Thanks

So we just came through the Thanksgiving season. I just wanted to take a few moments and reflect on what I'm thankful for in my life.

First of all I am thankful for the gift of salvation. I am constantly reminded that nothing is worth anything without this gift and blessing. It wouldn't matter if I was the most famous, richest, most popular, coolest person on the face of the planet, if I was dead in my sins it would gain me nothing. However, even if I am the least known, poorest, most unpopular, most uncool person on the face of the planet, if I have salvation through Christ nothing else matters. I would trade every other blessing and gift I've been given in my life just for that gift of salvation.

Second, I'm incredibly thankful for my family. I love each and every one of them, both my immediate and extended family. They have stood by and supported me through all of the trials and tribulations of my life and I thank God every day for giving me such awesome relatives.

Third, I am also incredibly thankful for my friends. I love all of the friends I have made through the years, and many of you cross the line between family and friends. Thank you so much for your love and support and friendship.

Fourth, I'm thankful to have a job. While at times I get frustrated that I'm not in the position and place I would like to be, and where I had envisioned myself at this point in my life I know I am where I need to be right now. I am learning a lot where I am that will help me in the future as I move forward and grow. I am aware that I am blessed to have any job right now, and am thankful that God has given me a job that meets the needs I currently have.

I have so much more to be thankful for than just these things, but it would take forever to go through all of them, and these four things broadly cover all of what I'm thankful for. So again, I thank God for every blessing he has poured out, and I'm looking forward to what he is going to do in the coming year.

Lewis and the Bible

So, having not posted in a while (well since February) I don't really know where to start. I don't know if anyone actually ever reads this, and honestly it doesn't really matter if anyone ever does. It just helps to get my thoughts out in writing sometimes... Well I could write about the end of the winter and spring, about the summer, or about anything that happened between my last post and now... But I have something else in mind...

The other day I was watching the "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." The Chronicles of Narnia is one of my favorite book series. When I was a little kid I used to read through them (all 7 of them) at least once a year. I would imagine myself as High King Peter, battling with the White Witch; or as Prince Caspian or Eustace or any number of the characters going on all of the various adventures which take place throughout the series. I would check closets and wardrobes and other various locations always hoping that Narnia was real and that I could get there. Now, having grown up, I am aware that Narnia is not a real place, and that the various characters are completely fiction. However I also now more fully understand the nuances and parallels of the story.

You see the Chronicles, and various other books and series, were written by a man named C.S. Lewis. And Lewis was part of a group of other authors at Oxford called the "Inklings," another famous member of this group was J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the "Lord of the Rings" series. Originally an Atheist from the age of 15, through his dealings with J.R.R. Tolkien and other various authors and books, he slowly rediscovered Christianity. And so in most of his books Lewis uses Christian Allegory.

So anyway, back to "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." I was watching it, and remembering all of the analogies to Christianity and Christ. Of course Aslan is the Narnian equivalent of Christ, and the White Witch is the equivalent of Satan and evil. The eternal winter represents the state of being in sin, and the return of spring represents salvation. I had always noticed the parallels between Aslan's sacrifice and that of Christ's; Aslan's on the stone table and Christ's on the cross, but it wasn't until this viewing of the movie that I made yet another connection.

You see, when Edmond first entered into Narnia, before Peter or Susan had entered, he had lost his way and been found by the White Witch. She had enticed him to come again, this time with his brother and two sisters. Edmond believed that she would make him a king, and that his siblings would be his servants. He would rule over all of them, and all of Narnia as well. Now Aslan had different plans for the four Pevensies; he wanted to make all four of them Kings and Queens in Narnia. But Edmond, having been deceived by the White Witch, betrayed Aslan and his siblings. He tried to hand them over to the White Witch, but was unable to, and she betrayed him as well, essentially making him a prisoner and a slave.

You see, the White Witch knew the prophecy, that two sons of Adam, and two daughters of Eve, would sit on the throne and rule over Narnia, and her powers would be abolished. And so she had hoped that by destroying Edmond and his siblings, this prophecy would be undone and she would hold power forever. And she also knew the "deep magic" that the blood of a traitor belonged to her. And so essentially Edmond was hers because he had betrayed his siblings and Aslan and the whole of Narnia.

