Steve Webb: It is who He is.
It's the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from
Riverside, California. and podcasting since 2004. My name
is Steve Webb and by bureau g Godcaster. Today is poetry
Thursday, we'll close this section of the Bible with
chapters seven and eight of the Song of Solomon. The website is
Lifespringmedia.com. and I'll have contact information at the
end of the show. Before we read, let's pray together. Our
gracious heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for our
time together. We thank You, Lord, for Your Word. and we
thank You, Lord, for speaking to us through Your Word. We pray
that you would teach us today as we read, in Jesus name, Amen.
All right, are you ready? Let's get started.
Song of Solomon chapter seven is the lover to His Beloved. How
beautiful are your sandaled feet Oh nobleman, his daughter. The
curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of
a master craftsman. Your navel is around mixing bull. May it
never lack mixed wine. Your belly is a mound of wheat
encircled by lilies. Your two breasts are like two fawns.
Twins have a gazelle. Your neck is like a tower made of ivory.
Your eyes are the pools and hash Bong by the gate of Bath
robbing. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon overlooking
Damascus. Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel the locks of
your hair are like royal tapestries. The King is held
captive in its dresses. How beautiful you are. How lovely oh
love with your delights. Your stature is like a palm tree and
your breasts are like clusters of grapes. I want to climb the
palm tree and take hold of its fruit stalks. May your breasts
be like the clusters of grapes? and may the fragrance of your
breath be like apricots. May your mouth be like the best wine
flowing smoothly for my beloved, gliding gently over our lips as
we sleep together, the beloved about her lover. I am my
beloved's and he desires me the beloved to her lover. Come My
Beloved, let us go to the countryside. Let us spend the
night in the villages. Let us rise early to go to the
vineyards to see if the vines have butted to see if their
blossoms have opened. If the pomegranates are in bloom. There
I will give you my love. The mandrakes send out their
fragrance over our door is every delicacy both new and old, which
I have stored up for you my lover
Song of Solomon chapter eight, the beloved to her lover. Oh how
I wish you are my little brother nursing at my mother's breasts.
If I saw you outside, I could kiss you. Surely no one would
despise me. I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house
the one who taught me I would give you spiced wine to drink
the nectar of my pomegranates. The beloved about her lover. His
left hand caresses my head and his right hand stimulates me.
The beloved to the maidens. I admonish you will maidens of
Jerusalem do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases the
maidens about his beloved who is this coming up from the desert
leaning on her beloved, the beloved to her lover. under the
apple tree I aroused you there your mother conceived you there
she who bore you was in labor of childbirth sent me like a
cylinder seal over your heart, like a signet on your arm for
love is as strong as death. Passion is as unrelenting as
she'll it's flames burst forth. It is a blazing flame. Surging
waters cannot quench love. Floodwaters cannot overflow it.
If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love, the
offer would be utterly despised. the Beloved's brothers. We have
a little sister and his yet she has no breasts. What shall we do
for her sister on the day when she is spoken for? If she is a
wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver. But if she
is a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar. The
beloved. I was a wall and my breasts were like fortress
towers. Then I found favor in his eyes. The beloved to her
lover. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Haman. He leased out the
vineyard to those who maintained it. Each was to bring 1000
shekels of silver for its fruit. My vineyard which belongs to me
is at my disposal alone. The 1000 shackles belong to you. Oh,
Solomon, and 200 shekels belong to those who maintain it for its
fruit. The lover to His Beloved. Oh, you Stay in the gardens. My
Companions are listening attentively for your voice. Let
me be the one to hear it. The beloved to her lover, make haste
to my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains
of spices.
Beloved, as we've already discussed on a previous episode,
Song of Solomon or Song of Songs can be seen as an allegory about
the relationship between Jesus as the bridegroom and the church
as the bride. Obviously, discussing all the imagery is
far beyond the scope of this podcast. But I do suggest that
you make it a point to get a good commentary and do your own
study. It is well worth your time. What I'd like to do today
is take a couple of minutes to focus on chapter seven, verse
10, where the bride exclaims, I am my beloved's and he desires
me. She says this after he's told her the many ways that he
finds her beautiful. It sort of reminds me of when Sally Field
won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1985. Do you like me? Yes,
it's true. Despite our many flaws, Jesus finds us the church
beautiful and worthy of His love. Romans five eight says,
God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. Now, I cannot imagine why.
Why would he do that? What could he possibly find in us that
would cause him to give of himself so completely? Why would
such a holy and perfect God loves me and you so much that he
would give up the glories of heaven for even an instant to
live amongst us on this tiny, dirty, sin filled and rebellious
speck in the vastness of the universe to ultimately be
tortured, and nailed to across like a common criminal? Why
would he choose to take on my sins and yours? Why would he
allow himself to be so utterly separated from God the Father
because of me? Well, the answer is truly beyond my
understanding. His Word tells me and I believe what the Word says
that the only reason is because he loves me, and he loves you.
But why does he love us? First, John four eight says simply
because God is love. Let that sink in. God is love. Not God
has love, but God is love. It is His essence. It is who He is.
