Montreat Weekend Internal Processing Part II

This is Part II from yesterday's post about the Montreat Weekend:

3. Equipment- a HUGE concern and stress was equipment. This was because we were going to have to bring ALL of our own equipment (drums, mics, cables, speakers, etc.) and have to set it up on Saturday night. We then found out a couple of days prior, that there was an event occurring on Saturday Night and Sunday morning, and were told that we would have to set up all of our equipment late Saturday night (starting at 9PM), could only rehearse until 11PM (due to a noise ordinance), move all of our equipment off stage to accommodate the event the next morning, then move all of our equipment on stage following the morning event (ending at 9:50AM), and be ready to start playing prelude music at 10:15 AM. WHOA! I was STRESSED! But we trusted in the Lord, loaded all of our equipment, and headed to Montreat praying for a miracle. WELL, when we arrived, we discovered that there was a band playing music for the event, and they said we could use ALL of their equipment. This meant no need to worry about setting up, tearing down, etc. because it was already set up and would be set up the next morning. So while we did have to load all of our equipment and tote it up there, we didn't have to worry about any set-up and tear-down, and the stress of time constraints were washed away. We realized that we would NEVER have been able to have made everything happen it if weren't for that miracle. PRAISE THE LORD!

4. Devotion- that Sunday morning, we were feeling pretty awestruck at the Lord for what he had already done on our trip. We held a devotion following breakfast in which we discussed idolatry. We spent 45 minutes talking through some biblical concepts of idolatry, and how we can apply that our lives and our worship. Well during the service, there were 2 congregation responsive prayers that took directly from passages of scripture on idolatry and used other wordings that spoke about idolatry. WOW! We all started looking around at each other, feeling totally weirded out!

5. The Response- as I said, even through all the amazing reminders the Lord gave us about His faithfulness, we were still nervous about playing for the more traditional congregation. Following the sermon, we walked on stage to lead in "Revelation Song." As I said, the sermon centered around scripture that were right in line with the song, so we were hopeful the congregation would see the link, and be moved by the music. But "Revelation Song" is a pretty rocking song at times, so there was still uneasiness...but...WHOA! Frances Reid sang the solo of the song, and sang it beautifully, the rest of the band played with excellence, but more important the Spirit moved in a powerful way during the song. The congregation actually erupted in applause after the song was finished, and we were left with feelings of humility at how big God is and again left totally awestruck. Countless people approached us afterwards with compliments and words of encouragement.


All of these illustrations of God's faithfulness are just echoes of the resounding theme of the experience: When we are weak, He is STRONG! All of us in the band came into that experience feeling weak and afraid because we were stepping into the unknown. But thankfully we were stepping into the unknown by faith, and the Lord honored that by knocking us onto our knees and putting us in a state of surrender, allowing us to experience is awesome strength and sovereignty. Through every experience we were all humbled even more, moving us into a state of dependency and weakness; fertile soil for the Lord. What an amazing experience of holy revelation, and one that I will not soon forget!