12/23/2015

Christmas Music

For your listening pleasure, here is a selection of Christmas music ranging from classical to popular. Have a Merry Christmas!

Bach Christmas Oratorio BWV 248



King's College, Cambridge, Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols



Popular Christmas Classics



Julie Andrews Greatest Christmas Songs

You'll need to click the link above to access the entire album on this one.


Charlie Brown Christmas


11/10/2012

Bond Soundtracks Through The Years

With Skyfall (James Bond 23) opening this weekend I was chatting with a friend who mentioned how the soundtracks of these movies, particularly those by John Barry, have much to do with the ongoing popularity of the series. I certainly agree. With that in mind, here is a scene from each of the previous 22 Bond movies showcasing the music of this iconic movie series.

Dr. No
(Bond, James Bond scene)


From Russia With Love
(Bond steals the Lektor decoder Device)


Goldfinger
(Goldfinger interrogates Bond with a laser)


Thunderball
(Underwater fight scene)


You Only Live Twice
(Space capture)


On Her Majesty's Secret Service
(Bond flees from Blofeld on skis)


Diamonds Are Forever
(Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd)


Diamonds Are Forever 
BONUS: SPACE LASER SCENE!!!


Live and Let Die
(Bond meets Solitaire)


The Man With the Golden Gun
(Bond vs. Scaramanga)

                                       
The Spy Who Loved Me
(Ski chase/cliff jump)


Moonraker
(Drax murders the girl who helped Bond)


For Your Eyes Only
(Ski/slalom chase)


Octopussy
(Train chase)


View To A Kill
(Bond vs. Max Zorin)


The Living Daylights
(Bond vs. Necros)


License To Kill
(License revoked)


Goldeneye
(007 & 006)


Tomorrow Never Dies
(Parking garage chase)


The World Is Not Enough
(Thames River chase)


Die Another Day
(Infiltration by surfing)


Casino Royale
(Final hand)


Quantum of Solace
(Bell tower fight)


6/07/2012

Lebron James' is Backing Up His Prediction

People give LeBron James a lot of grief for saying the Heat will win "not two, not three, not four...not seven" championships, but actually, right now his prediction looks pretty good since if the Heat fail to win any championships he will be proven correct. 

1/08/2012

Tim Tebow: A Sports Movie Come to Life

In light of the Denver Broncos defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-23 in overtime, I want to share an excerpt from Bill Simmons' column from earlier in the week where he correctly noted the parallels between Tim Tebow's season and a Disney sports movie.  Pretty humorous stuff.
__________________________________________

Q: I just had an epiphany while watching the clock tick closer to quitting time today at work. The easiest pick of the Round One weekend is the Denver Broncos. This whole thing is playing out just like any sports movie ever made. You've got a QB in Tim Tebow that overcame all kinds of obstacles to get the starting job on a crappy team. Then he leads them to unbelievable win after win. He has the team playing hard for him and everyone is starting to love him, even those in the media who were so against him. Then just when everything is going great things start to fall apart. Key players get injured, none of his tricks work anymore, and they go on a horrible losing streak. Now, just when there is no hope and everyone has counted them out the "Nobody Believes in Us" speech is delivered by Timmy Tebow. The team rallies behind him and they pull off a miracle comeback to beat the Steelers. I'm telling you … it's the easiest pick of the weekend. If Disney's already making the Tim Tebow movie there is no way the Broncos lose.
— Jason H, Dayton, OH


SG: Remember the 2008 playoffs, after Kurt Warner had told his kids he'd buy them a puppy if the Cardinals won the Super Bowl, then I had a Pakistani reader send me an e-mail urging me to bet on Warner's team because "you never bet against God and puppies"? I kind of feel the same way about Jason's Tebow/Disney e-mail. He's right … this is a sports-movie script. And we all know how sports movies play out.

The best point of Jason's e-mail: "Then just when everything is going great things start to fall apart. Key players get injured, none of his tricks work anymore, and they go on a horrible losing streak. Now, just when there is no hope and everyone has counted them out the 'Nobody Believes in Us' speech is delivered by Timmy Tebow."

