Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas this year. I went to my parent's house and had a lazy day of eating, playing video games, playing with Sammie and just chillin and it was awesome.
I agree with Pastor Jae when he said that we are losing the meaning of Christmas these days. It's more about Santa, gift exchange, parties and whatnot and it really is such a busy time of year that we can forget why we do all of it. We need to take a stand against this mentality and remember that we give gifts b/c God first gave us the greatest gift ever in Jesus and really reflect on what that means. We also tend to be more lenient around this time of year and say it's b/c of Christmas or holiday spirit but that should also be because we remember how much God loves us and that we can love others b/c of that.
I also don't think it's a coincidence that Christmas is right before the New Year. It's a great time for us to reflect on the past year and to remember the cross and refocus ourselves for the upcoming year. Why not start off every year with Jesus fresh on our minds? We can learn to use our strengths and efforts to spend more time with our Savior and to think about how we can serve Him better.
Let's all take a few moments out of our busy schedules this holiday season and remember how great Jesus is to us and keep this in our minds as we kick off the New Year.

Day 53

Dec 23: Joshua 1-4
I don't want to be a soft Christian. I don't want to sing songs saying I'll sing of God's love forever, or that I'll give everything to Him, without having some conviction to actually act out on it. I don't want to know the bible inside and out but not apply any of it's teaching to my life. What's the point of doing and saying all these things if it doesn't really move me or inspire me to change my life?
In the first few books of Joshua, Rahab the prostitute shows us how to have active faith. Joshua sends two spies to Jericho where Rahab lives. Instead of turning the Israelite spies into the authorities, Rahab hides them and later tells them that she has heard of the great things their God has done for them and knows that God is about to give them the land of Jericho. She also mentions that the whole city of Jericho is in fear of this God and have no courage to defend the city after hearing all the stories. Rahab asks the spies for mercy and asks them to spare her and her family's lives when they do eventually take over the city. By risking her own life by fooling the King of Jericho, Rahab instead ends up saving her whole family from the Israelites by having faith and fear of God.
Again God shows us that active faith isn't limited to the holiest people, but even someone like a prostitute can do great things with true faith in Him. I need to have this kind of faith and fear or God and really learn to act on it. I don't want to be stagnant in my spiritual life, I don't want to make empty promises to God that I don't follow up on. God has done everything for me and I want to show my love to Him by becoming active in my faith and serving Him for once.

Day 52

Dec 22: Deut 23-34
I got to finish Deuteronomy today thanks to some free time on the train back from the city. I need to get a blackberry or something soon so I can have a bible handy at all times...pretty convenient. Anyways, Deuteronomy was a lot easier to read than the last 2 books. It goes over the rest of Moses's life and ends with his death and has more storyline than directions on sacrifices and laws as Leviticus and Numbers did.
So lately, I feel like I've been reading and hearing more and more about how important obedience is. How obedience is a sign of strong faith, a sign of mature love for our God and it's starting to sink in more and more. Chapter 28 is titled, Blessings for Obedience, and the first 2 verses say:
"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God."
The word carefully means a lot in this verse to me. It shows that we need to be attentive and conscientious of what God's commands are first so that we can follow them efficiently instead of blindly. Once we come to obey these commands, God pours out blessings to us. It reminds me of verses like Matthew 6:20, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven," and Psalm 84:10, "Better is one day in your courts, than a thousand elsewhere."
I've really been trying to understand these types of verses recently. It's so hard to ignore material things b/c we think about the present the most, and sometimes think about the future a few years down the line. But, if we truly believe that God has provided us with eternal life, these years we have on earth will be a microscopic portion of our existence. Nothing in this life will last, absolutely nothing, so why store up our worldly treasures when we should be storing up heavenly ones? God has helped me understand the importance of obedience more and more and has also been helping me understand how unimportant worldly things are.
I think one way I've seen this has been through Tiger Woods. I'm sure his story has been pretty much beat to death by now but whatever. A few weeks ago, myself and a countless number of people thought this guy was invincible. He makes double what anyone else does in the world of sports per year making over 100 million. He has his own video games, his own foundations, tons of endorsements and sponsorships, and is maybe the most clutch athlete ever. He is the last sports figure I would have expected to be in this kind of mess with the media but there he is. All this money and worldly gain has just gotten him into trouble and he is not exempt from these problems just b/c of how rich he is. Biggie was right, mo money mo problems.

