SONG OF THE WEEK from MRS. JONESPraise and Worship is a weekly class for Pre-School through 5th grade. This class is unique to O'Hara as it is in addition to their religion class. The focus of Praise and Worship is to grow in our personal relationship with God. We do this in a variety of ways, such as Bible stories, learning scripture, learning about our church, and most popular, through music. Our students love finding the deeper meaning in Christian music, hand motions, and prayer time.
I often get requests from parents asking for the song title we have been singing in Praise and Worship, so each week I will be posting our "Song of the Week" in the bulletin. This will include a short blog and the music video so you can build your playlist, gain a deeper understanding of what is happening in Praise and Worship, and most of all, hopefully grow in your own relationship with God through the gift of music. September 23, 2018 "Set a Fire" by Will Reagan & United Pursuit Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes Each year, we pick a Gospel theme song that enhances our gospel theme passage. This year's song is called Set a Fire. This song is what I like to call a worship song. The lyrics are repetitive and have a powerful meaning. A 5th grade student said their favorite line in the song was "I want more, I want more, won't you pour it out." When asked what that meant to them they said, "I want more of God's love, His grace, and peace." One of our 3rd graders said the line that spoke to her was "set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain." She said "I just love God so much that I can't contain it and I want to share it." WOW! Our students are so awesome! Listen to the song and see how God speaks to you! September 30, 2018
"The Lion and the Lamb" by Big Daddy Weave Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes Oh, how our students love this new song! Jesus has many names given to Him that describe Him in different ways. This song describes Jesus as the Lion of Judah, and the Lamb of God. Revelation 5:5-13 talks about Jesus as the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. Both images portray Jesus doing very different things: the Lion comes in power to fight for us, and the Lamb of God, who was innocently slain for the sin of the world, to open the gates of heaven. Our favorite line in the song is "Who can stop the Lord Almighty?" Each time after we sing the line, "Who can stop the Lord Almighty?" we raise our fist and proclaim "NO ONE!!" To hear our students shouting that with conviction is breath taking. They understand that no one can stop God. That His love is constantly being poured out to us through His power and His gentleness. Our God is both a Lion and a Lamb. October 7, 2018
"Reckless Love" by Bethel Worship Arts Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes Reckless Love by Bethel Worship Arts is my new favorite worship song! I heard it for the first time at a conference that I led high school students to this past summer. The song has not only touched my life, but made an incredible impact on my high school students this summer, as well as on O'Hara students during Praise and Worship last week. The words to this song speak right to the heart. The song speaks of how God's love is never-ending and overwhelming. It tells us that God's love can't be earned by how we live our lives, and that we don't deserve God's love, but He freely gives us His love, despite the choices we make. God has a reckless love for His children and He is coming after us. He desires us to choose Him and make Him #1 in our lives. I love the line in the song that says, "He leaves the 99." I think it speaks to me because our God is willing to leave 99 others to come after the 1 who needs Him most. Our God is always pursuing us. The question is, are we pursuing Him? October 14, 2018
"Counting Every Blessing" by Rend Collective Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes The featured song of the week in Praise and Worship is "Counting Every Blessing," by Rend Collective. This song has a great soulful beat, with powerful words. This song is a wonderful reminder to count our blessings daily. How many days do we just go through our day and not realize the many ways that God has been working in our lives? It is fairly easy to be grateful when things are going well in life...but are we seeing the blessings during the hard times? One line in the song says "I am counting every blessing, letting go and trusting when I can not see." This is a challenging statement of faith, to let go and trust in God. As humans we want to control things, but God wants us to rely completely on Him and understand that He will never lead us astray. In Praise and Worship, the students have been challenged to "count their blessings" every day and then turn to God with a prayer of thanksgiving. When we start looking for, and realizing all the ways that God shows up for us every single day, our lives will never be the same. Then the words in the song "Oh- Oh-Oh -Oh, you are good to me," will be ever present in our lives. October 21, 2018
Featured song of the week: "O Come to the Altar" by Elevation Worship Watch a YouTube video Download from iTunes O Come to the Altar is an amazing worship song that expresses our Father's love to everyone! Over and over again during Praise and Worship class, the students said that the the line in the song that God spoke to them through, was "The Fathers arms are open wide, forgiveness is bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ." Many students said that it was amazing to think that God is waiting for us with open arms to ask for forgiveness, and it will be given. The other line that stood out was "Jesus is calling." We had wonderful discussions about what is Jesus calling us from, and what is Jesus calling us to? Our God loves us so much, and He desires each and every broken part of us. It is God that makes us whole. Jesus is constantly calling us. The question is...are we listening and will we run to Him? |
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