Jesus Calling

This song is off of the same CD as One Life to Love by 33 Miles. I have recently been listening through the CD, and this song in particular caught my attention. There always seem to be those songs that just seem to jump out at random times, and this is one that has stuck out to me over the past few days.

Jesus Calling by 33 Miles

What do you see when you look at your world today
Is it so full of clutter that you feel like you’re going insane
And you can’t fight back cause you’re just too afraid
and it seems like the clouds in your sky don’t wanna change
You see there’s always another story, another side to every coin,
And how you see your circumstance is all about a choice

CHORUS
When you see the rushing wind , feel the pouring rain
hear the thunder now as the clouds roll in
and you’re blinded by the lightning
do you also hear that still, small voice saying
It’s okay, you’re not alone, you may be scared to death,
But I won’t let you go
You may think the sky above is falling
But can you hear Jesus calling

What do you see when you look at your world today
Do you see a glimmer of hope, or has it all turned to gray
Well start by counting your blessings one by one
Oh and I’m sure right there, you’ll start to see the sun
You see there’s always another story, another side to every coin
And how you see your circumstance is all about a choice

CHORUS

Because the darker the night, the brighter He can shine

CHORUS

This seems to apply to the world today. It seems to be gray skies of gloom and doom. Whenever you turn on the news, it seems like there is only bad news and not many "glimmers of hope." With all of this depressing news, it would be easy to get down every day never finding happiness in any aspect of life. But is that what you want your life to be, days, weeks, and years filled with depression? Because it does not have to be that way. True, life is hard, and times are tough right now. And just because you choose to have hoped does not necessarily mean that those hard times will suddenly disappear. But it will give you a new perspective on those hard times. Instead of looking at the hard times and dwelling so much on the negativity, which causes you to be depressed all day every day, you can try finding those "glimmers of hope."

As this song mentions, there is always another side to the coin, another story, and a choice to make when these hard times come. The chorus of this song is great! When we see and feel all these hard times in and around us, we must remember that we have something or someONE that can help. That is the message of this song, and it applies so well to the news of today.

I do not want you to think that I am saying that being a Christian is the cure to the problems in your life, because that is sadly not true. Hard times will continue to come. But the secret to your problems is the way that you choose to deal with them. So as we continue to go through these hard times in our country, be sure that you do not forget that Jesus is there with you through it all. It may be hard now, but you can look on to a brighter day, a day that is coming, even if it is not in this life.

Matt

Christmas 2008

I have enjoyed the Christmas Holiday these past few days. It has been a great time with family and friends as we attended the Vesper Service at church and then visited all the many different sides of the family.

Here are a few things that I received this year, which will give me lots of great things to do during the new year. I received about 8 books this year, giving me plenty of reading for the next few weeks. Also, some books are coming out that I will use some of my Christmas money on to buy. I am excited about this new batch of books. Also, I received some great new music including the new Rush of Fools CD and 33 Miles' music. So far, all 3 CDs sound great. Finally, the last big thing I received this year was the ESV Study Bible. I have patiently been waiting to get this for many months.

But on the giving side, I was able to give my dad some "retro" television antiques from a neat store at OpryLand. We gave him a yellow submarine mug and an Andy Griffith photo of Barney. As for my mom, we gave her a Union rug that LifeWay was selling during the fall.

The gifts were great, but as I have gotten older, they no longer have as much significance as they once did. It is now more fun to shop and try to find neat gifts for others. But more than that, it is just fun to hang out with some family members that we only see a few times a year. We had a great time Christmas Eve night at my uncle's house and stayed there late into the night. Then on Christmas, we spent all morning at my Grandparents' house. It truly was a great Christmas.

I hope you had a great time as well. I hope that the time spent with your family was wonderful and fun. Now, as we enter back into life and the daily routine, try not to feel so run down. Keep the joy that comes with Christmas with you into the New Year. I pray for a safe 2009.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas stops. I will have to find the one from Christmas morning later:

Alabama Family (Mom's Uncles)

The 4 of us Christmas Eve Morning

Henry Christmas (Mom's Brothers)

Matt

Merry Christmas

Now that we are officially entering the 2 days of celebration for the Christmas holiday, I thought it would be appropriate to look at the Christmas story once again. But this time I want you to look at it in a different way.