Day 51

Dec 21: Deut 12-22
Deut 13:6-9 says "If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and worship other gods'...do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death."
This short passage reinforces to me how serious our relationship with God is. God is #1 and comes before anything and everything and whatever deters you from your relationship with God must be removed. We aren't going to go around killing people that interfere with our walks in this day and age. Instead, we must detach ourselves from these people, but at the same time, attach ourselves to others that will push us. Having that strong community is something that I learned is absolutely necessary for our walks. It makes things so much easier. You have people that can give you biblical advice, people that have gone through similar trials, people that can just listen to you when you are troubled and the list goes on and on. I thank God so much for providing me and surrounding me with people I can go to now for help and also making me someone that friends can rely on when needed. Let's continue to remove things that hinder us and seek out things that will accelerate our walks with God.

Ecclesiastes 4:10-12 - If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
James 5:16 - Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Day 50

Dec 20: Deut 9-11
When I look back on certain moments and situations in my life, I can see that God was always in control and had his plan all set out. All I did in those times were follow God and really try to hear his voice and his advice.
In Deut 9, God instructs Israel to cross the Jordan and overtake nations that are greater and stronger than them. While this may seem like a losing cause, God says to them, "But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire." How reassuring must this have been for the Israelites? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Sometimes though, there are things that we feel are out of our reach. Starting with college, we would have our reach schools, then there are certain jobs that we feel we might be unqualified for, and other times we may feel we might not be able to serve God in some sort of way that we feel unholy for or not ready for. Let's look to God during these times and know that nothing is out of reach when we have God on our side. Let's seek out his advice, be diligent in prayer and listen for his voice. God could have certain plans for us that we don't know and that reach school, job, or means to serve could be part of it. It would be a shame if we missed out on a chance to glorify God somehow because we were blinded by our own pride. Let's remember Phil 4:13,
"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength," and not underestimate it's true meaning.

Day 46

Dec 16: Deut 5-8
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." - Deut 6:5.

When I feel jaded or apathetic in my spiritual life, I ask God to help me rebound by praying this verse. I feel like it covers everything that we should be doing as Christians. If we truly love God, we will do all the right things for the right reasons. I know it's good to be specific in our prayers, but sometimes it just feels less and less genuine when we recite the same prayers over and over again. At those times I like to simplify. It feels too forced to go through everything that could be on my mind and it results in frustration and weaker prayers for me. Going back to the basics with this prayer helps it be more meaningful. I know that if I really come to love God with all my heart soul and strength, other areas of my life will become stronger and I thank God that such a simple prayer could do this.

Day 45

Dec 15: Deut 1-4
Today's reading just quickly reinforced how great God is to me. In one of the chapters, Moses is speaking about staying away from idolatry and how these idols cannot see or hear or eat or smell. He then says, "But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul...For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you."
Such simple yet encouraging words. Again, in this day and age, it's so easy to get caught up in the material world. All these crazy realistic video games, iphones, blackberries and so on make it so easy for us to get caught up in other things and take time away from God. God knows it's going to happen though. It's human nature for us to be attracted to these things from time to time and we'll be crazy about it for a little while but the excitement inevitably fizzles out. I got caught up on playing video games on xbox live and that took up more time than it should have. Playing halo 3 on live is awesome; it's never the same thing. I also just got a taste of the new Call of Duty and that game is even more ridiculous. I won't get that game cause it could ruin me.
As long as we seek God out as much as possible, we will find Him and He will take us back b/c he's merciful. He won't abandon us b/c we paid more attention to something else for a little, but let's still remember that God is jealous and that he wants our attention and our relationship with Him more than anything else. We need to make sure God is getting the time He most certainly deserves. We need to plan around God and not try to squeeze Him in instead of the other way around. Let's slow down a little bit from this material world and remember what our #1 priority should be and not sacrifice our relationships with God for something that will be boring in 1-3 months.

