April 10th: Numbers 28, Proverbs 20, and John 1

Being Good Friday and all, I'm going to mix things up. Normally, I don't do a lot of public speaking. But I did today. Alicia shared the story of how we came to Nebraska and then I shared about the importance of Easter in our lives. So instead of the usual post, I want to share a little from our presentation. Here it is:

When my grandmother died, she left me a Bible. Every chapter has a little check mark next to it. Each check represents a time she read through the Bible. Because of this example, I wanted to be like her and actually complete one of those Bible reading guides.

I am now the king of reading to Deuteronomy. I’m like oh for twenty. But I've determined in my old age of 28 that this is the year… I’m gonna make it. The guide that I'm following has me reading some OT, NT and a little from one of the poetry books. And as I’ve read through the gospels this year, I’ve been struck by the humanity of them. They are four guys telling their stories. They’re telling us their encounter with Jesus. It’s how each of their lives was changed by being around this man. And that’s what Alicia just told you (she talked about how we moved to Lincoln from Chicago). This is our gospel. The gospel of Jon and Alicia. The plan of salvation is the same for all of us, but the emotions, the way that we see Christ is different. It's unique. Special.

And Easter is an important part of our story. Not just the fact that we decided to move to Nebraska on Easter weekend, but it’s our bumping into this guy, Jesus, and the way he’s changed our lives. What he did for each of us as individuals.

The last supper in particular is really important to me. Don’t read our culture into it. Forget the painting. Think of a bunch of unruly fisherman sitting around a room doing what they had literally done a thousand times before…they ate a meal together.

They were enjoying community. Enjoying the company of Jesus when he did something special. He broke some bread and said… "every time you do this, every time you sit together and eat, think about us." Think about what we’ve shared. Take a little extra time and make it special. Make it holy. Do this little thing extra.

And now for me, for communion to be what it was for the disciples, I have to know Jesus. I have to have those experiences of him leading me. I need to talk to him…to hear from him. I need to spend time in this book. For that to happen, the Bible can’t be just my grandmothers book. It has to be my book.

And now, through our jobs with Back to the Bible, we are trying to change that. To help people like our friends from Moody see that to know Jesus, to have that last-supper-friendship, they need to be with him to hear from him … through his words in the Bible.