Thanks to all who responded and took action to my previous post: 

Important Ministry Update

In that post I told of how I was in need of some help supplying large print Gospels of John for my ministry to nursing homes. 

It was amazing how over the next month or two, boxes of Gospels of John would show up at my door just when I needed them. For instance; at one concert I handed out all the remaining Gospel of Johns that I had to whoever wanted one (& I had exactly enough!). Then I came home to find a box of Gospels on my doorstep. How amazing is that?  

At each of my concerts I usually share some highlights from John. It has blessed me so much to 'hang out' in this Gospel for as long as I have now. I will continue to dwell on in and share from it as long as the Lord allows me to. It is so packed with depth and meaning and life, etc... it would take a lifetime to explore. But I always try to remember that the Bible isn't the thing, Jesus is. The Bible just introduces him. Getting to know him, love him and follow him is the point - not become an expert on all things biblical.

Today I had yet another insight from this amazing Gospel. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." I was meditating on this while munching on some leftover bagels from church on Sunday. Jesus said this during a conversation he was having with some Jews right after he had fed the 5,000. (Please take a moment and read for yourself what Jesus has to say in John 6.)

(thanks for taking a moment to read what God wrote, now on to my ramblings...)

As I thought about that passage I was remembering reading the story about the manna inExodus 16:

"...in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴ When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. 
      Moses said to them, "It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. ¹⁶This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.' "

 ¹⁷ The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little.¹⁸ And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed."

Isn't that interesting? They had just enough - whether they gathered a little or a lot. I kind of think of 'manna' (and this relates to Jesus too) like the lembas bread that the elves gave the hobbits. Super nutritous, packed with all you need, and best of all, it's yummy! (described as tasting like honey).

(Click if you care to read up on Lembas bread - amazing stuff that! fascinating read too as parallels are made to the Eucharist - which also happens to be a topic in John 6)

The differences I see between Lembas and Manna, however, is that Lembas bread stays fresh for months! Manna (and Jesus) is described as "daily bread". It is only good for a day (except on the Sabbath) and must be gathered and prepared for each new day.(except on the Sabbath - seeExodus 16 if you care to read all about it.)

At any rate, the important thing about this whole discussion comes with the application: Did you eat today? 

In John 6, Jesus said:

⁵³"...I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 

Gross! Eating his flesh? Drinking his blood? That's just disgusting!

Of course the most important teachings of Christ are framed this way, using mind boggling analogies. Things like: "You must be born again." And consider this one from Matthew:"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away... and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body, then for your whole body to be thrown into hell."

This is a hard teaching. Yes, Jesus has a great deal of sobering things to share. Listen to his disciples reaction:

⁶⁰On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

 ⁶¹Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? ⁶²What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. ⁶⁴Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

 ⁶⁶From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Wow. Sometimes Jesus doesn't seem to know how to be politically or even religiously correct. But notice he says, these words are spirit and they are life. He doesn't say, "these words are literal - here is my arm Peter, start gnawing away, and here Andrew, I'll prick my finger - have a sip of life. And John, you better stand close when they pierce my side so you can swallow some of the blood and water that sprays out. (According to the movie, it seems that the soldier and his mother Mary were the only ones who got in on this eternal life thing).  

Of course I don't ever get quite this deep at one of my concerts - not sure they can handle that (not sure if you can either, now that I think of it), though if the Holy Spirit prompts me to, I'm willing to share whatever he likes.

If you would like to continue to help this ministry, you can go directly to BIBLICA.COM and order a box or two of Large Print Gospels of John and have them sent to the above address.

Thanks for listening and for the support,

Daniel Lovett

www.reflectworship.com

Scripture quotations from the New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica

Eternal Life

When I was young I grew up thinking that eternal life meant "going to heaven when you die". How wrong I was. Jesus didn't leave his Father, come to this broken wretched world and become a human being, die a criminals death staked to a piece of wood, rise from the dead, only to sell us some fire insurance.

Making the Gospel - the good news of Jesus - only about escaping hell, receiving some forgiveness of your sins, and then spending an eternity in paradise with God is an absolute tragedy! It's so much more than that.

