Warning: This document is
long, get a cup of coffee, a snack, reading glasses and remember, I can’t type
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CREATION 2003
Pictures
are finally up!!!!
Phil 3:10
I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His
sufferings becoming like Him in His death.
This was the verse I had read
Tuesday as a theme set in my mind for Creation 2003 but I am getting ahead of
myself.
Dale, a good brother and I set off to go to Creation2003.
We have no papers, just an e-mail from Dave Lula assuring us that all we have
to do is say, “we’re with him” and they will let us in and set up. Dave sells t-shirts and old CDs in a booth and at http://www.lightningshirts.com on
the Net. The plan is to take Dale’s RV and set up providing food and water and breaks
for Dave in his booth. On the way up I tell Dale about the past events that sometimes, without proper paperwork one can
get stuck at the gate. Dale assures me he has the “blessing” and that everything
will be fine and we will get in. We get there to early and they’re not letting
anyone in for a couple hours. Dale and I park
a ways away and hike into the grounds heading for the admin trailer. Once there
we make contact with the head of the vendors and he gives us the proper
paperwork to get in and we hike back to t he trailer. Dale replies, see, this is going to be fine. We
get in and am given the primo-camping spot (the one
with the sun to our backs). Dale again reminds me he has the blessing and this is
going to be great. We get set up and Dale has to return to town to wrap up loose ends at his work, leaving me
and the trailer all set up. Dale leaves and yes, the “blessing” goes with him. I sit
back and relax, reading and thinking about the above verse. As I am reading I
watch some others playing football. Tyrone and Chad from
Calgary ask me if I want to play. They are vendors selling
shirts at a booth and at www.straightpride.ca
on the Net. Well, its been a while since I have played
football. We run a few plays; I even toss a touchdown pass to Tyrone. Things are well. Next play, while running I feel my hamstring pull just
a little, it sets me to thinking, “Is this a good idea?”.
I continue to play and since I didn’t heed the warning, and Dale has left (with his “blessing”) I run with the ball and in my attempt
to get by a would be tackler, down I go. As I get up I
look at my hand, strange thing, the little finger use to go straight up and
down, down it goes off at an angle and bends in strange way. I have dislocated
or broken my finger, this is not a good thing. I try to reset it myself but it
doesn’t go back into place. Off to first aid I go. Well, I know who to blame,
first, Dale, if had stayed I wouldn’t been playing football and
the “blessing” would have stayed. And I blame Tyrone for asking and
Chad for trying to tackle me. He could have let me run by.
The doc splints it and says I need x-rays to be sure it is not broken or
chipped. Off to metro town of Quincy and the x-rays says it’s dislocated and not broken. I
have a good time trying to clap with a splint on my hand. I stayed at Creation,
no way was I leaving. Dale returns the following night and I chew him out for
leaving.
On to the event…
A comedian named Brad
Stine took the stage for a small taste of what was to come
at his show, one of his comments was that Jesus is never perceived for who really is. He thought someone like Arnold
Schwarzenegger should play Jesus on TV and use his line, “I’ll Be Back”. More comments
about Brad when we catch his show later on.
The first show we catch is Rebecca
St.
James and she
talks about True Love Waits as usual but she also talks about passion. And how
in Australia when a person dies and at their funeral what is
remembered and asked, was this person a person of passion, passionate in his
life, in his faith. She ends by asking, “What are you passionate about?”
Audio Adrenaline is up next
and the place goes nuts. They take a “Minnie
Morris” car and hang it in mid air with the lights and rock
the gorge. Marc from AA (Audio Adrenaline) goes into an intro about
their “Hands and Feet” song and talks about us being the hands and feet of Jesus to the world. He reminds us that those hands and feet were pierced.
And he talks about worshipping with all we are, from our hands to our feet.
Some great stuff from the stage, music and words.
We catch a speaker named Greg
Steir, he has everyone nodding their heads as he makes his
points. He talked about that we should be bothered that we are “on the verge,
and in between” and that our friends and relatives are going to hell. He is
from “Dare to Share” ministries. They’re found at http://www.christianity.com/dare2share
on the Net.