Seriously, how many times have we seen that sequence in a sports movie? Fifty? Seventy-five? One hundred? It always happens around the 1:15 mark of the movie; even better, you KNOW it's coming and somehow still enjoy it. I don't know whether the inevitable Tebow/Broncos sports movie would be called God's Will, Faith Healer, Divine Intervention, And A Tebow Shall Lead Them, White Bronco, or my personal favorite, Fourth-and-God, but it's definitely been a sports movie — you have a polarizing/mesmerizing lead character, the mandatory "this team's coming together!" and "this team's falling apart!" sequences, crazy amounts of media scrutiny, and the whole damned thing is just implausible enough that you find yourself saying, "I wish this movie was about 18 percent more realistic." If you pick against Denver this weekend, you're picking against every sports movie ever made, as well as the $86 million opening weekend Disney is about to have for Fourth-and-God in 15 months. As always, tread carefully.

11/15/2011

An Examination Into Following Christ 1.2: Public Acceptance and Following God (Matthew 1: 18-25)

There are very few things that matter to most of us more than being liked, maintaining a good reputation in the eyes of others, and ultimately being accepted.  It certainly matters to me.  I want people to like me and respect me.*  I very much want everyone to think that I am a good moral person, that I am intelligent, that I reasonably wise, that I am kind, and that I am all sorts of good attributes.  And I very, very much want for people to show "common courtesy" and appreciate the good deeds and sacrifices that I do perform. I think that for many, if not most people, seeking the approval of others is one of the strongest motivations for "doing the right thing" in any particular circumstance.  It is for me.  The thought of disgracing myself before others is almost more than I can bear.

Most of us implicitly understand that other's perceptions of us ultimately determine whether we are liked, have a good reputation in their eyes, and are ultimately accepted by them.  There are three factors** that largely shape how we are perceived by others: our actions, the image we project, and who we associate with. 

Our Actions

Our actions are perhaps the most obvious factor that affects whether people like, respect, and accept us.  Kind actions, good works, and generosity are qualities that others rightly are attracted too.  Of course, our good actions are only attractive and winsome to others if they know about them.  Accordingly, we have a desire to publicize our good actions.  So we find that our desire to be accepted is so strong that it can even be our primary motivation for our good works instead of our love of God, other people, and goodness itself.  Jesus identified this as a major temptation in chapter 6 of Matthew.  I know that I should do good for the benefit of others, but I often find myself motivated by a desire to have others like me.

Our accomplishments also affect how others view us.  Generally speaking, the type of job we have, our incomes, and other types of accomplishments certainly affect how people view us.  Ideally our educational pursuits and jobs are motivated out of a desire to better ourselves and the world around us through our vocations as well as the practical but very important need to support ourselves financially.  However, one cannot help but notice that other people seem to be quite impressed if I have a certain sort of job or a certain degree.  Even our leisure-time can be influenced.  I wonder how many women make a pretense of enjoying sports and how many men pretend to be interested in certain movies for this reason.  There is nothing wrong about "going along with" leisurely activities we wouldn't naturally be drawn to because we want to be with friends and it can be a sacrifice to another person to do so.  However, there is also the temptation to falsify who we are and what we actually enjoy in order to get others to like us. 

Our Public Image

Perhaps it is obvious that our actions influence whether people like and respect us.  Our public image, which for these purposes I am defining as our looks, our form of dress, and our possessions, also affects how people view us and thus I believe that our decisions in this area can potentially be motivated by our desire for acceptance.  How we look to others affects how they thnk of us.  This may seem rather shallow, but that doesn't stop it from often being true.  That this true is easily observable any time a good looking man or woman enters a room, and I don't really think there's too much to discuss there because there isn't too much that can be done to make a person look more or less attractive.  Certainly the booming plastic surgery industry is predicated on the desire to make oneself more physically attractive and I don't think too many people get breast or butt implants and hide them.  The desire to be physically fit is also largely motivated to increase our physical attractiveness.  Yes, it does make sense to take good care of the body, which is a gift from God.  If I am to be honest, though, my motivations in this area tend to have less to do with pleasing God and more to do with with wanting people to view me in a positive light, and I'm guessing that most people would find themselves in my camp. 

