Distractions. This blog and Christmas break so far have been far less than productive. Right after my last post final review week hit, immediately followed by exam week, then moving back home and then catching up with old friends then nintendo did me in. It's Christmas Eve and all I can say that I've done this break is do nothing. One could argue that that's exactly what I needed to do after the semester I just had, so I'll argue that as well. But now it's Jesus's birthday and with the one positive thing I've participated in, the Bible study of Romans 8 with Jeremy Free, i think I'm actually in the Christmas spirit for the first time in my life for closer the right reason.
The way we're conditioned by the traditions associated with this holiday, I'm historically in a very self-centered mood christmas morning, on the inside really only concerned about what I'm getting. This year is different for probably 2 reasons:
1) I didn't really ask for much for myself. Just a few things to make my life easier: a dremel tool, a new more powerful wireless router, and Mark Twain's newly released autobiography.
2) The Bible study has clarified how amazing this observance is. Although the date we celebrate on is probably inaccurate, the event is so perfect, only God could've planned it. First, He conceives His perfect will, and figures the only way for humanity to have a chance at being with Him is for Himself(Jesus) to become human and take his own wrath for humanity. But that's the HUGE picture so lets zoom in a bit.
Over 100 years beforehand, Isaiah made plenty of prophecies about Jesus's birth in his book. God conceives a virgin, makes the Roman empire run a census so that right when the virgin gives birth, she's in the town of David, while he casts a supernova or a comet to signify to the magi(by whatever they believed) that a king was being born. That enough is mind blowing, but then sending his choir of angels to the lowest people on the spiritual caste system that was first century Judaism, he was really making a statement.
Then I don't think people realize how bloody this story is. Herod ordered the murder of hundreds of children between the age of 0-1 years once the magi arrived to find Jesus later on. God made sure by earthly governing bodies that Jesus was in the right place at the right time all through his birth and ministry to carry out his plan. And in looking at that, its comforting to know how much creative control God can have over our lives as children of God. (Romans 8:11-17)
Basically, God is unfathomably amazing and the fact that He, in his unmeasurable greatness, became flesh in a truly pitiful and helpless human baby so that one day he could bear the sins of the world letting all of us who believe to be with him in heaven someday, is the greatest gift of all with no embellishment. No lie. It really is. And that's why we give gifts to each other today. Just remember that as you celebrate.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
# 2
So I attempted to have my first real quiet time today, during studio, down in the courtyard, since probably late September (thanks to a reminder from Cody Cramer) and I think Satan did a swell job of thwarting it. My Bible was still in the apartment and my iTouch was out of juice so no Holy Bible app either turning this into a prayer exclusive time. I even feel safe saying that Satan erased the first draft of this post so he's working really hard today..
About ten minutes into prayer, I fell into temptation and lied down on the bench where I sat(1.5 - 2 hours of sleep that morning). Soon after I had slipped from consciousness, and I'm not sure how long it was but I awoke from a raindrop grazing my face. I went back up a little disappointed because of how sorry it was, knowing how far away it was from where it needs to be spiritually.
Later tonight I got another reminder from and old friend, Michael Welch, and he also had some very uplifting words. "Just remember that as long as you make time for Him and He'll make sure you get everything else done too" is what he said verbatim and I've seen the truth in that tonight. I can't remember being so productive in the studio as I was tonight. I cut out about 95 wood pieces in the wood shop in less than 4 hours. Now I'm in the process of glueing them all together and it's apparent that He's blessing my work right now because it's just going too well for how little effort I feel like I'm putting into it. This reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2 verse 24 : "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God."
If anyone reading this hasn't read Ecclesiastes all the way through, I highly recommend it. It's not too long and full of more poetic wisdom than you can shake a stick at.
About ten minutes into prayer, I fell into temptation and lied down on the bench where I sat(1.5 - 2 hours of sleep that morning). Soon after I had slipped from consciousness, and I'm not sure how long it was but I awoke from a raindrop grazing my face. I went back up a little disappointed because of how sorry it was, knowing how far away it was from where it needs to be spiritually.
Later tonight I got another reminder from and old friend, Michael Welch, and he also had some very uplifting words. "Just remember that as long as you make time for Him and He'll make sure you get everything else done too" is what he said verbatim and I've seen the truth in that tonight. I can't remember being so productive in the studio as I was tonight. I cut out about 95 wood pieces in the wood shop in less than 4 hours. Now I'm in the process of glueing them all together and it's apparent that He's blessing my work right now because it's just going too well for how little effort I feel like I'm putting into it. This reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2 verse 24 : "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God."
If anyone reading this hasn't read Ecclesiastes all the way through, I highly recommend it. It's not too long and full of more poetic wisdom than you can shake a stick at.
# 1
It's about time I started some more personal reflection so I can grow more spiritually and as a person but also to keep a record of my thought processes to see in the future how far I've come. I guess a blog in essence is a portfolio of thoughts and feelings in text format, and that's how I plan to use it. If you decide to follow along, I hope you find this intriguing and uplifting.
