The Best Presents

After a summer with no job, not working a full-time job now, school loans coming up due, and on and on and on, my (Aimee's) Christmas budget is tight.  Actually, tight is still putting it lightly.  It makes for a crushingly-tight Christmas budget.  I have 6 little ones to shop for this Christmas, and while their moms and dads will make sure that they get plenty for Christmas, their Auntie or Nina (depending on which child it is) wants to give them something special, too.  And then there's my brother and his wife and my mom and my grandma and ...

Oh yeah!  There's Jesus!

There really isn't any gift that I can give to Jesus that can ever compare with the gift that He gave us.  But I'll tell you one thing, having less money to spend on gifts makes the gifts that you do purchase more thoughtful and moves your whole Christmas focus from the presents to where it's supposed to be.

The focus belongs on Jesus.  It's not about the presents or the decorations—although those are fun!  The presents and the decorations are symbols to point us in the right direction.  When your focus is in the right place, then having less presents to open on Christmas morning doesn't mean that it will be a less special Christmas.  In fact, it gives my family the chance to make things a little bit more special by filling the time with conversations and songs and stories. 

The best gifts that we can give back to Jesus is to focus on Him and His love.  When we do that then we remember to love our neighbors.  We can donate food or presents to needy families or individuals.  We can teach our children that Christmas isn't about how much you get but about how much you can give.  After all, tomorrow morning there will be hundreds of thousands of families in America alone that will wake up and open tons of presents and then go on to eat a huge meal with their families.  Meanwhile, at the same time tomorrow morning, there will be thousands of families that will wake up and their children will have only one present each or maybe even no presents and they will be happy to have any kind of meal that evening, whether it's with family or not. 

We need to remember the blessings that we have and thank God for them.  We need to review what we have to give and then give generously to those who make it by everyday with little, so that they can have enough.  When this Christmas has passed, I pray that we can keep that generous spirit and continue to remember those who do without out the little luxuries or even simply do without, period.

That's the best gift that we can give to Jesus.  And since it's His birthday we're celebrating, He does deserve a special gift.


Merry Christmas everyone!  We can't wait to hear all about your special Christmas gifts that you were able to give away.

one of those days...

My (Sherann) life right now is in chaos.  And the only thing that I have on my mind is Tsunami.  Not an actual tsunami, but our Tsunami Student Conference.  Our preparations for this conference start in January and we keep going until the actual conference.  It's 9 days away and I feel a bit anxious and excited at the same time. 
We have an excellent line up this year, but more importantly, I expect God to do great things.  For the last two weeks, God has really convicted me of the same thing... He's reminded me that He is God and I am not.
There have been many times where I got discouraged about a certain project that didn't "make it" per se or no one is participating in a particular activity. Basically, I was complaining.  Then it just happened to be through conversations where God truly began to convict me and remind me that regardless of a project that didn't make the cut or even when my expectations were not met, God is still sitting on His throne.  He will take the sessions, projects, events, students, etc. and change the lives of students and student leaders that will be there.  He does not need me to accomplish His will.  He does not need my approval.  He does not work according to my agenda.  No.  That is not the the God who I worship.  The God of the Bible says that He is full of grace (hence, He uses sinners such as myself), He is love, He is the everlasting God, and He is God Almighty who will do His will as He sees fit.
And all I can do is... seek Him.

The Cross and Christmas

So my (Aimee's) Grandma walked up to me the other morning and asked me about the cross that hangs in our living room near the front door.  I had draped a red cloth on it (which we've done at Christmas time for many years) and she wanted to know why.  I explained that I did it because red is the color of Advent and that I thought it looked pretty.  She responded (I may not quote her exactly, but this is essentially what she said), "Yeah, but what does the cross have to do with Christmas anyway?"

She didn't really finish her thought beyond that.  At the time I was wondering if she was about to suggest that the cross be taken down during Advent.  I asked her if that was what she wanted, and before I really gave her a chance to answer, I told her that I would not take it down because the cross is very relevant to Christmas time!

Christmas is special.  There is no question of that.  But we have to remember that Christmas wouldn't matter if it weren't for Easter!

"The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."  John 1:14

Praise God that He loves us so much that He sent His Son to us!  The important part of all that, of course, isn't that He came, but why He came.

Jesus came to redeem us from our sins.  As one Christmas carol puts it, He was born to die.  Jesus came to earth and became a man so that He could die on a cross for our sins and so that God could raise Him from the dead so that we can have eternal life with Him in paradise!  If Easter hadn't happened, Christianity wouldn't have happened, because it would have meant that all of the bad things that people were saying about Jesus was true: that He wasn't sent from God and that He wasn't performing miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit, that He was a blasphemer, etc.  If there had been no Easter, if He had not died, and if God had not raised Him from the dead, it wouldn't matter that He came at all, because it all would have been a lie and His death would have been the end of it.  But praise God!  His death was not the end.  And because of that, we know that our deaths are not the end.  Hallelujah!