Slightly less obvious is that most of us dress ourselves to convey a certain sort of image because we want other people to view us in a particular way.  I certainly do it.  I have a slightly preppy, slightly academic looking style that likely conveys to other people that I am an intellectual and a deep thinker.  For other men, it might involve wearing suits from a high-end tailor or having a style imitating musicians, actors, or others in entertainment.  For some women it might mean wearing a particular style, shopping at certain boutiques, or having a particular purse.***  Of course, just as there isn't anything terribly wrong about wanting other people to like us, there isn't anything particularly wrong with having a certain style or signaling to other people that we are a certain sort of person. I cannot help but observe, however, that not only does my desire to be accepted by others motivate my actions and how how I convey my personality to others, but also motivates me to present a certain "visual image" to others based on my attractiveness, fitness, and style.

Our Associates

There is one other way in which we attempt to position ourselves to be liked, respected, and accepted by others: we associate with "the right sort of people."  And who tends to be the right sort of person?  Most of us identify them by their actions, personality, and looks.  Generally, we also don't want to associate with disreputable people because others might assume we do the same sorts of things or, at a minimum, approve of those disreputable actions. Avoiding this sort of person is often quite wise because we may start imitating their actions. On the other hand, if a person is viewed as a good moral person, successful in business, has a good family, or other indices of success, we like surrounding ourselves with them.  Once again, this makes good sense morally and practically because we should be attracted to the good we identify in others and those traits can rub off on us.

There are other, less obvious ways in which we decide who the "right sort of person" to associate ourselves with, though.  Social skills are very important--we tend to want to avoid people whose social skill set don't fit in with the sort of people we want to accept us.  We prefer them to have winsome personalities, but, at a minimum, generally seek out people whose personalities are not weird in the eyes of others and are, at a minimum, unobjectionable.  For instance, have you ever been reluctant to be seen with that person at work, church, school or elsewhere who everyone thinks is a bit odd?  Certainly an unease with social interaction with that person may be a cause, but isn't it also true we worry just a bit that others might think we are a bit weird too.  We might realize that he or she needs and craves social interaction and just a little bit of kindness, but the temptation can be there to forgo that good deed in order to preserve our good standing in the eyes of others.

The desire to be liked, respected and accepted is a powerful one.  It has the potential to motivate our actions, the image we project to others, and the people we associate with.  Yet you may say "So what?  It's perfectly normal to want to be liked, respected and accepted.  So long as the people we seek this acceptance from are decent people, this isn't such a bad thing at all.  After all, it can motivate you into all sorts of healthy behaviors as you've just detailed.  And besides, you'll never eradicate it so why spend time trying to fight it?  Just go with it." Well, perhaps because to follow God, you need to be able to sacrifice these desires...     

..
Matthew 1:18-25  (NIV)
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
..

As I read this passage, I cannot help but think about Joseph.  He is a young man who is simply  going about his life, trying to live it the right way.  He is going to marry a young woman, Mary, who in accordance with Jewish law and custom is a virgin.  His upcoming marriage likely fits in with the general plan he envisions for his life: get married, go about supporting himself and his wife through work, have some children (God willing), meet the requirements of the Jewish religious law, and altogether live a respectable life.  Being a man, the desire to have the respect of others is probably very important to him and I'd be surprised if he didn't desire to have people like and accept him.  If life unfolds as Joseph expects it, all the things he plans to be and do will garner respect and acceptance from the right sort of people.  There was nothing wrong with Joseph's plan, except that it wasn't God's plan for Joseph. As it turned out, God's plan for Joseph involved God's plan for the entire world.

Joseph was going to be the father of the Jewish messiah.  Now, Joseph never would have dreamed his wife would birth the Messiah—the ultimate religious and political King of Israel anointed by God to right the wrongs of the world.  Joseph was a run of the mill working man and his wife was a run of the mill woman.  They weren't wealthy and they certainly weren't powerful and if Joseph would have known anything on this rather fanciful subject of who would give birth to the Messiah he would have known that the Messiah would be born to royalty, or at least wealth.  If, however, Joseph had dared to imagine what it would be like to be the father of the Messiah (as we might dare to dream what it would be like have unlimited riches or power) and how he would feel about it, he would undoubtedly have thought it would be a dream come true to have his wife birth the Messiah.  If I were Joseph, I would imagine that God would tell me that I am going to marry my wife in accordance with the law, we will have sex, and she will become pregnant with a child who will grow up to be the great savior of the Jewish people.  I would be thrilled that God had honored me so far beyond what I would have ever dreamed of.  As my son assumed his rightful place as King of Kings, Mary and I would undoubtedly be in a place of honor with him and would be able to enjoy the riches and position that his position entailed.  Certainly we would not be as honored as the Messiah, but still, honored none the less as the parents of the Messiah.  This, however, is not what happens.