Jesus knew we would be confused about this idea of eternal life - which in Jesus day happened to be a very popular idea with perhaps several different meanings attached to it. So Jesus defined it for us. He spelled it out when he said in His prayer to his Father in John 17:3 " And this is eternal life," he says "that they may know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent."

Jesus is saying here that eternal life is to know God - to actually know him, like you know your spouse or your friend. This means that we can be intimately acquainted with God, to interact with God, to have conversations with God, to experience God! Isn't that exciting? An this is what eternal life is!

Jesus has reconciled us to God and restored as human beings who can know and relate with their Creator and Father.

This Biblically illiteral Generation

My wife and I happened to land on the last few minutes of Jeprody the other day. The final Jeprody question was "words in the bible". I love it when they do anything bible related on Jeprody. I remember when i was a kid, I had this picture bible. It was a biblical comic book. I loved it. It helped guarantee many a victory at Bible trivia games in subsequent years.

The final jeprody question was: "From Genesis "For this reason a man shall ____ his parents and _____ to his wife." One letter is added to one to make the other."

Can you believe not a single contestant got it? Catherine and i both thought it was so easy. any of them would have only had to read a couple chapters into genesis to know. They knew millions of other random bits of trivia but they didn't know what god, the one who created them, has to say?

knowing the bible, of course, is only the first step - living it and teaching it to others is where its at. my wife and i just finished reading the book of Ezra. Ezra was a biblical scholar - an expert in the revelation of God. He committed himself to study the Torah, To live it out and to teach others. I suppose my fear is that i don't have what it takes to actually live out the word of god, but God says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He says his commands are not burdensome.

I have been reading a number of songwriting books lately. How useless it would be to know everything there is to know about songwriting, and never write a song. Sadly, this is exactly how it is for many who "know their bibles". I should know - I'm one of them.

How did the fact that i could beat most everyone at bible trivia help me to love others well? In fact it did just the opposite. Somehow instead I ended up with a sense of superiority over all those bucolically illiterates. So you see, "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." just as the bible says.

so does this mean we don't study the word of God because it may puff up our spiritual egos and make us nauseating to ourselves and others? no, it means we spend the time learning about how to write a better song, and then go out and live one.

"Boom"

In an effort to get a little creative and add a little percussion to a certain very peaceful track, incidently named, "I will give you peace", I loaded in a "boom" with lots of verb so it would sound really spacious. I wanted to get Dale our Cello players very honest opinion, so i didn't tell him it was coming when I had him listen to it the first time. When he heard it he said, "Woe, dude, that sounds like an atom bomb going off, where did you get that? atom bomb.com?"

It's kind of funny he should say that because it was in a song where Jesus is saying, "I will give you peace" - especially ironic that the bomb should explode on "peace" my wife pointed out. Wow, that is hilarious. Needless to say we did not include the atom bomb in the final version.

I had this crazy dream that I was Jesus and angry people were coming to crucify me. I remembered thinking, "Didn't we do this already? Why can't you just love me instead?"

I vaguely remember a verse about crucifying the Son of God all over again. What's that all about? I'll check it out... wow... Here is the passage I was thinking of out of Hebrews 6 (be sure to read through to the end, it's pretty heavy stuff):

4For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— 6and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

7When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. 8But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.

9Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. 10For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers,b as you still do. 11Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. 12Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.

Does anyone have some insights about this?

Daniel
www.reflectworship.com

Whistling

I’ve developed a habit lately that I haven’t really considered a bad habit until perhaps today. Whistling. Not whistling a tune. It’s usually just one piercing note, or perhaps a bird call (I specialize in bird sounds). My wife is constantly annoyed by it saying it’s a bad habit. I always told her that it wasn’t a bad habit, it was a good one, and then I’d whistle again.

Today I was having lunch with a friend and as the girl was ringing up my order I whistled. I didn’t even mean to, it just came out. I then mumbled something about how I sometimes do that. She pretended not to notice. And for a moment I felt silly. But just for a moment. Then, as I walked away, I whistled.