Thoughts About Thoughts

What about Santa?

2008-12-19T21:59:13Z

Hey everybody. Sorry about the long delay in the blogging. My blogging desire left me for a while but it’s back again so here we go.

I have been thinking a lot about the Christmas season lately being as it’s Christmas and all. I have been reminiscing on my childhood days of toys and Santa Clause, making cookies and presents under the tree. Discussions have also arisen between my wife and I as to how we will handle the Santa situation with our kids. The answer seems easy and I know what we are going to do, (Santa is a legend and Christmas is all about Jesus), but I can just imagine the day when I get a call from an irate parent telling me that my son spoiled Christmas because he told their kid that Santa is not real. All of this thinking about Santa has made me wonder, who is this guy?

Well it turns out that St. Nick dates clear back to the year 280 A.D. in the city of Smyrna which is located in modern day Turkey. It is said that this St. Nick gave away all of his inherited wealth to help the poor and the sick, mainly young children. The story and legend of St. Nick continued on even after the original St. Nick’s death and many St. Nick’s have followed in his place.

The Santa that we now have originates from Holland. His name is Sinter Klaas. I remember my Oma (grandma) who is from Holland telling me stories of this Sinter Klaas. He would go around the streets of Holland with his helpers and hand out gifts and fruit to the good kids and the bad kids really would recieve a lump of coal. Eventually a few dutch families made there way to America in 1773 and we got the Americanized version of Santa.

The story continued to grow, Santa got some reindeer to pull his sleigh, and he started magically dropping down chimneys. So with all of this Santa talk, I was just curious to hear what all of you think of Santa and how you remember Christmas as kids. Was Santa a big part of your Christmas’ or was Jesus at the center of Christmas as He should be?

Behold His Majesty!

2008-09-20T18:51:57Z

“On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.” (Psalm 145:5)

The other night I was blown away by the beatiful display of lightning that was being put on. I love a good thunderstorm. It is one of those things in which I see the majesty, power, and beautiful glory of God. I couldn’t help but go outside and watch our Creator at work. I couldn’t help but worship Him.

So, in what ways do you most see God? What makes you go “WOW!” God is amazing! What causes you to worship The Almighty?

Are you naked?

2008-08-12T18:48:16Z

That’s right. I want to know, are you naked? That is, do you have God’s word written upon your heart? I have been thinking a lot lately about this very concept of memorizing our bibles. Not just little bits, but all of it! After all it is doable. Did you know that a good Jewish bible scholar has the entire old testament memorized by the time he is 15 or 16 years of age. I realized in my own walk with Jesus that I am not memorizing his Word. I feel naked without my Bible, I have to have it. Should it be that way though?

The bible says, “I have stored your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11) God’s word is to be written upon our hearts. In this we see our sin and the holiness of God; the more we see our sin, the more we see how much we need God. Of course our sin is not naturally exposed to us, but it comes through that which has been written upon our hearts.

We are told, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) Would this not involve us constantly being in God’s word and “writing it upon our hearts?” Think of it like this. We have to eat. If we don’t eat enough or properly we will become malnutritioned. We will be lacking the essentials that are needed to live daily. If we were to stop eating altogether we would die, or at least I have been told. The Word is the same way. We must eat it up all of the time. Without it we become malnutritioned and spiritually weak and eventually dead.

Lastly, the bible says, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15a) What is the hope that is in you and how do you know? Without the constant study of scripture how are we to know? How are we to be able to defend this truth in which we stand upon? Write His Word on your heart!

Hey, go eat some food and get some clothes on!

God bless you guys.

It’s a thinking thing

2008-08-05T15:57:30Z

Hello everybody and welcome to the new blog. It is my prayer and hope that the things written on this blog will be a great blessing to all who read it.

So, let’s discuss what we will be talking about. My thoughts are for us to have a blog that really gets us thinking. It would be great to have some real good theological discussions here. I pray that we will be challenged and willing to evaluate what is being said. We live in a culture that is so saturated in the media and technology that we have forgotten how to think. We allow ourselves to be told something and just soak it up as truth. Here is the thing, God, being as gracious and loving as he is, gave us a brain to use. The bible says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)This means using that brain that has been given to us. It is time for us to start doing our homework and really dig in to what the Lord is telling us.

Well what do you think? Let’s think together and love God with all of our minds. I pray that we will all enjoy this growing process together. God bless.