For Joseph, the first thing that happens is he discovers that his wife is pregnant.  The woman he plans to marry has betrayed and humiliated him by sleeping with another man.  Mary had (apparently) committed adultery and Jewish and Roman required a man to divorce a woman who commits adultery.  Joseph was right to plan to do so because Mary had (apparently) broken the law, broken trust with him, disrespected him, and shown she did not really love him.  

Undoubtedly as word got out Joseph would be humiliated.  He could have gotten revenge and humiliated her and publicized her action. He could have told everyone about how this Mary had tricked him and was an irreligious adulteress and demonstrated that he doesn't associate with such women. Put simply, he could have spun and publicized her adultery to make himself look good.  He could have publicly demonstrated that he found her behavior abhorrent and that his bad choice in a marriage partner was due to her duplicity and not his lack of wisdom.  Sure, it would have humiliated Mary, but didn't she deserve it?  It must have been tempting for Joseph.  It certainly would have been tempting for me.  However, if Joseph had done this, he would have unfairly and wrongfully maligned Mary.  Even worse, he would have created false evidence for a lie that Jesus was not virgin born but rather an illegitimate child.  The Jewish scriptures indicated that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, so this lie could have been used to question Jesus’ very identity and claims to be the savior of humanity.  Joseph wouldn’t have known that his desire to protect and maintain his reputation would do all these things, but that is the thing about doing the wrong thing.  Sometimes the consequences are much worse than we can possibly imagine.

Well, Joseph was better than that.  Instead, he decides to protect Mary's reputation by simply divorcing her quietly.  Joseph shows that he loves Mary and puts her interests over his own even though she betrayed and disgraced him. He sacrifices his standing in the eyes of others and his pride for her benefit. 

If Mary’s pregnancy was unexpected, what happens next is inconceivable.  An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him that Mary’s child was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God and that Joseph is free to wed Mary because she did not commit adultery. Not only that, but the angel tells Joseph to name the child Jesus because he will save the people from their sins. Suddenly Joseph’s ordinary, disappointing situation has become extraordinary and exhilarating.  

Yet, there is a catch.  Mary will likely be visibly pregnant leading up to the marriage, which will cause other people to think that Joseph did not wait until his marriage to have sex with Mary.  In Joseph’s day, society certainly was more favorable to men than women generally, and it may well be that Joseph would not have faced much scrutiny generally for pre-marital sex. After all, the traditional penalty on a man for having sex with a woman he was betrothed to was to force him to marry her. Not a huge penalty since that was the plan anyway. For a religious, God-fearing man like Joseph, however, the public appearance that he failed to wait until his marriage to have sex would have hurt his reputation greatly amongst others in the community who valued fidelity to God’s commandments.

Thus, Joseph is informed by God that he has been blessed beyond measure and that his wife will give birth to the savior of the people.  However, to the outside world Joseph will not appear to be a righteous man blessed by God, but rather an unrighteous man who violated Jewish law and tradition either by impregnating Mary before their marriage or by marrying an adulterous woman. A lesser man may have even divorced Mary anyway and save his reputation at the expense of following God and being kind, fair, loving and just to Mary. Of course, his reputation would have been a lie, but the temptation to put a false front to have a better reputation than we deserve can be a strong one, so strong that we do not care whether our reputation reflects who we really are. Joseph, however, chose to follow God and do the right thing by Mary, despite the fact it would hurt his reputation.  He married her and even refrained from sex until she gave birth as a means of verifying that the child was from the Holy Spirit and not from him.

