A Few Small Fish
Mark 6:30-44; 8:1-13 Feeding of the 4000/5000 Jesus multiplying the loaves of bread and fish. "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" John 6:9 (New International Version)
Hard to Enter
Mark 10:17-34 - Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler. The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!" Mark 10:24 (New International Version)
You’re Looking at Them
Mark 8:33 "But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (NIV)
That moment struck me. I was reading in Mark 8, and 8:33 wouldn't let go of me. Peter is rebuking Jesus, telling him that these things (his death) were not going to happen to him, to not talk like that. “But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter….” In Russian it says “He, having turned and looked at his disciples, forbade Peter, saying….” I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why did he look at them? What was he thinking when he looked at them? For me it was one of those moments that in a movie would have been in slow motion, the sound muffled and echoing, as he looks at them, and all those thoughts go through his head….what were they? I could say more about it, but I think it’s all in the song.
Go Down There
Eph. 2:11-22 Our children are adopted. And my husband’s sister and brother–in-law had just gone through the adoption process. They called us one evening (their morning – we’re half a world away, but that’s part of another song) to let us know that they had just gotten the call that their daughter had been born, and they were packing up the car and otherwise getting ready to go get her. We shared in the high emotions that they were experiencing – as much as anyone can share in someone else’s intense moments – and relived our own as we remembered our experience. I had just started reading in Ephesians and the next morning I read Ephesians 2:11-22. The song is for them, of course, for Mary Beth and Brent. I guess indirectly it’s for Mabry, too. It’s for our own experience with our children. But it’s also for those who go to get someone in other ways. For anyone that God sends to give of themselves trying to help someone. Moses. Ultimately, of course, it’s about Jesus. I’m not going to say too much about the song because I think it speaks for itself. And it’s nothing more than a collection of some of the thoughts in Ephesians 2:11-22, which of course says it all.
More
Mark 6:37-44 Jesus Multiplying the loaves of bread and fish, turning water to wine.
Little Things
Mark 10:13-16; 11:1-10 Jesus and the children. "Let the little children come to me..." Also the Triumphal Entry. Overlooked, undervalued, but VERY important to Him and His Kingdom.
Bartimaeus
Mark 10:46-52 One of the things that I have been praying about for many years is that the Lord would give me eyes that truly see. So when I got to this passage when I was reading through Mark, I naturally wrote a song about it. I have other songs about sight. Maybe someday I’ll be able to record some of them.
Voice in the Wilderness
John 1:19-34; Matthew 11:1-11 John the Baptist. One day I had spent time with two different friends, one of whom was new to Novosibirsk and the other had lived in Novosibirsk all her life. In a space of just a few hours, each of them shared with me some of her current (at that time) struggles, and then each said, more or less (in her own way and her own language), “you would probably never feel like that”. The second time I was no less startled than the first. The rest of the day I couldn’t get those conversations out of my mind, and the words “don’t think of me more highly than you ought” and “I am not what you think I am” kept reoccurring in my thoughts. As I was doing the dishes that evening I was still mulling over it and John the Baptist began intruding himself into those thoughts. After doing the dishes I went and read all the places that talk about him in the New Testament. And either that evening – or maybe it was the next morning, in the time I set aside to pray, read the Bible, and in other ways spend time with God - I wrote this song.
Still a Man
1 Cor 3 I didn’t say “just”. “Still” a man.
You Know Who I Am
Mark 9:25, John 21:22 " ...what is that to you? You must follow me". This song connects some of the things that Jesus did and this statement in John...
What Loving Others Means
Mark 12:28-34, Matthew 25:40. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, Love your neighbor as yourself. And "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (NIV)