Whole Hearted Worship in the Mall of God

It's now been 5 days since the Travis Cottrell live recording at FBCW and I am still feeling the residual effects.

I have decided this is not due purely physical stresses and strains, although there were many.

I am not sure my feet will ever forgive me for leaving them in high heeled boots for two days
while spending the majority of those 24 hours standing, walking or rockin to beat the band.
My toes have the strangest curves to them makes me wonder if they ever be flip flop worthy again?

No, the exhaustion is about more than just shoe stompin.

Nor is the fatigue due to the constant flow of adrenaline that was spent during the days leading up to the final recording on Sunday night.

It was the worship.

God just showed up all over the place.

I can truthfully say I have never been in a service at my church and not felt the Lord in a big way. At different times in varying degrees maybe, but always there.

It's the Mall of God for goodness sakes!

Let me explain.

Shortly after joining FBCW I was asked by an acquaintance where we went to church, to which I replied 'FBCW'

Her response was, 'Oh, you go to the Mall of God '

And simply at the Holy Spirits leading and because it is true I passionately replied,

'Yes, God is there all right, He's all over that place!'

The gal was left speechless had nothing more to say.

It was not until later I heard from others that some in the Atlanta area used the 'Mall of God' and other put downs trying to insinuate that God could not possibly inhabit a church of that size with a congregation so large.

Whatever does anyone think Heaven will be like?

Good time to sygway...

A smidge of heaven on earth is what this gal and the thousands that joined us experienced.

I am convinced it is the pure whole hearted full out worship that nearly slayed us all Sunday.

I will never sing or hear 'Victory in Jesus' the same way.

Folks, we will need those new resurrected super-bodies we are promised once we are in heaven.

The very presence of God would quite simply slay us otherwise as these tired old pieces of clay would be pulverized to dust at the thought of getting that close to Him.

Sunday - His being there, getting that close for just the briefest reflection of a glance at our Father totally wiped us out.

No wonder there were taping difficulties - too much power folks, way too much power!

I pray the concert translate with each and every CD and DVD and to God be all the glory!

As I was privileged to sing along with over 300 others for this, I have few performance photos to share, except those shared by my Siestas in the audience. The girls were in the audience and many have posted stories about all aspects of the weekend.

Check in with each of these girls, you may find you get a good dose of what this past weekend was about from each in a different way.

There is Nikki along with her best friend Tammy

Nesha and Melinda

Fran and Cheryl

Kim

Sherry, Sheryl and Melinda

Deborah

Mary, Robyn and Gayle

Jan and Melinda

Fran , Charlotte and Stephanie

Nikki, Stephanie and PattyJenny, Deedra, Brooke and Lisa

Lavonda and Angela
Angela, Stephanie and Kara

Georgia and Gayle

Just for today

It's been a little busy around here lately.

Last September I was pleased to discover the church choir I am honored to be a part of would take part in a live CD/DVD recording by Travis Cottrell.

For anyone not familiar with Travis or his music, he leads worship for Beth Moore's LPM and he is outstanding to say the least.

At that time we knew there were tentative (pretty sure) plans but details had to be worked out. I promptly sent emails out to some friends of mine in the blogging community who share a passion for Jesus and I met by way of Beth Moores Living Proof blog. Several ladies went about saving the date in hopes that we could set up a weekend with several of our Southern Siesta's (as Beth dubbed us) once this event was confirmed.

Right before Christmas it was confirmed.

This past weekend a bunch of sweet Siestas converged on Woodstock Georgia and in particular my home church the First Baptist Church of Woodstock to take part in the live recording and have another Siesta meet up of many folks in our blogging community.

The complete CD and DVD will be available later this year, in the meantime you can get a taste of our weekend and watch the morning service by clicking here.

We experienced an amazing time of worship,

fun and fellowship

the details of which will require more time than I have right now.

For today I want to post a few photos and links and hope that if you were there, please attach a link to this post so we share the joy ladies!

l love and miss ya'll!
tammy aka: Inga

Siesta Ornament Exchange '08

The gals over at the Siesta Fiesta Blog hosted an ornament exchange

as result I received a sweet snowman picture frame ornament and bag of Peppermint Bark candy from Cheryl at the 29:11 Promise blog.

Funny, turns out Cheryl is a Georgia Siesta who lives within 20 minutes of me and some of her favorite quotation's are from my own pastor....and the world gets smaller and smaller!

Every time I hang this little fella I will be recall a few of my favorite things:

Snow, photos and my Siestas!

Thank you Cheryl for the cute ornament and the Peppermint Bark you packed it with, very tasty and should seriously be consider the green alternative to Styrofoam popcorn. Yum!!

Another Language

**In keeping with the subject below consider checking out some other excellent post on the San Antonio conference here

As I posted previously, there are a mess of my bloggin buddies who have been sharing incredible notes from the Living Proof event in San Antonio last weekend.

I just read another one this morning from a fellow Georgian Deborah aka: Twinkle.

Take a peek here
read up, print it off, receive a blessing. Deborah's post is one of the better recaps of the actual study I've read.

On another note, while passing through Alabama en route to Florida, Kyra ask,

"Maw Maw...Paw Paw...Do people in Alabama speak another language or English?"

I'm thinking that really depends on who you ask...although I did learn some cool 'sign' language from some notable Bama's
Lisa, The Preacher's Wife and Brooke, The Mailgirl


Heading to the beach, praying the hurricanes blow out to sea.

I am NOT Mary Lou!

Don't just love those 'Ah Ha' moments?

