2008: Reflections Of The Year

Yes, I know that there is still a week to go before we lay 2008 to rest. Seeing as how the final big event of the year (Christmas) comes to an end tonight, I thought I would reflect upon my experiences this year. This has been a rather tumltuous with great moments and not so great moments. Yet, all of the events that happened this year has brought where I am now–spiritually, mentally, and physically.

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”" -James 4:13-15 NIV

At the beginning of 2008, I was comfortable. I was looking ahead, planning for the future, etc, etc. It all seemed like it was going to work out. After all, everything was in it’s place. But, if God has a plan for something, it’s going to get carried out one way or the other even if things don’t go exactly as God had intended. We (humans) can try to mess it up. People can make decisions in the wrong way but God can still use them for good. I again go back to Joseph who became very boastful with his brothers. It was God’s intent that he would rescue his family and Egypt from the coming famine through Joseph, but Joseph’s brothers plotted evil against him. This did not absolve Joseph from fault. He was, after all, bragging about how they were all going to bow down to him. Both parties got caught up in the moment, stepped outside of faith, and made decisions that were necessarily wrong but were handled in the wrong sort of way, without council and without seeking perhaps a full picture of what God’s plan might be. In Joseph’s case for example, he might have wanted his brothers beside him as he rose to power in Egypt. But because of their misguided approach to the situation, it ended up going bad both for them and for Joseph. While it did end up all well in the end, there was a lot of unecessary hurt that could have been avoided if both parties were willing to take the proper oversight to see where the decision could lead AND, if maybe there was a possibility to make everything work out for the best interest of both sides without making such a drastic decision.

If you were to ask me back in January 2008 where I would be in December, I most certainly would have said still working at the same school in Anza, California. Here I am in December and I am far from there. The months of May thru June were difficult for me. It was an emotional rollercoaster ride that I wouldn’t want to wish on anyone. At least the one good thing I will always remember from May is the AVCS Sea World trip. It was a great time for the school family to enjoy eachother and the day. I know, I”m rambling again but all this has a point.

One of the points I’m trying to make is that every thing I had planned for 2008 were MY plans. But Proverbs has a verse that is starting to become one of my favorites: “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.” -Proverbs 21:30(NIV) In other words, if God has a plan, then nothing we do can stand against it. This has many applications but for my life it means that God had somewhere else for me to be and if things had continued down the path they were going, I probably would have never seen it.

So what else do we learn from Proverbs? That we should find comfort in every situation. We should know that no matter what the world plans and plots, no matter who is elected office or what evil may be lurking, “no plan can succeed against the Lord.”

For many months, I felt like I had lost God’s blessings. I felt like I was being punished or that His grace had somehow been taken from me. Now, here at the end of ‘08, I am blessed beyond measure. Not because of any physical attribute, but because I have a new understanding of what God’s grace and love is and what truly counts as a blessing.

I hope this Christmas and this Year has been good to you. With the hard economic times, it may be hard to see how God has blessed you. But look around you. Every day He gives us a chance to serve and love others is a blessings in its self. My God bless the rest of you holiday and I wish everyone the best in 2009.

-Mr. Josh

Spending Time With God-A Personal Reflection

For as long as I can remember, I used to here person after person talk about their experiences during morning devotions. They used to talk about encountering God and how much God has shown them. Then, I thought I would try. My first attempts to “meet God” were met with kind of an empty response. Not because God wasn’t there, but because I was going for the wrong reasons.

I wanted an experience about me. I wanted a spiritual story to tell where people would be in awe after I told it. But God doesn’t want us for that. He wants us to genuinely want to meet Him. He wants us to seek Him so we can love and know more about Him. He wants us to seek His face and His world view.

That’s why I enjoy my time with God. I’ve realized that it goes so far beyond just morning and/or evening devotions. By starting the day seeking God’s face and His will, you are able to set your heart right to take on the day. You are able to prepare your heart and ask God to present an opportunity to share your faith. When you start the day out right, you then prepare your day to be led by God throughout the whole day. After the day is over, I close with God’s word to reflect on the day and see where I was walking with God and where I stumbled. That way you can openly seek God’s guidance to correction.

A morning/evening routine is meaningless if it is an empty ritual. Use it to really get to know God and His will, love and word.

To God Be The Glory

I was reading about Moses and the plagues of Egypt and I began to think about what it must have been like for the Egyptians. Here is a thriving culture which had a god for different aspects of their culture. There was the sun god, the livestock god, the river god, etc, etc. Imagine how their world must have been turned upside down when their river god (Hapi) was unable to turn the bloody Nile back into water or even preventing it from becoming blood in the first place! What about Amon-Re, the sun god who was powerless to prevent the darkness over all of Egypt? What an awesome witness it must have been for Israel to show the power and glory of their God! Exodus 12 chronicles the final plague, the passover, and the beginning of the Exodus. We know that the Israelites took everything they had and left. They also asked for silver and gold and were given what they asked for by the Egyptian people. Finally, while describing the people who left and what they took with them, Exodus 12:38 in the NASB says: “A mixed multitude went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.” The Life Application Bible has a foot note that suggests this “mixed multitude” may have been Egyptians that, after witnessing the power of God, decided that Israel’s God was the true God and ended up following Him. I have to agree.

