Isaih 40:31

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Silent Night, Holy Night

“SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT”

During World War I, in the winter of 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, one of the most unusual events in all of human history took place. The Germans had been in a fierce battle with the British and French. Both sides were dug in, safe in muddy, man-made trenches six to eight feet deep that seemed to stretch forever.

All of a sudden, German troops began to put small Christmas trees, lit with candles, outside of their trenches. Then, they began to sing songs. Across the way, in the “no man’s land” between them, came songs from the British and French troops. Incredibly, many of the Germans, who had worked in England before the war, were able to speak good enough English to propose a “Christmas” truce.

The British and French troops, all along the miles of trenches, accepted. In a few places, allied troops fired at the Germans as they climbed out of their trenches. But

the Germans were persistent and Christmas would be celebrated even under the threat of impending death.

According to Stanley Weintraub, who wrote about this event in his book, Silent Night, “signboards arose up and down the trenches in a variety of shapes. They were usually in English, or – from the Germans – in fractured English. Rightly, the Germans assumed that the other side could not read traditional gothic lettering, and that few English understood spoken German. ‘YOU NO FIGHT, WE NO FIGHT’ was the most frequently employed German message. Some British units improvised ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ banners and waited for a response. More placards on both sides popped up.”

A spontaneous truce resulted. Soldiers left their trenches, meeting in the middle to shake hands. The first order of business was to bury the dead who had been previously unreachable because of the conflict. Then, they exchanged gifts. Chocolate cake, cognac, postcards, newspapers, tobacco. In a few places, along the trenches, soldiers exchanged rifles for soccer balls and began to play games.

It didn’t last forever. In fact, some of the generals didn’t like it at all and commanded their troops to resume shooting at each other. After all, they were in a war. Soldiers eventually did resume shooting at each other. But only after, in a number of cases, a few days of wasting rounds of ammunition shooting at stars in the sky instead of soldiers in the opposing army across the field.

For a few precious moments there was peace on earth good will toward men. All because the focus was on Christmas. Happens every time. There’s something about Christmas that changes people. It happened over 2000 years ago in a little town called Bethlehem. It’s been happening over and over again down through the years of time.

This week, Lord willing, it will happen again.

seek God

What to do? I want to follow God in all I do. however I want to follow my own selfish means at the same time… can it work? can he be glorified? God is all I need. I don’t need anyone else to validate me. It’s so amazing how he can change us. I remember caring about my future to to point that I wanted that more than anything. However the future didnt involve God. God is my ambition. He has been for quite some time. He always will be and I dont want anything to stop that. It feels great to tell my friends who arent christians that. God is in control of my life and I hope to never let that be misconstrued. I also want to talk about how awesome my life group is and that they are always there for me. I was thinking about them aon my way to VT this weekend and how thankful I am for them…Jacob called me before I was able to call him and basically said the same thing. I’m so thankful for those guys!

I Am… Good

I watch I am Legend with Michael, Cooney and Noah last night and there were a few scenes in the movie that really made me think about God and how we should act in a culture that doesn’t embrace living a life for Christ.

First we should pray, publicly, even invite others who we know aren’t christians to join, the invitation should always be there. Just like we should always be praying, giving thanks for the many gifts we’re given. I don’t pray enough. Especially out in public (over food, or for friends). Even times when I’ve wanted to, I’ve just waited for others to do so and when they didn’t i just act like we didn’t really need to pray anyways…wow how not manly of me. John Eldridge would smack me over the face with a copy of Wild at Heart!  Praying out loud, in front of others is one of those things that I wouldn’t typically do because I know it could make others uncomfortable. I think that might be one of my biggest shortcomings, I try to make everyone comfortable, If something is awkward and i see someone feels weird, I feel weird too. This can be a good thing, but really it doesn’t help me be as upfront and confident in my faith in front of non-believers as I would like to be. Its stupid when you think about is as I don’t need to appease others, thats worthless. I need to appease God! I pray that I lose that self-consciousnesses and am able to speak of God in any environment and setting! How does that tie to I Am Legend? There was a scene where Will Smith’s family prays together outside, something that is rarely shown in movies today, and rarely happens in my life.

