another post inspired by my attempts at studying for a midetrm

I've been studying Microbiology at Ohio State for a few years now, and whenever people ask me what my major is like, I sometimes like to tell them that, "it's like regular biology, but smaller." Now of course that doesn't really help them understand what I study, but they get a good laugh out of it, and then they move on with the rest of the conversation.

However, if I were to give an actual answer to what I've been studying over the last year, I'd probably say something about how my most interesting classes deal with how bacteria, fungus, and viruses attack the human body, and the immune response to those invaders. 

Simply put, the human body has special receptors on cells that can "see" invading pathogens, which are marked by special molecules on the surface of the bacteria/virus/fungus. When they "see" these molecules, they begin to mount the immune response, and hopefully they can eradicate the pathogen from the system. These receptors are good at recognizing signals that are specific only to outside invaders, and in a healthy human being, will not detect molecules that are on the surface of other host cells. The body can distinguish between "good" signals from "bad" signals.

Now you may be asking, if the body can see "bad" molecules, how come people still get sick and die?  

Well, I'm glad you asked!

One of the strategies that pathogens have developed to combat the immune system is something called mimicry. And it means exactly what it sounds like. Simply put, the bad molecules disguise themselves as host molecules so that they can go undetected by the initial lines of defense of the immune system. Once they get past the front lines, they start wreaking havoc on your body, and if the body can't adjust, well, bad things can happen to you.

Much in the same way a virus can enter the human body undetected, so does sin.

Yeah it's easy to call out sin when it's obvious. Most people know the ten commandments, the go to list of things that make God angry.

Don't lie? Committing adultery? Why would anyone do that? Put God first and don't have idols? Well God gave us these commandments so I should probably follow them. Following these rules can't be too hard... right?

Except of course we make exceptions all the time.

Maybe I'll just stretch the truth a little bit, just this one time, so I don't get in trouble or make this person upset.

I'm not going to commit adultery, heck I'm not even married. But hey, I'm a sexual being. You can't fault me for being a just a regular guy (or girl) with hormones.

Yeah God is great and all, but he'd want me to enjoy all this money, this big house, this giant TV, this great job right? 

This is how sin infiltrates our lives. They put on the mask of rationalization. But why lie to a friend when true friends can be honest with one another? Doesn't Jesus make it clear in Matthew 5:28 when he says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."? How easily do we fill our time with the pleasures that money can buy, that we forget to worship and look to God for ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction. I'm not saying wealth is a bad thing, but at the end of the day, are you putting your hope a God who never fails, or the mercy of a bank account and an unstable economy?

See, we rationalize all these ideas in our lives, and when our sin is finally exposed for what it is by the Holy Spirit, we have a tough time letting go of bad habits. The disease of sin so firmly entrenched in our lives, it's incredibly difficult to remove it.

Yes, Jesus is the answer, the cure to this disease. He is the God who heals us. But will we continue and listen to what Jesus is telling us? Calling out sin for what it is, not allowing it to slip by our defenses. We must, "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires," (Romamns 13:14). We don't conquer sin or grow in our walks by going about sinning with no heart for repentance, and then come back to God saying, forgive me. Rather, we look at the world through the eyes of Christ, identifying the sin in our lives, turning away from the path that leads to death and destruction. And when we lose sight, we are all the more reminded of why we needed Jesus in the first place.

Because ultimately at the end of the day, our hearts and our flesh will fail, but our God never will.

because the gym is too crowded

I find new years resolutions so entertaining. This week, I'm not going to the gym because everyone is a fitness expert this week, and the gym will be hosting amateur hour, all week long. All the weights and machines will be taken and it will smell (more than usual) and be terribly crowded. We all know that in about a couple weeks, most of these young fitness gurus will return to their televisions and gym attendance will return to normal. But I admire their desire to change and better themselves, but unfortunately, they can't sustain their desires. The few that do continue on usually have a sense of direction. They have an experienced friend who does know what he is doing, showing them what to do, teaching them correct form, spotting them, helping them. They have gone before them and understand that staying in shape is hard work.