Today, many people are demanding some kind of a sign. Sometimes as Christians, it can seem frustrating when to us, it is obvious that Creation screams that there is a Creator but the world continues to be adamant that there can’t be one. Yet, there is hope. While I believe that God still uses the supernatural to get His point across, I think that His overall approach to get the attention of the world has changed. When Christ came, He reconnected us to the orignal intention God had–to have a personal relationship with us. 

While we don’t have modern plagues of Egypt that declare God’s glory, our own lives, attitudes, and love should reflect Him. Philippians 1:27 says: “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving for the faith of the gospel.” What is this verse saying? This verse is saying that our Christian conduct show go beyond just the church setting and be part of our everyday lives. To many times, we do the church thing while at church and the world thing while we are away from it. Like the king of Egypt in Moses’ time, we see how God’s glory can work yet, we harden our hearts once His power has passed us by. If we are to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, people will take notice.

In this world, it can be hard to distinguish ourselves from the world. The Christian sub-culture has so easily blended us in. Yet, we should be as outstanding as the Israelites were while enslaved in Egypt. During the plague of darkness, the land of Goshen where the Israelites resided was unaffected. God was there and we know that God is light. Philippians 1:27 thus means we should distinguish ourselves by being the light not only while at church, but about in our everyday lives.

Jesus also told us this when He said in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father who is in heaven.” Does your “light” shine in such away that a “mixed multitude” (Exodus 12:38 ) is praising the Father in heaven?

Happy Holidays vs Merry Christmas

Tis’ the season for controversy. Every year a battle begins over whether retailers should use the term “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” when they “Deck the halls” for the season of giving. I will admit, for the longest time, I was a Christian who was angry that anyone would dare replace Merry Christmas with a politically correct term as “Happy Holidays”, but after some reflecting, this year I see it differently.

To lay all my cards out on the table, I do not think it is fair that anyone be forced to be politically correct. Since “Christmas” is still the Federally recognized holiday, it is quite right for retailers, schools, and yes, even Government offices, to use the term “Merry Christmas”. Until such time that the holiday is either no longer a Federal Holiday or the holiday’s name is actually changed.

That being said, the whole battle between Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas is really quite offensive to me. You may be shocked to hear that I don’t agree with any kind of legal force or push of using either of the terms. “But Josh, you are a Christian, how can you not support Merry Christmas?” I do support Merry CHRISTmas, but I can’t support what mandated legislation would make it.

Christmas is a time we as Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior. Once that is absent, it becomes just another holiday. It is true that because of the great gift that God gave to us, we celebrate by giving gifts to others. But our materialistic society has made it about the materials. I believe then that for the purposes of preserving the meaning of Christmas, we should distance it as far away from the retailers as we can.

In 2006, Target began an ad campaign that wished everyone Happy Holidays. I let myself get caught up in the hype and was outraged that Target would give in to the pressures of the politically correct and dare take away Christmas. Then, after a grassroots boycott campaign, Target had replaced the Happy Holidays with Merry Christmas just two days before. Everyone cheered for success. I too gloated in the satisfaction that we had won. Really however, we lost.

What the Christianity community did by getting Target to change their ad was conceding the fact that Christmas was all about the money and the gifts. We all know that the people who run Target could care less what people see Christmas as. They are just in it to make a profit. And so I say again, why do we put so much energy to force the world to set our Christian standard? We shouldn’t.

When someone says Happy Holidays, I can smile back and say “Merry Christmas” because I know they truly wanted me to have a happy holiday. But when a Target employee or a Target sign says “Merry Christmas”, I know they are only trying to make me feel good so that I will by a product from their store. They want to convince me that my Christmas can only be Merry if I have the latest gift and if I in turn give a great gift to someone else. By forcing them to say “Merry Christmas”, we have essentially lost Christmas to commercialism once again.

And so I’m wondering why we are so offended by Happy Holidays? Are these greetings really a blatant attempt to destroy “Christmas” or is it just some lame Politically Correct way of saying some empty greeting? Even Merry Christmas has little meeting even when it come from Christians! It’s just something we say at this time of year.

Why not let the retailers have their Holidays. Why don’t we as Christians stand out by hanging our Merry Christmas on the door and setting up our nativity scenes. Why don’t we have our Christmas Eve candlelight services and sing our Christmas Carols. Then, when those that hear and see what we are doing ask us why, we can say “because Jesus is the reason for the season” and mean it. Say that to someone while you are filling your cart with all the latest toys and gizmos and see how much credibility you have.

Why does it amaze us that the world approaches the Christmas season with a world point of view? Let them have their world view and their “Holiday” trees. That doesn’t keep us from celebrating CHRISTmas and promoting the greatest gift in all humanity. Perhaps a little more “Happy Holidays” will wake Christians out of their own complacency and realize that we are just as to blame as anyone else for the loss of the true meaning of Christmas.