Christmas matters because of Easter!

We may not dwell on it.  And that's ok.  We tend to spend this time of year focusing on the joy of His arrival.  On the mystery of His birth.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  But somewhere in our minds, maybe in the back there, we need to remember that all of that joy and excitement and hope that came along with the birth of Jesus was actually all because of the reason that He came.

If you ever have trouble remembering, even somewhere in the back of your mind, then I suggest singing more that just the first verse of most major/popular Christmas carols.  The third verse of "Joy to the World" says:

          No more let sin and sorrow grow,
          Nor thorns infest the ground.
          He comes to make His blessings flow
          Far as the curse is found,
          Far as the curse is found,
          Far as, far as, the curse is found.

The third verse of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" says:
          Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace!
          Hail the Son of Righteousness!
          Light and life to all He brings,
          Risen with healing in His wings.
          Mild He lays His glory by,
          Born that man no more may die;
          Born to raise the sons of earth,
          Born to give them second birth.

The second verse of "What Child is This" says:
          Why lies He in such mean estate,
               where ox and ass are feeding?
          Good Christian, fear; for sinners here
               the silent Word is pleading.
          Nails, spear, shall pierce Him through,
               the cross be borne, for me for you.
          Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
               the Babe, the Son of Mary.

Need I continue?

Christmas is special.  Jesus Christ came down in the form of a little baby.  He took on flesh ... and He took on our sins.  We just need to make sure we don't forget that.  We don't forget why He came.  Afterall, that's the thing that makes Christmas, and that special gift we all recieved on that first Christmas, so special.

What's it All About Anyway?

Shopping, shopping, shopping and more shopping.  Or as the Grinch (in the form of Jim Carrey) put it, "gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, that's what it's always been about."  Right?

Technically he's right.  Christmas is all about a special gift that we all recieved thousands of years ago, a gift unlike any other gift any of us have ever recieved or will ever recieve again.  Can we ever compete with that?!  We shouldn't even try!  And that's probably the key.

We get so consumed with making Christmas bigger and better—more decorations, more lights, more presents (because in America we all know that bigger is better)—we forget that God made it the biggest and best that it will ever be!

And all we have to do is slow down enough and open our eyes to enjoy it!

Can you slow down?


Are your eyes open?

God wants to give you a gift again.  It's a chance to remember and re-enjoy that first and best gift.  What can you do to open yourself up to accepting His gift this Christmas?

Merry Christmas?

For those of you who may not know, I (Aimee) have been reading my Bible everyday working through a Bible-in-one-year program.  Every day (often first thing in the morning, though not always) I read a few chapters and then at some point in the day I take a few minutes to sit down are write my reflections on my Facebook page.

Saturday morning I read Deuteronomy 21 – 23, and just like over and over again throughout Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and elsewhere in Deuteronomy, you see phrases like “for you were once slaves in Egypt.”  The fact that this phrase and variations on it appear over and over again in the Old Testament was not new information.  But I had always thought of it in only one way, and it occurred to me for the very first time that there is a likely second reasoning behind the repetition of the phrase.

Repetition (which I know I’ve said before, so I’m repeating also) in the Bible happens for a reason.  Things are repeated because they’re important.  They are repeated for emphasis and usually to aid in memorizing.  So what are the two points that come out of this phrase?

Well, I think that the first one is pretty obvious when you remember that the first part of the phrase is usually, “the Lord, your God, Who brought you out of Egypt.”  The power of God is being stressed.  This usually comes up when the people have messed up and are being reminded of all of the miraculous things that God did to set them free from bondage in Egypt.  We serve a mighty and powerful God!

The second point was what was new to me.  The phrase “for you were once slaves in Egypt” often comes with along with a discussion of how to treat others.  God allowed Israel to go into bondage in Egypt so that they would have more compassion and mercy on others when it was time for them to go out into their own land.  The truth of it hit me with such force it’s still resonating!

Some of you may have realized this already.  But it was all new to me!  And, as God usually does in my life, He is showing me how relevant this information is right now.

Did you know that more people are depressed at Christmas time than at any other time of year?!  The season of peace and joy is the exact opposite for many people all across the country.  Beyond that, I know several people who are dealing with the most stressful and emotionally difficult Christmas seasons of their lives, and for some it might be the most stressful and difficult season—holiday or not—ever. 

Why does God allow us to go through these difficult seasons?  Why did He allow the Israelites to go through a season of slavery (400 years of it)?!

We learn a lot in these difficult times.  And one of the most important things we can learn is how to get through it in a spiritually, emotionally/mentally, and physically healthy way so that we can help others through similar situations in the future, just as others who have been through it in the past can help us now.