Day 44

Dec 14: Numbers 25-36
I'm finally done with Numbers. Just like Leviticus, it was a tough chapter to read but there were things that I learned and I hope my reading comprehension of the bible will be enhanced by my necessity for an extra level of focus while reading these last two books.
I thought chapter 33 of Numbers was kinda crazy. At the Lord's command, Moses had to record all the stages and locations of where the Israelites went after they were rescued out of Egypt. It's such a long list and it made me think that God wanted to show everyone how intricate his plans are. It wasn't a simple process of just going from point A to point B. God went to all these different places and most likely had a purpose for each place. The Red Sea is where God showed his power to perform miracles, at other places God showed how he could provide water and food, Mount Hor was used to bury Aaron when he passed and so on.
When I thought about it some more, our lives are just like this. God moves us around from place to place and has different plans for us at each location and wants us to learn different things about Him and ourselves at those locations. I feel like every place I've been for an extended amount of time has given me a fairly distinct feeling or state of mind and each has been unique in it's own way. I know my path to God hasn't always been the straightest or best path, and I know even in the future it won't be easy but I pray that everywhere I go from now on will straighten me out towards God's kingdom.
I think moving out and living on my own has helped me more in my spiritual life for whatever reason than when I was living at my parents house. Perhaps just learning to be more independant and not being so spoiled with everything at home; I'm sure those things have something to do with it. Moving out also may not make as much sense financially but I can't put a price tag on my relationship with God and maybe He knew that I needed a push in a different direction to get it back on track.

*exactly 4 weeks til Costa Rica!!

Day 42

Dec 12: Numbers 19-24
One thing that I think we should always be working on is our prayer life. It's probably safe to say that we could judge our own spiritual maturity based on what we pray about. If we're always praying for selfish things, like more money, a better job, a nicer house, it can show that our prayers could be more for us than for the glory of God.
I've been talking about how immature the Israelites seem in some of my past posts and it continues on here. I've seen a common theme from their prayers and that theme is that they are always wishing for selfish things. They complain and pray for better food, they complain for water in the desert, and in these chapters when God gets upset about them complaining about having miserable food in the desert, God sends venomous snakes that live among them. These snakes end up biting and killing a lot of them and their prayer again is for the Lord to take the snakes away from them, instead of asking for forgiveness to God for having a lack of trust in him once again.
It's easy for us to read this and analyze it and see how many times they've been stupid and unfaithful to God but we are the same way, just in different aspects. I need to pray more to God asking for more maturity in my prayers. To seek out the things that God wants me to pray about, to give me a heart that agonizes like his, to pray more about what God wants in my life rather than what I want. I think a lot of it just comes from pride. Just like John the baptist said, He must increase and we must decrease. As hard as that could be, I know if we consistenly pray for things and we persevere instead of just praying about it once or twice, God will bring about transformation in our lives and our prayers.

Day 39

Dec 9: Numbers 16-18
God uses all of us in different ways. Just because we aren't pastors or leaders of the church doesn't mean that he can't do great things through us.
In chapter 16, there is a Levite named Korah who leads a charge against Moses asking him why he is in charge of the Israelites and even the Levites. It seems like he's jealous that he is being told what to do by another man that has more communication with God than he does. Instead of being content with his position already which is to help out with the tabernacle, Korah seeks out more, most likely to fill his own pride. Him and 250 others feel the same way. God is angered by this and splits open the earth and swallows those men and their households.
There shouldn't be any jealousy at all while serving God's kingdom. If there is, you're not really serving God, you're serving yourself which is what it seems Korah and his followers did. God has different purposes for all of us. We can't all be leaders. God gives leaders certain qualities they need, and others different qualities that leaders may not have. If we seek Him out with a genuine heart to serve, with a heart that truly loves God, He will obviously find ways to use us and we should be thrilled that he does. I pray that God will find my strengths and give me a way to use them to glorify his name.

