Christmas!

Since it is right after Christmas, I decided to post my paper I wrote about Christmas! :) 

If you could ask Jesus a question, what would it be? My question would be, “The first time that You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior? And the first breath that left Your lips, did You know that it would change this world forever?”(Relient-K). Around 2-4 B.C., in Bethlehem, the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Life Application Study Bible). The birth of Jesus was a single act motivated by the most unconditional and everlasting love of all, the love of God for His creation.  Because of the familiarity of the Christmas story, humans often overlook the overpowering nature of what God did in that moment. In one second the whole universe changed. The birth of Christ is the prime example of God’s love and humility and is the day that marked the destruction of Satan.

God’s limitless love is what brought Him to a manger in Bethlehem and later brought him down the long path to Calvary. Christ coming to earth is the act of sublime love and humility whereby God took it upon Himself to enter into the depths of our world, our life, and our reality in order that the reconciliation and consequent union between God and humanity may be brought about (Frost and Hirsch). By becoming human, Jesus guides the path of how to become stronger Christians and how to love others. His ordinariness invites us to follow him by providing us with a template of how to be Godlike even as an ordinary human being (Frost and Hirsch). Jesus shows us that love is not optional; it is a command from God, and that our love is a reflection of our intimacy with Him.

Jesus becoming a human also shows the radical humility of God. For many people the humanity of Christ is one of the most difficult and uncomfortable things to grasp due to the extreme humility. Christians are quick to accept that Jesus is all-powerful and worthy of worship and praise. However it is harder to face that Jesus became completely human and that he came humbly to serve us. Duane Elmer says, “When God chose to connect with humans, he did so as a servant.” The first earthly image we get of Christ is of Jesus in a stable. Contrary to most Christmas cards, stables were dark and dirty; they were not the surroundings the Jews expected as the birthplace of the Messiah (Life Application Study Bible). The scene announces humility, weakness, exposure, vulnerability and lowliness. The last image we got of Jesus as he ends his earthly life is a broken body hanging on the cross. The scene communicates humiliation, suffering, failure and, to many, defeat (Elmer). This ultimate humility makes it hard for some to comprehend Christ being fully human.

When Christ was born, the destruction of Satan had begun. 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God came for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s work.” Jesus Christ came to earth to save us from our sins and to spare us from hell. Genesis 3:15 correlates with this by saying, “One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel.” This verse is predicting Satan’s repeated attempts to defeat Christ during his life on earth. “One…will crush your head” foreshadows Satan’s defeat when Christ rose from the dead. A bruise on the heel is not deadly, but a strike on the head is. God is already revealing his plan to defeat Satan and offer salvation to the world through his Son, Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God has already gone through its darkest night. The most dismal evil in all history found its absolute limits at Calvary (Blue). Christ came to destroy Satan’s work in the earth.

The devil has turned Christmas from a time of celebration of Jesus Christ, into a selfish holiday. Christmas in our culture is centered around presents and receiving instead of Christ and serving. God is not bound or hindered by culture since He is sovereign, but He chooses to use diversity in culture as a way to interact with His creation (Craft). The prince of this world has made us the focus of this holiday. May we focus on the verses in Matthew which says store up treasures in Heaven and whatever we do for the least of people, we do for the Lord. Our obsessions are discovered by where we spend our time and money. When we obsess over worldly things we fail to focus on what matters. God’s first commandment requires us to be obsessed with Him alone. Christmas is meant to praise the King of Kings for his humility and love towards us. Jesus saved us from an eternity in hell and for this we should always be thankful. My favorite Christmas song ends with the verse, “and I, celebrate the day, that you were born to die, so I could one day pray for you to save my life” (Relient-K). Christmas is a time of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for what he has done for us.

Reflection on the Rhythms project

Going into this project I was soo excited. I wanted to follow after Mark 10:45 and serve others. I wanted to humble myself and also follow 1 Peter 5:6 which says "Be humble under God's powerful hand so he will lift you up when the right time comes." I was praying that through this project I would have a stronger relationship with God and that I would WANT to serve others. I wanted to keep an open heart and open ears so that I could hear what God was trying to tell me. I wanted to be a blessing to others and become vulnerable and open up to them through the process. I knew it would get stressful and hard sometimes but I was prepared. Now here I am after this project and I feel like I have grown so much. My eyes have been opened and I know what God had been trying to tell me. One of the main things through this topic that I learned was that people want to be heard! And it seems like we have increased our ability to escelate our voices and adjust the volume on listening to our friends. We communicate in two sentences or less now. We have become so selfish. We want everyone to hear us, but we want to control the amount of listening we take in. I learned that I need to become such a better listener, not reader, not another social network follower, but a listener. The world has been lieing to me by telling me that my voice needs to be heard and it has reduced my listening skills. I need to go listen. Let people finish their sentences... share their hearts... and feel like they have been heard! I have LOVED this project and it has taught me soo much and things that I want to continue doing. I feel like I have grown spiritually, which was my overall goal for this whole process!