Our own hardships create compassion and mercy for others when they’re dealing with their hardships.  You can’t honestly say that you understand how someone else feels unless you’ve been through the same thing.

What hardships have you been through that you learned from and can now help others through?  Or maybe you've had a difficult Christmas in the past?  What was God teaching you along the way?  How did you get through it?  What’s your story?

Hope

 

The first Sunday of Advent has come and gone.  It arrived so fast.  We still have Fall decorations from Thanksgiving out which somehow manage to clash wonderfully with the large Christmas tree that we just put up in the living room a couple of days ago.  I can hardly believe that it's already December 1st!  And I still haven't found my VeggieTales Advent calendar in the boxes of Christmas stuff...

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year!  I think that there are few people who would disagree with that.  Just the simple act of listening to Christmas music as I sit here typing, or of walking into the living room and seeing the partially decorated Christmas tree shining brightly brings joy!  But why?

Christmas is all about the joy of hope.  The joy of anticipation. 

I’m not going to lie and say that I’m not looking forward to the gifts I’ll receive.  Of course I am!  But that is probably the last thing on the long, long list of things that make me happy this time of year. 

I look forward to singing Christmas carols at church, in the car, by myself, with my family, with my friends.  I look forward to watching Christmas movies with family and friends.  I look forward to baking cookies and pies and breads with my mother.  I look forward to spending time sitting around and just talking or playing games with my family.  I look forward to reading Christmas books to my little niece who is almost a year old and will be celebrating her first Christmas.  All typical things that many of you are likely looking forward to also.  Your traditions may be different than those of my family, but we all have Christmas traditions.  And we look forward to them with joy.  We have hope that this year our Christmas traditions will not fail to bring us joy, because they haven't failed us yet.

There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but the most important thing to remember in the midst of all of that is what we are celebrating.  Why do we gather?  Why do we decorate?  Why do we prepare special meals?  Why do we give gifts?  What are we celebrating?  You know the answer.  I don’t even have to say it.  But how often does the reason for the celebration get lost in the celebrating?

In reading the Old Testament for the last few months, I’ve seen example after example of the fact that God’s gift of His Son is something that He was planning from the very beginning.  The hope of the coming Messiah was born immediately after humanity's darkest moment.  Right after Adam and Eve committed the first sin, God pronounced His judgment on them.  But at the same time, He also promised redemption.

The birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, is something that has been looked forward to with hope throughout all the generations of the earth.  Some generations may have longed for it more than others, but all those who loved God looked forward to the day when He would redeem humanity and all of creation.  We no longer hold on to the hope that one day the Messiah will come, because we know that He already came, born modestly in a manger in the small town of Bethlehem (side note: the Bread of Life came to us as He was born in a town called “house of bread,” kinda funny, huh).  We remember the hope of God’s people as they waited in anticipation and we look forward with hope to the day when He comes again and we will join Him in His Father’s house for eternity.

We also need to remember those who have no hope; those who do not know that their Messiah has already come and has already redeemed them.  Those without hope have nothing to look forward to this season except what gifts, if any, they may receive.  But true joy doesn’t come from stuff, so that joy only goes so far.  Pray for those in your life, or those you may not know around you, who do not have the hope that we carry in our hearts.  Remember them and that God sent His Son to die for their sins as well.  Show them what the Christmas season is really about through your actions of love and mercy.  And when they ask you why you do what you do, you can tell them that it is because God did it for us first.

let it snow

Today, I (Sherann) spent practically the entire day in Tehachapi. The drive was beautiful! For those of you who have never heard of this small town, it is located east of Bakersfield and roughly about 40-50 miles from the Mojave Desert. One of the great parts about the drive was seeing the lightly coated snow on the mountain tops. It was very ... magical.
After my meeting, I headed down south but this time took the back roads. (avoiding the grape vine) I spent about six hours in the car today, but I spent those hours 1. enjoying His creation 2. rocking out to Chris Tomlin's new CD "And If Our God Is For Us" 3. grateful for the faith family at first baptist 4. thoughts for 2011 5. Matthew 28:18-20.
You may be thinking... Matthew 28? That was random... Well, this has been THE verse for the past year and eleven months. And to be honest... it has never gotten old! God would speak to me in such a new and fresh way that I just can't get enough of it! I'm still processing from this afternoon, so I'm not going to write it out... but let's just say... wow!
Is there a specific verse that you can't get enough of? If so, how did you apply it to your life?  "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'" Matt. 28:18-20

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is almost here.  So have you been thinking about what you’re grateful for?  Have you shared your thanks with those involved?  God, your parents, your friends, etc.?