God is love. and he loves you. and he loves me. I am my
beloved's, and he desires me. I don't know about you. But my
response to that kind of love is to reciprocate, to return that
love as much as I can, in my puny, imperfect human way, that
thrills me to no end that he sees me as worthy of his
attention. and above that, the fact that he's working in me to
refine me to purify me, so that on that day, when I see him face
to face, I will be the bride that He desires. I'd love to
hear your thoughts, send to Boostagram or call the
Lifespring family hotline or go to the comments page or write an
email. I'll tell you how, at the end of the show, tomorrow will
be prophecy Friday, and we'll close the prophetic books with
chapters 18 through 22 of the last book of the Bible, the Book
of Revelation.
Yesterday, I forgot to credit Daniel Terrell Leo as an
associate producer on the show when I thanked him for his $150
donation. My apologies, Daniel, I did put you in the credits on
the show notes page, but I missed it on the show. So that's
been rectified. Now. Today's associate producer is Jared
viewer. I think I'm pronouncing that right viewer bu er, he came
in with $200. and his note says, Thanks for everything, Steve.
I'm glad I was able to be a part of the final season. It's been a
blessing to me and my family. Well, thank you, Jared. That's
very kind of you. I'm so happy to know that you've been here to
God bless you and your family. Thank you. and wow, what a
Boostagram This is 200,000 SATs from Brian Massey, masih ma si.
Sorry, Brian, I don't know how to pronounce your name for sure.
He said this note, Steve, pleasure listening to you and
wish you well as you wrap up the show. I started the journey with
you last season and fell behind and fell away. I was just coming
back to hopefully catch the start of the new season only to
learn you're bringing the show to a close. I will go back and
start this season all over to take the one year journey with
you again. and here's only a small token of value for value
for you. I hope you keep your splits and all the stream Satzes
I listened through God bless. and he signed Brian Massey, with
a dove peace emoji. Well, thank you so much, Brian. Yeah, I
understand it can be a real commitment to keep up with a
seven day a week show and I'm glad you found your way back.
Thanks for the Boostagram. And by the way, yes, I keep most of
the splits. But I also share some of the splits with the team
that you hear me thank at the end of each show. Some of it
goes to the podcasting 2.0 project and some goes to
blueberry. I use blueberries plug in on the website, so they
get some of it as well. I think that's fair. and again, Brian,
thanks for the Boostagram God bless you. and Lifespring family
Berean brother Shawn, formerly of San Pedro Santa show number
boost 13 357 sets, Sean said welcome Juliet just found this
episode and the adorable photos in the show notes. Well, thank
you, brother Sean. Of course, Sean is referring to the birth
of our sixth grandchild Juliet Grace Webb, who was born a week
ago today, the lovely lady Liana and I can hardly wait until
December when we're going to fly out to Florida to meet her for
the first time. God bless you and your family. Brother, Sean,
thank you. and a 10,000 Sad boos came in from the Kaiser. Over on
the fountain app came in from Tim Kaiser using the fountain
app. Tim said Thanks, Steve. Oh, you're welcome, Tim. Thank you.
and God bless you. and thanks so much to each of you for your
value for value support. Today, you know how to warm a man's
heart. I appreciate each of you. Beloved, many of the donations
that have come in over the past few days have been longtime
listeners in first time donors, these donations will certainly
help to keep Lifespringmedia.com and the over 3000 episodes
online into the future. I'll keep them there for as long as I
can. As you've heard in the notes from some of these
generous Lifespring family members, some people found the
show early some later. So keeping the episodes up means
that others will be able to find them too. We talked a couple of
days ago about the fact that God sometimes orchestrates the
events of our lives so that things come into our lives at
just the right time. and I believe that he'll bring new
people do these episodes at just the right time for them. So your
donations make you a part of the Ministry of Lifespring media.
How cool is that? I'm so grateful. and as I've said many
times before, I believe that God will bless you. Now if you've
not yet made a value for value donation, I only ask that you
pray and ask the Lord what he would have you do, and then go
over to this website Lifespringmedia.com slash
supports. Well, thank you. Those who hear these episodes in the
future will thank you. and I believe God will bless you.
Chase Jacobson sent in this note, he said, I want to email
you and say thank you. I heard about your podcast a year ago on
no agenda,
Adam Curry and John C Dvorak: no agenda, boost boost boost to get
boosted boost.
Steve Webb: and I haven't missed an episode this season. You're
the first thing I listened to. and I like to play it while I
drive my kids to daycare. Well, hey, what a great way to start
the day for you and for them. Jay says I want you to know that
you have made an impact on my life this year. and I thank you
very much for that. Thanks, Jase. I know I'm too late for
your prayer segment. But I want you to know that I pray for your
peace, your happiness and your prosperity into the future.
Thank you chase. I will miss your voice in the mornings but
with the Lord signs, I agree that you can step back, I will
be finding another season to start up to continue listening
to the Lord's word. Also, I have an aside, I wanted to share a
couple of artists and songs that are pretty new and that you
might not have heard of but are almost mainstream singing the
good news. In new country. There is a lot of artists who sing
about God and Jesus. I don't know if they're genuine, but if
half their audience believes it. That's a good thing. I think.