The gospel is a lot like a new years resolution. It gives us a fresh new start. When we accept Jesus into our lives, we have a fresh clean start. Our sins have been wiped away. Sins that were as red as scarlet have been made as white as snow. When you first accept Christ, you are swept up in a whirlwind of emotions and you say to yourself, "I'm going to be the best person ever!" And then a couple weeks later, you find yourself mired and stuck in the same sin that you struggled with before, left wondering, "Jesus, I thought my life with you would be changed and different. I thought it would be new." Maybe later in life, you'll renew and rededicate your life to Christ, whether it be because of a traumatic life event, a conference, a sermon, something, and you'll say the exact same things again. And again you'll fail. I don't mean to be a downer, but that's the truth. I've experienced this in my life countless times.

But the beauty of the gospel is that we're supposed to fail. Our failures show us our complete and utter helplessness and shows us why exactly Christ had to die for our sins. We have to continue to come back to the cross. We can't keep trying to better ourselves through our own efforts, through our own strengths. We have to look to Jesus to be our strength. The perfect man lived the perfect life that we could not and died the death that we deserved, and rose from the dead like we never could. There is nothing we can add to that. We can't add anything to perfection.

When Jesus said "It is finished" (John 19:30) he meant it. Hebrews 10:12 says that Christ sat down after he had offered a one time sacrifice for all sins. Unlike our new years resolutions, we can't do anything to add to our salvation. To understand the gospel means to look at where our efforts end and where the work of Jesus begins.

The call in our walks with God isn't to be a better person. Christianity is not about behavior modification. It's about striving to know God better. We want to desire to desire God more, to know Him more intimately. Yes, like the skinny college freshmen who set foot in the gym for the first time ever this year, we will stumble and lose our way as we try to build up "spiritual muscle." But we have to realize that we do very little lifting because we have a trainer with us. Actually, he's more than a trainer. A believer of Christ has the Holy Spirit. By training with the Spirit, Galatians 5 tells us that we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature, and the fruit of walking by the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. Walking with the Spirit allows us to live a life that we long to have, but it is impossible on our own strength. God does the heavy lifting for us. Our role is to show up to the gym, take a step of faith and believe that God is going to be there, and work through us. By wanting more of Jesus, by inviting him into our lives, he makes us grow.

This isn't to say that we just sit back and do nothing. We have to continue to show up to the gym.
"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Philippians 2:12-13
Do you see what Paul is saying here? He says, pursue God, obey him, recognize know that mighty power, because that very same power will be at work in you. So continue taking steps of faith. Continue chasing after Jesus by spending more time with him, getting to know him better, getting to understand the character of the God of the universe who saw it fit to save us from our sins when we were helpless. By inviting Christ into our lives and making our lives revolve around him, he begins to change us from the inside out. He is the one changing our desires. True change comes when Jesus removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). God shows us that it is desirable to get to know him better and do his will for our lives.

Life may not feel easier. In fact it will probably be harder. You will be faced with the reality of living for a perfect kingdom while still in an imperfect world. Only by the Spirit leading you will you be able to continue on. But building spiritual muscle implies that you must tear down the old muscle (old sin). But only Jesus can break you're struggles with sin. You can't. And that's the whole point.

But, if you're not serious about getting into physical shape, please don't go to the gym next week, because I need to do some maintenance on this body, and I don't like having to wait for machines.

my last post about christmas

People like getting things that improves your quality of life. This past week at the doctor, I had the privilege of getting 3 shots injected in my arm to immunize me against the tetanus virus and his batch of bad guy friends. It was terrific, until later that day when I could barely move my arms, and my immune system began to act against the cocktail of weakened pathogens inside my body and as a result, I developed massive headaches and stomachaches, and woke up the next morning feeling like I was going to die. But then the pain went away, and I now I feel fantastic!

So what does my trip to the doctor have to do with anything? Nothing. I'm not even going to try to cleverly tie that into what I wanted to talk about (although, I very easily could).

But back to this idea of receiving things. During Christmas time, people like getting gifts. But society tells us that it's selfish to only receive gifts, and that we should also enjoy giving gifts as well, so we also like to give things. This makes everyone happy in our culture. It allows Christmas time to be enjoyed by all people groups, regardless of religion because, hey who doesn't enjoy other people when selflessness is in season? It's humanity at it's best correct? Don't you get a great feeling when you give someone else a present? It draws people together right? This is the season of giving isn't it? When is he going to stop with all these rhetorical questions?

