...are met in Thee tonight!

We recently held our Community Christmas Cantata. This the 6th or 7th year we have gathered singers from our community to sing, beginning in late August and practicing each week for our presentations. Many of these people who I casually knew in the beginning have become very close friends. They come from different churches and denominations and they are the people we see every day in our small community at the bank, grocery store, gas station, etc. We had choir as well as an accompanying drama this year. We rehearsed the music each week for 45 minutes and then, as we do with our local church choir, we closed in prayer and invite those who would like to mention prayer concerns to do so. I often forgot to bring a piece of paper to write the prayer needs down, so I would jot them down in the margin of my director's copy of my music book.
As we reached the last few rehearsals, we began to incorporate the drama into the presentation. The script was about a community choir rehearsal where a local newspaper reporter related the story of a young mother and son looking for help with a medical condition and how God used another woman who was in need herself to bring them the help they needed. It was a great story and I remember liking it the first time I read it. However, in all of the business of getting the music, drama, lighting and video brought together, I never fully grasped the significance of the story until the second and final performance of the program.
Since the first program went so well, I actually relaxed and enjoyed the second performance. During one song, God finally got my attention and pointed out to me that for the past six months, our group was living out the presentation in real life. One of the favorite songs was called "Come to Deliver Me." It was a song of the redemption through the grace of Jesus. The words of the song were a cry out to God for salvation. It was absolutely beautiful. The drama echoed the sacrifice of one person in order to help another. I looked out at all of our community members singing and I could see on their faces that so many of them knew exactly what the song was about and has experienced that redeeming grace in their own lives.
Then as the songs continued, I began to notice in the margins of my music book all of the prayer concerns that I had jotted down over the past six months. Prayer requests for the sick, the dying, the lost. Praises for the healed, the restored, unexpected miracles. In other words, real life placed in God's hands to trust in His goodness and wisdom. The drama presentation ended, as they usually do, with a happy ending and all of the loose ends tied up. But there were and will always be things that these singers are going through, at yet they sing! I looked at several singers as I read in the margins about a concern for a young son, a dying father, a single mother in the hospital. The people who had brought these concerns were all singing despite the worries and fears that had been placed in their lives. They had placed them in God's hands and now they stood in His grace, singing praises. They really do understand why Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, because it reminds us of the most wonderful gift ever given... the grace of God. The promise that we will not be plagued for eternity with these fears and concerns, but that through Christ, we will spend eternity in heaven. We are once again in a little town of Bethlehem, gazing into a manger, realizing that God has brought an answer to the hopes and fears of all the years....

Wonderbread

I am a bread lover. Ask anyone in my family. I love rolls, breads, you name it. I especially like banana nut bread which is more of a dessert than a bread, but...anyway. I am on the topic of bread today in my Bible study.

In developing countries, bread is a very important part of life. It is made from grains and requires simple technology to create. When the Israelites were in the desert for 40 years, God provided for the needs of a nomadic group estimated to be in the millions by sending bread from heaven every morning, 6 days a week. They couldn't grow their own crops, because they were always on the move. The bread was the daily sustaining food. Without it, there would be trouble trying to keep everyone alive. It was a big part of the Jewish history that every person was taught about long after Moses died and they had entered the promised land.

When Jesus began his ministry and began to speak in the synagogues in Capernaum, he had already gathered a large following due to the miracles of feeding the 5000 and healing the sick. As he spoke, he began to explain to people that He was sent by the Father in heaven. He was now the "daily bread" given to people to bring life. Not physical life, but eternal life. He said that in the same way that our bodies must have food and drink to live on earth, we must consume the truth of Jesus' purpose in order to have eternal life. We must digest it and allow it to become a part of us. Without accepting the gift of God the father, by believing, trusting, and following Jesus, we will not live eternally. The father gave bread from heaven to Moses and the Israelites to bring them to the land he had promised them. God is bringing us to the promised land of eternal life with Him, by sending bread from heaven, Jesus.

Many people who had been following Jesus, left Him when they heard Him saying that He was from heaven and that He is the way to eternal life. Those that had seen him heal and provide miracles in front of their very eyes would not accept the gift from the Father. They would not eat the bread. They would not trust him, despite their eyewitness proof of his power.

There are many wandering in the wilderness today. They are hungry for truth and life. The bread has been sent from heaven and is all around them, yet they refuse to eat. They refuse to trust that it will nourish them and give them life.