Reuniting After A Long Break

SPEAKER_04 0:00

We're gonna try again. This is probably our fifth or sixth time trying. Welcome back again to the Lyric in the Light. Dion, I'm so good to see you again, friends.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

You're so good to see me. I'm so good to see you.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

I am so good to see you. I'm so good. I a bear hugged you.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

It's so good to see you. Yes, I almost felt my coffee all over my sweatshirt.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

I didn't yeah, it was a white sweatshirt at that. Yeah. Well, welcome back. We're super excited. It was a nice long break. What did you do with yourself during that time?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Well, I mean, we've we were initially not recording for a while because schedules and spring breaks and but then that dipped into COVID twice twice.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Her, not me.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Cootie Queen. That was really weird, but yeah, so we've been gone for a hot second. Yeah, no, nothing major on my end.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

Yeah. I didn't, I don't think I did anything cool either. Wedding season's kicked off. I'm a wedding coordinator in my normal nine to nine to I would say nine to five, but that's not my schedule at all. Um three to midnight in my usual three to midnight. I am I am a wedding coordinator, and wedding season began at the end of March. And yeah, like you said, Arya was on spring break, and then you had your granddaughter. You want to talk a little bit about your about that? Or I know we're gonna touch on that long, you know, the longer version of that in another episode, but how was your time?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

And it was it was a blessing. Yeah, she's a handful, but it was it was good, you know, it was very good to be able to pour into her all week, and we just did something every day, just being girls, and went to the zoo and went and got manny petties, grew some lollipups out of jelly beans. Yes, you saw that. I love that. We planted jelly beans and the next morning they grew into suckers. I love that. That's so cute. That was incredible. Went to the show, went shopping, yeah. We did something every day, pretty much.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

Listen, if you need another grandchild, I am not too old for that. Right. I will fully believe that dum dums have grown from jelly beans.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Our son was over last weekend and he said, Yeah, I saw everything you took her to do, and I'll come over and be if a kid that's on spring break.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Yeah, yeah. He used to, though. We I spoiled him rotten when he was little and he knows that.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

So Yeah, Ari is in that position right now. So spoiled rotten. Yeah, yeah. But she's cute, so yeah, she had to be because she wouldn't have made it if she wasn't. I'd have been like, we need a different one. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Well, the good thing about mine is it's a grandkid, and you can give them right back when you're done.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Yeah, you're like, have all the sugar and then go home.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Especially on that day going home. Eat all the suckers.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

At once.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Finish the bag of jelly beans. Jelly beans. Jelly bean. And that's what we say to the jelly beans. It's from something, but yeah. Someone she was there the whole time. Jelly bean, jelly bean. Yeah, well, I missed you very much, my friend. Yeah, I missed you too. Right, because we don't see each other unless we're doing that. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 3:25

Yeah, in fairness, you live pretty far away and with our schedules being, you know, quite opposite. But we have had the fortune of being in Bible study together. Yes. Which we actually have moved on. We just we did over at the break, we did the Lent study. Holy week. Holy Week, and now we're in Psalms, which was kind of a spillover because we enjoyed one of the psalms that we did during, was it I don't I think it was during Holy Week that we did the Psalm 22. That or it was either during Lent or Holy Week, but either way, we did Psalm 22, and it made such a huge impact on all of us that it's kind of become the group psalm, which inspired us going into the book of Psalms or one of the books of Psalms now.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Even to touch on the group a little bit, it was actually born of you and I doing a Bible study together online with a app called Through the Word.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Love Through the Word, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

And then I had invited a friend, Stephanie, to do it with us. And then I don't know how how what it made me think to invite the rest, but eventually I did.

