3 Truths That Change Your Life: An excellent blog post by Justin Buzzard, that helped me find perspective last week. He writes about how three simple truths, understood and believed together, help overcome fear, anxiety and insecurity. The truths are:
1. God is Sovereign.
2. God is Wise and
3. God is Good.
Do read the article.
Another great quote I came across on Buzzard Blog:
"People who understand that their creativity is a gift of God, rather than putting it in the place of God himself, discover a paradoxical freedom. They are both free to work and free from work. Motivated by love and gratitude (powerful motivators) they are free to work very hard, giving their best back to God. At the same time, because they know neither they nor their work is God, they are free from the burden of taking themselves or their work too seriously—as if their giftedness mandated perfection."
That's a very meaty statement people like me need to think about all the time, so that we do not swing to either extreme....neglecting our work and thinking work is not important, or, on the other hand, becoming work-driven and elevating work to the place of God ("work is worship"..a very commonly heard phrase here at CMC)
Remember the video I posted earlier of a sermon by Matt Chandler, which I had found very convicting and thought-provoking. It seems that a few days later, on Thanksgiving Day, he had a seizure and was found to have a brain tumour, and subsequently had surgery. Here is a short video (about 5 mins) recorded by him for his church, that was screened at the various services the Sunday after his surgery. It is quite a powerful testimony, and, while I have been praying for this dear brother who has already impacted my life, I have also been blessed by his example of "suffering well".
Here are two good articles from the Desiring God blog:
1. Jon Bloom writes about the "older brother types".....(perhaps most of us fall into this category. Our sins are not so obvious and well known, but are just as deadly). He answers the question, "Do we have to sin more grossly in order to be able to comprehend how much we have been forgiven so that we can "love much"?" and says, "It takes a miracle to be delivered from both blinding sinful self-righteousness and blinding sinful indulgence."
2. Some parenting advice from John Piper while answering the question, "Why Require Unregenerate Children to Act Like They’re Good?". Much like most of our "born-in-a-Christian-family" Indian Christians, isn't there a risk that this might "simply confirm them in unspiritual religious conformity, hypocritical patterns of life, and legalistic moralism?"
This just goes to drive in even more forcefully the fact that while we can train a child to say "Please" and "Thank you" and follow a list of laws, perhaps unhappily, only God can change the heart, so that obedience comes from the heart, joyfully, and from a desire to please God.
Which brings me again to express my hope that our parents will write some posts on this blog with parenting advice they have learnt the hard way over the years.
An interesting article on How December 25 Became Christmas. We have not decided yet what to do this year......Arpita is talking about Advent calendars and Advent candles as a way of telling Anand the story of Jesus' birth, but nothing has happened as yet. My objection to celebrating Christmas has, partly, to do with how the entire festival has become a commercial business, dominated with pagan traditions like Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and silly, meaningless carols. As I wonder about how to tell Anand the truth and the wonderful news about how Jesus was born, I think about how the message always gets garbled at Christmas time. What do you think is the impression the average Indian non-Christian has when he thinks about Christmas, the celebration of Jesus' birth?
On a lighter note, here is a list prepared every year, as an indicator of the state of the economy. This year, it will cost over 87,000 dollars to express your feelings to your true love.
Finally here is an incredible (as in, hard to believe!) video from youtube. I wonder if my brother is planning to do this at his wedding next month
1 comment:
Well, for what it's worth. Ashish brought up our fake tree yesterday and we decorated it. Safina got really, really excited to open our box of ornaments and look at each one and make up a story about each one. And, it was the 'perfect' opportunity to tell her why we celebrate Christmas. I think for her, it was a lesson she could touch and feel and see. And, then Ashish shared some memories he had of Christmas as a child as did I.
I too was trying to convince Ashish of using an Advent wreath during this season. We always had one growing up and I think we need to look at these things as tools for learning, teaching and growing together in the knowledge of Christ! The wreath, the Christmas tree, the ornaments, the cross, the podium at which the preacher preaches, the church building all have the potential to hide the true meaning of our faith. But, I really saw last night how Safina was so excited to listen to what we were saying and the story really came full circle for her. She took part in her learning. And, with the advent wreath, she becomes an active participant in lighting the candle, saying a prayer - maybe even drawing out a prayer, etc.
Love, juliana
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