I had the melody and little bits of lyrics rattling around in my head for a while so I dusted off the ol’ microphone and laid down a few tracks in honor of Easter.

Sarah, on the other hand, went to watch Titanic 3D. Look who’s spiritual now.

Music is both relaxing and meaningful to me because the rules are few, it’s very subjective, but it can also be such a powerful tool to share emotions and ideas. You just turn on the mic and create a moment…

So here’s a little guitar, classical guitar, djembe, and Irish whistle…

an easter song

Jesus came
Born a babe
Empty of all but love.
Bethlehem
In God’s good plan
Joyed the earth at the Savior’s birth.

In a moment, in an instant
The Christ child is born
And the cold night of sin
By the dawn
Starts to warm
As a grateful world kneels and the angels all sing
Jesus is born for a sinner like me.

Jesus came
To seek and to save
All those lost and gone astray.
The way he showed
The truth he spoke
The life he gave
The world to save.

In a moment, in an instant
Was light first beheld
By eyes that sickness and sin once had veiled.
In a moment, in an instant
A dark heart believed
Jesus came that I might see.

Jesus came
Bore my shame
Shed his blood to bring me to God.
My sin he wore
My shame he bore
Up that hill where sinners where killed.

In a moment, in an instant
The cross raised to the sky
And the arms of my savior were nailed open wide.
Bought with blood sealed with love
This gift that he gives
Jesus died that I might live.

Three long days
The world awaits
What long foretold we soon would hold.
Death’s dungeon bars
At the cross set ajar
And now the King will come, life to bring.

In a moment, in an instant
light flashed through the tomb
And triumph took form from the shadows and the gloom.
In a moment, in an instant
For all the world to see
Jesus arose that I might be free.

Alleluia will be the song of all the redeemed
Alleluia throughout all eternity.

———————

RANDOM FUN BONUS:

click to enlarge

The image to the right is called a stereogram. A stereogram is a set of at least two separate images that are taken at slightly different angles. When you know how to look at it properly, a stereogram creates a 3D image. In this case, you’ll see a 3D picture of my recording setup!

To view a stereogram, look at the image then slowly let your eyes unfocus until you see a third “ghost” image appear between the two pictures. It’s like seeing double at first, but then your brain aligns the two images to make a new one appear. Cool!

It takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty awesome.

Need more instructions? This article is a very handy resource!

Today, Eggplant Bus 13 visited the traditional location of he house of Caiaphas the High Priest. The road in the foreground dates from the 1st cen. and may have been the road Jesus walked to Caiaphas’ house after his arrest at Gethsemane. The temple mount and the Mt. of Olives rise in the distance.

360 View: http://360.io/caDGSE

Click the photo to explore the 360 panorama….

It was a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.

Eugene Peterson, “The Contemplative Pastor”

Let’s be honest. Most of the time, IMs are for impromptu movie references and swapping LOLs.

But, every once in a while, you actually have a deep, useful instant message exchange that gives you an idea or helps you see something in a new way. I had one of those conversations with two friends this week….

We started out poking a little fun at the typical “inspirational women’s ministry speaker.” We ended up with a sad and true observation about how we all love inspiring stories of grace…as long as they’re not in the present tense.

The project of learning has changed fundamentally in the past few decades. Not too long ago, much of education was a matter of learning how to find information. That’s no longer the case.

Thanks to the advent of the Internet, locating a wealth of information on any topic is as quick and easy as tapping a few words into your web browser.

Finding information is easy. Figuring out what to do with it is the new challenge. What sources are trustworthy? How do I prioritize what I find? What is the difference between fact and opinion? These are the kind of questions a contemporary education must prepare the learner to answer.

It’s true for academic subjects…and it’s true for the Bible, too. I can google “Jesus,” for example, with a few keystrokes. But fitting what I find into a helpful framework? That requires teaching:

“Perhaps it has not fully dawned on the preachers of our time that preaching needs to be preceded by strong programs of teaching. The preacher’s words fall on barren ground where the people have not first been taught how to…listen, how to weigh and evaluate, how to interpret the lines of Scripture that apper in the sermon — all these “how to’s” are the product of careful preparation, of teaching.” – Locke Bowman

Quoted in Effective Bible Teaching p. 38

That’s a good reminder. What learners really need from us as teachers is context. With a bird’s-eye perspective, students can filter inferior bits of info, map out the facts, and grasp the meaning.

“This life…is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road… — Martin Luther

Owen: No, I’m good. Just taking a photo….

Me and a couple of guys from seminary are launching a Western-themed church. These sheriff / usher badges are just what we are looking for.

CBE: Umkay.

Owen: Do they come in “Pastor” and “Organist?”

It’s happening.

I opened up this banjo, tuned it, and recorded a little sample with my iPad. I don’t know many chords yet, so I picked something simple in honor of olde tyme church….

I’ve always liked the punchy twang of the banjo. It’s got a drum head. And strings. And it doesn’t take batteries or light up. Nothing says “I’m kickin’ it old school,” like lickin’ it on five strings of folk fun! You didn’t see much banjo work in mainstream music for a while, but the sound is coming back with bands going for that vintage-y sound. Mumford & Sons is one of my favorite examples.

For me, this banjo is a journey back to my roots. Simple life. Simple folk. Simple faith. There’s an honesty in the sound that resonates with my thirst to approach life with authenticity and energy and to abandon cynicism in favor of hope.