Isn't this how the devil works in our lives too? I mean he knows that God has plans to prosper us, he knows that God wants to make us like Christ and to give us life. And so he tries to entice us. He promises us prosperity, and godlikeness! The only problem is, that, like the White Witch he wants us to do it for our own benefit, in a different way than what God has for us. And for  a while it may work out, you may live like a king, you may have all the Turkish Delight that you want. But eventually it all breaks down. You no longer live like a king, you have become a slave and a prisoner to sin and death. Then you belong to Satan; the deep magic says that all traitors, all sinners belong to him.

But then the cool thing is Aslan steps in. He meets with the White Witch, and substitutes himself, his own life, for Edmond. Edmond is no longer the property of the Witch, he is free, and rejoins his brother and sisters, and begins to prepare for the battle that is soon to take place. Aslan is now in Edmond's place, he is now at the mercy of the White Witch and her minions, and he goes to meet them at the stone table.

This is exactly what Christ has done for us. We have all sinned and all are deserving of the punishment of death (Romans 3:23; 6:23). But Christ took our place; he substituted his own life for ours. We are free of the bondage to Satan and death if we choose to accept it. Christ humbled himself and became obedient to Satan and death on the cross (Philippians 2:8).

Now the part that really stood out to me while I was watching the movie this time was the celebration of the White Witch and her minions as they bound Aslan. I was disgusted by their arrogance and jubilation. They acted like they had defeated Aslan of their own power and might. They acted as if they had fought a long battle and had emerged victorious. But the truth is, the only power they had over Aslan was what power he allowed them to have. At any moment he could have thrown off his bonds and destroyed them all. He gave himself up willingly. They did not defeat him; he allowed himself to be taken. And they behaved as if all of this was by their own might and by their own power.

In the same way, though it is not written in Scripture, I can imagine that on the day of the Crucifixion of Christ Satan and his minions were celebrating and rejoicing just like the White Witch and her lackeys. It has been visualized through plays and songs and books, how Satan and his demons might have celebrated their "victory" over God on that night. But the thing is, Christ had not been defeated. Satan, and his demons, and the Jews and Romans and whoever else was there at that time had only the power over Christ that he allowed them to have (John 19:11). At any moment Christ could have been finished with the trials and beatings; at any time he could have ended it, but instead he remained. Satan did not defeat him; he allowed himself to be taken. And Satan behaved as if all of this was by his own might and by his own power.

But the "defeat" over Aslan/Christ is the definition of a Pyhrric victory. You see, in Lewis' story the White Witch believed that she was smarter than Aslan. She made a deal that she would kill Aslan but not the humans and Narnians; but she planned on betraying Aslan and killing all, and reclaiming power for herself. She believed that she would win by destroying the one thing that could defeat her; Aslan. However; she did not know the deeper magic what was written before the deep magic that she knew. Which said that when the blood if an innocent exchange his life for that of another death will be reversed. And so, by sacrificing Aslan, the White Witch essentially defeats herself.

In the same way Christ exchanged his own life for ours. Now as I said before we are all deserving of the punishment of death. Now this death is not just a simple death, this death is an eternal death is a real place called hell. And it would take all of eternity for us to pay this debt; this punishment that we owe, that we have earned. But Christ, being in very nature God, who is an eternal, infinite being, was able to take this eternal punishment upon himself, for all of mankind, and pay for it all. This Deeper Magic, Christ's death and resurrection, is what has broken our bonds to sin and death and the grave, and opened us up to new life and right relationship with Christ. By "defeating" Christ on the Cross, Satan essentially defeated himself. We no longer need be bound by him, but we can be alive in Christ!!!

It was nothing that Edmond did that freed him. It is nothing that we do that frees us from the wages of sin. It was only by Aslan's sacrifice that Edmond was freed, and only by Christ's death and resurrection are we able to have victory. But just as the story didn't end there for Edmond and the Pevensies and the Narnians, so the story doesn't end there for us. Just as Peter and Susan and Edmond and Lucy and those that came after him had to continue on the journey so do we. We must continue to grow and learn; we must continue to seek after Christ and to live for him.

Someday we will face the Last Battle. I don't know if I'll be around on this earth to see it, or if I'll have gone home to be with God before then. But I know that at some point in the future, there will be a final battle. The outcome of this battle has already been decided, even though it has not yet been fully engaged. Christ has overcome and Satan and death have been overwhelmed!!! So go and live like it!!

