I periodically struggle with the Christian-ese concept of “God’s plan for my life”. It’s one of those catch phrases that folks tend to throw about without much understanding or meaning. The general sense is that God has a ‘Grand Plan For Each of Us’ and it probably involves selling all possessions in order to become a missionary somewhere in Africa.
I don’t feel ‘called’ to go to Africa. Does that mean I’m rejecting God’s plan for me? Is there a plan for me?
The other day someone told me that that God spoke to him in dreams. I know several people who claim to have visions or receive “words of knowledge”. I won’t deny that God can communicate in this way, but I guess I tend to be a skeptic. Too often it comes across as “here’s what I want to do, and I’m invoking God to justify it”.
Maybe my skepticism is because I’ve never gotten such a direct communication from God.
Then I come across passages like this:
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.” (John 15:16, NIV)
That’s a pretty direct statement that God does have an intention for my life. My calling is to go and bear fruit. That may mean that I need to go to Africa, but maybe it simply means that wherever I am, I am to bear fruit. And lately I’ve come to understand that living a Christ-like life (i.e., bearing fruit) means serving and meeting the needs of others.
I’m good with that, even if I have to go to Africa to do it.
Tags: faith
What offends you about Christmas? Does it bother you when someone says, “Happy Holidays”? How about when someone wishes you a “Merry Christmas”? The notion of a baby being born in a barn with animals and shepherds all around is kind of cute. Tinsel, presents, trees with lights? That’s the fun stuff. What’s to get offended about?
It’s pretty clear that all of that, even the baby in a manger, is pretty harmless stuff. Doug at Parchment and Pen absolutely nails the essence of the offensiveness of the Christian holiday of Christmas – the need for and the act of the incarnation of Christ:
The incarnation of the second member of the Trinity is an event so glorious, so mysterious and so wonderful we should celebrate it everyday. It should radically transform our lives and affect everything we do. But in addition to being glorious, mysterious, and wonderful, the incarnation is a powerful indictment of every person who has ever lived. Jesus’ birth is a judgment that says we are all guilty before a holy, righteous, and just God, and that we can do nothing to save ourselves from his wrath. Without Jesus we are lost, utterly without hope, condemned. We are in desperate need of a savior. And the idea of a defenseless infant being our savior sprinkles our indictment with a bit of humiliation.
Quite frankly, that is pretty offensive. Being told your are wrong, lost, helpless, hopeless, and condemned doesn’t exactly make you want to celebrate by running out to buy presents for your friends and family and trimming up the tree. At a time when Christianity in America has been so focused on seeker-sensitive services and has gone to great lengths not to offend anyone, Christians have forgotten a very important truth: the Gospel is offensive.
In fact, if the offensiveness of the Gospel is removed then there is no Gospel left. Without an understanding of what we need to be saved from we would never recognize or even look for a savior. For Jesus to come into the world as a savior without offending anyone makes no sense. Jesus didn’t come into the world as a good example, he came to do what we could not do for ourselves. A drowning man must understand his circumstance accurately to recognize the hand that will pull him to safety and give him a reason to grab it. The offensiveness of the Gospel is what makes it Good News since it reveals what we are saved from and why we need a savior, as well as who that savior is.
Now that’s what Christmas is about. Merry Christmas!
Tags: Christmas, incarnation, offensiveness
It’s interesting that it’s easy for us to welcome the Baby Jesus at this time of the year, but not the Lord of the Universe. It’s easy to visualize a newborn in a stable, but not the incarnation of God and man. Not to harsh your mellow, but would your enjoyment of the season be less if we recognized the implication of who it was in that stable?
Tags: Christmas
In all the flurry of activity in the coming week, don’t forget what we’re celebrating on Christmas – the incarnation of the hypostatic
union, God and man in one being. Stay warm, stay dry, stay focused on Him.
Tags: Christmas, faith, hypostatic union
Laura at Pursuing Holiness tipped me to this excellent advent calendar made pics from the Hubble Space Telescope. As a long-time space geek, I’ve long been aware of (and amazed by) the incredibly artistic hand of God in space. I’ll also take the liberty to borrow her quote from Michael at Wizbang:
I can’t help but marvel at the fact that God, who revealed Himself so majestically in the heavens, also chose to beget Himself as a lowly Son of Man, so that mankind, a thoroughly insignificant creature when compared to the vastness of Creation, could be reconciled with Him and receive an abundant and everlasting life.
Amen and amen. Have a blessed Christmas season.
Tags: advent calendar, hst, Hubble, space
How stupid is this? Unfortunately, this is what passes for logic and ’science’ among the global whining crowd. Because it’s colder, this is proof of global warming. I did notice that the climate panic crowd now uses “climate change” instead of “global warming”. Same nonsense, different name.
Tags: bad science, global whining
The new job is going pretty well, but there’s just one thing I’m struggling with. Any ideas? Anyone? Beuller? No guesses? I can sympathize with women who have to wear heels. Why do men voluntarily submit to this type of torture?
Tags: implements of torture, neckties, work
So on a comfy 20 degree evening with blowing snow, we came home to no furnace. It was 62 in the house and heading south pretty quickly. There’s a furnace guy on call and for the low, low price of time and a half for after hours work, plus mileage, plus parts, plus $165 minimum service charge, for a not so grand total of $465.14, we have heat again. It was so much easier when we just had to throw another log on the fire.
Still, we’re not sleeping under a bridge tonight. God is good, all the time.
Tags: domestic bliss, freezing inside
I’m a space geek and I’m continually amazed by beauty of the artistry of God as displayed in the heavens. I’m also amazed the lengths that people will go to in order avoid seeing His hand. This is the Cone Region (aka the Christmas Tree Cluster) and the Fox Fur Nebula. Click for full-sized image.
Cone Region and the Fox Fur Nebula
(HT: Astronomy Picture of the Day)
Tags: astronomy, space, the hand of God
Or something like that. This is the earliest we’ve had Christmas lights up in, like, ever.
Tags: Merry Christmas