Day 37

Dec 7: Numbers 11-13
In these few chapters, the Israelites continue to grumble and complain and it arouses the anger of the Lord. They complain about only eating manna and not having any meat to eat and ramble on and on about it until Moses can't take it any more and finally goes to God for advice. Clearly, God is angry that he keeps providing for the Israelites, yet they keep complaining, even saying they had it better off in Egypt. So God tells them that he will provide meat for them, not just for 1 or 2, or 5 or 10 days, but for a whole month. He says they will eat meat "until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it-because you have rejected the Lord."
That's a pretty graphic image if you ask me. Obviously, we shouldn't be trying to draw the ire of God, but even though he's steaming with anger God still handles the situation with wisdom. He provides the Israelites with what they want by sending tons of quail for them to eat, but also punishes and teaches them a lesson at the same time by overproviding for them. Instead of just punishing them some other way, God provides the Israelites with a chance to learn how foolish they have been. I feel like God works like this so often in my life. So many times I look back on things that I've done, stupid things, and see how God has used those times to help me mature. A lot of times I'll make the same mistakes, but the other times I will learn and erase that stupidity from my life. Praise God for being so tolerant and merciful to us, dealing with our foolishness and immaturity, and providing us with lessons from our own life experiences that will help us draw closer and closer to Him.

Day 36

Dec 6: Numbers 8-10
Whenever I read the old testament and see all the signs God shows his people, I wonder how they could disobey him or even worship idol Gods like the golden calf from Exodus. God parts the Red Sea for the Israelites to escape from the Egyptians, Moses and Aaron perform all these miracles and bestow a plague over Egypt through the Lord's name and it goes on and on.
In chapter 9, the tabernacle is set up and God keeps a cloud over it that looks like it's on fire. This sparked my confusion again as to how the Israelites could see all these crazy things and not have complete devotion to the one that creates them. Right as I was thinking this, I felt God speaking to me, telling me to stop being such a hypocrite. Although I'm not as exposed to these kinds of miracles and signs, God's presence is still just as strong now as it was then. I should stop judging those people, and look at my own life and how I haven't fully devoted myself to God even though he shows me his love everyday and answers my prayers all the time. I might not worship idol gods, but I know I'm still caught up with worldly things and those things probably come close to being idols in my life too. I need to ask God for more humility, more maturity and a better perspective on things like this so that rather than judging people which does nothing for me, I would learn and be able to grow instead.

Day 35

Dec 5: Numbers 7
Up to this point in the old testament, a lot of sacrifices have been made to God. There have been a ton of animals sacrificed and it's necessary for people to come before God. A lot of the scripture has also been about how to prepare the sacrifices and what exactly to do to make it just right before presenting it to the Holy Lord. There's a lot of anointing of this, consecrating of that, blood here and there and overall it just seems like a very arduous process but obviously important nonetheless.
Chapter 7 in Numbers is a long chapter that's pretty redundant overall. It lists out all the sacrifices each of the 12 tribes makes to the tabernacle that Moses sets up. A ton of animals, a lot of gold, a lot of incense and a bunch of other things are sacrificed to God. I'm pretty thankful that we don't have to go through all of this to come before God. I can't really imagine doing all of that. But, Jesus came and saved us from our sins and also saved us from bloody sacrifices. He gives us direct access to God at all times. We can come before God whenever we want and wherever we are and He actually wants us to. Although we are fortunate not to have to do all that, I don't want to just take the easy way out and feel like I'm lucky in this sense. I want to get dirty for God in other areas. I want to feel uncomfortable in certain spots that will help me to grow and mature in him. I don't know exactly when or how that will happen but I'm sure it will. I just pray that God would guide me and that I would faithfully follow.