Now I enjoy the season of giving as much as the next guy. I enjoy buying my family random silly gifts for Christmas, like shamwows, a waffle maker, and the entire men's collection from Bath and Body Works (sounds impressive but there are only 3 things for men at that store, which I think smells fantastic. I'm a sucker for fruit flavored fragrances). But I'm going to suggest that Christmas should primarily be a holiday of receiving. I don't mean to sound like a selfish, arrogant person.

The true message of Christmas has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with what we can give. It has everything to do with what God has given to us. He gave us an unmerited gift, the gift of eternal life through his son, Jesus. We did nothing to earn this gift. When you were a child and you received gifts from your family, not because you deserved them, but because your family and friends love you. God loves his creation,  people who bear his image. The fullness of the high and mighty God came down to dwell among us. God walked among men. Something so powerful and holy came down to live with people who are weak and sinful. He did this so that we might be able to experience a relationship with the father, and to know God, to have eternal life in Him. That's the greatest gift of all.

But today, people gloss over that reality. On Christmas Eve this Saturday, millions of people will go to church, hear a message that they've heard several times before about God's love. They will sing some hymns without paying attention to the words, and then leave with a feeling of self-righteousness thinking that they did their cultural duty as an American and a Christian. I pray that person isn't you. I pray that you will realize the monumental occasion that you are celebrating. That you wouldn't just use this season as a season to feel good about yourself because of all you've given to charity and family and friends. Because the reality is, no matter how much you do for others, and no matter how pure your intentions are, you will never please God by your actions, by your works. A perfect God demands a perfect person. I doubt you are perfect. Only Jesus is. Only by allowing Christ to become your righteousness can you experience God. Receive the free gift that God has sent to us. It is real. Christmas isn't just a tradition, it's a celebration of a real event, the most important event in human history. Respond to the gospel. Celebrate and worship God for who he is and what he has done. Celebrate Immanuel, God with us. God with us. What a concept. We have a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, an Everlasting father, a Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9), dwelling with us if you have accepted Christ.

Christmas is just the beginning of a life that ended with the defeat over death. Christ became the sacrifice, taking on the death that we deserve. But he conquered death by rising from the grave to dwell with God forever. And now he stands, extending that invitation to me and you.

If you haven't received that gift, I implore you to do so. If you have, I implore you to share it with others, and to reflect on what that means for you as a child of God this season.

I want to leave you with my first attempt at embedding a video on this blog! It is from a spoken word from a Christmas Real Life meeting at Ohio State last year which I had the pleasure of being in attendance. I think it does a much better job of saying what I wanted to say. So if you skipped all that reading and just wanted to watch a video, well you're in luck!

Merry Christmas

the trilogy concludes

Welcome to part 3 of my commentary on O Holy Night. If you missed parts 1, and 2, I'd give you a link to click on, but I'm too lazy to insert the links, and I assume since you're on the interwebs, you understand the concept of scrolling down to the bottom of the page to find previous posts. As I sit down to write this post, I can't help but think that I'm following in the footsteps of some other great trilogies of the last 50 years, Star Wars (i'm reffering to the originals, obvi), Lord of the Rings, Toy Story, Indiana Jones (that last movie didn't count), Twilight, Spiderman, and the Jason Bourne Series (a very underrated set of films I might add). In the ways that those movies changed film making, I see this series of blog posts to completely revolutionize the blogoshpere. Also, I think that attaching the word "sphere" to words is cool.

Let's get to it, shall we?

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

The first few lines of this section seem pretty straight forward. Jesus told us to love each other. Great! Love and peace sounds fantastic! Breaking chains of bondage, seeing slaves as our brothers? Cool. I like the sound of that also. Oppression shall cease? Awesome! But again, let's step back and think about what's going on here.

