it's thanksgiving! so let's talk about christmas! (obvi)

Some people say Christmas season doesn't start until after Thanksgiving. Others say it starts after Halloween. Personally, I start feeling a little festive October 25th, the Two Months Before Christmas Day... day. I may or may not have been part of a four person effort that decorated a few trees and light posts on campus with paper made Christmas ornaments last year. These ornaments may or may not have been in the shape of Christmas Dinosaurs, (because everyone knows that Dinosaurs are awesome, and I bet that if you asked a Dinosaur what his or her favorite holiday was, it would be Christmas).

The other day at work, a friend and co-worker mentioned putting on some Christmas tunes in the kitchen where we were busy making some hot toasted sandwiches. You see, when Josh Groban starts singing O Holy Night, I get jacked up and my productivity increases tenfold. Same goes for Mariah Carey's rendition of All I Want for Christmas is You.

But then an unspeakable horror occurred. (Well not really unspeakable because I'm going to talk about it right here). Another co-worker mentioned how she hated Christmas music and how she "quit" Christmas years ago. SHE QUIT CHRISTMAS! You can't do that! It's not like smoking or drinking, a bad habit something that you can just quit!

In all fairness, she was not digging any of the commercialism and has young kids who probably bug the crap out of her when December rolls around. So she isn't the biggest Grinch around. And she said something to the effect of "It's Christmas everyday." And I'm pretty sure I understood what she meant.

Or maybe I didn't understand at all what she was thinking, but this is what I thought about.

The idea of Christmas is something that is integral to my daily life. It's a key component of the Gospel. I'm not talking about any our silly traditions that revolve around Santa (or if you switch the letters around, Satan! Oh my!) cutting down trees and exchanging of gifts of course. But what Christmas celebrates is an incredible thing. The birth of Jesus, the realization of years of Jewish prophecy in the Old Testament, the beginning of sin's ultimate demise, begins the most important story of all time.

I believe that Christmas can be summed up in John 1:14 which says:
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

God came to dwell among us! This wasn't the first time God decided to dwell with man. In the past God's presence dwelt among the nation of Israel as they wondered the desert and His presence was made known by a tremendous sight as Exodus 40:38 says "For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys"

But this dwelling among men is different in Jesus. I imagine that a giant pillar of fire is real intimidating and scary. Something so powerful, so holy, so perfect cannot be approached by man. Remember that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark (I love Harrison Ford! Han Solo, Indiana Jones, what a guy!) when those creepy Nazi guys open of the Ark of the Covenant and power inside the Ark, melts their faces? Yeah, I'd say that's actually an accurate picture of how we can't grasp and even stand to be in the presence of a perfect God, or that a just and righteous God can't stand to be in the presence of sinful people.

But in Jesus, God became man. He became an approachable baby in a manger in Roman occupied Israel, a far less terrifying sight than a tornado of fire leading a nation that would conquer the Holy Land. Through him, we have access to the father, to eternal life. We don't have to cower in fear before God. God came down to meet with us.

The holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas are inseparable in my mind. Because the thing I am most thankful for is that "...Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:5-11.

Also, I think Easter is sweet too, but we can talk about Easter at the appropriate time, which is obviously, New Years, or maybe Presidents day?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

on the banks of the olentangy

The Olentangy River ( it's pronounced OH lehn TANGE ee not OH lhen TANG ee. Which reminds me, when was the last time you some Tang orange drink? Tang! It's a kick in a glass! Anyway, back to the rest of this sentence) runs through the campus of THE Ohio State University. A bike path runs along side it and on nice days in the fall, on campus it seems everyone on campus turns into a fitness guru and goes for a bike ride or a run along the path. Sometimes I'll join in on this fitness craze and run by the river. Sometimes, just to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather (global warming is a good thing. I like warm weather) we've enjoyed in Columbus, I'll just walk by the river in the fading sunshine of a Midwestern afternoon. Sometimes I'll just sit in the grass overlooking the river and get weird looks from bikers and runners who think I'm creeping on them. I find it helps me clear my thoughts, and the quietness of scenery gives me plenty of time to spend in prayer. It also allows me to say things "I went down to the river to pray" (hey, like that one song!).