Well, I agree with you chase. These next songs and artists I
think are genuine Cody Johnson being one of my all time
favorites. So here's his list. Grace by Cody Johnson, this time
around by Gary Nichols to be a man by DAX God's Eyes by DAX
where I find God by Larry fleet, CB radio by muscadine bloodline.
That's a great song muscadine bloodline. Let's see next is
saved me now by Jelly Roll. Need a favor by Jelly Roll. Chase
says I want to show there is some new music coming out that
is popular and for the most part a positive message. Thanks for
that list. Chase. I will check these out for sure. and thanks
for your note. I'm so glad to have had you in the Lifespring
family this year, brother. Thank you. and your note also gives me
the perfect opportunity to talk about what I might be doing for
the next Lifespring podcast. If you're a longtime Lifespring
family member, you probably remember that I interviewed many
Christian artists on the original Lifespring podcast. God
has given me many opportunities to meet and get to know some of
the Christian artists that have had quite a lot of success. Dove
Awards, Grammy Awards, gold records, some of them who are
real groundbreakers in the contemporary Christian music
arena. and one of the things that truly flabbergasted me is
how the music industry works in terms of royalties. Artists have
not traditionally seen much of them. Money that their music
earns. A great deal of it goes to the labels. and in the new
world of streaming, what doesn't go to the labels goes to the
streaming services, very little actually flows to the artists.
Well, Adam curry, Dave Jones and the others in the podcasting 2.0
community are doing something about that, as a sort of a next
step to streaming SATs and boosting Satoshis to podcasts,
they've launched a way to do that for music. They're
developing a way for you to send SATs directly to the artist when
you hear a song you like on a podcast. So while you're
listening to the music, when you send a boost, or Boostagram, or
if you're streaming SATs, those SATs go directly to the artist.
It's fantastic. Now, it's still in its infancy. But there are
now about 1000 Music enabled podcasts or artists that are
doing this. and after I take a bit of a rest from this show,
there's a good chance that I'm going to be creating a sort of
Lifespring music 2.0 version of the show that I used to do. and
by the way, the Lifespringmedia.com podcast is
still at Lifespring media I did I think about 100 episodes of
that. and if I say so myself, those are still good shows to
listen to. So if I can find enough good Christian music that
is enabled for this new thing, I will do the show. The difficulty
right now is that the music websites that have these value
for value enabled songs don't list the genres of their music.
So that makes it hard to find the kind of music you're looking
for. If you're one of the music podcasters that wants to get
into this, you have to kind of go through all the songs to find
songs that you like. and since I want to do primarily Christian
music, it's even harder because you really have to listen hard
to the lyrics. and as you know, sometimes lyrics are not all
that easy to understand when you're listening. Well, I've
talked to Adam curry about this. and he agrees with me that
categorizing by genre needs to be done. He's even suggested
that I should be the guy to get that started. Well, I'll be
talking to my friend Ron Plouffe this weekend, and we're going to
knock some ideas around. To be honest, I don't even know where
to begin to get this started. But I'm willing, one of the
things I'll be doing is to talk to some of the artists that I've
already interviewed to see if they have some music, that they
own all the rights to music that isn't owned by the labels, it
would thrill my heart if I could help these guys earn money
directly from their fans, instead of to just take the
crumbs that the labels give them or the streaming services. I'd
love to help them get their music value for value enabled.
Wouldn't it be great? Would you boost a show or stream SATs to a
show if you knew that when that music came on the SATs would go
directly to the artists? The way it works is this when the song
begins, all of us ads are immediately switched from the
podcaster to the artist. How cool is that? So I'm going to
try to get some of the old artists to jump in on this. But
I'm also going to be looking for new artists as well. Email me to
tell me if this is something you'd be willing to do. Adam
believes and I agree with him that this can truly
revolutionize the music industry. My email address is
steve@lifespringmedia.com. Tell me if you'd be willing to do
that.
I do invite your comments and your questions send to
Boostagram using a modern podcast app from
podcastapps.com. and by the way, it's getting easier all the
time. If you looked at this very early on, it was more difficult
than it's getting easier all the time. It truly is. You can also
call the Lifespring family hotline to talk to me I'd love
to hear your voice plus 1-951-732-8511 If you've got a
comment or a question, go to comment.lifespringmedia.com and
as I just told you my email address is
steve@lifespringmedia.com dot com.
Thanks to the team Sister Denise Michael Haner Scott Snider Jason
Paschall, who did today's show our thanks Jason and sister
Brittaney for their generous donations of time and talent.
Thanks to Jared viewer Brian Massey, brother Sean, formerly
of San Pedro and Tim Kaiser for helping to make this episode
possible. Beloved, I'm so glad we got to spend some time
together today. See you tomorrow. Until then, may God
bless you richly. I am Steve Webb by
Lifespring media bringing the message of hope, love and good
news since 2004