I suppose I should begin by expanding on my choice of blog title. The basic and most visible definition I can place on "nothingness" is my fascination with the vastness of space and my romance with any adventure into the unknown. This blog is like an adventure inside myself and hopefully a tool for finding out who God is as well, both of which are life-long adventures. The next definition I pull from the title speaks of my relationship with God(and the universe He created). When I stand on the beach, I can see a maximum of 10 miles in to the ocean before my field of vision vanishes and my physical awareness finds a contextual boundary. That boundary is less than 0.05% percent of the earth's surface, rendering me a speck compared to this terrestrial globe. How much smaller am I then, when compared to our puny solar system, again to an arm of this galaxy, again to the Milky Way, again to our galaxy cluster, again to the universe, and then again to the God that created this universe? I'm less than nothing. Almost everything I do in my meaningless life is dust in the wind, apart from God. And yet He finds it necessary, first to create me, and second to love and bless me more than I can ever comprehend? This truth blows my mind. I don't deserve any of that; I deserve to go to hell. But our loving God sent his only Son to die on the cross for the sins I have committed and will commit so that I can be with him someday in Heaven!?! And then He came back to life?!?!?! It's crazy but it's true. And the craziest part is what you can do with the Lord guiding you through his perfect plan. He alone can make your life worth something in terms of eternity, which is an unachievable goal by any other method. So, the title is meant to remind me of the nothingness that I am, but even more so, the something that He is.
That's the gist of my doctrine on things, and this may not be the best way to witness, but this is my blog and I'd like to briefly point out problems I have with some other worldly viewpoints. This is probably offending and mostly just spiritual venting. Keep in mind that I was raised a Southern Baptist.
Atheism: Confuses me. By being an atheist, even you believe that your life is completely worthless and yet you still keep living all the same... What a waste of time! Logically, I would just kill myself or I guess what most do is just live for their own pleasures. If you can look at your fingernail or the night sky and still deny God then.... well I don't know what to tell you. That's amazing to me. You must be an awesome person.
Judaism: Jesus fulfilled all of the professies of the Old Testament as the Messiah. You missed the boat...
Islam: There is way too much hatred in the Koran to do any good. It's also so based in rules and codes that I find it impossible to believe that any Muslim that is praying five times a day to the same God that I have a personal relationship with. They may be the same theoretically, but according to the Koran, Allah and God act completely different from each other. Why only pray 5 times? Why not 500?
Mormonism: Following rules and doing good deeds doesn't get you into heaven. It also says at the end of the Bible not to add to the Bible, which you did... Jesus didn't come over to America and preach to the Native Americans... there would've been a few more converts before the pilgrims...
Jehovah's Witnesses: I can't even begin... turns heaven into something that's earned and even puts a cap on it. No one can possibly deserve to go to heaven other than Jesus himself. And you can't celebrate birthdays?? How could you make a child feel more worthless... A disgusting perversion of my God's name.
Christian Science: Say you've got a headache or are in pain, and God blesses you with the modern convenience of aspirin. Sure, you can pray that the headache is relieved, but medicinal drugs are not sinful substances when not abused.
Assorted Protestant Denominations: Baptism is nothing but a symbol to show your congregation that you've accepted Jesus as your personal savior. The act does NOT save you in any way shape or form. Jesus was baptized not to be saved but to publicly symbolize the beginning of His ministry. Our baptisms publicly symbolize the beginning of our relationship with Him.
Catholicism: I do commend the modern catholics on their ability to stay united. I don't believe that Mary(The mother of Jesus) has any special power. She was a human(virgin), chosen by God to bring His Son into the world and raise him. After she birthed Jesus, I doubt she was a virgin for much longer seeing as she, at the very least, had one other son that was fairly close to Jesus's age. So it bothers me when she's referred to as the Virgin Mary and it's not right to hail her over or equal to Jesus, because she was a human just like you and I, and cannot intercede between you and God; only Jesus can. That gets into the first commandment.. Same goes for confession... You shouldn't need a preist to intercede either; you can confess your sins to Jesus yourself. Accountability is important, though, I'm just saying it doesn't have to be your priest that holds you accountable. I used to be really close-minded and thought that catholics weren't saved, but I've met a few since then that did have healthy relationships with Jesus. It's just like every other denomination. A lot of people just go through the motions without any real connection with the Almighty, but there are still genuine ones that have it right.
When it comes down to it, religion in itself is stupid and pointless. A complete waste of time and energy. Unless there is a personal relationship between you and God, you're better off recovering from a hangover Sunday morning than attending any type of religious gathering. But in owning that relationship, worship, some teaching, and fellowship with other people that also have that relationship is the best way to keeping it alive and thriving. That rant should give you a good idea of my ideology of the christian doctrine, and the responses in this blog are probably coming from this standpoint, since it's my current standpoint.
I love God! I hope you do too and nothing I say or do can ever stop Him from loving you and me. It's time to get real.
