I had the privilege this past Sunday to make a trip over to Atlanta with a dear friend of mine to attend the live recording for Travis Cottrell's new CD/DVD. If you don't know who Travis Cottrell is, then let me take this opportunity to turn you on to one of the most fantastic worship leaders ever. He has a fire in his being for God that cannot be consumed and believe me it's contagious. His music is on iTunes as well, so check him and his praise team out.
The concert was held north of Atlanta at First Baptist Church Woodstock. First of all let me say that I thought I went to a big church, well I was mistaken. I have heard of these mega churches before but have never seen one myself. It's a dome for heaven's sake, in fact one the guys on stage Sunday night referred to it as a "God dome." I have never seen anything like it, that place had to hold 5,000 easy, it was really something to behold. How awesome that we live in a country where we can worship God in such a way, we are so blessed to live here.
The concert was free, so knowing what we know about our friend Travis, we knew we would have to get there early and bonus, it gave us a chance to walk around and scope the place out. The pre-concert highlight for me was that in our wanderings around we happened upon a little mini coffee cafe. Yes, right in the middle of the church, it had a few little tables, a place to get coffee or hot tea, and cream and sugar, how cool is that. Unfortunately my friend does not share my affinity for coffee and could not find a place to get her beloved diet coke. By the end of the concert, she was willing to physically knock people down and out of the way in the name of an ice cold diet coke. Girlfriend has some strong feelings for her diet coke. They also have an escalator in their church, yes you heard me right not an elevator, an escalator.
We had to use some strategery in scoping out which door would best serve our seating needs. However, having never seen the inside of this place was of course proving to be a challenge for us. So I got myself some coffee and we hunkered down in our strategery spot. We ended up with great seats and settled in for a great time of worship.
I had never been to a live recording of anything before so it was quite hilarious to me when this guy comes out on stage before the concert begins and tells that they are going to need to record us in various laugh situations and applause. Seriously ya'll he had us clap lightly and politely, then do a little laugh, then a medium applause and a medium laugh, then applause like Travis is coming out, then applause and laugh at the same time and then start out with a medium applause and then swell to big applause with lots of whoopin' and hollerin'. It was hilarious, we were cracking ourselves up.
The concert itself did not disappoint, it was AMAZING! Singing "Jesus Saves" with that many people is quite an experience. Towards the end of the evening, there were some computer glitches and we had to do a couple of songs twice, which was fine by us we were loving it. There was also a period of time where they were having to fix something on stage before we could continue so Travis just led us in some impromptu singing, he's so much fun. There were many highlights to the evening but one of my favorites was during this time when we broke out in one of my favorite songs "Shackles" read on and you'll see why......
Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise you
I just wanna praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise you
In the corners of my mind
I just can’t seem to find a reason to believe
That I can break free
Cause you see I have been down for so long
Feel like all hope is gone
But as I lift my hands, I understand
That I should praise you through my circumstance
Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise you
I just wanna praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise you
Everything that could go wrong
All went wrong at one time
So much pressure fell on me
I thought I was gon lose my mind
But I know you wanna see
If I will hold on through these trials
But I need you to lift this load
Cause I can’t take it no more
Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise you
I just wanna praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise you
Been through the fire and the rain
Bound in every kind of way
But God has broken every chain
So let me go right now
Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise you
I just wanna praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise
Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise you
I just wanna praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise you
Wow, that's a powerful song. I have felt many times God "I need you the lift this load cause I can't take it no more." Beth Moore (she's a women's Bible study teacher) was there also and had lots to say throughout the night. One thing in particular was just to worship God at whatever place you are at in your life right now, if it is a place of pain, hurt and anger then so be it. God knows our hearts anyway, so if I sing every song trying to act like I don't feel what I feel and that every thing is fine and perfect, what good is it going to do. God will just know that I am not being honest with Him or with myself. God gives me the freedom to express my emotions and feelings to Him freely and without condemnation. I really haven't been "feeling it" lately but last night there were actually times where I did "feel it" again and by that I mean allowing God in again and letting Him see that I am angry and very very sad. We don't have to clean ourselves up to go to God, we don't have to always have the right attitude to go to God. In fact, we are not even capable of cleaning ourselves up first, He is the only One that can do that, we just have to come to Him open and transparent.
Wow, that all sounds really good, I hope that I can actually implement some of that into my life this week.
Thanks Theresa for a fun night, I sooo needed to get away and get a new perspective.
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