Heard another great comment
about worship, “God doesn’t look at our expressions of worship as much as He
looks at our hearts. I think it was Lincoln Brewster Thursday morning as he led
worship. Got a quick comment from Lincoln
about worship, I caught him on the way out and asked him for a quick
comment about worship and he was doing lately but he thought a moment and replied,
“worship is not a quick thought”, I agreed and he was on his way. We wanted to
chat more but he was on the move.
Next we caught was
Switchfoot, they even took some requests but shortened versions of the request,
they played a little Chem6A. They talked from the stage about how some people die
without living. They added that people have been sold the idea that living is
buying and selling things. Jon quoted CS
Lewis, “Nothing on this planet can satisfy me”.
Jon also spoke about giving yourself away isn’t about giving your money
but your life. Jon finished by saying “Dare to move from where you are”.
I did catch the boys autographing albums and such and said hi to Chad, and asked him how the trip from parking lot concerts
to MTV has been and he said awesome. Chad and the boys had stayed at our house when they were
first starting out and they’re interaction with folks hasn’t changed, always
time to say HI.
All this is from a notebook
we kept and most are chronological. The next speaker we heard was Greg
Laurie and he spoke on temptation. His key points were,
“Where it comes from; When it comes; Who it comes to;
How it comes; Best place to be when it comes; and the best tools to use when it
comes. Satan only tempts us when we’re listening. He stressed that
we play a big part in our own temptations. We’re usually in the wrong place
when temptation comes, with the wrong people when it comes, and wrong place
with the wrong people usually means wrong actions.
Sin will keep you from the Bible, the Bible will keep you from sin.
Newsboys concert always a
hit, and Peter preached a little. Some old music mixed with the new,
from the “Adoration” album. Someone had brought a giant cardboard box of
Captain Crunch and held it up during “Breakfast” song. Peter spoke about
there’s no peace in music, no success in music but peace and success comes in
doing what we’re supposed to be doing, serving God. He summed it up, cash, fame, recognition brings no rest or peace. He encouraged us
to “rest” with the one that created the heavens and earth. He said that Jesus is the door, the only door to “good standings” with the Creator. He
went on, “sin is unholy, you must be holy to see God” and “being holy is not in
doing or saying the right thing but found in the atoning blood of Jesus”. Peter had more to say and encourage the crowd, he said, “to believe
who He said He is” A word of encouragement was the following, “If you ever have
been hungry, been thirsty, been betrayed, let down, lied to, that you can find
encouragement in this, Jesus had them all done to Him on the cross”. There was
another quote he mentioned that God has set eternity in the hearts of all men
and that without Jesus you’re toast. He wrapped things up with the fact that
words cannot convince others, the Holy Spirit has to do it and that we cannot
expect others to change without changing ourselves.
Thursday night we caught the
late night Comedy Club at the Acoustic Café tent (aka… Spirit 105.3 Tent) and
the guy was
Brad
Stine
. And oh my, what a time. He had a show called,
“Put A Helmet On” and not only did he include comedy but a few amens too.
His CD/DVD are out and he pretty much did the same show (I bought a DVD of his)
and it was great. If you get a chance to see this guy, do it, he has some great
stuff. He’s done all the comedy circuits and clubs and his saying is, “I can
be creative not crude to make people laugh”.
Friday morning two of my
daughters came up to the Gorge and caught some of their favorite bands. They
only stayed one day, leaving Saturday but it was great having them come up even
if for one day. They should probably be the ones to talk about getting lost on
the way to the Gorge and again on the way home. Let’s just say they had a nice
drive via Yakima on the way up and Ritzville on the way home, probably
enough said.