The Light

Today I was reminded of an old DC Talk song while I was browsing through Facebook. My friend Marco Martinez had posted a Bible verse as his status as follows: 

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." 1 John 1:7

This is one of my (many) favorite verses in the Bible, and here is the DC Talk song based on this verse:

In the Light:

I keep trying to find a life, on my own, apart from You, I am the king of excuses, I've got one for every selfish thing I do.

What's going on inside of me? I despise my own behavior, this only serves to confirm my suspicions that I'm still a man in need of a Saviour.

CHORUS: 

I wanna be in the Light, as You are in the Light, I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens. Oh, Lord be my Light and be my salvation, cause all I want is to be in the Light. All I want is to be in the Light

The disease of self runs through my blood, it's a cancer fatal to my soul. Every attempt on my behalf has failed to bring this sickness under control.

What's going on inside of me? I despise my own behavior, this only serves to confirm my suspicions that I'm still a man in need of a Saviour.

Honesty becomes me [There's nothing left to lose] The secrets that did run me [In Your presence are defused] Pride has no position [And riches have no worth] The fame that once did cover me [Has been sentenced to this Earth] Has been sentenced to this Earth

Tell me, what's going on inside of me? I despise my own behavior, this only serves to confirm my suspicions that I'm still a man in need of a Saviour.

[There's no other place that I want to be, no other place that I can see, a place to be that's just right. Someday I'm gonna be in the Light. You are in the Light, that's where I need to be, that's right where I need to be]

I love this song because it is, or should be, the desire of every true Christ follower; to live in the Light; to live in the fellowship of Christ.
During this time of the year, as the sun begins to rise earlier, and set later, and there are more hours of sunlight during the day I appreciate the light so much more. During the cold fall and winter months as the light is fading and we have less each day, those few hours become more and more precious.
Do you ever notice how much easier it is to "live" during the light hours of the day as opposed to the dark hours? While your driving, isn't it a much more enjoyable experience during the daylight hours when you can actually see where you are going? Especially when you are driving in unfamiliar territory? And do you ever notice that the same places you drive during the day change and become so different after the sun sets? According to one report,

"the hours between midnight and 4 a.m. have the highest number of fatalities when calculated as a percentage of the amount of people on the road, according to AAA"

The sun is a precious gift from God, it sustains plant and animal life, it powers the weather system, and it allows us to move about freely on the earth without being blinded by darkness. How much more awesome is the one who created that light, and who is the true LIGHT! If the light of the sun can make that much impact on just driving, how much more can the impact of The Light make on every area of our lives.
The Gospel of John talks about the Light this way,

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." John 1:1-5

The Light that we have is  life! The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is Life! and that life is the Light which was in the beginning, is in the now, and will be for all eternity.
I want to live in the Light!

What to write?