I’ve (Aimee) been thinking about it for a little while now.  I’ve been thinking about all of the blessings that I have in my life: my health, a home, food, clothes.  And I’ve also been thinking about how ungrateful I can be at times.  There are times when I complain about having to walk so far, but there are people who cannot walk at all.  I get bored with eating a lot of the same things over and over again, but (worst of all) I rarely make dinner myself, and there are so many people who barely have enough to eat to stay alive.  I wish my bedroom were bigger so I’d have more room for my stuff, but there are people who have to sleep in their cars or on the streets and who have only as much stuff as they can carry with around with them.

I do not want to be ungrateful.  And I ask God for forgiveness every time I realize that I’m even leaning in that direction.  God has given me so many blessings, and it would be absurd of me to expect Him to shower me with more when I’m not using what He’s already given me.  The first step is to simply be grateful!

Be grateful for what you have.  There are many in our world, in our own country, and most likely even in your own city who have to make do with much, much less. 

When you’re grateful, you’ll find that you’re also happier.  Happiness does not come from getting what you want, but from finding contentment with what you have.  I’m sure you’ve heard that, or something like it before.  It’s an old idea, but we forget it very easily.

Praise God for the blessings that He has given you.  Let your loved ones know how much you appreciate them.  Consider ways to share your blessings with others, both those that you already know and those that you don’t know.

I also want to encourage you to remember what you’re thankful for as we move into the Christmas season and we start thinking about all of the money that we’ll be spending, and that others will be spending on us.  How will you spend your time and money this year?  What are you going to ask Santa for?  Will you be taking time to remember and be thankful for the best gift of all?  The gift that makes Christmas something worth celebrating?  Will you use your resources wisely?  Or are you going to allow yourself to get caught up in the race for more stuff?

I know what I’m thankful for this year.  I’m going to continue to pray that God will help me to remember it all as I move forward from this Thanksgiving Day towards next year.  I’m sure that there will be days when I’ll forget, and I’ll be ungrateful, but I pray that those days will be few and far between.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  May God continue to bless you and may your eyes be open to recognizing those blessings.  Amen.

Just Like Magic

The new Harry Potter movie is coming out in just a few days, so, yes, I’m going to do it.  I’m going to talk about Harry Potter.  (Sherann, you knew it was only a matter of time.)

PLEASE NOTE: If you aren’t a Harry Potter fan, I’m not going to get deep into details.  So, please stick around and give this a read.  With that said, to you who are fans, there will be no spoilers here, unless it would spoil things for you to know that the bad guy loses at the end of the story.  Oops.  Sorry.  I guess I spoiled it then.

I am a huge Harry Potter fan.  I’m a big fan of the fantasy genre to begin with, so when my cousin suggested the books to me years ago, I decided to give them a try, and of course, like millions of other people throughout the world, I was instantly hooked on the story of the Boy Who Lived.  But these stories are more than just entertaining.  A lot of truth is revealed, as is the case in many fiction stories and even in fantastical fiction such as this.

Let me tell you what hooked me.  The Harry Potter story is ultimately a story of good versus evil, in which good wins out in the end.  Too simplistic?  I don’t think so.  It’s similar to another book that we’re all big fans of: the Bible.  Before you start lighting the fires to burn me as a heretic, let me explain.  The Harry Potter series are not Christian novels, but there is nothing inherently un-Christian, or anti-Christian in them.  They advocate peace, love, acceptance, justice… yes, there’s magic, but it’s a fantasy story, not a manual.  There’s magic in the Lord of the Rings series, too!  Maybe I’ll talk about those books sometime … but not right now.  I don’t think that Harry is meant to be a messiah figure, not really.  But there are many parallels in his story to the human condition in general and to the realities of evil in the world, as well as the acknowledgment of the fact that there are worse things than death and the true power of love.

Call me weird, but I’m a big fan of books and movies that paint evil for what it truly is.  Evil is real, whether we want to believe it is or not.  Evil exists solely to steal, kill, and destroy.  Within evil there is no compassion, no mercy, and no love, of any kind.  In fact, as Rowling points out over and over again in Harry’s story, evil doesn’t understand love, and that is evil’s greatest downfall.  Voldemort is thwarted over and over again by love.  He doesn’t understand it.  He doesn’t believe in its power.  He doesn’t count on it.  Therefore, it always defeats him and ultimately defeats him.

Jesus Christ took the humble form of a human being and walked willingly to death on a cross in order to redeem us.  Satan thought that he had won.  Everything had worked out just like he had wanted, just like he had influenced them… or so he thought.  But then, three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead, and any perceived power that Satan thought that he had was shattered and the entire world would never be the same again.  Praise God!

Also, we can’t ignore the connection of the Ministry of Magic’s (Rowling’s magical government) intense effort to ignore the truth of Voldemort’s existence and our own efforts to ignore evil in our world.  For Harry, frustration runs rampant as he deals with people at school and in the government who are trying their very best to shut him up as he is trying to make people aware of the fact that Voldemort is alive and well.  Watching the movies recently with a friend who had never seen them before he turned to me and asked why the government would refuse to believe Harry.  And I said to him, “Because they don’t want to believe him.  Would you?” 

