Since May, Stream of Praise music ministries have traveled to Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, other Asian countries, and then back to Canada and United States for their final stops of their 2010 concert tours.
The well-regarded Chinese Christian worship ministry held their last concert in San Jose last week, sponsored by San Francisco Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship (FGBMF), at the River of Life Christian Church from November 19-20.
This year, SOP's new song "Jehovah Salom" incorporated rap and electric guitar, which is a breakthrough for the ministry's style of music. In addition, this song sents out a powerful message of hope and encouragement found in God's promise.
While praising and worshiping God with body movements, the ministry showed a video clip from their latest children worship album, which showed children leading a group of people in worship.
SOP staffs said that the faith of children are usually stronger than adults, because the children's heart are usually more pure; when they hear the word of God, proclaim the word, they just believe, which makes their worship all the more powerful and moving.
SOP founder Sandy Yu, a Taiwanese-American, spoke on the blessing that God has already given to us through a short message from Ephesians 1:3-6, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
God has blessed everyone of us already, but we often mistakenly think that we must do really well and serve with everything that we got in order to receive God's favor, said Yu. Yet, we often find ourselves burn-out.
Serving is good and is a way for us to return the love that we received from God, but we won't be blessed more because of it, for he has already blessed us, she explained. Therefore, we don't need to work non-stop, but the important thing is to come before the Lord. Then, we are blessed.
How can we gain strength from worshp and praise?
Sometimes we may not understand God's word at start because of its depth. Many of songs that we've composed consist of Bible verses, so as we repeatedly sing them it is like proclaiming "Lord, I believe" with faith; in this way, we will feel completely different and have the strength to again stand up and face the difficulties in life.
Youths today live their lives with pain and as if they are a failure, she said. They play video games and listen to pop music all the way. Why do they listen to pop music all the time? Most of the pop songs today are very depressing, she said. However, if we tell these youths that there is God's love, then they won't be depressed anymore and can proclaim that God is my victory.
Lastly, she encouraged the participants, whether they are pastors, ministers, small group leaders, or just regular believers, to place their burdens and dreams in God's hand that night.
Although we know that we are blessed by God through His word, it is easy to be depressed when we return back to our daily lives, so she exhorted everyone to hold on to God's promise, to continue to believe, persevere, and hope.
Maybe God will not fulfill our dreams at at once, but God is leading us step by step continuously in our lives, she said.
