After having driven my husband to the station today, I noticed the ducks congregating at a lake, as most winter ducks often do, probably sharing Christmas lists and unnecessary gossip about hats and things. Every season has its unique beauty to it, and winter has its simplicity of black and white, as opposed to the other seasons which are typically known for their multifarious colors, both subtle and vibrant. But winter, just seems so cold, peaceful, and quiet.

It reminds me of the movie I recently watched, “the Nativity Story.”

I really recommend this movie. Having seen a lot of stories surrounding Jesus’ birth, this one dealt solely on Matt.1-2 and Luke 1-2, with a quietness and simplicity to it. The movie also gave a new perspective of the expectation and faith that befell Mary and Joseph, and how Jesus’ birth, how seemingly quiet and humble, was the greatest promise for all mankind, mathematically written through prophecy, all events culminated by God’s providence.

And God sent witnesses from afar and witnesses from the nearby fields.
And God sent wise men and unscholared shepherds.
And historical kings knew of the prophecy, sent historical creeds and laws to seek after the messiah.
And God sent men of faith and men of reason.
And Herod, a powerful merciless king, was thwarted by expecting the messiah to be a strong obvious leader instead of a helpless baby. And despite his resources, power, influence, and army, a humble couple and a baby, with meager transportation, escaped him.

Christmas continues to do that…bring those who are far from him, to him, and those who are close, closer. Christmas is for the young and old, for the wise scholars who reasons and for the ones who see with faith. It’s really a celebration for everyone, for the awed child to the cynic. Even now, God still calls us ALL to him.

“I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared for all people.
He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!” (Luke 2:30-32)

ps. go see The Nativity Story…

I read a good article today on Christianity Today about “The Secret.”

I’m not sure if a lot of people heard about this movement, but once I heard about it, I was very hesitant.  I’m always very hesitant though with large popular “spiritual” movements that promote something other than the grace of Christ, and instead focuses on the efforts of self rather be on the mercy of God.  I am not trying to hate on people’s beliefs, but there’s no getting around how there are so many aspects of ‘the Secret’ that I personally disagree with. 

To read an article on it, click on this: The Secret Exposed

Last week, the I had an online case study discussion with the YB, relevant to recent popular culture that tests what they’ve learned in Galatians and Romans.  Basically, we took a very popular, a much widely listened to iconic figure who was saying that there is more than one way to heaven than through Jesus Christ.  One way, she discussed, was to live a good life. 

But that’s the problem isn’t it?  Goodness becomes relative.  What is good?

The Bible explains that no one is righteous, but because of Jesus, we have been made righteous in God’s sight, therefore eliminating our merit, because we cannot work for salvation nor earn holiness.  Heaven was paved a way through Jesus alone, and that’s what makes grace so amazing! And that’s what elevates Christ.  More of Him and less of us.

Goodness is through Jesus alone.

And we need to accept that whatever happens in our lives- the good and the bad, that we live by grace…believing that no matter what, God is good.  We do not control all the forces through attraction.  We cannot make the world revolve around us and bring us all goodness by believing and channeling positivity.  It reduces our need for God, saying that we control the goodness and blessings in our lives because we attracted those things to us.  But then what about the bad stuff that happens to us?  Did we ask for that too? Disease? Poverty? Heartache? Death?

Do suffering countries not get “the Secret” right?  Mothers who lose their children? Parents that lose their sons and daughters to war and terrorism?

For me, the secret’s already been out, and it’s not so much a secret. It happened at Calvary…when God sent His son Jesus.

And it doesn’t cost a lot of money so you can order the video…they have it at motels for you to read; they give it out at streets, missionaries give them out to poor countries…and we all probably own one in our shelves at home- the Bible…

I was looking through a devotion i wrote a couple years ago and found something that i still believed in, yet i felt it needed more clarity because it sounded as if faith was dependent on works (because it is not). Your faith produces and affects what you do, instead of being the effect of works. Yet faith is not merely some fleeting fancy that persuades you at one moment in your life, and just leaves you with a golden key that you can pick up and put down. Faith can be as strong as bricks, and faith can be weak as hay. But although faith is not directed by your works, it is worked upon. There is still a kinetic element in one’s faith that is tested by everything else in life that surrounds it, and it’s our faith that either stands or fails, that is weakened or strengthened. But it is a decision we must consciously make each time our faith is questioned, to either work on it or let it be battered.

