Last night we were talking to some missionary friends who told us a wonderful story of thousands of people who had just gotten saved in a revival. How do you disciple thousands of people who get saved at once? House churches. But you’d need hundreds of leaders trained and ready to go. That’s a problem. Most churches don’t have enough small group leaders as it is where is no revival.

Immediately Internet video came to mind. Actually I’ve been thinking about it for some time. And, incidentally, I’m almost always thinking about the Internet. Ha. There are already a lot of great video websites which host video for free. They contain thousands of video of worship songs, many with lyrics. Many churches also provide their sermons by video online. The way to string them all together to create a cohesive service would be to create a playlist. A playlist allows you to watch each video in succession without having to click from one video to the next. It is like a slideshow of videos where the next video plays automatically once the previous video finishes.

Churches and missionary groups can setup any number of ready-to-go online “services” which anyone can use to host a small group in their home. No one needs to know how to play a guitar to lead worship. Instead you can have the very best and most talented worship leaders in the world, lead the small group in worship via video. And no one needs to prepare a Bible study with discussion questions. You can just add an online sermon. There are thousands and thousands of them available online for free. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every week.

YouTube has the capability to create playlists. Here is a sample worship YouTube playlist embeded below.

You can embed your playlists on your blog or a forum, post them on facebook or email the URL to people. For the best viewing experience embed the playlist on your blog and play it at full screen. Try it out above, you can set it to play at full-screen and when videos advance from one to another seamlessly. If you were to watch a playlist on the YouTube website with autoplay enabled, at the end of each video, it pops out of full-screen as it loads up the next video.

Lots of Worship Videos Available on YouTube

There are a wealth of videos on YouTube that people have made with lyrics and (mostly) pretty good audio. I’m in the process of collecting worship videos in English, Chinese and Japanese. You’re free check out my playlist videos below:

• English
• Chinese
• Japanese

I’ll keep adding to those playlists as I find good worship videos. Please feel free to create your own playlists and share them below in the comments.

How to create a playlist on YouTube

1. First make sure you have a YouTube account. If you already have some kind of Google account, like GMail, you’ve already got one.

2. Search for a video you want to add. Here’s a tip. If you want to find a particular worship song video, search for the name of the song or artist along with the word “lyrics”.

3. Once you find the song, look for the “Save to” box below the video and click it.

4. A drop-down menu will appear below. Click on “Create a new playlist…” and type in the name of your playlist.

5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you have added all the songs and/or testimony or Bible study videos that you want for the small group meeting.

6. Once you have your videos in your playlist, to get to your playlists click on your username in the upper right-hand corner and select “My Videos”. Then on the next page, click on “Playlists” in the left side menu. Your playlists will be listed now in the left side menu. Select the playlist you made.

7. You will now probably wish to make sure the videos are in the order you want them rather than in the order that you added them. To see a list of the videos in your playlist, scroll down to the bottom of the page. To change the order of the videos, double click on a blue number next to a video in the “Position” column. An edit box will appear in its place so you can edit the position number of that video.

8. Now we want to embed the playlist on your blog or forum. To do this, scroll up until you find the field entitled Embed. You’ll need to copy the embed code for pasting it into a blog or forum post. If you don’t know how to copy and paste, watch this video for the Windows OS or this video for Mac users.

9. Finally go to your blog or forum post and paste the embed code when you have set the editor to HTML mode. Here are some videos which show you just how its done.

How to embed a YouTube video on a Blogger blog post.

How to Embed into WordPress 2.9

Here are other videos that show you how to embed into forum posts.

(Luke 17:11-19)

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

100% Faith, 100% Healing

“Go and show yourselves to the priests,” Jesus told the ten lepers who pleaded with Him to heal them. Only one, a Samaritan, returned to thank the Lord. And Jesus’ response was, “Weren’t all ten cleansed?” One thing that strikes me here is the Lord’s firm conviction that all ten were healed. He knew they were healed. There was no doubt in His mind. He believed and knew that there was 100% healing.

Lord, give me faith to believe. Help me to be at that place where I believe that You are working through me and that I will have not even a single trace of doubt. Lord, transform me and help me to grow.

10% Worship

Receiving the blessing of God is not a time to be all prim and proper. The response of the Samaritan leper was to praise God with a loud voice. He was happy! He was ecstatic! He couldn’t help but go back to the Lord Jesus, fall at his feet, and on his face give thanks to the Lord. This is a picture of gratitude and rejoicing. Hallelujah!

Sadly, though, just as in this story, even today not many rejoice at their salvation. Even if they are saved, they don’t rejoice and worship the Lord with abandon.