We would love to ignore evil and just pretend that it doesn’t exist.  No murder.  No theft.  No bullying.  No starvation.  No cancer.  No AIDS.  No orphans.  I could go on and on and on.  But the point is that evil exists.  We have to acknowledge it.  But we do so in the knowledge that Jesus has already overcome the world.  Love has already won.  Evil has no power here except what we give up, and we give it up most readily when we chose to ignore it.

Sale

I (Sherann) love items on sale. If you think about it, who doesn't?
This past weekend I decided to head over to a Christian bookstore. I love books. I love opening new books, love the way they smell, and love the way they are so uniquely different. Anyway, I started to look over the bargain books and found several books that caught my attention. I was so excited to buy them since they were cheap and especially since many of them were ones I had longed to read. So after looking through the bookshelves, I ended up buying four books.
1. 3:16- Max Lucado
2. UnChristian- David Kinnaman
3. Chasing Daylight- Erwin McManus
4. Words from the Fire- Al Mohler Jr.

I started to read Max Lucado's book 3:16 and found some great depth and insight into the heart of a loving God. I wanted to share with you a paragraph from this book. It was so gripping.

" Since he has no needs, you cannot tire Him. Since he is without age, you cannot lose him. Since he has no sin, you cannot corrupt Him.
If God can make a billion galaxies, can't he make good out of our bad and sense out of our faltering lives? Of course he can. He is God."

So glad He is a loving and gracious Father.

His credentials

I (Sherann) know that it has been awhile since my last post.  A lot has been going on and it continues to be a busy month.  However, the Lord has been really stretching me in regards to my relationship with Him.  When Aimee and I decided to be authentic with our faith, there have been numerous times where God was teaching us the same exact truth that week.  It's pretty amazing to encourage one another through our same experiences, even if we are 5 hours apart from each other.  So, this brings me to one of the same learning experiences that Aimee and I both had this week.  Aimee brought some great truths in regards to moving from knowing to knowing.  I found myself to face that same lingering question... "Do you truly trust in Me? or do you merely say that you do?"  Ouch.  For the last couple of days, I've been feeling more anxious than ever.  I start analyzing a lot more and fear starts creeping in.  Then those five letters started to penetrate my heart and mind.  TRUST.  Who do you trust, Sherann?  You see, I've been so caught up in "myself" or how "I" was going to handle the situation that I neglected to trust that Jesus had already gone before me.  It's a matter of choice.  His credentials show me that He is trustworthy. The Cross shows me His unconditional love for me. (1 John 4:9)  My credentials show uncertainty and more often, failure.  If we look at His Word, God never let a single person down.  He kept His promises and did extraordinary things through prophets and leaders.  And these leaders were not special by any means, but they chose to trust in Him because His credentials were legit. 
I choose to trust Him.  Will you?


"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."  Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)

Moving From Knowing to Knowing

Something occurred to me (Aimee) truly for the first time just the other night as I was talking to my mother about what God has been revealing to me lately.  I said to her that God already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me, I just have to keep up my end which is to keep my word and to work on my relationship with Him (not that I can do either of those things on my own, but perhaps that is part of the point).  Should I say that again?

God has already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me… 

God has already told you that He’s going to be there for you and take care of you…

When it hit me I was a little ashamed.  For years I have been claiming that I trust God, and there have been times in my life when I have truly turned to Him with complete trust, but there hasn’t been any consistency to that trust.  God has already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me before I ever made any commitments to Him, before I was even born, He already loved me and was already providing for me.  I thought that I already knew this, but as I prayed with a dear friend the other day, it’s often easier to know something in our heads than it is to truly know it in our hearts.

God has already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me…  He said it when He led Israel through the wilderness and provided for their every need, reminding them constantly that He was their God and that they were His chosen people.  He said it when Israel was sent into exile and He let them know that He was still their God no matter where in the world they were and that they were still His people.  He said it when He sent His Son to seek the least the last and the lost so that we could know Him better, to know that He is our God and that we are His people.  He said it when He sent His Son to die for the sins of the world so that we might be saved and be able to join Him someday in paradise, because He is our God and we are His people.

God has already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me…  This is not a deal that is contingent upon anything on my part except one thing: I simply have to accept His Word, and accept Him.  By letting go and trusting Him, knowing that He is my God and I am one of His people, I have seen His provisions for me not only meet my needs but He has begun to surpass them and move into abundance.