The past 2 days at Christian Wee Learn, we looked at the story of 2 young cousins. John and Jesus were born just months apart from each other, and their parents did not know what would become of their lives years later. They knew that these 2 babies were special and were born with a purpose, but they did not know that it would one day lead to brutal deaths for each one. But prior to those tragic days, their lives were filled with many great moments of teaching, preaching, and miracles (for Jesus).

When looking at the story about their births in Matthew and Luke, it seems like so many things could have gone wrong at any given moment. For instance, the angels came to many different people delivering messages to set these plans into motion. Because of the faith of these people, these babies were born and brought up for a specific purpose. And yet problems still arose. Herod tried to kill young children, hoping that Jesus would meet His death as a young baby. But once again, Joseph's trust in God's direction led the family to Egypt, saving Jesus' life for the time being. The story about these 2 children ends with their early childhood and does not pick up again until we find John in the wilderness preparing the way for Jesus, his cousin. From there we get the Gospels, the story of Jesus' life and His sacrifice for us, the ultimate gift in life.

But what would have happened if things had fallen apart in this story? What if Jesus had never been born? Would Christmas be what we know it as today? Or would this Christmas season just be another part of the year for everyone? We can never know the answers to these questions. What could have happened is never known, only what happens. But knowing that the odds were stacked against Jesus and John as kids should add a little more emphasis on the Christmas story. We would not be opening gifts with families and eating nice Christmas dinners if this story had been drastically different.

So in the midst of the chaos of travel, gifts, and food, take a minute to reflect once more on the Christmas story. Read through the first few chapters of Matthew and Luke. Thank God for His gift of Jesus, in the form of a baby, and for the sacrifice He made for us. Do not let this Christmas season pass without focusing on the One who gave it to us in the first place, Jesus.

Matt

Enjoying a Break

The semester has come to an end, and that means that I now have 6 weeks of almost "study free" free time. I took my last final last Thursday, and on Friday I went back to work. I am back at Christian Wee Learn for the winter. I will be working there through much of the month of January. Then, it will be time to head back to school for another semester. But in the meantime, I am home, enjoying Christmas and a break.

I do have homework in Greek. That is the thing about a 2 semester course. If I do not study during this break, I will lose much of what I have learned during the semester. So I am going to have to read through the chapters and review vocab while I am at home, but that won't be too bad. Other than that I plan on kicking back and reading a lot. This is always a good time to catch up on reading.

I feel like the blog has been slow for the past few weeks. Most of that is due to the fact that I was finishing up the semester. I did not have as much time to sit and write these past few weeks as I normally do. But now that I have a lot of time on my hands again, I should be able to find plenty of things to write about. I am hoping to get a lot of books for Christmas. If that be the case, then I will have many new books to discuss on here. Also, I am wanting to begin a new series after Christmas, I just have not figured out what that is going to be yet. But look for something new either late this month or at the start of the new year.

I hope that there is a lot more to come on here. Stay tuned.

Matt

Is Your Faith Just Head Knowledge?

Hebrews - A Look at the Book

Tomorrow marks the end of the semester, and I will take my last final in my class on Hebrews. For part of our final, we were asked to write about a way that Hebrews has affected our lives. So I began thinking about the book as a whole. What is one of the general messages of this book? It took me a while to narrow it down to one lesson I have learned, because there really are so many throughout this book. But I decided to take the approach of looking at the book as a whole. And what I discovered is a common problem among most Christians, a problem that we probably all face at one point or another.

Is your faith just head knowledge? Or is there a much deeper relationship present?

Many times we learn so much about the Bible that we store the information in our head for future use but never apply it to our daily lives. We learn about who God is and what He has done for us, but then we go about our daily lives as if we had never been taught the first thing about God. This problem can arise when reading through the book of Hebrews. The first 10 chapters of the book is filled with knowledge about God. The author makes amazing connections back into the Old Testament, and he lays out what Jesus did on the cross for His readers. He compares Jesus to the angels, elevates Jesus as our High Priest, describes Jesus position at the right hand of the father, and explains the differences between the Old and New Covenants. With so much information, one could easily just learn about God without actually getting to know God.