SPEAKER_04 4:31

And yeah, well, we were you wanted to do the Lent study. Yeah, and then we had, I mean, I think we would always wanted to open it up to more people because the more the merrier. Right. And then you had some friends that were just mentor mentors to you as far as your faith goes, and Sue and Robin, who I I hadn't known, and Sharon, like they're all women that are part of the Indiana Dunes great banquet. Julie Kissinger. Sorry, I'm I'm dropping last names. Sorry. If you're in the witness, if you're in the witness protection program, Julie, I'm sorry. Shout out to Julie Kissinger. Oh my gosh, and Stephanie's still in there. Um we're not forgetting anybody, right? Okay. I was like, oh my gosh, I feel terrible. But yeah, so we have we formed this really tight group, and I know some of us did, but some of us not very well. You knew everybody. But the rest of us, and we have shared some of the most uh uh wonderful conversations, but also hard conversations. We've walked through some pretty tough seasons over this study, and we've just formed this really tight-knit group of women that are you know varying age and and backgrounds and and different ways of thinking, which has been really awesome to get to study the word of God with these women.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, and then Sue suggested to us that we become our own reunion group for like the banquet and ended up working out. So well, tell them what a reunion group is because some of these people have never been to the banquet, so they don't really go through the Indiana Dunes Great Banquet, it's a three-day basic crash course in Christianity, and upon leaving there, you have what's called your fourth day where everyone gathers that's been that has just gone to the banquet, but then it's suggested and recommended that you form a reunion group. Usually to me, it's supposed to be the table probably that you sat at would be the most logical group. But I know I was one of them that I never went on to be in a reunion group. I wasn't invited to one and wasn't I didn't think to be my own. So and then Sue, when we had all got together, did we didn't before we start.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

You know what else we didn't do? We didn't pray. Oh my goodness. Turn in your Christianity card right now. Card-carrying

Building A Women’s Bible Study Group

SPEAKER_04 6:55

members no longer. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Okay. Yeah, we did not, but just to complete that thought, Sue in our group suggested that we become, because we've all gone through banquet, that we become a reunion group. And we're called through the word reunion group because that's the app that we all do. So yeah, yes. So we probably should pray though before we can continue, and then we can go on into what we were gonna talk about today.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

Okay, all right. So, dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your patience with us and for loving us even through our faults. I think God, we were we're just as excited to see each other as we are to talk about you today, Lord. Bless our conversation, bless our time together. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. I thought you were gonna strying there for a minute. That was a Lord. I'm sorry. Stupid. Sorry. I have talked to him a few times today, so he's I mean, I have checked in.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

So I check in throughout the day.

SPEAKER_04 7:56

So I did, yeah. I mean Beth Serafin from the H Life has been having me write letters to God every morning because I went through a spiritually dry season. I have a lot of things distracting me right now. And I was listening, and even since we got into the book of Psalms, which has been, I thought I would really enjoy it. And I'm I'm struggling the way you were struggling with Ezekiel, in that like I'm just not getting out of it when I want to. I don't feel like I have a lot to say about most of them. I think a lot of them right now, at least during a repetition, you know, David's talking a lot about people running his name through the mud and just giving him a hard time. And where are you at, Lord? Why aren't you helping me? Blah, blah, blah. Whatever it isn't. I'm saying blah blah blah. That's terrible. I don't mean to be like like dismissive of the word of God, but it's it's a lot of him lamenting in the beginning. Short. And very, very short.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Two sentences in the beginning, right?

SPEAKER_04 8:51

And so after I said what I had to say about people, you know, running your name through the mud, I really didn't feel like I had more to add. So I found myself, I'm also, you know, doing a Bible study, and I started sharing it on the Light the Way page because I was really enjoying my Bible study, and I was like, oh, people need to be asked these questions. People need to do this. And then a couple people jumped in and I was like, okay, I'll keep sharing. And then it became something that I felt like I had to keep doing, even though people weren't necessarily engaging. And then it became almost like a job, which I didn't even post the question today, and I'm just real now realizing that I didn't post the Bible study this morning. And that I wasn't, and then I found out, realized that I also wasn't answering these questions. I wasn't even reading the Bible study anymore. I was just sharing what it what it was. And I was also, I was supposed to be reading the Bible, you know, every day with the through the beyond the church walls. They started to read the Bible in a year thing at the beginning of the year, and I was like, okay, I can do that. And then I got to numbers. Is that your stomach? Yeah, I did. Everybody did. That is it. Oh, yeah, I'm sure it did. That was high depth, girl. Holy cow, what's happening in there?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

A pot of humpback wheels happening. It's not an empty stomach, is what it is.