As I reflect on Joseph’s actions, I cannot help but think that if I am to follow Jesus Christ, I have to be ready for the unexpected and willing to sacrifice my reputation, perhaps unfairly.  I also see that doing the right thing by other people is more important than my reputation.  If Joseph’s desire to do good was predicated on his desire to be liked, respected, and accepted, he wouldn’t have been as graceful to Mary as he was when he erroneously thought she had slept with another man.  He might have publicized her adultery wrongfully, which would have not only slandered her but created a powerful lie that Jesus was not virgin born, but rather the illegitimate child of two adulterous people.  Finally, he would have viewed the angel’s news as bad news and may have even gone so far as to refuse to wed Mary.  This wouldn’t have stopped God’s plan, but Joseph would have removed himself from it.  It is unlikely that I will ever have a role in the drama of history like Joseph did.  However, we all have a role to play.  The story of Joseph shows that God may very well require us to be willing to lose our reputation to follow His will for our lives.  The only way we can do this when the time comes is to love God, goodness, and others for their own sakes, not for our personal acceptance in the eyes of others.   

_____________________________

Except for total jerks. A total jerk's opinion doesn't count because, after all, they're a jerk?  Furthermore, the fact they don't like or respect me that shows they are a jerk, right?

** A fourth, very important factor is personality.   Personality is a tricky topic.  It seems to be a general, global term for who we are.  It is also my observation that our personalities are generally fixed outside of a drastic life change.  Put another way, the only times I've seen drastic personality changes in when a person becomes very much better or very much worse.   The former usually results from love--love of God and love of other people.  The latter results from selfishness or hate.  Perhaps it wouldn't be too far from the truth to say that such changes involve a change of the very soul itself, either reforming the very person we are to a much closer approximation of goodness itself or disintegrating the self into a mere animalistic machine that seeks to consume whatever is necessary to satiate desires. To the extent that this is correct, I believe that a radical personality change cannot, at it's heart, be motivated by our desire for acceptance. Only true love or true selfishness is strong enough to do it.

*** This desire can can certainly go haywire if we simply live to "keep up with the Joneses" by purchasing status symbols like ever nicer houses, cars, jewelry, clothes, toys and more, but that's not really what I'm addressing here.






11/05/2011

What it Means to Be a Christian 1.1: History Repeats Itself (Matthew 1: 1-17)


I naturally hoped that my review of the gospel accounts would "start off with a bang."  Something thought provoking, challenging, or even deeply comforting.  Something that would impact me in a deep fashion.  Instead, I got this:

Matthew 1 The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

 1 This is the genealogy[a] of Jesus the Messiah[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:
 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
   Isaac the father of Jacob,
   Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
   Perez the father of Hezron,
   Hezron the father of Ram,
 4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
   Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
   Nahshon the father of Salmon,
 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
   Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
   Obed the father of Jesse,
 6 and Jesse the father of King David.
   David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
 7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
   Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
   Abijah the father of Asa,
 8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
   Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
   Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
 9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
   Jotham the father of Ahaz,
   Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
 10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
   Manasseh the father of Amon,
   Amon the father of Josiah,
 11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
 12 After the exile to Babylon:
   Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
   Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
   Abihud the father of Eliakim,
   Eliakim the father of Azor,
 14 Azor the father of Zadok,
   Zadok the father of Akim,
   Akim the father of Elihud,
 15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
   Eleazar the father of Matthan,
   Matthan the father of Jacob,
 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
 17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Ha. I had forgotten that Matthew's gospel begins with a listing of the genealogy of Jesus. I smiled and chuckled over the fact that my supposedly grand voyage of discovery would begin with perhaps the most boring type of passage for the average Bible reader: a genealogy.  After the humor of the situation wore off, however, an interesting question presented itself: "why did Matthew begin his gospel with a geneology?"

"This is the Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham" is our introduction to Jesus.  Interesting.  The first thing the author wants the reader to know is that Jesus is the Messiah and places Him as the culmination of God's relationship with the Jewish people.  

The Jewish Bible/Old Testament details the beginnings of God's interaction with humanity, which occur through the Jewish people. It is interesting to notice that God was with his people through good times and bad.  God appears to Abraham and tells him that if he will follow God, Abraham will be father of a great people.  Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers and imprisoned, but for the ultimate purpose of being used by God to save his people from a devastating famine.  However, that salvation would bring the people under the ambit of the Egyptians who enslaved them, requiring God's direct intervention to free them from Egypt and send them on their way to a promised land of their own.  During this journey, God introduced a set of laws detailing how the people are to worship Him and conduct their lives generally.  

