TheCall

TheCall Nashville was this weekend and I went with a couple friends and made a couple new ones. The theme of the day was basically just seek the face of the Lord together with other like-minded believers. After 40 days of sacrifice and prayer I expected to be astounded all day long by how God was moving. The prayer walk from Centennial to LP Field was powerful, but once we got to the stadium we had a couple of hours before the event actually began and worship music was playing. The thing was, however, that the songs were all original. I couldn't just close my eyes and lose myself in the words and music. This was very frustrating because at times I could not understand what the singer was saying, leaving me to make up my own song or just hum along. After TheCall officially started, the words to the songs appeared on the TitanTron, the huge screens on either side of the field. Even then I struggled to feel the presence of the Lord. The leaders of the event kept saying how the Spirit of the Lord is strong in this place and things like that, but I didn't feel it. For hours I kept just pressing in, not allowing myself to be drawn away from seeking God in this powerful corporate setting. Though the sun beat down on me and I could feel my skin burning through the suntan lotion I refused to take my focus off the Lord. Then Michael W. Smith got up and led worship and the simplest song, Agus Dei, overwhelmed me.
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
For the Lord God Almighty reigns
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Holy, Holy
Are You Lord, God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb
You are Holy, Holy
And it repeats and repeats. I have no idea how long we actually sang this particular song. All I know is I have heard this song for years and always thought it was a neat song, I even know the sign language for it, but until Saturday I have never realized what I was truly saying. The first time I started singing "Worthy is the Lamb," my throat tightened as I comprehended the words coming from my mouth. I was declaring that Jesus Christ was the spotless pure Lamb who came to take away the sins of the world and that I was not worthy of anything. Tears came unabashedly as the whole stadium knelt before the presence of the Lamb. The hardness around my heart had been broken and I saw who I was and who He was clearly. I began to declare that He was indeed my Lord, the God Almighty in my life. Over and above every aspect, especially the ones I wanted to be Lord over. I could not help but sing hallelujah over and over because I had reason to: my sin was taken away. I allowed God for the first time in weeks to TRULY take my sin. No longer would I hold on to them as if some grisly badges of honor defining who I was on the inside. I remembered the words to a song we had sung earlier:
What can wash away my sin?
What can make me whole again?
For my pardon this I see
For my cleansing this I plead
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow
No other fount I know
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
And so it is. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing except the acknowledgment that He is truly the sacrifice for my sin and the acceptance of the price He paid can cleanse my heart, soul and mind. No feeling of sorrow I can conjure up in my heart. No act of repentance. No philosophy or sermon. Only the blood of Jesus. How glorious His name! How simple this truth! O how precious is that crimson flow! The wholeness that comes from Calvary is like nothing the world can offer and I experience that once again! I am tender to the lover of my soul as a reflection of how He is to me. I hope and pray for you, dear Christian reader that you would have this too. God bless and keep you. Amen