At one of the conferences that I went to, one of the speakers challenged us by saying that we really didn’t have a right to complain that God wasn’t blessing us when He had already blessed us and we did nothing with what He gave us.  Why would He give us more if we haven’t been faithful with what we have already received?  He has blessed me with so much in my life and I have been faithful with some of it and that is unacceptable and shameful.  Through prayer and time in His Word God is growing me and I am being blessed more and more abundantly.  That is not bragging.  I’m praising God!

Casting Crowns, in their self-titled, album have a beautiful song called “Your Love is Extravagant.”  The first two lines say:

                        Your love is extravagant.

                        Your friendship, it is intimate.

We are so blessed to have a God that desires for us to know Him intimately and whose love is more extravagant than we could have ever deserved.

God has already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me…  I think that I will be repeating that to myself for a while.

God has already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me… 

God has already told me that He’s going to be there for me and take care of me… 

Wow.



Let me correct myself:
God has already been there for me and has taken care of me ...

Idolatry as a Favorite Passtime

I’ve found myself thinking about the sin of idol worship lately.  I just finished Exodus and started Leviticus, lot’s in there.  Plus, when I was visiting Sherann I read a little bit of a book she got when she went to see the Purple Pig Tour called, The Purple Pig and Other Miracles (I was scanning to try and find out where the name came from, but I didn’t get that far), and I happened to read a section where Dick Eastman was talking about an experience he had at a college event that touched on idolatry.  When stuff starts popping up over and over again, I don’t take that as a coincidence, but rather as instructions to pay attention.

So I started thinking more about it and praying about it.  Idols aren’t something that we often think about today, or at least that we don’t often think about in a negative way.  In fact, for years people would throw around the phrase “he/she is my idol” quite freely about celebrities all the time.  Today, we even have the ump-teenth season of American Idol, passing off the idea that idolization is no big deal.  It’s still not something that we take very seriously.  But we should.

Idolatry is anything or anyone that draws our attention, time, worship, and praise away from God where it rightfully belongs.  An idol is not simply a carved, man-made god.  It can be a celebrity or sports star or any person.  It can be television, video games, or any stuff.  It can be an idea or ideal even.  It can even be things within the Church, itself, that we have placed too high and too holy for our own good.  If we obsess over it, if we feel like we can’t live without it then it’s very likely something that we have idolized.  I'm convinced that at least part of the reason that God commanded the Israelites not to make any graven images is because then they would have slowly begun to worship those things instead of Him.  We often face that same danger today.

A few years ago we had fires that raged throughout Southern California.  We were about a mile away from one of those fires.  I’ve lived in SoCal all my life, and I’m not saying that earthquakes don’t scare me, but I have never experienced fear quite like that before.  Sadly, what I was really afraid of was not losing my life, but losing my stuff.  In an earthquake, even if the house collapsed, most of my stuff would be fine; it might get dirty, it might take some time to get to, but not destroyed.  But a fire!  A fire consumes everything.  And I was afraid.  And when I realized all of that, I felt sick to my stomach.

I think that it’s okay to like our stuff.  It’s okay to watch television or play video games.  But we need to have a proper attitude about/perspective on things.  If I was going to spend more time worrying about my stuff than worrying about and praying for the people who were losing their homes then my heart was not in the right place and I did not have proper perspective.

We need to recognize what we have begun to idolize in our lives and begin to fix the problem.  It may take time.  There may be relapses.  Prayer helps. 

I’ve been doing this in my life and I’ve been asking God to reveal the things that I have idolized without yet realizing it so that I can remove those things.  This doesn’t mean that I got rid of my TV.  It does mean that I have been watching much much less.  It doesn’t mean that I got rid of my stuff.  It does mean that I have shared my desire with family and friends to begin paring down my unnecessary belongings.  It’s a small step.  But it’s a step.

I want to give God all of the glory.  I want to give Him all my praise.  He deserves nothing less.  It gets easier as I focus more of my time and attention on Him.  I still have bad days.  When I realize it, those are the days that I pray a little more.  He is helping me along the way, because I can't do it without Him.

Celebrating Life

There are lot’s of birthdays happening in my (Aimee's) family right now.  We had one this week, one next week, and one the week after that.

I love birthdays.  No matter how old I get, I will always enjoy celebrating my birthday and those of the people I love.  Every birthday represents another year of blessings to be grateful for.  Grateful for the blessings in their life.  Grateful for the blessing of their life.

Every birthday should be celebrated for great joy and praise to God.  Every new birthday is a gift.  Actually, every day should be celebrated with joy and praise to God.  Every new day is a gift.  None of us know how long we are going to be on the earth.  So we should savor each day.  Enjoy the beauty of God's creation, the love of your family and friends.  God intended for our lives here on earth to have joy; otherwise he wouldn't have created us to have relationships with one another, he wouldn't have made food enjoyable, etc.  He could have made us like the other animals who merely live to survive.  Instead, He created us for more.  Savor that!  Celebrate that!  Praise God for that!

