focused on Glory (Winter Jam)

Winter Jam was this weekend and it was a great time. Moreover, it was a great time praising God! The music was fun, stimulating, exciting, and expressive, while the lyrics were moving, praising, encouraging, and passionate. 

I love music. Lots of music. And I'm not married to one style. Whether it's classical , "praise & worship", 80's hair bands (Bon Jovi), hymns (It is Well), Josh Groban (sigh), chamber music (my favorite is HERE), southern rock (especially Third Day!), instrumental soundtracks (LOTR, Pride & Prejudice), or opera I like it. 

I even like some of the harder rock (gasp). One of the groups I really enjoy is RED (who was not at WJ this year). An example of a "hard" RED song is here, and a "soft" song is here, and I really like both! (Before anyone decides to automatically dismiss this type of music as unchristian I would challenge you to research the lyrics and the meanings behind the messages.) Style preference does not equal holiness.

The headliner for the concert this year was Skillet, and they did a great job. All the bands were good. Besides delivering good music (of various styles) they also delivered the Word of God! Over 15,000 people got to hear how God had worked in the lives of the artists and how His Son was sent to us. 

The pictures are from my cellphone, so my only option was to point and shoot. Still, they get the point across.

Mary, Greg, and I sat behind the stage. It got us a lot closer than our other seat options and we could see well. There were also large screens facing our directions, and several of the performers climbed onto the back area and faced us, so we liked our seats.

Skillet's pyro show was cool. This was as the flames were dying. The full flames blew out the pictures I took! 

As a side note- I know there are people that would look at these pictures and think, "How do flames and special effects glorify God?" To which my reply would be, "Maybe they don't! And maybe it isn't a big deal either." 

What I do know is that there are thousands of people who don't have a clue about what Jesus has done for them, and those people are willing to go to an inexpensive concert to have a good time. And guess what?! They get to hear about how Jesus gave up His life to cover them and pay their way into Heaven. So if flames and special effects will draw someone in, who wouldn't go to a Gaither Gospel Hour, to hear about Jesus then I'm okay with that. (And those of us who already know Jesus got to enjoy the show too!)

As always, be sure to stop by Jennifer's BLOG!