"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13
You know that really good, warm, fuzzy, I-can-conquer-the-world feeling you get when you finally finish something big? Well. I had that feeling last night because I finally finished reading Emma, by Jane Austen! xD Haha, I've been reading that book nearly every night about a month, and so finishing it was an amazing feeling. Plus, it was a relief to finally know who all married whom. ;)
Another joyful feeling: having money on iTunes. Haha. ;) I never have money to buy music except around Christmas or my birthday, and when I get to buy music I'm like... on cloud nine. ^_^
More joyous feelings (this is my favorite)... The past year and a half has been one where I've really grown in Christ. Finally, I've discovered that AMAZING happiness and peace and joy you get from spending time in God's Word each day. It's my favorite way to start out my morning, since it puts me in the right mind set for the rest of the day.
Hahah, chocolate and coffee always give me a warm, homey feeling- which is why I drank my own creation of coffee hot chocolate for breakfast. ;D
Talking to friends! Mmmhhmmm! That nearly always makes me happy and joyful.
Anothing thing that makes me feel good... playing my very favorite game! xD My friend came over yesterday, and we all played Apples to Apples. I love that game! It's so much fuuunnn...
Anyways, those are somethings that make me happy and feel very joyful. :)
So, I was checking out at a store the other day and the cheerful lady with a flashing Christmas lights necklace smilingly wished me a "Happy Holidays." I stopped for a second, grinned back at her, and happily replied, "Merry Christmas!"
That made me think. Why do people take the Christ out of Christmas? Some say it's to keep from offending people, to be politically correct, or maybe some people just want to change up their greetings! I don't think it's "wrong" to say happy holidays, seasons greetings, or anything along those lines. However, personally, I think that saying "Merry Christmas" it's an amazing way to tell the world, "Hey. I'm not ashamed to tell you the reason I celebrate Christmas. It's because of CHRIST." :D
So, I've got a dare for you. :) Every time someone greets you with something like "Happy Holidays" smile at them and say, "Merry CHRISTmas."
(This is last Christmas, sadly... Haha this year it's it SO CRAZZYYY hot considering it's winter!! Anyways... see the tiny cross in the distance?)
So, at Christmas I see lots of my family. I absolutely LOVE* my family. But honestly (and sadly), I don't know 50% of them, and I'm not close to 40% of them, which leaves about 10% of my huge family that I feel like I really know and am close to. Even though I don't know lots of my family very well though, I still care about them and it always gives me a smile to see them! :) There's just something about the fact that they are "family" that makes them special.
I was reading in 1 Chronicles 1-2 this morning and it is pretty much just a LONG long looonnngggg list of people in a family (with names that take 10 seconds to pronounce! ;D Although one guy was named Alvin, which made me laugh ;). You know, "Attai was the father of Nathan, Nathan the father of Zabad, Zabad the father of Ephlal..." and on and on and on. That kind of helped me remember the importance of family. Even though Zabad probably didn't know all of his cousins, great aunts, and great great grandfathers, they were still related to him and so that made those people special. The same goes for me. I don't know all of my cousins (I haven't even met some!), or my grandparents, or my great uncles, but they are still in my family.
Anyways... I was just musing over how I don't know so much of my family, but I still care about the ones that I don't even know simply because they're family. It's kind of like that with Christians... I don't know Christians all over the world, but I am still their sister and they are special to me because I know we have the same Father. <3
This is kind of rambling... but oh well ;) It's Christmas break. ^_^
So, MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)
*like very very much (I think God is the only one worthy of total LOVE)
I'm reading through the Bible chronologically and today this was one of the Psalms that I read. :) I really liked the part where it talks about how if God kept a record of sins no one could stand. That was the part that really really stood out to me. It's really an awesome thing about God. He forgives us when we repent of our sins. Also I really liked to part about waiting for the Lord. Waiting is something that God is definitely teaching me at the moment.
Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
For school I had to write a commentary (or song, or poem, or story, but I ended up going with a commentary) on Jesus' quote: "I am the light of the world." Here were my thoughts. ;) I'd love to hear your take on what it means that Jesus is the light of the world!
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Imagine you are locked in a pitch black room. There is no light at all; no light from the sun peeking through a window, no light from the adjoining room sneaking underneath the door. Naturally you feel insecure and want to get rid of the darkness. How can you make the black veil go away? How can you combat the darkness? The only way to chase away darkness is light. However, if you do not have matches, a flash light, or access any other source of light how can you make a light? There is no way to create light, thus there is no way to disperse the darkness. Your situation is pretty bleak.