SPEAKER_04 10:24

It was agreeing with me. The block of numbers is not the most intervening.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Has it ever happened to you when you're sitting in church and it's like quiet, you know, and all of a sudden you have like five people looking at you.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Judgy. Why is eating snacks in churches not a thing? I don't I don't at least say that.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Here's a really silly thing to add. You've never been around me yet when it comes out of my throat. Like me and Chad will be sitting in the hot tub, we're just quiet, like chilling, and all of a sudden it's like the pumps out of my throat. Out of my voice, out of my lips. From my mouth. That is very weird.

SPEAKER_04 11:13

It's an exorcism. That is not what the heck. I don't I don't know either, but that's terrifying. I hope that never happens here. Okay, anyway, roll it back. Where what was I saying?

SPEAKER_01 11:24

We're talking about numbers.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Oh, that's not interesting to me. But the qubits and the measurements and the things.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

So I I was like genealogy too.

SPEAKER_04 11:33

I'm like, Yeah, I was jumping. I mean, from the end of Exodus, like once they get through all the exciting stuff and they get into like building the tabernacle, I realized that I was like, my eyes were just like, jump ahead, jump ahead, jump ahead. And I'm like, yeah, but then you're not reading it. And then I'd have to go back. And then it became again became a job. So in this spiritually dry season, I was feeling really guilty because I have been on fire for the Lord since I really started going down this path a few years ago. I haven't hit a dry season. This is my first time. So I was not, I felt really terribly guilty. And I'm like, do I not care anymore? Do

Spiritual Dry Season And Guilt

SPEAKER_04 12:10

I not love him anymore? What is happening? I'm also fixing the handoff part of Light the Way to another woman, Patty Gebhart. She was one of the worship leaders at a church that's been partnered with me since the very beginning. She had approached me about doing Light the Way worship in the park in October. And I said, October is my busiest season at work. There's no possible way that I can do that. That can't take the time off work. And she said, Worship nights aren't for you as much as you like going to them. They're not for you. So you're doing them for other people. You don't need to be there. And I was like, Well, who's going to be me if I'm not there? And I was like, truthfully, they're really, I mean, with the growth of the ministry and the conferences kind of coming into play, I've I've realized that I would like to, you know, focus my energy in that direction. And I'm kind of trusting somebody else to take over the worships in the park. So Chesterton on May 22nd will be my last time running in a worship in the park. They'll still be Light the Ways, but they'll I won't be running them anymore. So a girl named Maddie will be the new me because she has energy for days and she's young and she's strong and she can just run circles around that park, and then Patty will be taking over, finding the worship teams and organizing the sound and all of that. I'll still be the I'll still be leading as far as like they're not making decisions without me, but I just physically won't have to be there running it. But that means that you and I get to have our first lyric in the light booth. Yeah. Yes. Yes. If I can find a way, I'm gonna try to set up our podcast equipment there so that we can actually record an episode during Light The Way. Yeah. I think that would be cool. I don't think because of that, we block out the background sounds that they'll be able to hear the music playing in the background, but I think it would be fun to you know invite some of our nonprofit friends on to say hi and some of our other, you know, Christian friends to just come on and say what's up, share their favorite scripture, whatever it is they want to say, and it'd be a nice special edition episode of the Lyric and the Light. So I think that'd be really fun. And then I guess we'll see. So I I went off on a little bit of a tangent, but I shared with Beth that I was struggling with my dry season. And she said, What if you just wrote him a letter? And you could just say whatever, like that you love him, whatever's going on, kind of almost like a diary entry, but just write him a letter and they take 15 minutes, the first 15 minutes of every day before you do anything else. And she's like, just sit and just talk to him. And that way you you know, you get at least checked in. And I was like, okay, so I've been I've been doing that every morning, but it's I'm just in a weird, funky, funky place. So I'm glad we're getting back to doing the podcast.

Home Stress During The Lockout

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yeah, I probably should take your advice and do that too. But I think my dry season right now has been with the NIPSCO lockout. Uh, my husband's been home just going on three weeks this week, and you know, I want to choke him just a little bit. But don't do that. No, I love him to death, but it's hard when you're, you know, like even when you go on vacation, you're together for a week and it's wonderful and having fun, and you know, blah blah blah. But when you're home every day for going on three weeks together, it gets a little bit like great, you know. This is nice, but I was thinking about when he retires. What is life gonna be? No, I'm definitely I'm kidding, but it it is hard, it has been a little stressful. I think more stressful though, because he's stressed about his job.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

