I always wanted to be a song writer.  Growing up I was blessed with a couple of good friends who were quite musical, one could play the piano by ear like you couldn't believe, and the other one had the best voice I have ever heard in my life.  I, on the other hand, could not sing or keep rhythm at all .  But somewhere along the way I learned how to craft words. 

I remember the first song that Jay and I crafted together on a church trip and then the one that Greg and I did together our junior year of high school.   Music seems to speak to most of us in some way shape or form.  One of my favorite memories is the song I wrote that was played at my wedding, with Greg on the piano and Jay doing the lyrics. 

Now, years later, I am blessed with two children who are musically gifted in the ways I had only dreamed of.  The things they can do amaze me.  I could listen to them play and sing for days, and my house is filled with music all the time.  The music isn't from my like I once hoped it would be, but it is a gift from God through my children. 

Music speaks to us in the church still.  Songs have been part of our worship for generations.  In fact Psalm 100 tell us to make a joyful noise in the first verse and reminds us that God's truth endures to all generations in the last verse.  May our hearts be filled with with God's song an God's music this week. 

When I was growing up Hee Haw was one of the more popular shows on television.  I've seen a lot of reruns the last couple years, and one of my favorite sketches was also the one where Grandpa Jones would be pretending to wash the windows and a large chorus would ask, "Hey Grandpa, what's for supper?"

He would then go then give a long rambling list with everything from cornbread, to black eyed peas, to peach cobbler, to whatever he could come up with, and the end the chorus would say, "Yum, yum." 

We love our food.  We all have certain things that we eat, that just make us feel good.   We share meals with each other, because there is just something special about gathering around the table and sharing.  In our society we are in such a hurry all the time we are grabbing our food and going, and we often miss the connection that comes from being with people and sharing with them.  

I think Jesus understood this concept of sharing in a meal.  I believe his motivation in John 6 wasn't just to feed hungry people, or to show a miracle to those who gathered.   I think Jesus also understood that if feed the crowd that would mean that they would share in a meal, an experience, that would enhance community and engender conversation. 

Jesus us wants us to do more than just eat and be filled.  He wants us to share in a way that binds us together into his story. 

THE END OF ALL FLESH!!!  

Sounds like a the total of either a really good, or really really bad horror movie.  The line just jumped out at me today as I was reading and preparing for this week's sermon.  I remember when I was growing up ___ years ago and there seemed to be prophets at every turn telling us that the end of times were near.  Doomsday was coming.   Judgement was coming.  The cold war was surely going to end with a nuclear holocaust.   Personally, I always enjoyed the Planet of the Apes movies, but I digress.

Christians, and people who called themselves Christian, were constantly looking for signs of the imminent return of Jesus, and doing their best to cross reference current events with the books of Daniel and Revelation, and predict how it will all end.  BUT, here is the truth, decades, even centuries have passed and we are still here.  We have no way to know when the end will come, nor in what form.  We do not know when Christ will return, we only know that he will.  

We also know that when the time comes, those of us who know Jesus really have nothing to worry about anyway.  

This week we are going to look closer at the story of Noah.  We are going to look at that time when God said,  "I have had enough, time to start over."  We are going to see deliverance through one man and his family.   We are going to be reminded that someday God is going to say, "Enough"   And we are going to be reminded that we have already been delivered, by the sacrifice of one, we are going to have a life in a place where there is no more crying or pain.  

With all the pain I deal with sometimes in dragging this body around, and armed with the knowledge that Jesus is coming again to take those he knows home with him,  THE END OF ALL FLESH is not something to be feared, but something to be anticpated.