But just as our lives should not end with knowledge, the book of Hebrews does not end with a discussion of Christ. Instead, the author continues in the last 3 chapters by providing his readers with many examples of those who have lived out the faith. He then connects in to Jesus, as our ultimate example (see my posts on "Running the Race"). This is where the application comes in. Through chapters 12 and 13, the author lays out practical applications for our lives. He gives us ways in which we can incorporate these teachings into our walk with Christ. The faith does not end with knowledge, it extends into action and application.

So listen to what the author of Hebrews says, and consider what your life is like right now. You may have already learned this lesson in your life. You may already understand the importance of applying Scripture to life and not only learning about it. But you may be in a tough spot right now. I hope this is an encouragement to you to think about how you can apply Scripture into your daily life. Just remember that the Bible should not only be head knowledge.

Matt

Snow and Ice

Well as we enter into these winter months, remember all of those who will be trapped in snow and ice storms this year. These weather systems began many weeks ago in the northern areas of our countries. I know that they are pretty much used to this type of weather, but that does not mean that it is hard to deal with at times. I would be frustrated with the shoveling of snow and power outages that come with these storms.

Snow and ice are typically the main weather problems during winter, and this year it seems like much of the country is being hit by it earlier than normal. In fact New Orleans received quite a bit of snow just last week. And now tonight West Tennessee is about to be hit with a snow and ice storm, although we do not know how bad it is going to be yet. I guess we should be thankful that it is snow and not something worse, but those of us at Union are frustrated that some of our finals are being postponed due to this weather system.

No matter how much fun it is to play in the snow, it can always be bad for those who have to travel in it. Pray for safety and keep everyone in mind as we see these type of systems continue to pass through the country over the next couple of months.

Matt

The Call - Lucy and Aslan

Prince Caspian was released on DVD last week, and of course I went out and bought it immediately. Now I have previously stated in other posts my thoughts on this movie, both the positives and the negatives, and you can see that in the movie section on the right side of this page. But this post is not about the movie itself. Instead, I want to specifically comment on one of the songs that they included in the movie that I feel fits so well. This song is "The Call" by Regina Spektor:

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry
I'll come back
When you call me
No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon
And follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

Now we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes
You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say goodbye

You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say goodbye

I loved this song when I heard it for the first time in the theater. It seemed to fit the movie perfectly. And now that I have seen the movie several times since and read these lyrics, I think it is a perfect fit for Lucy at the end of this book/movie. Lucy is leaving Narnia for the second time, hoping again that she will one day return. Aslan almost assures her that she will be needed again, and she feels like she will be making a third visit to Narnia. Through this song, it seems like Aslan telling her to wait for his call, and then she will be able to return. What a powerful message if Aslan is related to God! Wait on God's timing in life.

The song then talks about change. With Lucy returning to England, life will once again change, returning back to her normal life in England. But change can be good, even if things are hard. The song suggests some hard times (war). The series was set in and after WWII, so again the song seems to tie in well with the book. The part about looking to a star seems off if considering Christianity, but it does allude to the light. Jesus is the light, and this could be seen as Aslan encouraging Lucy to look to the light as she goes through her next stage of life.

Finally, there is an encouragement to hold on to the feelings of Narnia. Those around Lucy and her siblings will not know how they feel about Narnia. They do not know what Narnia is or how it has affected these children. But that does not mean that the children have to forget their memories. Aslan encourages them to hold on to the memories of Narnia, not forgetting the lessons that they have learned. Also, this seems to connect with Susan, who at the beginning of the movie was letting go of her Narnia feelings (not in the book from what I recall). But later in the series (book form), Susan does forget about Narnia as she gets caught up in worldly affairs. Lucy is encouraged to hold on to those memories as she awaits for her call back to Narnia.

I really like this song. It seems to have been written in light of the Narnia series, but it may not have. If it wasn't, then there are a lot of connections that can be made regardless. Just like this song, The Chronicles of Narnia have a lot of lessons that we can learn. The children that travel to Narnia go for a purpose. Not only do they help those in need in Narnia, but they are taught various lessons themselves. And once they have learned all that they can, they are sent back to their own world to put those lessons into practice. May we take the lessons that we hear from God and put them into practice in our life, just as these children have.

Matt