Yeah, I was about to say, I think that that plays a part of it. Is that right? You want I mean, it's not like when he retires or if you guys are on vacation where you guys are enjoying things. Yeah, right now you're like what unsure about what's gonna happen, you know, in the future.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

It's it's been a ride. So sorry. We've been praying on that, friends have been praying on that. It sounds like agreement possibly in place, so let's pray that by the time this episode goes out that they're back to work and you know, that's better. So I just think of all the families that are not working right now, and dad's the only one, and there's you know, babies at home, and yeah, you know, that's it's not good.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

Yeah, my husband's NIPSCO adjacent, so he doesn't actually work for NIPSCO, but he does. I mean, he's contracted through them as an engineer and a safe as he does safety for them, and he said it sounds pretty like it's going in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

So they still haven't heard though, they haven't told the union members yet what the agreements were, you know, how it's ended up. So that's what they're waiting for. So they're supposed to be voting, I think, today or tomorrow. The union is supposed to be voting. Yeah, and we'll see what happens from there.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

Okay, well, maybe we'll add that to our prayer at the end. Yeah. So before we get too again, we're we're already off topic, but that's okay because that's how it goes when you haven't seen your friend for a really long time and you want to play catch up, and we we we want to catch up with each other. We also want to catch up with you guys. Yeah.

Setting Up The Psalm 22 Talk

SPEAKER_04 17:22

So I want to talk a little bit. We were talking about our Bible study group, and so how we had gotten into reading the psalms. So one the one particular psalm that really resonated with us was Psalm 22. So I Dion and I were asked to give a talk at the great banquet meeting, the team meeting, and originally you wanted to talk about being the light. So, what was that talk originally about?

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Being the light. Being the light.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

What about what about being the light?

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Being the lyric and the light. No. Yeah, I don't remember everything that that we had written, but yeah, it was just about you know, just the darkness and the world and remembering as Christians the hope that we have in Christ and the scripture about not hiding your the light under the bowl, the bistle, or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 18:15

Matthew 5, 14.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, yeah. And and so, yeah, and then I was just gonna tie it to this little light of mine song, and you know, so that would have been so sweet. Yeah, I mean, it was it was a good message. Oh yeah, I'll use it at some point. I even thought about doing it for a podcast. We should, we should and I forgot about that when we sat down and started talking about what we were gonna talk about, you know. But yeah, that's so that so we already have one for the next to be continued.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Yeah, we have a couple of great topics coming up for that.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Yeah, so I ended up I had Riley that week, my granddaughter, and I said I really just I there was no one to watch her, first of all, and I just uh she's more I won't say she's more important, but you know, yes, I wanted to spend every last minute with her, and yeah, so I had to kind of step out gracefully, and we heard that message just prior to that, because you had to throw it together pretty quick, yeah. And then you decided to invite the group to kind of read it together, and yeah, yeah, you can tell where that came from.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Yeah, so we we I'm sure you guys have heard Psalm 22, and so we've touched, I think we may have even touched on it before, but Psalm 22 is actually David has almost a prophetic vision of God uh of uh life through the eyes of Jesus on and on the cross and crucifixion, like a thousand years before crucifixion was ever invented as a form of punishment by the Romans. And so, and he I mean, almost down to like them talking about casting lots and all this stuff that he talks about is it it really you know painted this really strong imagery about his death and resurrection. And so, but that wasn't the part that stuck with me. So I want to I want to share with you, or Deanna and I are gonna share with you the talk that I ended up writing for our group to give. And then once we get once we read it, I'm going to we'll we'll touch on it, what we think about it and and how it I made me feel. But I want to share with you the part of or this part of the talk that really resonated with me, and I couldn't, I couldn't let it go afterwards. So I knew we had to talk about it. So I'll get started.