So, having a blog is kind of a big deal, even if no one really reads it (no offense to the two people who subscribe to my blog). And as a big deal, I do feel at least some pressure to write a post every now and again; after all, what good is having a blog if you never write anything on it. Well anyway, that is how I feel today; that I should post something to my blog. And so here I am writing about feeling that I should write something... isn't that at least a little weird?
Anyway, what to write about? There are any number of topics to write about, Haiti, the upcoming mid-term elections, my job/jobs, people who are suffering with diseases and other physical ailments. But i can't really decide on any one thing. So why don't I go in a different direction.
I'm going to talk about my blog, or rather more specifically, why did I name my blog, "Adoration of the Magi: to live beyond my means?"
Well it all started with this facebook thing in which I was supposed to "design" an album cover by picking several random things, this included the album cover, album name, and band name. So when I went to find a random band name what came up was "adoration of the magi" which was pretty cool, and then when I went to get an album name what came up was "to die beyond my means." I was really surprised how everything came together and it sounded pretty cool, and almost legit.
Well anyway, I wanted to figure out what the "adoration of the magi" actually is, and, after googling it, discovered that it is a painting. Well, actually, more than just one painting, there are many paintings entitled "Adoration of the Magi." Many famous artists have painted on this theme, and what they all have in common is that it is an image of the Magi, or the Wise Men, worshiping the infant Christ.
So, when I decided that I wanted to create a blog, and to begin writing some of my thoughts and reflections in it, I first had to come up with a name for said blog. Well, I had not idea what a good name for a blog might be, but I knew I wanted it to be a somewhat cool sounding blog, but also to have some meaning behind it. And that is when I remembered that "album" cover I had made on facebook.
I thought to myself "hey, that would make a cool blog name." But I didn't really know what it meant, or what it would imply to make this the title of my blog. So I began to think and explore what "the Adoration of the Magi" meant.
Doing searches and investigating the various paintings of "Adoration of the Magi" didn't really turn up any real meaning. The people who painted them just basically did it to appease the Church, and to depict a biblical scene. That's not saying that they didn't believe in Christ, or weren't good Christians; just that I couldn't find any significant meaning behind any of the paintings.
And so, I went away from that paintings and looked more at the story of the Magi and their visit to the Christ child. And more specifically than their visit, I looked at the gifts that they gave to Jesus and His family, the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and at what these gifts, these "adorations" signified.
First, gold; gold represented that Jesus would be a king. He is the King of the Jews, and the King of all nations, and one day "every knew will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Second, frankincense; frankincense represented that Jesus would be a priest. In fact He is our great High Priest, the intercessor between man and God, as he is the true GOD MAN, the Incarnation. And third, myrrh; myrrh represented the sacrifice that Jesus would make. It represented the sacrifice that He would make many years later on the cross that brought us salvation.
So, what do I mean when I title my blog "Adoration of the Magi"? What I mean is that I mean to lift Christ up as my King, High Priest and Savior. In everything I do and say this is my testimony, that Christ is Lord over my life.
So that settles the main title of this blog, but what of the "subtitle"? What about "to live beyond my means"? Well, as you can tell I adjusted it slightly from the facbook album cover "to die beyond my means." Well, I have no idea where that quote came from, or who said it originally. I only remember that it is what came up when I did the random search.
But it speaks to a Biblical truth that, as the hymn says "little is much when God is in it." What I mean by saying "to live beyond my means" is not that I am going to try to live a life style that cannot be supported by my income. I do not mean, by saying this, that I want to go into debt or spend more than I have. What I mean by saying "to live beyond my means" is that I am giving what I have and what I am to Christ to do with as he pleases. And the cool thing is, that what I give is always more when it is in Jesus' hands than when it is in mine, even if it is the same amount. Just as when the boy gave up his loaves and fish, enough to feed one or two people, in the hand of Christ if feed more than five-thousand.
So that is the meaning of the title of this blog. I magnify God, and give Him everything I have and am.

Who's side are you on?

While reading an online post, previously cited in an earlier blog post, I came across this quote: "Abraham Lincoln once said that he was confident that God was on the side of the right. He added, however, that 'it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord's side.'" It really got me thinking.
How many times do we pray that God is on our side? How many times do we sing "God bless America" without thought as to whether or not God should bless America?
But I'm not going to go into that issue in this blog post, i'll probably comment on politics at some point, but not now. What I want us to think about is individually; individually as a person, individually as a family, individually as a Church, individually as a Denomination, individually as The Church.
Are we confident that God is on the side of the right? I believe He is, was, and always will be on the side of the right because He IS.
And so, if we are confident that God is on the side of the right, can we really ask God to be "on our side?" I mean, shouldn't we be asking God to be on His side?
Think about this for a minute, if we are all out on the playground at recess and decide to play kick ball. God is one of the team captains, and Joe Schmo is the other captain. Now we know that every time that God has played against Joe, God has won, like a million times, and God has won every time. Now, instead of asking to be on HIS team, we decide to ask God to be on OUR team. Now, we know that God has beaten Joe every game they have ever played, but we want to go on our own and form our own team and have our own strategy. So we ask God to leave His team and come over and join our team. (I'm aware that this analogy has several flaws about it, but it was the best way I could think to illustrate this principle.)
Now here's the flip side of this equation, every game Joe has played against any other opponent except for God he has won, true he has "lost" a few innings, but he has won every game. But we decide that we know better than any team that has ever played before, and we can go it out and beat Joe, but we just need God to play for us, to field and go up to "bat" for us, and we can win, as long as it's OUR team, and OUR strategy.
Isn't that a lot how it happens in life? We get this vision for how we might be able to reach people for Christ, we have a cool new thing that will bring people into the church, we have a new idea to help people grow. So we put all of this together, and then we go and we pray that God will be with us as we embark in this new ministry for Him.
But shouldn't we START with asking to be with God? Shouldn't we ask to hear from God what He wants us to do, and THEN go and do it? I know that we do do this sometimes, we seek for God's guidance a lot when we don't know what to do; but shouldn't we do it every time? Shouldn't we seek for God to guide us and guard us when we feel like we know what to do? Shouldn't we ask God to make sure that we are on His side and not ask God to be on Our side?
Well, just a thought. And I sincerely pray that I am always on God's side, and that you are always on his side as well.
God Bless.