Lord, help me to have the Samaritan’s kind of joy at my salvation! I want to return to You and praise You loudly, falling on my face and give thanks to You, Lord. Help me to see Your blessings. I want to be that ten percent that realizes the wonderful gift given to me. I don’t want to be the ninety percent that simply goes on my way, unthankful, with the blessing of God but an unchanged heart. Lord, transform me that I may not only receive Your blessing but also be transformed on the inside to humbly and gratefully rejoice with excitement!

Help me to believe in You 100% and be the 10% that worships You with joy!

Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

God knew the prophet Jeremiah even before he was conceived. I think spirits of people are in heaven before God sends them to earth. Or at least the Lord knows the spirit in the sense of how a software developer writes a program and knows the insides and outs of all the variables and functions even before the software is officially released or even run correctly the first time. So the Lord knows us inside and out before we are conceived and formed inside the womb. God consecrated Jeremiah even before he was born. God set Jeremiah apart to speak His words to the nations.

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,
Behold, I have put my words in your mouth (Jeremiah 1:9).

It makes me think of how kind God is. He cares that people on earth get a chance to hear from Him. I believe He handpicks each person to reveal a certain wonderful and unique expression of His creativity and love. Some of us find that special design within ourselves and let it come forth. Some never find it.

Others are given a special favor even before birth to be a very obvious expression of heaven. In our day, there is a young girl named Akiane Kramarik who from a very young age was able to paint and write with more beauty and artistry than adults. I believe God has blessed Akiane with these gifts to get people’s attention. He’s saying, “People, I am real and I love you. Listen to me and follow my ways so that it may go well with you.”

In the following interview with Akiane, she talks of having many visions of meeting God.

Here is the CNN report on Akiane. In it she says: “The most important thing in this world is faith, that without faith you cannot communicate with God. It’s just so beautiful up there.”

Lord, would You help me to trust in You like Akiane does? Help me to hold close to You like Jeremiah did. Would You bless me to enjoy a close relationship with You like Adam did when he walked with You in the garden in the cool of the day? When I am frustrated, would You help me to believe that everything will be okay and that You will show me the solutions to my problems in Your time. You are a wonderful and faithful God. Would You open my eyes to see how beautiful it is up there with You in heaven.

Images used by permission from artakiane.com.

Praise the LORD!

Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!

Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!

Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!

Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD! (Psalm 150)

Normally I try not to use many exclamation marks in my writing, especially not every sentence. But Psalm 150 does. !!! It’s all about praise … praising God. And praising God does deserve exclamation marks! He is awesome! He is mighty! He is holy!

Often when I write something I will tend to add exclamation marks in various places. Then I reread my email and remove most of the exclamation marks because I don’t want to appear too eager. I’ve noticed that the writings of most people I respect are not covered with exclamation marks. So they seem distinguished, non-plussed and credible. On the other hand, writing generously peppered with exclamation marks makes the writer look a bit like a cute toddler excited about getting to eat a chocolate chip cookie.

But being before the great almighty King of the universe is no time to be trying to look composed and regal. It’s not a time to pull back our excitement and redact our exclamation marks. Our God is awesome! He is amazing! It’s time to praise Him with all our might and dance like a crazy man before Him like David did. There’s so much to praise Him for. His universe is amazing! He has done mighty miracles on earth to show us His power and grace. It’s time to praise Him with all that we have. Is there a trumpet? Blow it before Him. Are there string instruments, play with all your might to praise the Lord! How about snare drums, cymbals, djembes, sythesizers, voices, and even stomping feet? Let them all praise the Lord!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord with all their might!

“We have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thes 3:4-5).

Paul had great faith in the Thessalonians. He was confident of their obedience to the gospel and all that he had taught them. Yet he continued to pray for them that they would not grow weary in doing good. He asked that God would direct their hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

This made me think of my many years as a boy growing up watching the conductor. From the 4th to the 6th grade I sang in the Honolulu Boy Choir. We were strictly trained to keep our eyes on the director, Mr. Hallman. During the concert we were never to take our eyes off of him. And we were never to do anything distracting to the performance, such as even to scratch an itch! Then from 5th to 12th grade, I played the violin in various orchestras. We always needed to not only keep our eyes on the sheet music in front of us, play our instruments well, but also be always keenly aware of how the symphony conductor was directing us with his baton. If he went slow, we went slow. If he began gesturing wider and with more energy, then we were also to start playing louder, following him exactly. Only if we were to all follow the director together would we play in unity and sound great. Later as a college student, when I traveled for a summer singing with a youth music ministry, the Continental Singers, I was well trained to follow the conductor during concerts. And as a member of various worship teams, I learned to follow the worship leader so that I wouldn’t detract from the congregation’s worship experience but rather blend in as a seamless and complimentary layer.

In 2 Thes 3:5, Paul blessed the Thessalonians that God would direct their hearts. Of all the instruments I’ve studied, the heart … the heart is the most difficult instrument to play, but has the potential to be the most beautiful. When I first started playing the violin, it was awful to listen to. My playing was high-pitched, scratchy and out of tune. I wonder what our hearts sound like to the Lord? Yet if we press on, our hearts can sing and make beautiful music to the Lord. Our heart conductor is the Lord. We must learn to keep our eyes fixed on our True Maestro as we live out our lives.

