Psalms 98:4 – Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
When I was a little girl in youth group at church, I didn’t have very many friends. I was just really shy, and didn’t really talk to anyone there because I didn’t think that anyone liked me. Every time we would start youth group out with singing. I never really sang though because I didn’t think that I had a good enough singing voice. Until one day, one of my friends now, was sitting next to me and he asked why I wasn’t singing. Well I told him it was because I didn’t sing good. HotRod’s (whose real name is Rodney, but no one ever really called him that) reply to that was, “the bible doesn’t say to make a beautiful noise unto the Lord, it says make a joyful one!” That saying has stuck with me throughout all these years.
After hearing that I believe it really changed something in me, because ever since that day I never held back when it comes to worshipping the Lord and singing songs in church. I know I don’t sound good, but I sing anyway because it makes the Lord happy. My family can testify for that, I sing very loudly and very off-key but I sing nevertheless. My co-workers can also testify against my singing abilities, but did that stop me from praising God at work? Nope, sure didn’t.
It wasn’t until training camp for the world race when I met my beautiful sisters on my team, that I started hearing people say they were afraid to sing to the Lord for fear that they didn’t sound good. So that’s when I told them, “X-joy, the bible doesn’t say make a beautiful noise to the Lord, it says make a joyful one!” That sparked a flame inside of all my team mates, and we have kind of adoptead it as our team motto. Little did we know that our faith behind the statement would soon be tested.
While in Ethiopia we have had the pleasure of working with a church called City of Refuge Church. We discovered that 13 years ago the church actually used to be the biggest night club in Addis Ababa. The pastors have transformed the place into a beautiful temple of God full of people who are so in love with Jesus. We were at a meeting with one of the head pastors there when out of no where he asked us if we could sing a song in front of the congregation that night. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Thanks God, good joke. But seriously…….. It was no joke. We reluctantly agreed, knowing that being in front of a church that can hold over 1,000 people AND singing in front of them were two things none of us were very comfortable with. Shortly after we agreed to sing, we found out that there was infact a concert that night and we were singing with one of the most famous christian singers in all of Ethiopia, Sammy.
So, for those of you who aren’t following at this point, here’s the situation: Six american girls singing in front of probably 1,500 ethiopian people, at a concert for a celebrity christian artist, with about 2 hours notice beforehand. Time to test the theory, because as the bible says faith without works is dead. When the time came, we walked up on stage with a pep in our step and sang How Great Is Our God with pride. We still laugh about it, because it was so unexpected and crazy how God tested us on the spot. Nonetheless, it was beautiful.
Even more beautiful than our song, was the congregations worship throughout the whole night. From the very second you step foot in that church you can feel the presence of God. It’s like He is being absorbed into your skin from the very encounter of shaking someone’s hand. It is such an amazing feeling. And once we were off stage, we got to enjoy a little of worship in Amharic, the language they speak here. Even though we could not understand a thing, I was still engulfed in the vibrant emotions of the room. People were shouting. People were raising their hands to the heavens. People who dancing. People were on fire for the Lord, and it set a flame in my heart that night. My team and I began to throw out hands in the air, sway to the music, and dance along with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not a single person in that room was holding back. It was such a beautiful night of worhsip.
That night, and many others I’ve experienced on the race, have made me question churches in the United States. If a person were to walk into a church that you or I attend, would they feel the holy spirit? Or even more so, would they feel Him to the great extent that my team and I felt Him at the City Of Refuge? It’s a sad reality that most would not. I’m just going to be blunt and put this out there, but I just feel like so many churches in the states have been conformed into “today’s” style of worship. More of a modern contemporary feel, to try to reel in and grab the attention of more people. Before, I never would have realized how so much is lacking. Now, I feel as if I hardly want to return to the way I worshipped at home.
That being said, I want to challenge those of you reading this that attend a church anywhere in the world, step outside of your comfort zone. My team and I definitely did when we set foot on that stage, but it was putting our faith of Psalms 98:4 into action. So I encourage you, really put yourself out their for Christ, because when you do He really shows up. He will not let you down, and you will experience fire so contagious that it will spread to all your church family and a wild uproar will take place. God’s love is so amazing, and it brought me to Ethiopia where I got a sweet taste of that at the City of Refuge church.
If you’d like to check out the City of Refuge church, read their stories, or watch and of the sermons on the internet, you can visit their website at cityofrefuge.org.et
