Wading through life

Sometimes I forget that U2 is the greatest band ever. And then I listen to them and it all makes sense again.

Gospelfest was Saturday night on the campus of Spring Arbor University. I didn’t really know what to expect… and I kinda like those situations–especially when I’m as pleasantly suprised as I was Saturday. I guess suprised isn’t really the right word. I suspected it would be pretty good. But I wasn’t anticipating all the Lord had in store for the evening.

Aside from the great music put on by all the performers (Shekina’s worship team, Detroit Mercy’s gospel choir, Eastern Michigan’s gospel choir, our own gospel choir and a couple other acts), God moved in un-musical ways as well. Toward the end of a gospel-ized rendition of Matt Redman’s Nothing But the Blood, cricifixion clips from The Passion of the Christ were played, which transitioned into a mini-message from our choir leader Andra Morrell (he’s such an anointed worship leader) and exiting religion professor Vince Beresford.

Then came a 30+ ministry time. It was awesome.

I don’t know how much of that time was planned, but to have a public concert basically halt for over a half hour of prayer and deliverance ministry was exciting. It’s a picture of things to come for our campus as we’ve been praying for revival and interceeding on behalf of our students, faculty, staff and aministration. God wants to do something at SAU and it seems things are starting to fall into place for breakthrough.

Keep the University in your prayers, if you would. The academic year is about wrapped up; we’re praying for the final praise and worship chapel to simply blow up and send the students out with torches of revival fire and create some momentum to build upon this fall.

Please note to the right of this post that you can listen to the audio of U2′s Vertigo concert in Chicago. Thanks, 6th Man, for the DVD rip. And thanks, Boriel, for coding the XSPF WordPress plugin. It works great!

Stay tuned for some worship mixes and other tracks to make the workday pass quick.

Take Off My Shoes
Delirious? | The Mission Bell

I’ll take off my shoes, I’m coming in,
Untie this rope, I’m staying with him,
Love of my life, I’ll live and die,
Just for the moments for my king and I.

Why did you call, why did you wait,
For someone so guilty, someone so fake.
There are no words for my beautiful song,
Now I’m in the arms of my beautiful one.

Hold me, blow all the pride from my bones,
With your fire.
Hold me, breathe on this heart made of stone,
Keep it pure.
Hold me, saviour of heaven and earth,
King forever.
Hold me, love of my life lead me on,
Through the fire, lead me on…

I’ll take off this crown and fall at your feet,
The secret of joy are the moments we meet.
How could a man with all of your fame,
Pull me from darkness and call me by name.

So hold me today, as I carry your cross,
Into the desert to find who is lost.
Look at my hands, they’re still full of faith,
God keep them clean till we finish the race.

• Read the stories behind the songs on this album on the Delirious? Web site.
• Read Christianity Today’s raving review.

Here is the set list from the concert. The opening with City of Blinding Lights was truly a light show to behold; it rocked and set the stage for a GREAT show. The thing is, you can’t really go wrong with U2…$97.50 plus handling or not.

Check out the videos associated with each song, if you wish. They’re a heafty download, so dial-upers beware. I have a couple still pictures that I’ll have to post at another time.

1. City of Blinding Lights ( 9.5 mb video )
2. Vertigo ( 5.4 mb video )
3. Elevation
4. I Will Follow
5. Electric Co.
6. The Ocean
7. Still Haven’t Found ( 14 mb video )
8. Beautiful Day ( 10 mb video )
9. Miracle Drug
10. Sometimes you Can’t Make it On Your Own ( 18 mb video )
11. Love and Peace or Else ( 10 mb video )
12. Sunday Bloody Sunday
13. Bullet The Blue Sky
14. Miss Sarajevo
15. Pride in the Name of Love
16. Where the Streets Have No Name ( 18 mb video )
    …and the fan response ( 10 mb video )
17. One

1. Walk On
2. Stuck in a Moment
3. With or Without You ( 27 mb video )

1. All Because of You
2. Yahweh
3. 40