EXPLANATION

"He took our sins, carried our disease, Jesus heals.” - Matthew 8:14-17

As we were completing songs for VIRUS, we still had not decided on an album title and needed one more song to add to the record. Everyday I try to spend time alone with God and read the Bible. I am currently reading through THE MESSAGE BIBLE in a year and look forward to this time with God each morning. Because we travel so much, I journal each day about what God is doing in my life, as well as write down the date and city that we were in at the time. When I came across this verse in Matthew, I immediately wrote this down and began to pray about what this verse meant.

So much of our time is spent reading statistics and hearing heart-breaking stories about children dying from HIV/AIDS. I felt that this verse finally offered some hope in the midst of such despair. At the same time, I was also praying about how we can be outspoken about our faith through this record, without selling out to the “Christian music community” and being too cliché in our lyrics. For a record that will be pushed to both a mainstream and Christian audience, it is sometimes difficult to find that balance, however, I have come to the point in my artistic life that if I feel God telling me to communicate something through our music, then I will do just that, and back it up with scripture to support it. This verse in Matthew perfectly communicated the fact that there is hope, and was the supporting scripture for the chorus, “There is a Virus, He carried our disease. Jesus Saves.”

The second verse of “Virus” was written to describe a world made up of different people, while also supporting the idea that the church needs to be available to minister to anyone that walks through the doors, including the poor and needy. I challenge you to ask yourself if the church is really open to both “the saints and the sinners,” or, do we have special seating? If so, I think I’ll stand in the back.

For some reason, it appears to me that many churches in America have lost the point about church. You see, Sunday morning arrives, and everyone gathers the family to attend church. We come in, sit down, read a few scriptures, sing a few songs, hear a brief sermon, and are out the door in time for NFL football. To many people, they feel that they have done their job as a Christian by attending church. I believe however, that the most important part about church is not what you do when you walk in, but rather what you do when you walk back out! (If you listen closely – this line is quoted from a speech that I gave at ALIVE FESTIVAL in 2007 on the bridge of “Arm the babies, kiss the mothers.”) “VIRUS” was the perfect song to try and tie all these thoughts and challenges together and to also recognize that “Jesus saves.”

“This is the greatest opportunity for the church to be the Church and meet hurting, suffering people at their point of need.”

- Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of, Purpose Driven Life