The next band, one of our new
favorites, Rock and Roll Worship Circus. They started things off by saying (and
I don’t know their individual names) but the lead singer started things off by
saying, “sometimes we get tired of it all, sometimes we just want to toss it all
away, the music, the instruments, toss it all away and fall on our knees. They
played some great music. I had their first album and gave it a one time through
listen and thought it was okay but gave the album away. Well, after seeing them
live, I ordered another, to keep this time. They have another one coming out so
we’ll be watching for that too. “Lead” went on to say that some worship in
robes, some in tongues, some in different ways of others, he encouraged us to
worship Jesus and find unity in Him.
Friday afternoon was a real
dilemma; Randy Stonehill and
Ashley Cleveland were on the main stage the same time Rock and Roll
Worship Circus was on a side stage, we went to see Randy and
Ashley, figuring that they aren’t out and about as much.
Ashley played a bluesy acoustic guitar and sang some hymns and a few old
favorites. She has just released a new album which we picked one up. Randy was Randy, always encouraging and challenging. He spoke of
Larry some mentioning the sched change as
originally they were to be there together. That’s the only problem at these
events, they try and cram so many bands that they don’t get to play very long,
their sets were pretty short.
Friday night
Paul
Balouche (rhymes with Osh-kosh) led worship. He quoted Psalm
100 and told us that the Bible is our instructions for worship.
Friday evening the Supertones
took the stage and they took the stage. Though they are a little older (their
reminder, not mine) they
still get folks going with some great ska and we saw
lots of dancing.
David
Nassar preached Friday night, and he talked about Psalm 63:1
how David found a “spiritual high” while being chased across
the desert. Even though David was going through some bad times he still told God,
“God, you are my God”. David Nassar went on to say that “Your God is where your passion
lies”. He spoke a lot about a friend that went to work in Calcutta
India in Mother
Teresa’s House Of The Dying and
serving there tending to those who knew they were dying. How their perspective
changed his perspective,
he reminded us that the only difference between us and them is
that they knew they were about to die and we act like we’re never going to. He
talked about seeing children poking through the city dump and it made him think
and ask what the difference between those children and the children of this
country who are feasting on the garbage of this life, what they see and hear on
TV, computers, games, etc… He asked us, “What are you feasting on?” David summed it up asking or saying, “Maybe you are full, full of what the
world has to offer. Which banqueting table are you sitting at? God’s Table or
this world’s table”
Friday evening we were also
encouraged to “change our identity, don’t just change who or what you are”. And
don’t just change your actions but change your motivations.” “Christianity is
not about bad people becoming good- it’s about dead people becoming alive.
Michael
W. Smith wrapped up Friday night. He talked about Worship
being a lifestyle and is 24-7 not just once a week. He spoke quite a bit about
Compassion International (at www.ci.org on the
web). He said that over 70,000 kids had accepted the Lord through Compassion.
He mentioned his next album called, “Second Decade” and is being released on
Oct 7th which happens to be his birthday. He played a new song on
the album called, “Signs” or “Follow The Signs” or
something like that. He sang “America” and gave the crowd a chance to sing and it was
awesome. It was like a 20,000 (probably like 18-20,000 there) choir and sounded
so cool. The amphitheater bounced the sound together and it was so cool when
the music stopped and it was just voices. After we sang “America”
Michael gave the Canadians a chance to sing their anthem. He
said they had to carry it on their own as he didn’t know the words. They did a
great job, quite a few of our northern neighbors were
there to join us at Creationfest. Another time Michael led the crowd in “Awesome God” and seem to
crank up the sound system and almost pulled the crowd into singing louder and
then bam! The music stops with the crowd is left singing on the top of their
lungs, again, the choir sounded awesome.
Michael went onto to talk about humility and that was
something, that from a guy who has written mega records and music. He said that
he loved giving things away and that he would rather humble himself than having
God do it. God has a tendency to really
humble you so Michael was encouraging us to be servants and to be about
God’s agenda and not our own. He wrapped it up saying, number one hits, meeting
presidents, music, none of that will bring you closer to God. He wanted to be
about being able to leave the music scene if called to. He wanted to be all
about God, to be God’s man. As he listened to the crowd and complimented us he
said he wanted to take us all home with him but that there was a small problem,
his house wasn’t big enough. Very nice time and lots to think about after the
music faded out across the Gorge.