Our faith in God is constantly at work whether we know it or not. We can live life thinking that our faith is just a sentence claiming we believe in God, without letting it be active in our lives, working in our behaviors and testimony. Or we can live life through faith by living out our belief in God. It’s not just a play and rearranging of words, but grasp the meaning.

We make conscious decisions about our faith; it is not something we are born with or a mere title that categorizes us within Christianity. For example, a woman can be a mother by title because she has gone through labor and produced an offspring, but the role that she bravely steps up to involve and sacrifice herself for the loving and nurturing of her baby is the deeper definition of motherhood. A woman grows into her role, and with each day, becoming better, more mature and wiser in her understanding of her child and herself. Faith also must go beyond titles and statements; faith must grow and mature.

Our faith matures several ways, sometimes through pain and trials, and sometimes by our own spiritual exercise. We can build our faith by immersing in scripture, so we know what we believe, and why- and who, and when. In 1 Pet.2:2, it says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” In the beginning of our faith, we learn little by little, mainly the basics of what we believe, and it’s by those things we’ve learned that help us to change and live for God. But as our lives continue, so does the fight to live for God, because Satan tries even harder to snatch us away from fully living for Christ. But by building our faith, we become more mature in our role, and therefore giving us more defense to run from sin. “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (heb.5:13-14). The second part of the verse says “by constant use have trained themselves,” suggesting that there is a prolonged sense of time involved, as well as work. Our faith in its infancy produces only what it knows in its infancy, but when we continue to work on our faith by knowing more and more of who God is and what He’s done, and His plan for us, our faith in its maturity produces what it knows in its maturity. Righteousness becomes a conscious joy. Holiness is pushed up to the top 10 on our list. Our faith produces good works.

That’s why faith is never easy- even to the most “Christ-like” person, or the people in leadership positions in church, or the people who are termed “good” and “holy.” It just seems like their second nature to live for Christ is easy, but we most likely fail to see the pain they went through that tested and strengthened their faith. We don’t see the years they’ve toiled and struggled with their faith, like we do. But they’ve had to make similar choices. Their current exterior is the product of “constant” interior “training.”

Living in faith is not effortless. Sometimes we’re brought to our knees. Sometimes we so desperately want to run back and away from the cross. And sometimes we want to hide because of guilt or pride. But whatever the circumstance, we still need to make choices. When those choices come, we must have Christ in our focus, and no matter how hard it is to trust in Him, to come to Him, and to submit to Him, we can have the assurance that God’s grace and power will cover us. “Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt.7:20). So let us continue to strengthen our faith, not let it stagnate or treat it like a key that we can pick up and put down. Let it stir in us every day. Let it jump and dance in our hearts that gives us joy. And lastly, let your faith move.

On R.Zacharias’ 3 part sermon on the temptation of Christ, Ravi dissected the temptations of Christ and explained it in 3 different philosophies- 1. Humanism 2. Utilitarianism 3. Hedonism.  After listening to all of the sermons, if you could sum up everything, although that would lose all that good stuff and such a complexity of rich flavors, it would be this in my own processed translation: with all our intellect, with all our gifts, with all our finite qualities and limited capacities, we try to be over and above wisdom through the exclusivity of reason without faith; over and above power as a hero to influence and/or control the lives of others; and over and above eternity by denying God and our need for Jesus- the ONLY way, the ONLY reason. We think we can live the way we want in freedom from the shackles and constraints of God’s laws. But when we do so, it is freedom that we forfeit when we are slaves to sin.  Our flaw is that we don’t have eternity on our minds.  We really live in this world to live for ourselves, to do what we want, to indulge in its pleasures and indulge in it well, without regret or thought of consequence, to experience ALL there is to experience and taking in every opportunity to feel, hence therefore really living. That is the distraction that the spiritual principalities of Satan uses to deviate us from what is really true- which is to live for Christ.

