Nothing Puts me in The Christmas Spirit Like This

Anybody Remember This Guy?

 

His name is Jesus of Nazareth.

He is the Son of God, and His birthday is in 11 days.

This Christmas, may we cherish the gift of hope we receive in Jesus.

Gungor... One of my favorite moments from Catalyst east 2010

The video doesn't even really do justice to how powerful this was.

Doing This One On Sunday...

Wow... He did That For Me???

Ephesians 2 

¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

 I often have trouble understanding how to reconcile two equal yet opposite understandings of my relationship to God. Reverence vs. intimacy.

God is the omnipotent master and creator of the entire universe. Everything that ever was or will be is His creation and under His complete and utter control. This includes all laws of the physical universe that we know and do not know. Every single molecule on every world in every solar system in every one of the billions of galaxies in our universe or others was placed there by God. It is why we call Him God!

So this God. This great God. The same one who made our planet a speck of dust in an unspeakably vast cloud of galaxies. This God decided to come to our tiny "pale blue dot" in the form of a microscopic man... just so that we could know Him. Just so that His love could be shown. How can I forget to be reverent toward this God? How can I continue to do things that dishonor Him? What makes me feel as though I am bigger than God sometimes, or that I am somehow so important that He does not deserve my service? It is quite ridiculous, the delusional state I live in sometimes.

What is awesome about God is that He has made us so tiny yet He constantly displays His unending and unexplainable love for these infinitely small creatures known as humans. And that is why I am OK with being unable to easily reconcile these two ideas. It is obvious that God doesn't owe me anything, especially an explanation as to why He loves me.


Godspeed,

Christian

Yeah... I was TOTALLY THERE.

Catalyst East 2010: Recap Video from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Catalyst

So. Catalyst is this week. And guess what? I am totally going! I'm super excited about this conference. Check out the video below to see why.


Catalyst 2009 Preview from Catalyst on Vimeo.

I can't wait!

No More Facebookery

In 2001 I joined facebook. Back then, I felt special being one of the few thousand college students that had become a part of the new social network that was to rival the epic giant of Myspace. I remember people acting like I was stupid for being on facebook. After all we had myspace so why bother. Well, 9 years and over 1,600 friends later, I found myself addicted to checking status updates and feeling compelled to constantly tell the world what I was doing. It all just became a massive waste of time.

I came to the realization that when I opened my news feed, I was totally inundated by tons of useless information about people I really didn't know [or care to know] anything about. Since I didn't really care about the info being shared by others, I was simply feeding a narcissistic need to broadcast my mundane daily activities and opinions, which is really quite pathetic. This generation is developing a nasty habit of typing every idea that comes into our heads. Also, I have made the mistake of  "befriending" strangers simply because they are friends with 40 other people I was also friends with, though I didn't even know most of those mutual friends in the first place. This simply makes a person more vulnerable, not to mention quite useless for most of the time he is engaged in facebookery.

So, I have quit the facebook scene cold turkey. If you want to know what I am up to, email me. Check my blog every once in a blue moon. And if you actually want to have a real conversation, you could always use this archaic device known as a telephone and CALL me. I know, I know. Crazy right?

Godspeed,

Christian

Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross

Jesus, keep me near the cross,
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

Refrain

In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.

Refrain

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day,
With its shadows o’er me.

Refrain

Near the cross I’ll watch and wait
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand,
Just beyond the river.

Very Powerful Video