The Tiny Fingers Of God

The greatest miracle of this season is the birth of Jesus Christ.  We celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior, and talk about him being the Lord of lords, King of kings, Prince of peace, and so on.  Christ is majestic and holy, glorious and mighty, and we need to never forget that.  But I think that the extent of the miracle is sometimes forgotten.

Jesus was born human.  It's so hard for us to understand this because He is God incarnate, a holy being brought into a mortal form.  We honor and acknowledge His divinity, but forget His mortality.  Jesus was perfect, but He was also as human as the rest of us, with all that being human entails.

When Mary gave birth to Jesus, there were labor pains and contractions.  She had to change Jesus and clean him up after he went to the bathroom.  Jesus had to learn how to walk, as being ethically and spiritually perfect doesn't give automatic balance; this means he also would have fallen down and bruised himself.  Jesus had to learn how to talk as any child does.  He had to learn his father's tade, how to read, write, and count.  Jesus Christ had to grow, learn, and develop just like any of the rest of us. 

To me, this makes the miracle of Jesus even more special.  He truly experienced everything that we do.  He had challenges and hardships just like the rest of us.  He had siblings to deal with, adults to learn from, and pains to deal with.  Having gone through all of this makes Him even better at understanding us and being able to intercede for us before God.

Let's celebrate the miracle of the birth of Jesus as a human. And recognize that the true miracle is that Christ is just as human as He is divine.  The true miracle is not His birth, but Jesus himself!

Are You Really Listening?

We're officially in the Christmas season, and that means lots of Christmas music playing.  You can hear it in the malls, on TV, and all over the radio with some stations playing nothing but seasonal music.  Just about everyone in America can sing at least a little of songs like "Joy To The World", "Silent Night", and "O Little Town of Bethlehem". These songs are ubiquitous and a part of our societal culture.  But how many people are really listening to the words?

Traditional Christmas songs are all about the birth of Jesus, how wonderful that is, and how much that has changed our world.

Round yon virgin, mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild.

Joy, to the world, the Lord is come.
Let Earth receive her king.

When people sing these songs, are they really paying attention to what they are saying?  Is there meaning behind these words anymore, or do people just sing along without understanding the meaning behind the lyrics?  These songs have powerful messages of wonder and joy.  And they're all about Jesus!

So as you listen to the music this season, take time to stop and actually hear the words. Take them to heart, and make an effort to understand them.  I think you may be surprised at how it can warm you better than any heater.

Give Thanks

I like looking in the Bible and seeing how many times a word comes up.  I feel that this can indicate how important God thinks that topic is.  Today is the holiday of Thanksgiving, so I looked in the Bible (through the wonders of computer programs) and found that words containing "thanks" appear 110 times.

Sometimes when things are going really bad in our lives, we have a hard time finding anything to be thankful for.  It can be very hard to look to God and find something to thank Him for.  Yet that's probably the best thing for us to do. It's easy to be thankful in the good times.  But when times are tough, and we take the time to seek out something to be thankful for, we can focus on that bright spot.

The brightest spot of all is God Himself.  No matter what else is happening, we can thank Him for who He is.  He is gracious, loving, merciful, powerful, and focused on wanting the best for us.  So today take some time to thank God for at least one thing in your life.

Where Is Your Heart?

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12:34

This is a passage that is pretty familiar to most Christians.  And I think most people misunderstand the meaning.  Many people seem to think that it means "whatever you feel with your heart, that's where you will put your resources."  But this is not the correct interpretation.  Take a look at the words again.  The passage means "where you put your resources indicates where your heart is."

I've been a bit convicted of this recently, considering the infrequent updates of this blog.  I update my other blog multiple times per week, but this one is lucky to get updated that many times per month.  Where do I put most of my effort?  That's apparently where my heart is, and this isn't a good thing.

As a veterinarian, I see people spend more money on grooming their dogs than doing proper preventative care.  Preventing disease is much more important to the pet's health, but the people put their priority on the physical appearance of the pet.  I think most people would agree that the pet owner is putting the emphasis on the wrong thing.  This indicates that their "heart" is not on the true care of the pet.

Don't we do this with God?  How many times do we fail to pay tithe or give to our church but then go out and spend $50 on a meal?  How many times do we fail to spend five minutes per day reading the Bible, yet will spend a few hours watching TV?  And I'm as guilty of this as anyone else!  It's easy for us to put things related to God on the back burner in our lives, making other things a priority.  And I'm afraid this indicates that our heart isn't on God.

So let's pray for each other to start putting our treasures where our heart should be...on God!

Joyful?

The word "joy", or words containing it (such as "joyful"), appears in the Bible 242 times.  So it must be important, right?


For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
Deuteronomy 16:15


David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.
1 Chronicles 15:16

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
Job 8:21


The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
Psalm 19:8


But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.
Pslam 68:3

So exactly what is joy?  And how do we feel it?  Honestly, I wish that I had all of the answers.  Sure, it's easy to talk about being joyful, but it's pretty hard to actually do.  As Christians we should have "the joy of the Lord" at all times.  Right?  But then the car breaks down when our bills haven't been paid, our paycheck isn't what we thought it would be, our boss is driving us crazy, our kids are failing, and so on...  Maintaining that joy can be pretty hard at times.

