This week we are looking at becoming spiritually “fit”, which includes exercise just as physical fitness does. So far we have discovered that becoming spiritually fit starts with an understanding that Life is first about God, and then about the welfare of others. To properly serve others requires the right motivation and attitude. Once our world view shift to be God- and other-focused, and our attitude and motives align with God’s heart, we will discover that our acts of service are synchronized with our faith. Today we will list a number of ways you can live your faith responsibly.
Christmas day is nearly upon us; our celebration of the first advent of the Messiah is only hours away. Children are anxious about the presents under the tree and adults are anxious (in a good or bad way) about seeing the extended family. Like the good father Jesus speaks about in Luke 11.11-12 we all want to give good gifts. What does that mean today? In 1983 the go-to gift was a Cabbage Patch doll, in 1995 it was Beanie-Babies. An iPod was the must-have gift of 2002. What gift are you giving your family this year? Will it matter?
Silent night. Holy night. Is not tonight. Jesus may have come to save humanity from sin, Santa may make annual runs to reward good girls and boys, but Krampus arrives to punish the bad with terror and judgment. Taken from an ancient Germanic legend, the demonic creature is described as a goat-man who is the “shadow of Saint Nicholas”, and has the dark imagery of Grimm’s fairy tales where evil children don’t just get their just desserts, they actually are dessert.
We’ve spent the last two days discovering and attempting to understand the one reason it is okay to spill blood, today we’ll look at the one occasion when it’s appropriate to give up one’s own life.
Last week we examined Biblical passages that expressed the sanctity of life. Human life is precious to God and as such it ought to be precious to us as well. We hear this argument frequently when contending against abortion, and sometimes when discussing capital punishment and murder, and once in a while in conversations about suicide.
Yesterday we looked at how to strengthen faith, to become a strong believer. This week we’ll continue looking back at other writings on this site as well as new material to train our thinking and actions in order that both work simultaneously and in sync with our faith. We mentioned that we need to challenge ourselves if we want to change ourselves. One of the ways we can challenge our faith is in service to others, but before we do that we need to understand how that service is to be rendered. In that regard, motives are everything.
The Messiah’s first appearance in history is called “good news”, have you ever wondered why? If you don’t know why it’s the absolute best news you’ve ever heard, then you don’t know Jack, erm, Jesus. Picture a fallen world filled with millions of people all of whom are eternal beings undergoing a temporary, physical experience. Every one of these immortal beings were “fallen”, meaning that the fleeting physical life they try to enjoy is the precursor of an unending judgment by fire. There was absolutely no action humankind could take to change their fate.
In part three of our series on facing violence we’ll look at the issue of self-defense. So far we’ve learned that life is precious, in part because God thinks so and in part because we are made in his image. Most of the time taking a life is deserving of capital punishment. In the case of accidental death the punishment is less severe but still very real. The only circumstance under which one may shed the blood of another is in the preservation of life, which applies directly to the most recent acts of evil perpetrated in Paris, Colorado Springs and San Bernardino.
One of the first articles to appear on this site is titled “Spiritual Fitness” and it provides the foundation for building one’s spiritual physique. The primary concept for developing spiritual muscle is inverting our understanding of life from believing it to be a primarily physical existence to a primarily spiritual one. This defies the wisdom of our age that teaches man is only a biological machine and denies any kind of spiritual life. This is in opposition to the world view of the ancients – including the Bible’s authors – that man is an eternal spiritual being living a temporary physical existence.
Those who attended church this last Sunday may have seen a word in their bulletin or on a banner hung in the sanctuary or on a sign out front that was unfamiliar to them. That word is “immanuel”, and in case it wasn’t explained to last Sunday you should know that it means “God with us.” This word is often used as a name for Jesus, for while he was here on earth he was literally “God with us.” As we’ve been speaking about the “why” of Jesus’s birth we have made mention of this idea but today I want explore it in deeper and more meaningful way. Quite simply, the answer we need to ask ourselves is this: does the idea of God being present before me evoke feelings of terror or relief?
This time of year we hear two words everywhere. No, it’s not “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”. We hear these words related to TV shows, retail sales events and even in restaurants. The words I’m speaking of are, of course, “Christmas Special”. Hallmark Chanel has been running Christmas RomComs since Thanksgiving weekend, stores like Best Buy and Kohls engineer sales and one day or even three-hour “flash sales” events and family restaurants create menu’s filled with turkey dinners and egg nog. Are these the things that make Christmas special?
