Earlier tonight, Joleen and I attended the “How Great is Our God” tour concert at the Bryce Jordan Center on the Penn State campus in State College, PA. Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman (worship leaders) and guest speaker, Louie Giglio, offered an amazing 3-hour worship experience!
I enjoy Tomlin and Redman’s worship music, and Louie is a gifted communicator. There were several things that impacted me. Here are some of them …
Knowing the story behind Matt Redman’s song, “Heart of Worship” (as told by Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life), it was especially nice to experience the long live!
The first song to really capture my attention, though, was Redman’s song, “You Never Let Go.” The chorus says …
Oh no, you never let go, through the calm and through the storm, oh no, you never let go, in every high and every low, oh no, you never let go; Lord, you never let go of me.” Good stuff!
One of my favorite segments was the singing of Tomlin’s new arrangement of “Amazing Grace” (following Louie’s message). The movie, “Amazing Grace,” which also opened in theaters tonight, includes Tomlin’s version of the great hymn. In fact, if it were not for the concert, we would have gone to see the movie tonight. But it was really awesome to experience this song on the opening night of the movie, too! I was especially moved by the words …
My chains are gone, I’ve been set free, my God my Savior has ransomed me, and like a flood his mercy reigns, unending love, amazing grace.
Tomlin’s song, “Indescribable,” is a great song about God. It’s full of powerful words and descriptors of God. The word that grabbed my heart tonight was the word “untamable.” God is untamable. We have a tendency to try to tame God, to shape God in our own image, to bring God down to our level. But God cannot be tamed! He is a big, awesome, and incredible God!
Louie Giglio’s message was amazing. As a preacher/communicator, I had been looking forward to Louie’s message as much as the music, and I was not disappointed! It’s hard to put into words, but Louie’s message, which expanded my view and awe of God, talked about four specific stars in the universe. Louie demonstrated in convincing ways that the earth is a speck in the universe, yet God cares about and is intimately acquainted with every one of us!
And believe it or not, I even thought about my dissertation during the concert. But I need some more time to chew on those things before writing about them, which I hope to do later.
Well, we had looked forward to this concert for a long time. It was definitely worth the wait!