Missions Outreach #2

Okay so for my second outreach I wanted to do something different, but I couldn't really find a time to go work at MAM or Salvation Army or work at the HFBC Christmas Store because of my crazy hectic school plan with homework and everything on the weekends. So I was trying to think of how I could do  an outreach and I realized that I could go help the homeless people. I pass by like three homeless people a day in Houston, and my heart just breaks for them. A few years ago if you talked to me about homeless people, the LAST thing you would get from me would be a broken heart. I had a hard heart and thought that homeless people could get jobs and lives if they wanted to, but they are just addicted people and are getting the easy way out. It hurts me to think I used to be like this, but at the same time I praise God for the work He has done in my life. The homeless are hurting. They are in tough positions of their life and just need someone to care. I'll tell a quick story about my brother a month ago. He was going to Burger King and saw a homeless man and just kinda felt bad for him, but went on to get his food. So he went inside to get his food and he couldn't stop thinking about this man. So Christopher decided that God put it on his heart to help this man. So he bought a bag full of food and brought it to the man and the guy was sooo thankful. He ended up talking to Christopher and told him about why he was homeless and stuff. This man had been in Oklahoma with his brother to get a job and something happened so the brother kicked him out, the guy had a family back at home in a city an hour and a half away from Lubbock. He had been traveling for three years to get back to his family and he was still slowly traveling back home. So after hearing this story my brother left, got a full tank of gas, went back and picked up the man, and drove him to the town he was trying to get too. The man told him that he wasn't going to be able to pay him or give anything to him because he truly had nothing. Christopher just told him that he didn't want anything and the guy was soo shocked that he was just being nice. My brother really got to know this guy on the hour and a half drive and then when he got to the house the man went to the door and when his sister saw him she just embraced him and cried because she got to see her brother had been gone. So anyways my brother was SOOO blessed through this and I decided to do something along the same lines soo I went and got some food and gave it to three homeless people and they were all soo appreciative and I just felt soo unbelievably blessed through this experience. I learned to be WAY more thankful and appreciative of everything I have and I just LOVE giving! It makes me feel SO good :) So I want to keep giving!(:

Missions Outreach

Last Friday, I went to Champions Community Church with Tyler Hoffman, Sam Kaestner, Lindsey Flesch, and Ryan Reeter. We all went to Ryans house and then headed over to the church. I loveee going to Champions and playing with these little kids. They are so so sweet and fun to be around and just adore everyone! Two groups of kids kept tackling and pulling down Sam and Tyler and it was just soo funny to watch at least eight kids try to bring them down and the kids were having so much fun doing it, hahahah. I talked to a lot of the same little kids this time. The girl that I have been talking to since the first time I went showed me her new boyfriend Wesley. It was soo cute she was like "Well we don't talk... but he is my boyfriend!! We just go to school together and 'go out'!" I love talking to her just because she is older than the other kids but still hangs out with all of them. When we went into the rooms later on she was soo proud to say "I'm one of the leaders this time!!" She is really cute and crazy and wants to live for Jesus and I love that!! Then there was the little girl who just LOVES everything!! and I mean everything!! I am soo jealous of her love! Every two seconds she is saying, "this is kinda fun!!" or "do you want to know whats fun??" and I love hearing her talk about what she loves because the list goes on and on! If you ask her if she loves something she will most likely say yes :). So as the night got on (after Lindsey got pegged in the eye with a ping pong ball) we went into the room and started playing games. My table played bingo and it was really fun to watch them get so excited off of a silly game, with no prize, that I usually find boring. It was also really cool to watch some of the 7 to 8 year olds help the younger kids around 5 who didn't know their alphabet so that they could play the game, it was soo sweet and genuine. I really, really liked going to Champions again, I don't think I will ever not like it. One of the things that going here always does for me is it gives me an eye-opener. I live in the world of Houston Christian, the world where sports cars are the norm, and big houses are a must. I live in the world that focuses on money and material possessions. Going to Champions always shows me how much I take for granted the things that God has blessed me with. Not only did he bless me with a full family, friends, and things I need to survive, but He has blessed me with so many things as well. I had a lot of fun going to Champions with the four other people in Practical Missions and I'm looking forward to doing it again!