Maybe it would help to see exactly what joy is.  I mean, do we really know what that word means and what it feels like?  Here's a video you may or may not have seen.



That's how God wants us to be!  No worries, no thoughts, just delight in His creation.  That baby elk is having a ton of fun.  Now, I know, that animal doesn't have bills and responsibilities.  But maybe...just maybe...we can sometimes put those things away.  When we pause and concentrate on God, we can feel that Joy. 

unChristian: Hypocritical

So now that things have calmed down a bit in my own life (just finished performing in Much Ado About Nothing with my wife), I can get back to my plan to further discuss David Kinnaman's book, unChristian.  Today I want to concentrate on one of the biggest perceptions about Christians...that we are hypocritical.

What does it mean to be hypocritical?  Basically it means to say one thing and do another.  With Christians it means talking a lot about God, Jesus, and the teachings of the Bible, but not acting on them in any significant way.  One quote from Kinnaman's book really grabbed me, and it speaks to some Christians.  A woman told of her husband abusing her, "even though he taught Bible studies about how husbands should love their wives."  A man interviewed for the study said "My former pastor used to teach baptism by immersion, then he got a better job with the Presbyterians and now he teachs baptism can be done by sprinkling.  What you believe depends on where your paycheck is coming from, I guess." 

Wow, is this how Christians are really seen?  Among young non-Christians surveyed, 85% know at least one commited Christian, yet only 15% thought that the lifestyles of those Christians were singificantly different from the norm.  When born-again believers were surveyed as to their own lifestyles, they were statistically just as likely as non-Christians to gamble, become drunk, view pornography, and other bad behaviors.  I hate to say it, but it's not rare to see Christians talking a lot about how Christ is working in their lives, but then failing to see this happening.  I've seen it in people around me, and have been guilty of it myself.

So what does all of this mean?  Well, we Christians are human, and full of sin just like anyone else.  Unfortunately, having a faith in Jesus does not keep us from making mistakes.  We're going to mess up despite our best intentions.  But hopefully we won't do it as willingly as non-Christians.

Kinnaman talks about "transparency", and I think this can be a good model.  This means that we need to be open with people about our failings, and apologize for them.  We can't have a "holier than thou" attitude and think that we're better than anyone else.  When we mess up, we need to fess up (to draw on my Southern heritage) and admit to the mistake.  We also need to have transparency about ourselves, realize our hypocracy, and work hard to fix this problem.  Knowing that we're ambassadors from Jesus to the world, and that our actions influence people's opinions about God, Jesus, and Christianity, we need to more actively study our own behaviors and see if they meet with the Bible's standards.  Holding a mirror up to ourselves is a difficult but necessary step.

If we're going to have people believe what we say about God, we need them to be able to trust us.  If they see us as hypocrites, they won't give us that trust.  We also want people to be drawn to Christianity and want to become Christians.  But to do that, we need to show them a better, non-hypocrotical person.

unChristian

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a book at Family Christian Bookstore that was 50% off...unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. I am a non-traditional Christian and came from a background where Christ wasn't the center of our family. Having come to faith in Jesus later in life, I have a different perspective than many Christians. So I am interested in how to reach people in a non-traditional way (hence the way I do ministries). So this book caught my attention.

Kinnaman works for the Barna Group, a well-known polling company who studies Christianity and religious trends in society. This book is the result of extensive study of the opinions and views of people both within and without Christianity. The data is fascinating, especially in how "outsiders" view Christians. Kinnaman focuses on six big viewpoints of these people towards Christianity, why they feel this way, and what we might be able to do to change these perceptions. I'm not going to go into too many details now, as I plan on discussing it more during this month.

Frankly, I think that this book should be required reading for anyone involved in minstry or churches. There are reasons why younger people are turning away from Christianity, and we have done it to ourselves. By appearing judgemental, hypocritical, bigoted, and other negative traits, we have pushed people away from us. Our attitudes have taken away from the true message that God has for us. Really, we have no one to blame but ourselves. This is why every Christian minister and teacher should absolutely read this book. Believe me, it will change how you view your duties, outreach, and the world around you.

But that's a good thing. We need to recapture society and be viewed differently. Only by showing people how wonderful God is and his incredible grace will people want to turn to Him. And it's really about people wanting to be involved with Jesus....we can't force them to. The message is great, but we need to improve as messengers. Since we did this to ourselves and to God's Kingdom, we can also change it back. A book like unChristian can help us by identifying our failures. It's a harsh mirror that Kinnaman holds up, but it's one we need to look in.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I will be briefly discussing some of the highlights of it in the upcoming weeks, but it won't be the same as reading the book yourself. Click on the image to go to one of the online retailers where you can buy it.