Wag Like a Dog

When I (Aimee) was in high school we got a dog (not our first, but we had been without a dog for several years at this point).  Jacks was a beautiful little mutt with long reddish-brown hair who won the hearts of every person who saw him.  He was a small-to-medium size dog who fit comfortably in your lap and would cuddle with you for as long as you wanted.  He loved to cuddle!  He was a very docile dog.  He didn’t play with toys; he just wanted to be with you whether walking or sitting.  Despite being so docile, he had this habit that when he was really excited his tail would wag so hard that his whole back end would shake back and forth with the momentum of it, and eventually he would lose his footing a little as his back end would wag and his whole body would end up moving back and forth a little.  Now that’s excitement!  That’s joy!

I can’t shake that image lately.  Last week I met with my pastor to listen to a web seminar about evangelism.  The speaker was talking about being excited for Christ and he referred to the image of a dog’s tail wagging and I immediately thought of Jacks.  I have to admit that I became lost in thought for a moment thinking about Jacks and his wagging body, and I found myself thinking that I want to be that excited about Jesus.  I want to be so excited that I can’t contain it and it spills out into my actions and movements so that everyone can see it and everyone will know what it is.

At the conference that I attended last week we were again encouraged to be excited for Christ, recognizing that it is on His power that we rely, not our own, and we can trust that His power will always be sufficient.  That’s exciting!  If we were only relying on our own abilities then we would have every right to be afraid and discouraged; but we’re not.  We’re relying on the One who created the heavens and the earth, the One who has the power to heal the sick, the One in whose name demons tremble!  That is the power that He gives to us, His followers.  That’s exciting!

Be excited for Christ and the power of Christ that is passed to us through the Holy Spirit that we might be empowered to fulfill His mission throughout the world of spreading the Gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ!  Amen.

Too Busy Not to Pray

There’s so much going on right now.  Tomorrow and Friday, I (Aimee) will be attending a conference.  Then, I’ll be driving up to stay with Sherann while we attend another conference together that begins on Monday.  I just came home from a meeting with my pastor where we were talking about Advent; yes, folks, Christmas is closer than you think it is.  We started some planning for the sermons and other potential events and discussing whether that was all pointing us in the right direction for where we want to be going in 2011.  Plus, I now have four books that he has asked me to read and I’m still working on the first one that he gave me a few weeks ago.

I’m not complaining.  Honest.  I’m looking forward to the conferences and to seeing Sherann.  I enjoy working at my church and being involved in our worship services.  I’m just saying that things are busy right now and they’re probably only going to get busier as we head towards January.  Just a fact, that’s all.

Ever have seasons like this?  It’s likely that you don’t have the exact same kind of craziness happening in your schedule, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have craziness, too.  It happens to all of us at one time or another and more often for some than for others.

The more full our schedules become the easier it is for us to set aside other things to make more room, things like prayer.  We convince ourselves that taking time to sit down and talk with God is not a responsible use of our time and so we skip it and try to move forward.  However, in actuality, this is just another one of those times where we are trying to play God and it isn’t going to help at all.  In fact, trying to play God generally does more than holding back positive effects, it usually has negative effects. 

The truth is that the busier our schedules get the more that we need God, so the more that we need to spend time in conversation with Him.  We need to pray for God’s guidance in general so that we don’t delude ourselves into thinking that we can do anything good without Him.  We need to pray that God will help us to remember that He is in charge so that we can let go of worries/anxieties that would slow us down and damage our health.  We need to pray that God will guide us safely through our days so that we don’t allow being in a hurry to put us in danger (that’s how I sprained my ankle once, true story).  We need to pray that God will open our hearts in our conversations, so that we don’t forget the importance of relationships and that even the person annoying us is beloved by God.

Prayer puts things in perspective and ensures that we are open to allowing God’s Spirit to move us and guide us in all that we do.

I’m going to go pray now.

Everyday Miracles

I (Aimee) wonder how many people watched the Chilean miners being brought up from about ½ a mile below the surface of the earth after being trapped for 69 days.  I haven’t heard or read any numbers yet.  I must admit that I didn’t watch all of it.  I only saw bits and pieces as I half-watched while getting over the flu this week.  But what I saw was very moving.  All of the men were greeted with cheers, handshakes, and hugs.  There was a large television set-up in the family camp set up nearby where the family members of the miners awaited them.  Photographs show them cheering and crying as their husband, father, or brother was brought to the surface.  When the final miner, Luis Urzua who was the shift supervisor, came to the surface the rescue was almost 24-hours old, but the people cheered with energy like they had just gotten there.  Then, I heard someone say something that really caught my attention: “It’s a miracle.”