Day 33

Dec 3: Numbers 1-6
In the beginning of the book of Numbers, God asks Moses to take a census of the whole Israelite community by clan and family, listing every man by name, one by one who is over 20 years old and can serve in the army. The first few chapters go over the different clans, lists out the leaders of the clans, and how many people occupy that clan. The total number of Israelite men over 20 came out to 603,550. With women and children too, this number had to have been well over 1.5 million I would imagine. The only thing I could think about while reading this was how God was fulfilling his promise to Abraham, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them...so shall your offspring be." It's been many generations, but God comes through on his promises to make a nation out of Abraham and also to save that nation from Egypt.
I know we all go through hard times in our lives and may feel like there's just nothing going right. We may feel like we haven't been blessed, or have nothing to show for ourselves at times. I think that in those times, we need to try to be content as hard as that may be, because we have a greater promise that God has given us. That through the blood of his only son Jesus, we have salvation and eternal life.

Day 32

Dec 2: Leviticus 22-27
Leviticus was definitely tougher to read than Genesis and Exodus. The first two books of the bible start off exciting. There is lots of drama going on and it's really easy to read. Leviticus slows this pace down a lot though. The whole book is pretty much the Lord speaking to Moses and giving him all these rules and regulations. So much of it was about how the Israelites should be living back then; how to build the tent of meeting, how to offer all different kinds of sacrifices, what's clean and unclean and it goes on and on. Most of this doesn't directly apply to our relationship with God. Although the reading is dull and boring for the most part, God still wants us to learn something and for that reason Leviticus is in the bible. We should remember 2 Timothy 3:16 which says, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."
So what else can I learn? I think the main theme is how holy God is. All these rules that are set must be followed for a reason, and thats b/c God is holy. We can't be bringing him sacrifices that aren't worthy, or breaking all his rules. We need to respect him and respect everything he has laid out for us. Even though a lot what God lays out are for the Israelites in the old testament, we can still reinforce this with all the other rules God has given us for our own relationship with him. Also, so many times throughout this book you see God ending a chapter or segment with, "I am the LORD your God." It's as if God is reminding us that HE is God, and we are nothing compared to him. If I can take anything from this book, it's that God is holy. I need to respect him and know that he is not to be messed with. At the same time, God shows us that with obedience comes rewards. Chapter 26 starts off titled "Reward for Obedience." We should fear God and all his holiness but still know that he loves us unconditionally and wants to bless us more than we know.

Day 31

December 1: Leviticus 16-21
One of the hardest things about Christianity has to be this, "love your neighbor as yourself," which God directs us to do in Leviticus. Well just how do we go about accomplishing this? I think C.S. Lewis has great perspective of this in Mere Christianity so I'll take a lot of what I say from him.
If we're to love our neighbors as ourselves, we need to know what that means first. Loving our neighbors doesn't mean we need to think they're nice or even that they're good people. We can hate the things our neighbors do but not hate the person. Hate the sin, not the sinner as a lot of people say. It may seem impossible to do this, to distinguish the sin from the sinner, but we do this all the time with ourselves. We hate that sometimes we do such nasty things but we'll go on loving ourselves just fine.
It's easy to love our friends, they're usually people that you'll find easy to get along with. It's not easy though to love your enemies, who are still considered to be our neighbors. We should try to start off small, by forgiving them of smaller things and learning to love them that way first. Once we get into those people that we really hate or the ones that really annoy us though, we need God. We need to see that this is exactly how God loves us. We need to see how God first forgives us even though we're all sinners and do terrible things against him. Whenever we think that we can't forgive someone or that we can't love someone, we should know that Jesus came and did it first for us. He came and set the example and all we need to do is follow him. How can we ask God to forgive us, when we can't forgive others? I pray that God can put more love in my heart, even for those people that really bother and annoy me because God still loves me even for all the sin I commit against him.