I suppose I should begin by expanding on my choice of blog title. The basic and most visible definition I can place on "nothingness" is my fascination with the vastness of space and my romance with any adventure into the unknown. This blog is like an adventure inside myself and hopefully a tool for finding out who God is as well, both of which are life-long adventures. The next definition I pull from the title speaks of my relationship with God(and the universe He created). When I stand on the beach, I can see a maximum of 10 miles in to the ocean before my field of vision vanishes and my physical awareness finds a contextual boundary. That boundary is less than 0.05% percent of the earth's surface, rendering me a speck compared to this terrestrial globe. How much smaller am I then, when compared to our puny solar system, again to an arm of this galaxy, again to the Milky Way, again to our galaxy cluster, again to the universe, and then again to the God that created this universe? I'm less than nothing. Almost everything I do in my meaningless life is dust in the wind, apart from God. And yet He finds it necessary, first to create me, and second to love and bless me more than I can ever comprehend? This truth blows my mind. I don't deserve any of that; I deserve to go to hell. But our loving God sent his only Son to die on the cross for the sins I have committed and will commit so that I can be with him someday in Heaven!?! And then He came back to life?!?!?! It's crazy but it's true. And the craziest part is what you can do with the Lord guiding you through his perfect plan. He alone can make your life worth something in terms of eternity, which is an unachievable goal by any other method. So, the title is meant to remind me of the nothingness that I am, but even more so, the something that He is.
That's the gist of my doctrine on things, and this may not be the best way to witness, but this is my blog and I'd like to briefly point out problems I have with some other worldly viewpoints. This is probably offending and mostly just spiritual venting. Keep in mind that I was raised a Southern Baptist.
Atheism: Confuses me. By being an atheist, even you believe that your life is completely worthless and yet you still keep living all the same... What a waste of time! Logically, I would just kill myself or I guess what most do is just live for their own pleasures. If you can look at your fingernail or the night sky and still deny God then.... well I don't know what to tell you. That's amazing to me. You must be an awesome person.
Judaism: Jesus fulfilled all of the professies of the Old Testament as the Messiah. You missed the boat...
Islam: There is way too much hatred in the Koran to do any good. It's also so based in rules and codes that I find it impossible to believe that any Muslim that is praying five times a day to the same God that I have a personal relationship with. They may be the same theoretically, but according to the Koran, Allah and God act completely different from each other. Why only pray 5 times? Why not 500?
Mormonism: Following rules and doing good deeds doesn't get you into heaven. It also says at the end of the Bible not to add to the Bible, which you did... Jesus didn't come over to America and preach to the Native Americans... there would've been a few more converts before the pilgrims...
Jehovah's Witnesses: I can't even begin... turns heaven into something that's earned and even puts a cap on it. No one can possibly deserve to go to heaven other than Jesus himself. And you can't celebrate birthdays?? How could you make a child feel more worthless... A disgusting perversion of my God's name.
Christian Science: Say you've got a headache or are in pain, and God blesses you with the modern convenience of aspirin. Sure, you can pray that the headache is relieved, but medicinal drugs are not sinful substances when not abused.
Assorted Protestant Denominations: Baptism is nothing but a symbol to show your congregation that you've accepted Jesus as your personal savior. The act does NOT save you in any way shape or form. Jesus was baptized not to be saved but to publicly symbolize the beginning of His ministry. Our baptisms publicly symbolize the beginning of our relationship with Him.
Catholicism: I do commend the modern catholics on their ability to stay united. I don't believe that Mary(The mother of Jesus) has any special power. She was a human(virgin), chosen by God to bring His Son into the world and raise him. After she birthed Jesus, I doubt she was a virgin for much longer seeing as she, at the very least, had one other son that was fairly close to Jesus's age. So it bothers me when she's referred to as the Virgin Mary and it's not right to hail her over or equal to Jesus, because she was a human just like you and I, and cannot intercede between you and God; only Jesus can. That gets into the first commandment.. Same goes for confession... You shouldn't need a preist to intercede either; you can confess your sins to Jesus yourself. Accountability is important, though, I'm just saying it doesn't have to be your priest that holds you accountable. I used to be really close-minded and thought that catholics weren't saved, but I've met a few since then that did have healthy relationships with Jesus. It's just like every other denomination. A lot of people just go through the motions without any real connection with the Almighty, but there are still genuine ones that have it right.
When it comes down to it, religion in itself is stupid and pointless. A complete waste of time and energy. Unless there is a personal relationship between you and God, you're better off recovering from a hangover Sunday morning than attending any type of religious gathering. But in owning that relationship, worship, some teaching, and fellowship with other people that also have that relationship is the best way to keeping it alive and thriving. That rant should give you a good idea of my ideology of the christian doctrine, and the responses in this blog are probably coming from this standpoint, since it's my current standpoint.
I love God! I hope you do too and nothing I say or do can ever stop Him from loving you and me. It's time to get real.
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