Crimson Worm And Scarlet Thread Gospel

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Excuse me, I'm so sorry. I'll get started and Dion, you can jump in and we're gonna kind of go back and forth. So I want to share something at first that at first glance feels really small, but the more you sit with it, the more beautiful it becomes. It starts with one line in scripture that honestly feels a little strange. In Psalm 22, David says, But I am a worm and not a man. And if we're being honest, that's probably not a verse most of us have spent a lot of time thinking about. It's not usually one that we highlight or see printed on a coffee mug, but hidden inside that one line is such a powerful picture of Jesus. Psalm 22 is written by David about a thousand years before Jesus, and yet when you read it, it sounds like someone seeing through the eyes of you hear the pain, the rejection, the suffering, the mocking. Jesus himself quotes the opening line of Psalm 22 while he's hanging on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So we know that the Psalm matters, and right in the middle of that suffering, David writes, But I am a worm and not a man. And the question is, why that word? Why would that matter? Because the Hebrew word used there is tola'at, and the word open and that word opens up a picture that points us straight to Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Before we go any further, Dion's gonna read Psalm twenty two or the director of music to the tune of the dome of the morning, a Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? So far from my cries of anguish. My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer. By night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One. You are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust. They trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me, they hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord, they say, Let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. Yet you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast on you. From my mother's womb, you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of the than encircle me, roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax. It has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a cut shirt, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me. A pack of villains encircles me. They pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

When David wrote those words, a crucifixion as we know it hadn't even become what it would later be under Rome. And still this psalm reads like a front row of Jesus' suffering. And right in the middle of all of that is that one line, I am a worm. The word in Hebrew, Tolaat, doesn't mean any worm. It's connected to what's often called the crimson worm, which is associated with the deep scarlet dye used in the ancient world. And that matters because scarlet shows up all throughout scripture. It shows up in the tabernacle, it shows up on priestly garments, it shows up in cleansing and purification. So suddenly this isn't just some random detail. The worm is connected to sacrifice, worship, cleansing, and covering. And once you start to see that, Psalm 22 feels even deeper. Because this isn't just David writing poetry, this is God painting a picture. There's a teaching that many Bible teachers have shared about the crimson worm. And we want to say that this is the best, this is best understood as a picture and an illustration, but that picture is still amazing. The crimson worm attaches itself to a tree or a piece of wood, and once it does, it stays there. Its life is given in the process of bringing new life, and from it comes a deep scarlet liquid. Sound familiar? When you hear that, it's really hard not to think about Jesus, because Jesus was lifted onto a cross, onto wood, and he stayed. And I just love that God would use something as small and overlooked as a worm to point us to Jesus. Because no matter or because no part of creation is wasted when it comes to telling his story. Even the smallest things can reflect something greater.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

And one of the details that people often point to in this teaching is that the offspring survive by receiving from the life of the mother. And yes, it sounds a little intense, but honestly, so does the gospel. Because Jesus Himself told us in communion, this is my body, this is my blood. In other words, his life is what gives us life. We are sustained by what he gave. We live because he laid himself down. And then another detail that gets pointed out is that after death, the worm turns white and eventually flakes away like snow. And again, whether you take every detail literally or symbolically, the picture is hard to miss. Three days, white as snow, life after sacrifice, and suddenly it points us not just to the cross, but to the resurrection too. And when you start tracing scarlet through scripture, it's everywhere. In Exodus, Scarlet is woven into the tabernacle, the place where God would dwell among his people. In Leviticus, Scarlet is used in the process of cleansing. And in Joshua, Rahab is told to hang a scarlet cord from her window, and that scarlet cord became the sign that her house would be spared. Think about that for a second. A scarlet thread and judgment passes over. All throughout scripture, scarlet keeps showing up in moments of covering, cleansing, rescue, and redemption. And all of it points us to Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

And maybe that's the most beautiful part of all of this. Jesus didn't save us from a distance. He allowed himself to be crushed so that we could be covered. And Scripture says, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. The stain is real, but so is the cleansing. And for those of us who serve, who show up, who walk with people through hard things, this matters so deeply. Because every time we serve, every time we pray, every time we sit with someone in their brokenness, what we're really doing is helping them see the scarlet thread of Jesus in their own story, helping them understand that they are not too far gone, not too stained, not too broken, not too ashamed, not too late. Because the same Jesus who said, I am a worm and not a man, is the same Jesus who looks at us and says, You are worth my life. And maybe that's the wonder of it all, that God hid the gospel in places we might have overlooked, in a psalm, in a thread, in a scarlet stain, even in a worm. And all along he was pointing us to Jesus.