Paul prayed that God would direct their hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. What does that mean? He prayed that they would abide more and more in God’s love, that they would know how much God loves them and people, that they would live always fully aware of God’s love.

And he prayed that the Lord would direct their hearts to the steadfastness of Christ. Jesus never gave up. He was fixed upon the task that the Father had put him to do. The work of God was His food. He was so steadfast. He walked the straight and narrow. He did not swerve or get distracted. He was determined and focused. He was most of all faithful. He did what the Father did and said what the Father said. He was obedient. He was trustworthy.

God, You are my heart-director! O Father God, be like my symphony conductor. Let me keep my eyes upon You. I need to watch Your baton. I must go slow when You go slow. I must go fast when You go fast. I go loud when You go loud. I move when You move. Help me to be steadfast as Christ was on earth and let me abide in Your great love.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints (Psalms 116:15).

Witnessing obedience in affliction is something worthy of taking a quiet moment to ponder. There is sweetness about worship in the midst of suffering. There is beauty in the patience endurance of the saints.

In 2 Thessalonians 1, we see a beautiful picture of worship. The Thessalonian Christians were suffering persecutions and afflictions yet they were steadfast in their faith (2 Thes 1:4). Life was not easy for them yet they were known their growing faith and love for one another.

Paul taught the Thessalonians of the awesome day when Christ will return. The Lord is a righteous and mighty Judge. When He returns with His mighty angels, the Lord Jesus will execute justice to repay those who persecute the disobedient unbelievers with destruction, an eternity away from God’s presence and glory (2 Thes 1:5-10).

When Christ returns not only will justice be meted out, but all the universe will witness a glorious uniting of God and His people. On that day the Lord will be glorified in His saints. We will all be caught up together in the air. The dead in Christ will rise first and then all who are still alive on earth will be raptured and caught up in the air. Then we will always be with the Lord (1 Thes 4:16-17). Paul says that God will be “marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed” (2 Thes 1:10). We will marvel at the Lord as we think of all the countless generations of people who have believed in the Lord and were transformed because the gospel that was preached through people’s testimony about Him. The beauty is that the Lord Jesus is glorified in His people and His people are glorified in Him. The Lord’s light shines on us and through us.

But the Lord will not be glorified in us, if we do not continue to obey Him, if we give up when life gets hard. If we bail out when serving God becomes difficult, then we cut off the glory the Lord would have otherwise received from us. If we stop doing the good work of faith He has called us do, then there will be people who won’t believe in Jesus because of our testimony. There will be people who aren’t touched by God because we failed to use the gifts and talents God provided for us. There will be less marveling of the Lord Jesus on that day because people who should be with us in the air will be absent.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thes 1:11-12)

The joy that we will have on that day when Christ returns will not be a temporary happiness. It will be deep and wise. It will be a joy that remembers the previous suffering and that is aware of those who are now under the judgment of God eternally kept away from the presence of the Lord. It will be a joy that is profound and glorious. We will marvel at the Lord and see all the countless millions of believers transformed and worshipping God.

It is for this joy set before us that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy prayed for the Thessalonian brothers and sisters, that God would make them worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power.

Lord, open my eyes to see how wonderful and glorious it will be on that day when You return. Help me to see ahead to that joy! And give me Your grace to keep going when times get tough. Let me have favor to accomplish every good work that You have prompted me to do by faith. Without Your power, I can do nothing. Lord, make me worthy of Your calling. Help me, Lord, because without You I am so weak. But I know that in Christ I can do all things! I long to see more and more marvel at You, Lord Jesus Christ!

Images used by permission from artakiane.com.

Team so far:

Truman – keys, lead vocals
Elisabeth – drums
Lance – bass, vocals
Paul – tenor
Dr. Steve – acoustic guitar

New Doxology (Key G)
Praise God from whom all blessing flow.

Listen to full track at Last.fm
The anthem portion of the song is on a separate track.

The Lord Reigns by Klaus Keuhn (Key C to D) NEW SONG!
This a fast, up-beat song about God’s reign!

Listen to full version on Gateway Worship’s MySpace page

Majestic by Lincoln Brewster (Key of D)
Lord, You are majestic. I will worship You.

Jesus, Lover of My Soul by Paul Oakley (Key of D)
All the glory is for Jesus, not me or anyone else.

Your Name by Paul Baloche & Glenn Packiam (Key Bb)
Your name is a strong and mighty tower and has the power to save.

In Christ Alone by Keith Getty & Stuart Townsend (Key D to E)
In Christ alone I hope and stand, triumphant and free!