Just about the time your heads about to explode from blindly sorting through reams of data the lights come on, and it all makes sense. Much to your chagrin, the answers were not so deep and disturbing as you thought...you just couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Confused?

Let me explain.

I've been tryin to be Mary Lou....Mary Lou Rettnon that is.

No, I've not been tryin to schlep into a teeny leotard and join the Geriatric Gymnast Society....no, so get that visual out of your head right now!

This sudden illumination is the result of trying to be something I'm just not.

During the wonderful conference I attended last weekend in San Antonio, I took pages of copious notes, legible only to me I might add.

Having posted previously and giving my overall impressions of the event, I felt compelled (self compelled I might add) to not only share my notes but my thoughts as well regarding these sessions.

Clearly regurgitating that much information is not my gift, not at this point anyway.

I do have a bunch of my Siesta's who have these gifts and have been posting like nobodies business over here. Do yourself a favor and be sure to check out their posts. Through these blogs, you can virtually join us in San Antonio without the benefit of all that humidity!

One of the many points Mama Beth made was that God has given us different gifts that we can use or not. It is important that we need discover what our gifts are, and get to using them.

Another thing Ms Beth stated should have been obvious, but apparently isn't or she wouldn't have said it

"You are not Mary Lou."

Really? I was so thinking me, perfect 10's, gold medals.

No, "You are not Mary Lou."

Actually , I should not try to be...as it would be very ugly!

Right now my 'Mary Lou' is all these awesome bloggin Siesta's. As I read their post and I feel I'm back in the Alamo Dome all over again. They are the Howard Cosell 's of Siesta-ville.

Going through my notes I've attempted to recall all the stuff I did NOT jot down. Doing so has caused me to refresh my recollection of the whole San Antonio experience...but it doesn't change the fact that regurgitating this material is about as painful to me as tryin to retell a joke...it's awful!

My dear Sister in Love, Nancy is the sweetest and funniest gal you could ever want to meet.

Can she ever tell a joke!

Nancy's turn of a phrase leaves you with muscle pains in regions of your body you didn't know had muscles. Non stop belly laughs and bronchial seizures are a regular occurrences when spending anytime with this girl.

aaand....

Let me try to retell these same jokes or stories...WHEW!!

I'm usually stammering and stuttering or cracking up so bad I can't get the thing told. More often than not,I get to the punch line and draw a complete blank. What usually follows is this...

the 'How sweet...isn't she special' look.

Sooo...I try and leave the joke tellin to those more gifted than I.

Now that we've chased that pack of dogs, the point you ask?

I've realize I need to quit lookin around into other peoples yards, lives or blogs, all the while thinkin,

'Oh, oh! That's what I should be doin or posting about',

no...that's not my part to play.

I'm reminded

"If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 1 Corinthians 12: 17-20

I particularly like the version from the Message

"I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster." 1 Corinthians 12: 17-20

I just need to get about what God has called me to be, and that's huge! Not in a selling out Phillips Arena sort of way, but in finding and fill'in the shoes He's prepared for me to fill and let Mary Lou be Mary Lou. How bout you?

...and not one Boring!

Had someone told me back in the nineties when I first jumped on this Internet super highway it would eventually lead me to hop'in a plane and spend several days with hundreds of women I did not know (except through a series of virtual postings and comments left hangin out there in cyber-space) in sweltering hot San Antonio, Texas, I would have said

'Ain't no way!'

I would have been so wrong!

This past weekend I was blessed to partake in such an event.

Here’s just very a few highlights:

From Thursday through Sunday we had what felt like a progressive family reunion.

The kind you WANT to go to, with all your favorite relative.

Let me tell you about of few of these relations.

There was Melana and Veronica,

the Godly Thelma and Louise of this here conference trekking across country with their trusty sidekick, Miesta Moose.

You can follow some of their adventures here.

Also in attendance was Holly aka: Crownlaiddown, easily mistaken as a bag lady as she rolled a case full of cookbooks between venues making sure everyone got a copy or two who wanted one.

We also discovered over the course of the weekend that just like Kevin Bacon, Holly was one or more degrees separated in some way to almost everyone there...I am not even kidding!

Oh, and let's not forget Patty

and Kim, no, no, no!

These hardworkin gals, made plans for about 300 and were met instead with some 1,100 souls. At every event the two met you with warmest hugs and smiles-o-plenty with 'nare a complaint. Among many other things, my two amigos created and co hosted our family blog where so many Siestas converged to get to know each other a bit better...a precursor if you will, to the actual Siesta Fiesta in San Antonio.

Oh...you should also know, this family is quite the dressers. Personally, I never knew such Siestawear existed.

The jewelry, Capri's, flip-flops, handbags and hats. Oh and the Pajamas, lets not forget the PJ's! And, if a gal was looking to change their 'do', as in 'hair do', this was the place to get ideas on real life action figures.

What an eclectic and fun bunch!

and, as we learned...

All heiresses of God...and not one Boring!

We spent much time huggin, chatin, sharing.

What a time of photos and fellowship!

We shared testimony, prayer needs and praises, passed recipes, addresses and phone numbers.

Our common lineage?

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The entire meeting was squeezed in around powerful Word brought to us by way of the Living Proof clan headed by Mama Beth Moore.

Whoa!! Did the blessings flow!

I am catching up on sleep and life back home, still absorbing it all. I have many post roll'in round in my noggin so there will be more debriefing to come.

For today I have to tell you, I'm so grateful our Heavenly Father is so hip...so relevant, using the medium at hand to spread His good news, love and mercy in and through ways I would have never imagined.

To Him be the Glory!