Being slightly out of it because of the flu, I’m still not sure exactly who said it—the president of Chile, Urzua, one of the reporters—and I’ve heard it several times since then from many different people.  But then, when Urzua had been rescued, that was the first time that I had heard anyone say it about this situation, and it got me thinking.

In one of my first classes at California Baptist University (the first class I had with Sherann), our professor gave us an unusual homework assignment one day to write a definition for “miracle.”  Have you ever thought about it much?  When most people think of miracles they think of supernatural events: walking on water, raising people from the dead, multiplying the fish and the loaves, etc.  Jesus performed miracles, there is no doubt about that if you believe what the Bible says.  But our problem is that we are often unable or unwilling to notice God’s miraculous work in non-supernatural events.

We look at the survival and successful rescue of the Chilean miners and we are quick to say that this is due to steady heads, calm thinking, science and engineering, careful planning, patience, and so on and so on.  All of that is absolutely true.  Those things were critical to their survival while they were stuck underground and in getting them back to the surface.  So where was God working in all of this?

Well, who do you think brought peace and calm to Urzua so that he could organize the men and the food to keep them alive until they were discovered?

Who do you think inspired the workers on the surface with the correct way to go about the entire operation?

Who do you think gave hope and courage to the men and to their families?

These things all come from God, whether people want to recognize it or not.  Non-believers give the credit to science and human ingenuity.  But we know that God is the one who created us to be able to grasp science and to have human ingenuity.

We need to be looking for God’s not-as-obvious miracles that He works out in our everyday lives, whether big or small, so that we can marvel at His love and grace and wisdom, and so that we can give Him the thanks that He is due.

So, praise God that all of the men who were trapped survived the cave-in.  Praise God that workers on the surface were able to get them food and water to sustain them.  And praise God that they all made it safely to the surface.  Praise God!

Picture taken from MSNBC of Esteban Rojas, the 18th miner to be rescued, just moments after stepping out of the rescue capsule.  Photo by Hugo Infante / Chilean Government via Getty Images.

2 Cents

I (Sherann) have been staring at this blank page for a while now.  Honestly, I don't know what to write.  What to say.  These days, everything has been a blur and it has been so crazy!  Our annual state convention meeting is in two weeks and we are all busy trying to make deadlines.  Plus, all the elected staff are headed out to the various associational meetings.  I won't be out until November, but in the mean time... deadlines.  This week has been pretty sweet and the Lord has been so sufficient.  I don't say that lightly at all.  I've decided that I need to memorize scripture.  Not just a few verses, but I seriously want to take the time to memorize the books of the Bible.  I decided to start with Philippians. 

In the mean time, here is a verse that really brought me comfort this week.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth!  Serve the LORD with gladness!  Come into His presence with singing!  Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!  Give thanks to him; bless his name!  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Mountain Top Experiences in the Valleys

Sherann called me the other morning to talk.  She shared that she had just finished the second book in a week that she just couldn’t put down.  Both books were very moving and inspiring in their messages.  Yet, she was concerned that she would put these books on her shelf and that they would simply become dust collectors and never truly influence her life.  She also shared her concern with me for how often we allow this to happen even with the Word of God.  We read the Scriptures, they move us and inspire us to action, and then we close the book and go back to our day to day lives.  Of course, this is true to more or lesser degrees from person to person, but I don’t think that there is a single person out there that can say that they always follow through with what has inspired them from the Scriptures.  I know, unfortunately, that I can’t.

I think that the bigger question here is: why do we allow things to move us in the moment, and then allow them to fade away later?  We read our Bibles, we go to church and listen to the sermons, we go to retreats, we join Bible studies, and we love it all.  While these things are going on we feel the movement of the Holy Spirit.  We are inspired by the passion of the music and the speaker.  Our minds and hearts are lifted.  Then, we leave and go home and we go back to our daily lives as if nothing life changing has just happened.  Why do we allow this to happen?  Perhaps that is really the big question here. 

If we love the feeling, why do we allow it to fade?  If we are so moved, why don’t we move?  Why don’t we act?  I think that the pathetic truth of it in my own life can be summed up in one word: habit.  We all create habits, good and bad, in our lives.  We have a certain way of doing things, of dealing with things, and it is all habit.  Habits are hard to break, which is why it can be so difficult to change.  But it’s not impossible.  People can learn to stop biting their fingernails or chewing with their mouth open.  People can learn to stop dealing with problems by turning to drugs and alcohol.  We know that change is possible.  We can change and get rid of our bad habits.  So, while we’re working on getting rid of those bad habits, why not replace them with some good habits. 

We can learn to hold on to the positive in much the same way that we learn to let go of the negative.  We simply have to learn a new habit.  Just like with getting rid of a bad habit, we can turn to family and friends for support.  We can find and use tools to encourage the good in our lives.  We can pray and ask for God’s help.  We can expect the change to come slowly, and not beat ourselves up when it doesn’t happen overnight.