Satan tempts us, saying, “why not?  Do it. Everything is yours and take what you want. Satisfy your curiosity and have no reservations. This world is meant for you and everything in life is there for you to taste. Take the fame, acquire more and more, experience love and lust everywhere, feed your pleasures, think that you are better than your friends, forget fellowship with those that challenge your character, believe in your validated reason and your intellectual superiority…etc.”

Man lives for man, and man only sees what man sees, and thinks he thinks like God.

Man self justifies his worth without God and refuses his basic inherent quality- which is ‘to need.’  Man thinks and forgets that he was born with the quality ‘to need.’  Man needs bread.  Man needs shelter.  Man needs love.  Ask Maslow; man has basic needs, a hierarchy of materialism, but needs nonetheless.  But God, who has fashioned the earth and holds the galaxy and all there is outside of our imaginative realm, does not need.  God does not need. 

So why does man think that his wisdom can be above God?  Why do our actions confront God with such audacity instead of fear? Why does man live as if he’s only living for his present lifetime and for himself?  Our worship which was intended for the creator has been displaced for that which was created.  But King David had it right, he said, “Who is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4).  David realized our insignificance objectively, but subjectively, to God, we are significant.  As Louie Giglio termed it- our “significant insignificance.” 

To illustrate, I’ll share a story: while driving home one night, I looked at my daughter Emma who was overly snuggly strapped into her car seat.  Neither hungry, wet, nor scared, she kept crying because she wanted to get out of her car seat and be held, or be patted, or have a little to drink.  Whatever her reason, she let us know that we had to give her attention.  To her, the world was Emma-centric and she wouldn’t cease until she was appeased temporarily, and then complain again for something else.  She didn’t know that outside of her tiny shell were her two parents in the car who are trying to follow Ravi’s elusive thoughts.  She didn’t know that outside their car were her grandparents waiting at home to smother her with hugs and kisses.  She didn’t know that outside her grandparents’ home were their neighbors, then developments, then cities- states- countries- planets- galaxies.  Her concerns are absent of national tragedies, world calamities.  To her, everything is nonexistent and insignificant compared to maybe a wet diaper.

My second example is my last: one day, after Emma’s routine of waking up and smiling to greet me a new morning, she started getting antsy because she was getting bored of being on her back.  Being 3.5 months, she thinks she’s a big girl.  She wants to do big girl things like join the big people table when we eat, or stand all the time like a big girl, and these days she refuses to lean back on my legs when I prop her to sitting position.  Nowadays, she persists to sit like a big girl and tries to support her immature body.  She even smiles proudly when you gawk at her in amazement and mention how she’s become such a big girl.  When I propped her to stand in front of the mirror that day, she smiled at herself, paying no attention to the 122lbs big girl in back supporting her.  Knowing exponentially more than she does, I ask her, “who is that baby?”  Through reflection, I’d like to think that she sees that she is not as big as she thinks she is, and is not to par physically as the giants that carry her.  And if she could just see the reflection of the mirror, and see the entire picture of me holding her, she’ll see how small she is compared to me, but ultimately and nonetheless precious and a beloved wonder to me.

That’s how we are.  Because we have one view, we are sometimes selective of what we see and what is out there.  We look out and we think our lives are the most important to us. But at those times of reflection, we give ourselves the allowance to see how big we made ourselves to be to the reality of our smallness in comparison to God.  And that is possible by reflecting on the whole image, the bigger picture, in seeing who is carrying us, through grace to live.

That’s how we are.  Our view, compared to God’s, is that of a baby’s perspective.  And it’s funny when I think of how Emma thinks, how limited her world is, and how big things really are.  But it’s not so funny when we look at ourselves, and our wet diapers in comparison to what God sees.

