The first time I heard of them was the night they won a Dove Award for I Can Only Imagine. I remember wanting someone else to win and thinking, "Who are these guys anyway?". Later in the show they performed the song. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I said, "OK, I can see why they won."
My next experience was seeing them at the NYS Fair. MercyMe opened for Michael W. Smith. Mind you, at this time I only knew one song. We were there for Michael. But when they sang Here With Me I fell in love. You can hear it here. If that title isn't familiar to you, you must take 4 minutes right now to listen to it. You won't be sorry, I promise. In fact, whenever this song comes on the radio and any of my family is around - I remind them that this song is the one that made me fall in love with MercyMe. They tend to roll their eyes, often cutting me off before I even finish with "I know Mom,you tell us every time we hear it". I don't get it...I simply feel that is important information about me that they need to know. (repeatedly)
At that point, there was no turning back. I had then become MercyMe's #1 fan. CD after cd, this band keeps knocking it out of the park. I'm drawn to their music because it is obvious in the lyrics of every song that they walk closely to the Lord and have a very mature faith. I dig that.
Fast forwarding (aren't you thankful?) to August 17. Because I had been waiting five years since seeing them last, I was pretty excited as you can imagine. I even started an impromptu "name that tune" game in the car of all the MercyMe songs on my ipod, which is pretty much every MercyMe song recorded. I didn't play - Drew and Scott said it wouldn't be fair. That's true. Still, they both did well. We'll call it a tie. It served as an excellent warmup to the main event. Just ask them. I know they enjoyed it too. :)
Whoops. That was a little departure. Back to the story. We had been given the tickets so we had no idea where our seats were. I kept telling Scott that I didn't care if the seats were close, but I needed to be able to stand (to worship properly) if necessary, and I knew it would be necessary. So we arrived at the theater, collected our tickets and found ourselves in the middle of the balcony. Standing would be awkward and upsetting to our row-mates if they weren't wanting to stand as much as I wanted to. What to do?
As 7:30 neared, we noticed down closer to the stage, but still in the balcony, plenty of empty seats. As soon as the lights went down, Scott and I looked at each other then high-tailed it down there. Front row right of balcony. Perfect! (see pic - not bad, huh?) A few people followed, but no one was behind us. We stood for almost the whole concert. It was glorious! I think we worshiped our faces off. Definitely would have embarrassed our kids.
About half way through the concert (the only time we sat down) Bart, the lead singer spoke for awhile. His words were ministering to my heart so much that I rummaged around to find something to write on for fear of forgetting all this good stuff. Here's some of what he said:
- In a personal testimony, he said it's bad to get into a place of routine. We can become complacent, rely on ourselves and certainly not expect God to do anything different or awesome. Not a good place to be.
- We claim to serve an awesome God and sing songs declaring such, but then we pray weak prayers. We beg God for a little tiny bit feeling unworthy and maybe don't even expect Him to answer. We should expect bigger answers because He is a BIG God and is completely powerful to do anything. Do we believe it? Then let's pray that way.
- Many of the prayers we do say are prayers that have already been answered. Imagine God answering you like this. When you pray: "God, give me strength." God says, "You have My strength." When you pray: "God, I want to be holy." He says, "You are holy. I've made you holy." "God, I want to be whole." "You are whole and complete in Christ." We already have everything we're asking for. Now we just need to act like it!
- My sin can't pull me out of the hand of Christ.
- We should be dangerous to the enemy because we have access to the King of Kings. We have everything that He is.
- See yourself as God sees you. The Holy Spirit lives in you. You are worth more than you think or feel. You have been set free. What more are you waiting for?
Next they sang a song that will be on the radio soon called You Are I Am. Scott and I made eye contact. It kind of took our breath away. We've listened to that song at home a whole bunch of times, but what a difference! Scott remarked later that he was amazed how God will use such familiar songs (did I mention Scott, the kids and I have memorized every word of every MM song whether on purpose or not?) to speak perfectly into what's going on in our lives today. I love that too. Waste no time and listen to it here. Then buy it. You'll want to listen to the whole The Hurt and The Healer cd over and over again.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I loved this concert - every minute and it was too short. It was worth every penny we didn't have to pay for it. They pretty much sang every song I predicted and wanted to hear. And what was spoken was every bit as important was what was sung. I left happy. Very happy. This is why I go to concerts given by Christian artists. To worship loud with big crowds and to be encouraged in my faith. You should too. I'll let you know the next time MercyMe is close by.
You Are I Am
I've been the one to shake with fear
And wonder if You're even here
I've been the one to doubt Your love
I've told myself You're not enough
I've been the one to try and say
I'll overcome by my own strength
I've been the one to fall apart
And start to question who You are
You're the One who conquers giants
You're the One who calls out kings
You shut the mouths of lions
You tell the dead to breathe
You're the One who walks through fire
You take the orphan's hand
You are the One Messiah
You are I AM
I've been the one held down in chains
Beneath the weight of all my shame
I've been the one to believe
That where I am, You cannot reach
The veil is torn
And now I live
With the Spirit inside
With the same One
The very same One
Who brought the Son back to life!
Hallelujah, He lives in me!
1 comment:
Beautiful and needed.
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