Love is an odd thing to define. There are 4 Greek words for love. Storge, which means affection, Phileo, which refers to friendship and brotherly love (hence the reason why Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love. Random side note: I have an odd inclination to cheering for Philadelphia sports teams because my name is in the city), Eros, which mainly concerns romantic love, and Agape, meaning unconditional love. In the New Testament, the original Greek language uses Agape, pure unconditional love to describe God's love for his people. Unconditional love is hard to come by in this day in age. Even the strongest marriages can end in divorce, and relationships between parents and children are never ideal. But God's love does not fail. The love that compels God to send his Son, that allows Christmas to even happen is truly incredible compared to human attempts at agape. What Jesus did on this earth, living a perfect life and dying on the cross for our sins is the ultimate act of love. John 3:16 is a very popular verse that does a good job of illustrating God's love for us. Perhaps a lesser known verse is found in the book of 1 John in chapter 3, verse 16 which says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." When the Bible talks about love, it goes beyond just being nice to people. It calls us to truly give of ourselves, to make sacrifices, to go beyond our comfort zone, not just during a season of giving, but for the entirety of our lives.

His gospel is peace.

Gospel means good news. The good news is peace. That's what everyone wants right? Politicians and high school seniors writing college essays always talk about establishing world peace. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think that's happening anytime soon. But I can take solace in the fact that God has offered peace to us through Jesus. For there to be a peace, it is implied that there was war, rebellion going on. Humanity was in open rebellion against God, fighting God, using sin to tell God that we didn't want Him reigning over our lives (hey I worked in the title of my blog there!). But Romans 5:10 says "While we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." We couldn't bring about this peace by ourselves, only Jesus can bring peace.

The song continues and states that the slave is our brother, and all oppression shall cease. By claiming that slaves are our brothers, doesn't that also imply that we ourselves our slaves? We are all slaves to sin. When you realize that everyone, you and me alike, were once seen as enemies of God, slaves to sin, wouldn't the oppression that exists between people groups fade away? No one is supreme over anybody. Comparisons become moot points when you are trying to figure out who is worse off than someone else. You're missing the point if you're doing that.

You'll notice that each section of the song ends the same way. Thanking and praising God for what he has done. The primary response to hearing the Christmas story is not to give gifts to other people in an effort to make you feel good about yourself, or even to brighten someone else's day. The first response is worship. Declaring that Christ is the Lord. If you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, then forever and ever, you will praise him for his glory. You will want to proclaim his name to the world, because of what he has saved you from: the grave, sin, eternity without God. It's not something you do once a year as the calender turns to December, it's something you do with all your heart.

In some versions of the song, I noticed that instead of ending with a proclamation of Jesus's divinity and kingship, the song ends with the words "Noel" which simply means Christmas. So often, I hear people talk about "keeping the Christ in Christmas" and how they will say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays". I have been known to be one of those obnoxious people. But nowadays, all I hear when people say things like that, is just white noise. Do not simply yell Noel, without reflecting on what you really mean. This isn't a time to make a political statement. It's a time to worship and reflect on the fact that 2000 years ago, God entered into the world on a holy, divine, night in the form of a helpless baby, and the life of that child would change the world forever.

Well I hope you've enjoyed my posts on this classic. And I applaud you on making it this far. I just now realized that I may have been rambling and this post is quite a bit longer than previous entries. I hope you enjoy the Christmas season, and you'll hear again from me again as I continue to share my thoughts about this wonderful season. It's been real.
 

i should be studying for finals, but i wrote this instead

Welcome to part 2 of my analysis of the beloved Christmas song, O Holy Night. Here's part 1 for those of you who missed it. I should be studying for my final on parasitic pathogens and infections, but learning about the parasite known as Leishmania is not all that fun. So instead, I'm taking the next few minutes to write this post as I prolong my studying, and if you go to OSU, here's a chance to take a little break for yourself! And if you don't go to OSU, great, you have all kinds of time to read this! We pick up the song in verse 2.

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Here the first few verses refer to the well known story of the 3 wise men who come to visit Christ. Not much is known about these 3 kings. Of the four gospel accounts, only Matthew records this incident, but this story of their visit holds a lot of significance. These Wise Men, the Magi, are not Jews, but they have an understanding of Jewish scripture and prophecy. In the book of Matthew 2:6, they quote a prophecy from Micah 5:2, "But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel." They come from, according to the song, Orient land, or east of Israel. Why would these non Jews, these Gentiles, be interested in the Jewish Messiah? They had faith in God. This Messiah is not just for the nation of Israel, but for the entire world. Jesus came to be worshiped by people of all different cultures and races. He came for everybody.