Our world is just like the dark room. We are living in a world of sin and death. Some people might realize that they are living in a dark world of sin, but on our own we are powerless to chase away the darkness. In fact, we ourselves are dark. Not a single atom of any human being is free of sin and darkness. According to Romans 7:14b-17, “…What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me." No matter how badly we want the dark and sin to go away, we are powerless against it. Sin lives within us. However, we are not alone in the battle against darkness. God sent his Son, the light of the world, Jesus Christ, to fight the darkness. As David sang in 2 Samuel 22:29, “You, LORD, are my lamp; the LORD turns my darkness into light.” Jesus came to turn the world’s darkness into light. Jesus himself said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Jesus is the spiritual light in a spiritually dark world. He illuminates the truth and floods people’s hearts with a special light and hope that only he can give. He shows people that there was a better way to live and he presents a life of light to a world of darkness.
Although we are living in a world drenched in sin and darkness, God loved us so much that he chose to give us light. He sent his only son, Jesus, to be the light of the world and to illuminate our lives. He chose to meet our darkness with light.
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So, as I wrote this paper, I just COULDN'T stop thinking of this song. Specifically the first phrase, "Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness..." Literally, I'd try to think of something to write, and all I could hear in my head was this song. I kept thinking how nice it would have been if I had been the one blessed with the lyrics to this song and I could have turned them in for the assignment. Hahah. xD
In C.S Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, the imaginary dialoge of a senior demon to his nephew demon is recorded. I've been reading this book and journaling about each chapter, however, this week what I read really struck me. In fact, it is something that I'm very guilty of.
"...Conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certian kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character.... Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable than he believes them to be... By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believethey are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools."
Wow.
I have to say that I've has this "fake humility." I've tried having a low opinion of the gifts God has blessed me with because I thought that was being humble. Just think about that. Something isn't right with the picture! If God gives me a gift, I should know it's something good and worth while. My talents are a blessing and something to be proud of! God gave them to me and it is SO wrong of me to belittle them and think of them as less than they really are. I'm not saying you should be prideful about your talents or anything else God's blessed you with (like brains or beauty). What I'm saying is that we should acknowledge that God has blessed us and not try to hide it from the world.
If my parents gave me a $1,000 I wouldn't say, "Oh, it's just a thousand dollars. It's not a big deal. It's nothing to be proud of." I would be really excited and thankful for the money! If I had the attitude of "it's nothing to be proud of" not only would I be ignoring the true value of the gift, but I would be belittling the giver's choice. If my parents gave me that money, apparently they a) wanted to give it to me b) thought I'd like it and c) thought it would suit me and my needs. Now, if you put your gifts (once again, that includes talents, appearance, smarticles) in place of the money, think about how it sounds to Jesus when we have that "fake humility." It is pretty much saying, "Jesus, that gift you gave me, is no good. It wasn't worth your time because really it's nothing for me to be proud of." We might be TRYING to be humble... but when we have this mind set we're not.
So, this really hit home with me because I'm VERY guilty of this. The sad thing is, I'd never really thought about this before. It's changed my view the talents, appearance, and brains that God has given me. :)
So, there is this video that my sister showed me on YouTube. These guys sang several Christmas carols, then uploaded them to YouTube. Next, they used the YouTube captioning thing to find out what YouTube thought they were saying. Finally, they re-sang the songs using the YouTube generated captions...
Needless to say, YouTube misunderstood the lyrics BIG time! ;D If these guys had sang the songs slowly and really taken care to enunciate during the original recording, however, I'll bet the YouTube generated lyrics would have been a lot more accurate!
Now, how can we apply this to our lives?
Well, I was thinking. Lots of time as Christians, we know what we believe. I know that I believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son. I know I believe that Jesus died for my sins and that He was raised from the grave on the third day. I know I believe in the trinity- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I know that I'm a sinner. I know all of these things because I've learned them at church, at home, and in my personal Bible study. I've heard them repeated over, and over, and over, and over... However, it's important to remember that other people might not know what I believe. To someone who is unfamiliar with the true basics of Christianity, these things that to me seem like such simple truths might be much harder to comprehend and understand the first time around. I have to be careful when I talk to non-believers. I've discovered that even living in Georgia- the South, the Bible belt- many people don't actually understand what being a follower of Christ is because they've just heard a few pieces of the Bible here and there. They've translated what they have heard into what makes sense. Just like YouTube took the songs that it heard and created the words it THOUGHT were being said, people have heard the story of Christ, but they totally misunderstood it, turned it into what they wanted it to be, or in some cases, the peson who they heard it from was just plain wrong. So, what can we do about this? I think that we should to out best to make ourselves very clear about what we believe and take the time to explain it completely to people when we are sharing Christ. :) Let's help make the truth clear to the world around us!
"Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." 1 Peter 3:15 (NLT)