Next artist to report on is David
Crowder, worship leader and crowd director. He asked us to
sing aloud and as we started he stopped and said that it sounded nice and sweet
but he was looking for LOUD. He kept egging on the crowd to get into singing
and participating. He basically led
worship. I asked him what the band and he was about and how they started and he
said that they were basically a church band. The success took them by surprise.
One day they’re a church band and the next they’re cutting records, it was
totally God’s blessing. The one thing that really has surprised him was that
what he saw in Waco, at his church, translated into the same on the
outside, people outside their church. He saw the same look in their faces as in
his church. To hear and see the same things in others is amazing. Very humble
and fun. Looking forward to his new album next month called Illuminate.
Another worship leader that
was there was Chris Tomlin and he was a "lead worshiper". One of his
band members, named Daniel, had a birthday that day at the festival. Chris had
the crowd sing Happy Birthday to him and he said everyone was to find a
different key and hit it. It was pretty bad to say the least. It was Daniel's
21st birthday. Chris had a lot of excitement in what he shared. He would start
out explaining something but then would stop and say, "check this out"
to emphasize what he was about to say. He sang a lot of choruses, like I said,
he was a lead worshiper. I asked him about worship and what he thought about the
"worship movement" and he said most of what he had to say about it was
found at http://www.christomlin.com but
mostly what he was about was Romans 12:1. He said it would be easy to talk about
the Psalms and worship since that is what it is about but Romans 12:1 is what
worship is really about.
Next speaker was Ken
Davis and he had “Good News” He spoke about proving your
worth. He said it was a total waste of tiem and
energy that you have to prove anything to anyone. He reminded us that you can’t prove anything to God. God points to the cross and
says, “I’ve proved it for you”. Ken said that it
is a lie of this world that you have top prove your self worth. You can’t prove
your good enough. He went on to say that we need to live ike we have nothing to hide. Nothing in the Bible is to
stop us from living the abundant life. Living life to the fullest (like the ads
on TV tell us to) should be about following Jesus, that is what living life to the fullest is all about. He
said that in fact, we have nothing to hide, as it’s already known by God, does
anyone else matter? Then Ken went on to the next point about us having nothing to
lose. Our culture is all about what we have, know this and Ken got very
serious, he said, “know this, it all, all of it can be gone in a second”. Ken as well as an earlier speaker talked about those that know they are
dying, and we should be the same way, know we are dying and that the end can
come at any time. He said people dying all of a sudden change their priorities
and we should too. We could walk out of here and be hit by a VW. (Why he said a
VW is beyond me). If I may interject a moment, this past week (August 2nd)
we received the news that a friend of ours, two years younger then I and in
pretty good shape, he rode a bicycle to work, like 15 miles, almost all the
time. Well, to drive home Ken’s point, we got word he was out riding his bike and
had a heart attack and died. Obviously the pint, no one is promised tomorrow
and we need to be about the important things. Back to Ken
Davis, he went on to say that you can lay your life down
and you might as well as you have nothing to lose. He bright up the women at
the tomb and how the angel told them, “What you seek is not here” The same is
true today, what we seek is not here, it is above. Some great stuff! He summed
it up, nothing to prove, nothing to lose, and nothing to hid- be serving!
Pastor Harry said that there were 113 baptisms at Creationfest
this year and that there were 3 Gorge workers making professions of faith. These
folks heard the truth and responded. Pretty cool. And through Saturday
afternoon he mentioned 692 kids from Compassion Int’l had been sponsored. I
don’t know the final total but that’s 692 lives that were changed.
Overall, this Creationfest we
felt was one of the best, despite dislocating a finger and it being very sore
all week. We heard great music, some great speakers, and great because they
were about the Bible, about worship, about His plan for people. From the stage
musicians to worship leaders to preachers, it was all about Him and not about
them or us.