The Bible

This is a totally random post, and may have nothing to do with anything, but for some reason I have been thinking about it.
There are a lot of people, maybe I should say some people, not a lot of people, who have the idea that they don't need other people to tell them what the Bible says. They say that they can read it and take it at face value and get everything they need and everything God wants for them without any help.
Now before I go further,I want to say that I don't completely disagree with this statement. I think that there are a lot of things that you can read in the Bible, take at face value, and get a lot out of it.
However, that said, I think that it takes a lot of education and a lot of prayer to get more out of the Bible than just what is there at face value.
First, let me explain what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that people who just read the Bible, and take it at face value won't get anything from it. I'm not saying that if you don't have an education you can't get anything from reading the Bible on your own. I'm not saying that if you do have an education, even an education in religion or theology or Biblical literature that you will be able to get everything out of the Bible that is there.
That said, this is what I AM saying. It is important to get other peoples' views on what the Bible has to say. This is the reason that pastors use Biblical commentaries while preparing their sermons, because they know that their opinion is not the only one. While you may have an opinion on what a particular verse or passage has to say, other people have different opinions, and they may or may not be alike, or correct.
Here's the thing, the Bible was written over a span of 1500 years, by over 40 different authors from all walks of life, on three continents and in three languages. And these authors were writing to specific people at a specific time, from a specific place in a specific language. While these passages have applications and meaning for our lives today, to take them out of their context strips them of much of the impact and meaning they could otherwise possess.
For instance, when Jesus talks about the parable of the sower, I would venture to say that the majority of the American population thinks about a farmer walking through freshly plowed fields on a vast beautifully laid out farm. And as Jesus describes the different types of soil the seed this farmer is sowing lands on, the image of the farmer becomes more and more stupid. Why would he throw his seed off of his plowed fields?
However, if one knew the context of this story, they would know that the area in which Jesus was preaching was a very rocky area, and it would have been very difficult, if not impossible to remove all of the rocks from a farmer's field, so it was very likely for seed to fall on rocky soil, and so on. So the farmer begins to lose some if his stupidity when you understand the context of his farming conditions (which were much different form the modern farms in America).
So we see that context is very important when we are trying to understand what God wants to say to us through a certain passage.
Now this is where education comes in. Through higher education, those who study the Bible learn the context in which particular passages are written. This involves geology, meteorology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and many other disciplines. To understand the people to whom a passage is written helps us to understand the passage.
This is just one example of why it is important to be involved in a community of believers, when we are we are able to bounce our questions and insights off of one another and see of they line up with what the Bible has to say.

Humor

While searching the web today I came upon a page published on the web by "Donald Wayne Viney, Midwest Quarterly (Winter 1997)," The Humor of Jesus of Nazareth. This is a great article that talks about the humor of Christ. I think that too often we believe that Jesus was this ultra strict, ultra conservative, ultra... i don't know, just this person who showed no emotion, and when he did he only showed love or anger. The quintessential verse of Jesus' emotions are from the passage in the Gospels (Matt. 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 2) where Jesus enters into the temple courts and begins driving out the tables of the moneychangers because they were dishonest. We often see these moments of Jesus' emotions, in the temple, on the cross, in the garden. 
But we never see Jesus laughing. I don't know why the Gospel writers didn't choose to include these in their writings, but I have to believe that Jesus had a sense of humor. As the article, linked above says "Jesus was a real man who enjoyed life." If Jesus was truly God, and truly man as we believe then could he have possibly made it through 30 plus years of life on this earth without laughing once? Umberto Eco, through William of Bakersville (in Il Nome Della Rosa) says "Jesus was a man and that laughter is 'proper to man.'"
If Jesus was a man, Jesus laughed. (man being, at least in my interpretation, mankind, not just the male gender)
John says in his Gospel that Jesus did many Jesus did many things not written down, I would have to assume that Jesus' humor would have to be included in this.