Live for Jesus. And you don’t have to commit your life to full time missions, or save a thousand souls, be a speaker on a soap box, take a profession in clergy, be on the praise and worship team, lead a small group, or even go to all the retreats and convention conferences and attend every hot upcoming Christian concert.  Living for Jesus sometimes means working on your integrity, leaving away messages on your online journals/IMs that don’t contradict your testimony, talking to that person who just doesn’t reach out to others, being an example to your children, down playing your ego, pride, and self-bloatedness, mastering an unspoken sin, or vice, or habit like cursing, indulging in slothfulness, jealousy, excessive competitiveness, sexual immorality, backbiting, drunkenness, perversion, adultery, materialism, popularity, etc…And sometimes living for Jesus means trusting he’s got your back when you’re kicked down, acknowledging he’s working in every aspect of your life [like your love life, your relationships, job, family, financial standing, school, friends, your future]. Living for Jesus could mean humbling your life to him by strengthening your QT with him, meditating on his word, being quiet to listen to him, and spending time to know him- know him- not just his name, or that he exists, or that he’s just there to answer prayers; find out about His love, seek His character, research of His goodness, and be sensitive in allowing him to reveal to you his nature of who he is.

Be relevant; daily; living for Christ is a lifestyle that sets its eyes on eternity.

-marchesa ababa

“May my soul cling fast to You,
Your right hand grasp me.” -psalm 63:9

naturally, we take the text as it is and realize that there is a need for David to “cling” to God in the wilderness of Judah.  The psalm as a whole seems to break into a triad of desire, praise, and cry for help; but ultimately, it’s a song of trust that God is empirically the controller of every situation.

the questions arise in the second portion of the verse when David recognizes God’s active role in his need.  Obviously, David’s soul “clings” to God; not holds, but “clings fast”…conveying imagery of a desperation of his soul to create a stronger degree of adhesion to God’s power and promises.  But if David is already “clinging”, then why the need for God to extend His right hand to “grasp” David?  Isn’t David’s act of dependence enough to carry him through tribulations?  Was God’s right hand merely for David’s affirming comfort?

i kept rereading the verse and the only way i simplified it was to “Tommy Tenney” the situation and use the analogous relationship between a father and his son.  Upon request, when a young child needs to be sheltered by his father, he normally clings fast his arms around his father’s neck.  Due to the great amount of need, the child will tightly hold on, but what is the response of the father?  Simply, a reciprocated grasp of reassurance, not primarily for mere comfort, but for the assurance that the child will remain safe.  Naturally, the child is not strong enough to sustain his physical dependence, no matter how strong and desperate the initial hold was.  Ultimately, the child’s strength will wane, yet it is the grasp of the father that will assure his safety.

What does this mean for me?  Sometimes, we are resolved that we are clinging to God.  But we fail to notice when our hold begins to weaken.  Sometimes, even in the midst of our burdens, esp. the ones that really test our craziest weaknesses, we forget to realize that although we have failed to hold on tight to God, He still has His grasp on us.  He is not letting go.

He is not letting go.

Even when we can, He will not.  There are so many moments in our lives when we must walk through the intended valleys.  We need to trust that God knows it as part of our timetable, so when we look to Him for help and cling in earnest desperation, He looks back at us, accepts our act of dependence, yet adds His loving yet mighty grasp to make sure we go through it.  He’ll see the valley sights with you.  He’ll listen to your cries, but He knows you need to endure it all for His glory and your revelation.  So accept your valleys and even twhen you don’t have any strength to hold on, God’s grasp is more than enough to carry you through.

so what does this all mean, (no really, without all the metaphoric jargon?)  Simply, okeys. there will be times when we cling to God as best as we can but we’ll fail and self perceive that we’re so weak and ultimately guve up.  We’ll cry to God and offer apologies that we’re not strong enough, and we can’t hold on.  We are not mighty warriors of faith after all.  The verse is kewl though because it tells us that we’re not designed to be supermen or wonderwomen of emotional strength.  But we are called to trust that God still has His grasp on us- that our problems and trials will not consume us, and that God is still working His plans and glory in our lives.  I’ll even take it as far as to say that when we say we trust God, we cling fast to Him because we need to know that His reaction to grasp us foreshadows a road that will not be easy to travel, that His grasp is necessary for the arduous road we must take.

so there it is.  Maybe verse 9 is a verse about a relationship.  It shows our essential need to trust in God’s omnipotence, God’s reassurance, God’s love, and God’s control for He alone has the bird’s eye view.