July has seen some great gigs. We had enormous pleasure doing 'An Audience with Bosh' at the Bourne Beat Hotel with Hope FM. The set we played was very different from our usual fare being partly acoustic and partly electric. The turn out was very encouraging. We really feel happy playing in Bournemouth now, but this wasn't always the case. Thanks to the amazing support of Hope FM, we have grown something of a following locally which is humbling.
At this performance I got over-excited and threw my guitar into Mike's kit. This was followed by a similar act in Somerton. I felt very worked up on and off stage earlier this month with a lot of stuff bubbling away under the surface. This manifested itself onstage, I think, because of the microscope you find yourself under, when you're being watched by people and your actions have more gravity in that place of performance. It felt like a release to do it, but I want to state that I am over that season now and apologise to those who found the idea of violence in 'Christian' performance hard to understand.
It just reminds me that I need to keep near to the cross of Christ, where I see a man taking all the violence and scorn on himself so that I don't have to look for release of my mixed up emotions anywhere but in Him and his ultimate sacrifice. I recently re-watched Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' and had a powerful encounter with the living Jesus, who I invited into my life many years ago. I repented of my sin once again and my faith in him and his darkness-vanquishing power was boosted. I know that some of you who read this will be very familiar with this power and encounter it regularly in your inner-man. Some of you, however, will not be familiar with it and may find it a strange concept.
I want to say, without any shadow of doubt in my mind, that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, of the Gospels found in the Bible, is alive and well and ready to deal with the dirtiest, filthiest, ugliest stuff that is in you. He dealt with it by letting himself be arrested, tried in a fixed trial, found guilty when he was innocent and then handed over to the brutality of the Roman garrison assigned to torture and crucify criminals. As he was being beaten, whipped, cut up, he was taking on himself the punishment for the bad, evil, selfish, violent acts that we commit. When someone decides to hand over this filth to him, he is now capable of dealing with it because he went to death for it. He said on the cross 'It is finished' just before he died, meaning that the act of substitution, him for us, was done. He proved himself as God and above the rules of life and death when he came back from the dead three days after dying.
So, he is more than qualified to deal with all that nasty crap you feel inside yourself. The guilt, the shame, the hurt, the anger, the general pissed-off-ness. The times when you hurt people and do not forgive and feel that heat of rage and malice towards the other person. He can, and he wants to, set you free from all these bad vibes and all the wrong stuff you've done (this is called sin in the Bible).
I have gone on a bit, but I am so sure that he does incredible, powerful things in people who come to him in all honesty and ask him to take away all the junk and the pain this junk causes. He is faithful to a sincere heart who just wants to know the truth. I just need to tell you all this, just in case you've never heard it before. If you have questions you want to ask me, please email me from the boshmusic.com website.
May you find peace and love and meaning in the crucified and then risen Jesus.
Dave