Wrestling With Blood And Resurrection

SPEAKER_04 28:24

I just think that's so beautiful. Yeah. I couldn't get over that. I had never heard, you know, and there how many times, and there probably is so many things in the Bible that are small as a worm that get overlooked.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Yeah, and so we read that scripture that morning. And even, I will admit, even after reading the scripture that morning, it didn't strike me like it struck you. To me, it was just another scripture, basically. So you've talked about before how different people interpret things differently, or how something could affect someone and not affect someone else. And I'm sure it's not that it didn't affect me at all. It just didn't strike me like it struck you. Yeah. And then when you had brought up, you know, doing the message on that. Yeah, I was I was glad you ran with it.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

I could well I couldn't let it go. I was I was in the shower. We, you know, I just finished listening to it, and I was in the shower just washing, and I'm just like, people need to know that. Yeah, that's so cool. How like I've because I've read that, I that's probably my favorite psalm. And because I I love things that point to Jesus, I love things that point forward because I do have so many people in my life that I have to, if that's shining in your face, we can close that. I do have so many people in my life that are not necessarily walking with the Lord that I feel like I almost have to prove the existence of Jesus or of God to them. And I think that so psalms like that that point to Jesus way before he was ever on the scene that prove God, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Definitely reading it through this time with you. And so I heard it that morning, I read the message that you know you guys did, but not even till now reading it with you. It sat it sat a little more heavy with me.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

So yeah. I love that the the worm that the worm, even after three days that it that it it changes and becomes something completely different, and that the the life's the offspring receive life from its body and its blood. And I'm like, I used to think the blood part of this this whole walk was so gross and culty. I didn't understand at all. And there was that that song, oh gosh, it's something about the blood. It's uh maybe it is called the blood, but like, and I'm just like, can we stop singing about blood, especially when people who are new in their faith, like it sounds weird. Is it the blood? The new one? No, it's the bend the blood. I no, I it's not that one, but that's another one. I mean it's just uh it's you know, the songs were like the blood is like the focus or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Wonder working power in the blood.

SPEAKER_04 31:22

Yeah, like a lot of songs about blood. I'll have to think I'll have to look it up because it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

If you're not a person and you're at church, you're going, like, why are we constantly singing about blood?

SPEAKER_04 31:31

But you have to imagine how weird that must have been even for the disciples when Jesus is like, when you drink eat my this is you're eating my flesh, yeah and you're drinking my blood. And like when they but they didn't know what that was at the time. So we have the benefit, and there's so many times that we have that we have the benefit of having the book and and knowing the end and whatever that they didn't have, how crazy that must have sounded to them because they didn't know he was about to die on the cross, even though he told them many times that what was coming, and they just didn't hear it, they didn't see it, they couldn't have imagined it. And they certainly couldn't imagine him coming back three days later. I that's another thing is that I I wondered too, as a believer, is that like, how didn't they recognize Jesus? Yeah, you know, walking next to them, or when Mary saw him and she didn't like pick up on who he was right away, because I feel like if I saw you, even if you had died three days earlier, that I would recognize you. How did she? But then I think like I've never seen anybody come back from the dead. Would I, even though I know my mom, would I like would my brain even pick up that that's who that was if my mom just like walked up to me?

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Yeah, there's a song called I've just seen Jesus, and they talk about that point in in the Bible where she goes to the tomb and she says to I don't know if at that point she's by herself, but she says, I sobbed in despair. My Lord was not there, and he said, Child, it is I, I am here, you know, and she turns and looks at him like in amazement, you know. So yeah, I mean that that song is beautiful too, but can you right? Can you imagine? No, I think probably they were just dumbfounded, and so it was like this because this cannot happen, you know.

SPEAKER_04 33:25

Even Thomas is like, I'm gonna have to stick my finger in your wounds to before I believe that you are who you are. So, like, did he not look like himself when he came back? Or yeah, I it like it was just just so unbelievable that somebody that they saw beat to to heck a couple days earlier that he would be back, like looking like he did before.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

I guess I imagine he was kind of in this like glorious light, sort of like of you know.