Israel was set up initially to exist without an earthly King.  Instead, they would simply follow God and stand as a witness to the rest of the world of a people who follow God with all their hearts.  Accordingly, these people would be blessed by God and prosper.  However, Israel desired to be like the other people groups and have an earthly King and a monarchy was established. As is the case with all human governance, these rulers were a mixed bag. However, the one King who sought to please and obey God the most--David--ruled during during a golden age for Israel.  Going forward the people would always recall his reign as a time when, despite mistakes, the people really did follow God and really were His people on the Earth.  However, that glory would fade and subsequent kings and their people would wax and wane with faith in God. They would face repeated invasions and even be taken captive by the Babylonian empire, ultimately to be freed when the Persian king Cyrus defeated Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their land.  History was like a sine-curve: some ups and some downs.  

Throughout this history of the people God directly interacted with, God always loved them and remained faithful.   Israel specifically and humanity more generally showed itself unable to follow God with consistency and treat each other with love and respect. Through the generations, prophets would be used by God to call the people to follow God truly and purely through really loving God in worship and following His laws and really loving others by by being honest and generous in dealing with others. Sometimes the people would listen, and sometimes they would not.  An inconsistent goodness might be sufficient for a man to feel good about himself, but God made clear that such a life is unacceptable.  The creation account stated that God denied immortality to man because of his sin.  Put succinctly, the penalty of sin is death.  To reiterate that fact, God established a system whereby the Jews had to sacrifice animals for the forgiveness of their sins. 

However, the prophets also foretold of a coming King--a Savior--who would establish God's kingdom on Earth. The prophets said that the Messiah would both be a conquering King who sets things right in the world and a suffering servant whose afflictions would bring healing.  With the coming of the Messiah, the prophets foretold that God's people would love and worship God with their hearts, that justice would be given to the poor and downtrodden, and that people from all nations would be drawn to the worship of the God of Israel.  When Matthew begins by saying that Jesus is the Messiah (Christ means Messiah), he is making an astounding statement that Jesus is the person who is going to inaugurate God's kingdom on the Earth and reconcile humanity to God.  

As I review the history of the Old Testament, I see that the struggles of God's chosen people are often mine too.  I too often am inconsistent in my faith.  I try to follow God, but fall short.  I seek after God for a time, but then choose to seek after idols in my life.  If Jesus is God's provision for a humanity that has failed to live as it should, then He is God's provision for me individually as well.  I am part of God's working in history to reconcile humanity to himself and make us into the sorts of people we are intended to be.  I am not alone.  



11/02/2011

Discovering What it Means to be a Christian

What does it mean to be a Christian?  This is the question that presented itself two Sundays ago as I was sitting in a church service.  The question arose in my mind as I pondered the myriad different churches that can be found in any community, which differ not only on various theological points but on the sort of people they seek to produce.  It occurred to me that this is the first question any church needs to ask itself--what does it mean to be a Christian.  Once this question is answered, then the Church can determine how to direct its ministries so as to enable its members to live as Christians.

The word "Christian" means "follower of Christ." Most any person with even moderate experience with attending church is aware of this fact and has heard that God's purpose for his or her life is to follow Jesus Christ. This is true, but does not actually answer the question of "what does it mean to be a Christian?"  It only changes it to "what does it mean to follow Christ?"

As I sat in church two weeks ago and pondered what it means to follow Christ, it occurred to me that the best way to find an answer to this question is to review the accounts of Jesus' life found in the gospels. If the purpose of each life is to be a follower of Christ, it intuitively makes sense that the Gospel accounts exist for the purposes of conveying who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him.  After all, if God is calling us to follow Jesus of Nazareth, we need to know who He is, why we should follow Him, and how one follows Him.

Over the next few months I am going to review the gospel accounts in an attempt to piece together a full answer to the question of "what does it mean to be a Christian."  I am doing this not because I think I have the answers to this question.  Truth be told, I am going on an intellectual and emotional expedition through the scriptures to find the answers and make a great number of changes in my life.  The ultimate goal is to live a life that results in hearing from God "well done, good and faithful servant."  Right now, I don't think that statement would be deserved.  My journey will start with the Gospel of Matthew, and you are invited to join me.