So a little background on the Olentangy River. It might look pretty in the autumn sun as the water reflects the colors of the orange leaves. There are ducks and other water fowl swimming in harmony with one another. Maybe you'd even like to take a little swim in river. That's just foolish. The river is a dump. Well, more accurately, it's a river where sewers and drains dump their contents. As a Microbiology major, I could probably test the quality of that water and then let you know about all the fecal matter that's brewing in that cesspool. But hey, it still looks pretty. It would be an incredibly daunting task to clean the river. But hypothetically lets say you could. One day, a motley crew of environmentally conscious scientists and hipsters went to work and completely cleaned up the river and made it possible for wildlife and humans to enjoy the fresh water oasis in the middle of a college campus. In fact, you could even drink the water if you wanted to. How long would the restored river last? Until the next rainfall when sewers and drains dumped the contents of filthy urban runoff into the Olentangy. A continual system of pricey upkeep would be necessary to maintain the river, and the hipsters would probably stop caring soon enough.

Now then why am I talking about a dirty river? Because I think it makes for a great picture of the Gospel. Our world is filthy. I'm filthy. So are you. We're covered in sin. Any man made remedy can never clean us. In the Israelite tradition, continual sacrifices needed to be made, but no sacrifice could ever take away the stain of sin. Our own attempts at righteousness fall short of what God intends for us. A perfect God demands perfection. The only thing that can cleanse us is the blood of a perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ. We must embrace the truth that we are not good enough. Our lives are a mess. The work of Christ on the cross cleanses us completely. And when we sin again, Jesus' blood cleanses us still. We must drink from the living water, the water that gives eternal life, a life that is complete and fulfilling. This water will never get dirty. It is always clean, always fresh.

You want a real picture of a perfect river. Read this from Revelation Chapter 22:
"1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."

The River of Life, God's river is way more beautiful and magnificent then the Olentangy or any other scene I can imagine. I look forward to the day when I can find true rest and peace on the banks of that beautiful reality. It won't just be a pretty picture.

oh what up blogosphere?

Well hello there my friend. I don't know how you got here. Maybe you're one of my faithful followers on twitter and you want to know how does Phil come up with such great tweets? Maybe you're one of my so-called facebook "friends" and you don't have anything to do today, so you clicked on a link to my blog with the mindset of, "Oh great, yet another blog about a 20-something who feels the need to share his feelings with the world. Get out of high school already!" Perhaps you Googled "World's most attractive single Asian-American male" and boom, here you are. Maybe you're thinking, "This guy is an idiot, he spelled 'rain' wrong in the title of his blog." Contrary to popular belief, I'm an above average speller (thanks High Point Elementary School!). The reign I refer to has nothing to do with the precipitation that has plagued my last two quarters at THE Ohio State University. No, it refers to Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven. With that last statement, I probably lost a lot readers and all my Christian friends are going "oh snap, he's about to drop some knowledge! Go Jesus!"

Yeah, I'm a Christian, or if you don't prefer labels, a follower of Christ, one who loves Jesus and has given him lordship over my life, and I want nothing more than to see God's kingdom reigning in my life, in this city, in this nation, in this world. I don't pretend to be perfect. I don't mean to be yet another pretentious holier than thou person who got a hold of a keyboard and started posting Jesus comments on youtube videos and yahoo news articles. No, I'm just going to let you know what Jesus has done in my life and how he influences every hour I live. If you just tasted the world's best ice cream flavor (it's graeters black raspberry chip by the way), wouldn't you want to share that revelation with the entire world? Well that's what I want to do. I believe that with Jesus on the throne of your life, your life will never lack meaning or purpose. I don't say your life will be fun and easy and you'll live happily ever after, because I'm not in the business of lying to people. If someone told you that if you became a Christian your life would be instantly better, I'd like to meet that person and punch him in the face. But Jesus can forgive you of your sins and restore your life and shape it in a way that fits into God's perfect plan. What that means in your life personally, I can't say. All I know is that the intimacy with God that I've experienced is awesome and I trust a perfect God with my life more than anything else on this earth.

So if you're still reading this, good for you! I hope you come back for my blend of life, humor, and truth. Well... see ya