faith. Can you reflect back on this past year and remember a time when God saw you through a difficult situation, a loss of a loved one, or “a struggle that shattered all your dreams”? Are you able to praise the Lord inspite of your circumstances?

It is not easy and I haven’t always done so (I’m far from perfect), but I want to encourage you to Praise the Lord! (PTL!) Don’t let Satan crush you, don’t submit to your fears. II Timothy 1:7 states: “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.” Decide for yourself to get rid of the chains that bind you and PTL!

 All of you, as my church family, have helped me through difficult times throughout the 12 or so years that I’ve been at MVC. If I were to name each of you, I might forget someone (given my “Sometimers  Disease”, sometimes I remember, sometimes I don’t), so I want to just say that I praise the Lord for each of you. I also want to praise the Lord with you.

 Psalm 148 calls us to Praise the Lord together with all creation:

“Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise Him from the skies!
Praise Him, all His angels!
Praise Him, all the armies of heaven!
Praise Him, sun and moon!
Praise Him, all you twinkling stars!
Praise Him, skies above!
Praise Him, vapors high above the clouds!

Let every created thing give praise to the Lord…
Let them all praise the name of the Lord
For his name is very great
his glory towers over the earth and heaven!
He has made his people strong…
Praise the Lord!”

As a church we have had a “Year of Praise” even with all the challenges we’ve faced. Members have stepped up to the plate, we have chosen not to submit to fears and we have become strong again.  We can praise the Lord and continue to be a caring, compassionate family of God.

In Colossians 3:12-17, Paul exhorts us as Christians to “clothe (ourselves) with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience”. He says that we “must make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you, remembering that the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others”.  And above all these virtues, Paul encourages us to love each other as this binds everything else together.

The Life Application Study Bible notes on this passage say that “Paul offers a strategy to help us live for Christ day-by-day: (1) Imitate Christ’s compassionate forgiving attitude (v. 12, 13), (2) let love guide your life (v. 14), (3) let the peace of Christ rule in your heart (v. 15), (4) always be thankful (v. 15), (5) keep God’s Word in you at all times (v. 16), and (6) live as Jesus Christ’s representative (v. 17).”  At this point, rather than getting more scholarly on interpreting the biblical text (though I did do some research in “The Pauline Letters” by Keck and Furnish) I would rather make one other comment.
 
The phrase, “Random Acts of Kindness”, came to mind as I was reading the verses in Colossians. I really like the idea of doing something nice for someone, out of the blue, just because. I’m sure that we have all practiced random acts of kindness. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of “RAK” at church with everyone pitching in and taking care of the details for Worship Service and all the events that take place here. And no doubt all of us have been the recipient of such random kind acts ourselves on occasion. Doesn’t it feel so good when a friend calls you up just to check on how you’re doing?!
 

Kahu Kaina shared a story a few weeks ago and although I don’t remember the specifics of the story, I jotted down his point that “only (during) the Christmas Season do people open their hearts and things like this can happen”. While we do hear lots of stories of kindness and tenderhearted mercy during the holidays, I want to put out a challenge for us to live out Col. 3:12-17 all year long. Let’s make 2007 another “Year of Praise” by sharing praises with each other and committing random acts of kindness often and continually throughout the year…..

How about it? Let’s start right now and put into practice sharing ‘a praise’ with several people around you. Give praise to someone for something you notice that they do for MVC or for whatever you see in them specifically that you can give praise to God for about them. We’ll take a few minutes to do this and then we’ll have sharing of joys and concerns.