The next line refers to Jesus as being the King of Kings, which is kind of weird considering the circumstances, that he is lying in a lowly manger. The King of Kings, the God of the universe, the first born over all creation, who has all the power in the world, has been reduced to an infant, incapable of surviving without the help of his mother. The almighty God became a helpless baby. Just let that truth sink in for a little bit, no matter how many times you have heard that before. It's still amazing.

The verse continues, that Jesus was born to be our friend in our trials. Do you remember a few years ago, when those "Jesus is my Homeboy" t-shirts came out? I hate those t-shirts. Jesus is not simply your homeboy. He is so much more. He's not just someone you go to in times of trouble, because he's a good listener and will guide you on your life journey. Hebrews 4:15-16 says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need". Jesus experienced everything we have gone through. He experienced all the pain and suffering of the world when he was crucified on the cross. He's not just an onlooker. He is an active participant in our lives. He's more than a homeboy, he is more than an acquaintance. He is our friend, the best friend we will ever have (yeah I know how cheesy that sounds, but that doesn't mean it's any less true).

The section ends with a call to worship. No, it's more than a call, it's a command to kneel in recognition of our place before God and to see Jesus for who he really is, our Lord and savior. He's not just your homeboy, not just a good moral teacher, not a set of rules to follow, but the sovereign king of creation. Jesus may not look the way you think God should look. But God does not conform to our norms, to our expectations. We are called to follow what he has planned for our life, and the first step, is to admit that we are sinful people who need this baby to live a life that we never could.

Well, this concludes my study break. Now I'm off to the wonderful world of parasites and medical terminology. Check back soon for the thrilling finale of my analysis of O Holy Night. (meh who am I kidding, it won't be all that thrilling, but it will still be good).

Until our paths cross again...

not everyone can sing, but everyone can think

In my last post, I made a reference to my favorite Christmas song of all time, O Holy Night, sung by the wonderful voice of Josh Groban. This song is incredibly hard to sing for me, and as a man, I have tremendous respect for those who succeed where I have failed. You need to have a really good range to hit those high notes, something that I am lacking. (Side note: in middle school I was one of a few boys who actually could sing and was actually involved in middle school show choir and a Capella group. Thanks to my Asian upbringing that involved intense piano study, I developed a great ear and knew my way around a music staff. As a tenor, I was one of the few who could hit those high notes. Then one day, puberty came and my greatest asset and contributions to the choir left me and my dreams of being the front man of a boy band died.) In fact, whenever I sing during worship, I always feel bad for the people around me as I make valiant attempts to hit the high notes. I seriously think that there have been times when others have left the area around me to go worship next to someone who can actually sing.

Now if you've been to any Christmas Eve service in a Protestant church, you've probably ended the night singing this song. It's been a staple of every Christmas themed service I've ever attended. It's very easy to take this song for granted, or any other worship hymn or song for that matter. But have you ever stopped to think about the lyrics you are singing? Because this song is surprisingly deep upon further review and makes some bold claims. Over the next few posts, I'm going to analyze the lyrics of this Christmas classic.

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! O hear the angels' voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

The first verses of the song set the setting for the well known entrance of Jesus. But starting with the 4th lines, the song has some serious implications. Think about it. Human souls had no worth. It was stuck in the mire of sin. Life was hopeless. This all changes with the birth of Christ. The soul regains its worth when Christ steps onto the scene. Apart from him, there is no real hope in the world. This occasion marks the dawning of a new age, a new chapter of humanity where a personal intimate relationship with the Father is made possible by the Son. So what are we told to do when we hear this good news? We fall on our knees and worship. The last time I was listening to this song, instead of being amazed by God's love, I was more in awe of Josh Groban, or Celine Dion's vocal fortitude. But we should be in awe of the voices of the angels in heaven who are declaring "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (Luke 2:14). The rebellion of humanity's sin against God is coming to an end. Heaven has sent down an olive branch, and all of God's angels rejoice. I wonder how beautiful and terrifying it must have been for those shepherds that holy night when they sat in their fields and all of a sudden, a legion of God's angels appeared to them shouting the praises of God.

As we continue on in this Christmas season, I encourage you to look at the lyrics of your favorite Christmas carols that talk about the birth of Christ. Really reflect on them, and understand what you are proclaiming when you sing along on the radio or in a candle light Christmas church service. I'll continue my analysis of O Holy Night in my next post. Until then, you stay classy, world wide web!

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