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.