SPEAKER_04 33:55

Yeah. I wonder, did he come back in his light? I don't know. Like, do they talk about that at all? I'm not even sure. We'll have to look at it. That's no, that's I mean, that's I think it's a fair question because I mean I feel like we've heard that story, especially having read it, you know, just recently over Holy Week and and heard it at church, and right, but I'm not sure did he come back looking the way he looked before? And you know, I I would be curious to talk to my pastors about like why do they think why did they think that he that they didn't recognize him or unless he came back looking different before he ascended to heaven. Yeah. That's interesting. But yeah, I really loved I really loved that psalm, and I just I think like the fact that God would use something as small as a worm to point back to himself is just so so beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

Yeah. And then as our group, we took that a step forward with agape that is given on these weekends and wound up creating a agape gift about Psalm 22 and the story of the worm, and you know, so I even changed our group picture to the worm.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

Yeah. Well, you know what, it it is it we are a reflection of how God will use somebody small and insignificant and a grub just to just to glorify the Lord, and and that I am more than happy to be a worm in this situation, that like I I'm not self-important at all. There's nothing spectacular about me. I am but a worm, right? You know, and and God is using using me in the same way that He's using you and using all the other women in our group and and answer for mosquitoes and wasps, but I'm I'm okay with yeah, ticks with the worms, bed bugs. What's up with that? So some there's there's some things are from lice, like I don't know. That's the kind of thing I don't understand. No, those are from the devil. Yeah, he also he was like, I'm a copycat, so I'm gonna make my own bugs, and they all suck.

unknown 36:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

Of course they do. Yeah, yeah, from the from from hell. From hell.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

I don't know. That's a key way of looking at it though. That's a anyway.

Jesus Paid It All And Farewell

SPEAKER_04 36:14

Well, we uh I just like I wanted to share Dion and I wanted to share that story with you guys. We'll wrap up this episode.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

You guys tied a hymn to this though.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

Oh, we did, yeah. Jesus paid it all. Yeah, so because Dion couldn't be there, Dion is the singer of our group. She's always the one that that's picked for music team, and she's been a singer for for a long time. And but I it was really important to me that we we hadn't had you included. And so without even I didn't even really know that song, I had to learn it to sing it. I had heard it, but I didn't know it. And so, but I knew that that was the song in the same way that I knew that that was the scripture that we needed to share. God just puts these things on my heart, and he was like, Jesus paid it all. That's what you're gonna sing. And so I faced my fear, and I got up in front of a room full of people and I sang Jesus Paid It All. And and thankfully everybody joined in, so I wasn't alone. It was very beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

I did watch the video.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

We wanted to make sure that you were there, even if you weren't there. It was very nice, yeah. So uh we'll put we'll put that song because we are the lyric and the light, we will put Jesus Paid It All in the comment section. You can listen to whatever version resonates with you, but it is a really beautiful hymn. So I'm learning my hymns. Yeah, one hymn at a time. Yeah. And we uh we love you guys so much. Thank you for tuning in to this week's The Lyric in the Light. And we will see you next week when we are gonna take on a little bit of a hot topic. We're gonna talk about the day of the dead, and that again is a little nod to the great banquet, and we'll talk about why those two things go together, and we're gonna look at it from both sides, and we're gonna do that with grace and peace, and and just I think it's in prayer and and and and Dean's gonna close us in prayer for now. And she didn't write anything down, so let's pray for her.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Father God, thank you for bringing us together this morning. It's been a a minute since we've been able to sit here together and really just sit with you and glorify you. We are grateful for you paying it all for us, and we're grateful for that little worm, that little crimson worm, and really open my eyes to really the significance of the price you paid. And Father, thank you for friendship. And I know for me, I'm blessed to have Lena in my life, I'm blessed to have the girls in the through the word reunion group in my life, and I thank you for all of these ladies who have come alongside me and have taught me growth and are helping me with spiritual maturity, and I just thank you so much for them in my life. And I pray for the listeners and we will just thank you. I in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 39:26

Amen. I almost said we'll see you soon. Yeah, God. Why do they come together? Yes. What happens? I feel like Days of Thunder, Will Farrell. I can't do it with my hand. Like Days, Days of Fender. Don't take a knife, don't take a knife. That's how I feel. I love Days of Thunder.

SPEAKER_04 40:13

You get salvation, and you get salvation. Everybody got salvation. I'm gonna add this to the end of the episode.

Final Teaser And Signoff Questions

SPEAKER_04 40:29

What? Oh, I recorded all of that.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Yeah, I did. Bye. Can a melody change your perspective? Can a single verse life? Can a melody change your perspective? Can a single vertical life in the light?