They will condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.  On the third day He will be raised to life!

- Matthew 20:18-19

     by David Dodd

      Talking with Mac Powell is like talking to a loving brother who absolutely embraces the Lord with all his might.  Mac mentions his insecurities, both as a man and in the band which blows me away because from the outside, Third Day seems to have it all, but on the inside, Mac Powell is just like the rest of us.  So in our small segment here on the web, we’ll take a look at a couple of his favorite Third Day tunes but we’ll start off with a day long ago when he was cutting the grass and was greatly inspired by the Guns ‘N Roses record, Appetite For Destruction.

     “Musically growing up I wasn’t a big rock n roll guy, I was more of like a pop radio guy and I was into some classic rock stuff like Little Richard and Chuck Berry,” Mac tells Apostles That Rock.   

     “Around the time I was a freshman and sophomore in high school, I was really into that stuff more, and my sister had Appetite for Destruction and I said why are you listening to this junk?  And for some reason I went out to mow the lawn one day and I put it in my walkman, we didn’t have CD’s back then or MP3’s or ipods, we put tapes in these little walkman things and I was listening to this record when I was mowing the lawn and I went, oh my goodness, I really like this sound.  I wouldn’t like to say that they were a huge influence on me but it did kind of bring me back to rock n roll a little bit.”

I’m praying that tomorrow

You’ll open your eyes and see

It’s a shame, oh

It’s a shame

That you are throwing your whole life away

      “That’s a song that’s really close to my heart.  I wrote it with a specific person in mind and at the same time knowing that there were many people who were going through the same situation and frustration that we have as people when we see someone going through a hard time that they bring about on themselves.  It’s really a prayer song for that person to see what God has for them.”

There is hope for the helpless

Rest for the weary

Love for the broken heart

There is grace and forgiveness

Mercy and healing

He’ll meet you wherever you are

Cry Out to Jesus

     “I came up with the idea and presented it to the band on acoustic guitar.  It wasn’t an easy song to write, I think the melody definitely came easy and the chords came easy, but there were so many situations and things that I wanted to fit in that little three and a half minute song.  I had many other ideas as well of people going through hard times in certain situations that I wanted to fit in there but at the same time you don’t want to offer too much into songs, so it took awhile to get all of that in order and when I did, I presented it to the band in acoustic form and they took it and made it a lot better. 

     “As the song says it’s amazing.  I was sharing a story last night on stage about our little girl, her name is Scout, she’s 6 years old, and we had the honor and thrill about a month ago when my wife called me into her room, she was putting Scout to bed and she said, ‘Scout, tell papa what you just did,’ and Scout kind of was tearing up and she said, ‘I asked Jesus into my heart’ and I just kind of laughed and held her and smiled and said, ‘do you know what this means now?’   

     And she said, ‘it means the angels are having a party.’

     The one side of me said does she understand, she’s only six, and I’m praying,  Lord, I don’t know if she fully understands what this is about and what You’ve done for her, and the Lord kind of knocked me over the head and said, you don’t fully understand what I’ve done for you and I said yeah, you know what, you’re right.   

     His sacrifice and His love, it’s just so much bigger than we can understand or even know and realize.  Grace is awesome, that’s what separates Christianity from every other religion is that message of grace that we can’t work or earn our way to heaven or to our salvation or even really to a better life, it’s only through His grace, His free gift that we can have those things to have real peace and joy.”