A common theme in the movie was Will Smith saying that he would “Fix This” by “This” he meant 90% of the planet being killed and the remaining 9.9% turned into cannibalizing Zombies. Quite unrealistic circumstances! That reminds me of the daily struggle. Problems come up that need to be addressed, I address them in my nonchalant way and move on. Yet don’t think about whats going on behind the scenes.  Instead I look at my hands and the resources I have to fix whatever the problem is, if those two can’t do it. It’s impossible! ‘NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD’.  I seem to ignore that fact and try to take on the world myself. Take my car buying experience for example. I needed a new car for months! Instantly I thought new car, lease maybe. The problem was money, Didnt know if I had enough! I kept looking at cars though that were out fo my price range. Finally after getting NOWHERE with the car buying process. I prayed to God for a week straight to help me use my money the right way so I buy a car that works and dont waste money on a car that I drive a few times a week. Instead I found God put on my heart the desire to use my money for him, in the end I had a new car within a week that is exactly what I needed and was only $4000. Plus my mom remembered that she had paid the tax on my brothers new car so she paid $1000 on mine!  God has continually been working on my heart with how I use my money and I’m so excited about how this turned out because I gave it to him and he provided (rather quickly I might add). So it’s not what I can do,  because really I’m looking up at a huge mountain if I want to fix things myself, With God Nothing is Impossible!

Lastly, Will Smith’s character talked about Bob Marley, and how he believed that though music and love he could change the wickedness of the world. It wouldn’t take violence, only those two things, and evil would lose. 2 days before a free concert in Jamaica, Bob Marley was shot outside his house. Normally that would be enough to stop anyone from performing for weeks. Instead Marley performed on schedule, displaying his new wounds to the crowd. he said he played because the ones who came to shoot him didn’t take the day off, so why should he?

Think about that? The Evil one is always working in our lives, just waiting, looking for that foothold to ruin your life.  Although we decide sometimes that we can take it easy… we should always be weary of him and stay near to God always! Always thinking about him, always trying to be more like him. We should live life and display our trophy in the victory against sin, and thats Jesus. we need to life our lives in a reflection of Jesus so we will be out pointing to him for all to see!

Awesome Faith

A Sudanese Christian boy has his knees and feet nailed to a board and he is left to die. When rescued he says he forgives the man who did this because Jesus was also nailed and forgave him.

A Vietnamese pastor is sentenced to two years in prison. When he is offered an early release, he declines stating that he has a group of new Believers in the prison he has to disciple.

A Colombian missionary is kidnapped and told she only has two hours to live. She tells her captors that if she only has two hours to live, she wants to spend it telling them about Jesus.

Loss

    We are always going to lose people, what should we feel? sadness(usually thats a given) anger? fear? regret? I guess it depends on the relationship we have with the person who passed but Wouldnt it be great to put happiness in that list? I havent been especially happy when anyone has died but I think I could be. Not in the way that I would be happy because someone is dead. I mean happy because that person has gone to be with Christ. Paul said  “To live is Christ and to die is gain”. Life is a WIN-WIN! we don’t even get it. Living and spreading the love of christ should make us happy, but also going to meet the father shouldn’t be feared. Loss will always be hard but i think if both people have christ in their lives you can’t lose.

Awesome Worship Message

Fresh Bread

John Emery made a group called Got any fresh bread  and its a great idea! Its really encouraged me to pass on to others what I’m reading and how I see some of these passages, mostly I read things and just think about it on my own but why not post it up so everyone can read!?

Follow Your Heart

Its funny how most people impart advice like “follow your heart” but, really thats terrible advice! Our hearts are sinful,we want what makes us feel good, by nature we are just looking out for ourselves. So, really following your heart is pushing whatever God mayb be doing in your life aside and doing what you think you should be doing.

I’ve had a number of times in my life when i thought that by following my heart  primarily in relationships with people, when I thought I was doing the right thing. So not true. You really need to follow God with your entire body, so maybe when your heart wants to do somthing yet your consience is telling you thats a bad idea, listen to your head…

Society

Remember the movie Jungle to Jungle? Where Tim Allen finds he has a son who grew up in the Amazon or something, then he brings him to New York and the kid is totally confused as he’s lived in the jungle his entire life? Yeah thats real life. There are thousands/millions? of people out there who just don’t know the world around them. They don’t worry about bills, 401(k)s and baseball scores. They worry if they can put food on the table, and collect tools to make life easier. Life is much simpler.
They measure wealth by ‘cargo’ its what you have that makes you wealthy. In that way both cultures are the same. Though specifically here its money, that determines wealth. I would rather have nothing and know Jesus than have everything and know only myself.