Well, I had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve, a delightful young couple from church got engaged during a romantic rendezvous in New York City. My dad and my little brother (who I haven't seen in over a year) were able at the last minute to fly out for Christmas. And today one of my cousins is getting married. This is all very refreshing compared to the experiences of previous holidays.
The holiday season can actually feel very lonely even for people who aren't alone. Some people feel alone because they are physically alone. But others feel that they are standing alone against the memories of bad experiences from their past that either occurred during the holidays or are coming to mind as a result of holiday reflections.
Romantic engagements, unexpected visits from loved ones, and even a winter wedding can all help to soothe the emotional tension of the holidays. But the most powerful thing that can jar us out of the "holiday blues" is the revelation that we are not alone. While they are all wonderful, neither romance, family, or big accomplishments should define our ultimate sense of self worth. God is with us. And the reason that God is with us is because He values us (He believes that we're worth a lot).
Reflecting on all of this, I wrote a poem which I thought I would share this week instead of writing a standard blog...
~
“Black,” says my soul, “the celestial lights have failed!
Their lights have forever dimmed like ages passing away.
Like the winter snow they have melted down and ailed!
What hope is there with shadows falling darkly?
Will night not drink and jeer and revel in their end?
If their rays have failed will they ever light my eyes again?"
“Courage,” answers my heart, “their ship is yet to sail.
Dusk cloaks the earth and sky in gloomy shades of gray.
But at the break of Day their radiant beams we’ll hail.
Shadows prove their Maker is the Sun!
How night will quickly turn and flight and flee
When Sovereign Light again reflects His glory on the sea!
Two heavenly lamps reflect the glory of the One!
Now rise and wait and watch horizon ‘s peak!
For in eastern heights comes the Savior that you seek!"
~Jeremiyah Mullins
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
The Greatest Gift Isn't Under Your Tree
Well, I went to a Christmas party last night instead of writing my blog (I know where’s my commitment). But I had a good time and was inspired as to this morning’s subject. I watched a movie at the party and the theme was to “keep an open mind when looking at the world.” By an open mind the filmmakers meant to encourage the viewers to use their imagination.
It’s very subtle but the “open mind” philosophy about imagination is actually very dangerous for two fundamental reasons. First, this philosophy suggests that everything that requires the use of your imagination is imaginary. But this is not true and is very far from the way God created us. There are lots of very real things in life that require the use of your imagination.
For example, love requires imagination. To believe that you can trust someone and that they care for you as much as you do for them requires imagination. But love is real; it’s not imaginary. In fact, love can be more real than some of the tangible things of life.
Faith, while very real, requires imagination. And you can place your faith in things that aren’t imaginary. Everything that requires the use of imagination is not imaginary. Our imagination is a gift that God has given us to deal with the very real (and often not so whimsical) issues of life. If you believe that anything that requires the use of imagination is imaginary than faith, hope, and love would all be imaginary (a sad way to look at life). There are things that are very real but require the use of your imagination.
The second error with the “open mind” philosophy is that there are some things that we don’t want to open our minds to. With an open mind, our imagination can be used to create terrible things. Murder and violent crime are both the product of imaginations that were open to the wrong things. There are things in our world that we don’t want to let into our minds.
But the solution is not to become close-minded either. If you can only accept the things that you see or the things that you can logically understand than you’ll doom yourself to a very small life. God gave us our imaginations because He wants us to use them. So a closed mind isn’t any better than an open one.
The solution is not to be open or closed but rather to be singular. A singular vision, one that is focused on Christ, will open your life to an amazing world unlike anything that you have ever experienced. The great thing about a singular vision is that it does have boundaries and constraints. A person of singular vision has things that they will not do and things that they are driven to do all because of what they are looking at.
Singular vision is maintained by principles. We have to make sure that the principles by which we maintain vision line up with God’s Word. But a healthy singular vision is a platform for greatness. There is no limit to the things you can achieve if you are able to focus your life singularly on Christ.
Christmas isn’t about becoming open-minded. It’s also not about close-minded “Scrooges.” Christmas, rightly understood, is about refocusing your vision. With Christ on your side and in your sight, your hopes and dreams can become a reality.
I can imagine that there was at least one close-minded shepherd at the first Christmas. He probably stayed behind with the sheep trying to figure out what he ate that caused him to hallucinate and see the angels. Because his mind was closed he missed out on the amazing experience that his fellow shepherds would enjoy (seeing Christ).
There were probably some open-minded shepherds there too. But God had done the ‘unimaginable’ (something very real that requires the use of imagination): a child born by Divine providence to a virgin in a barn. The wonder of the manger wasn’t the location! The brightest light wasn’t the unusual star in the sky, but the baby born inside. And that baby would inspire the faith and the imagination of millions of people.
So sketches of angels are fine. Studies of the astronomical events that could have caused the appearance of what seemed to be an extra star on the first Christmas are fine. Presents and Christmas trees are all fine. But what is really important this Christmas is for you and I to get our eyes fixed singularly on Jesus. After all the greatest imagination in the universe is not in the mind of any man but in the limitless mind of God.
Merry Christmas,
Jeremiyah
It’s very subtle but the “open mind” philosophy about imagination is actually very dangerous for two fundamental reasons. First, this philosophy suggests that everything that requires the use of your imagination is imaginary. But this is not true and is very far from the way God created us. There are lots of very real things in life that require the use of your imagination.
For example, love requires imagination. To believe that you can trust someone and that they care for you as much as you do for them requires imagination. But love is real; it’s not imaginary. In fact, love can be more real than some of the tangible things of life.
Faith, while very real, requires imagination. And you can place your faith in things that aren’t imaginary. Everything that requires the use of imagination is not imaginary. Our imagination is a gift that God has given us to deal with the very real (and often not so whimsical) issues of life. If you believe that anything that requires the use of imagination is imaginary than faith, hope, and love would all be imaginary (a sad way to look at life). There are things that are very real but require the use of your imagination.
The second error with the “open mind” philosophy is that there are some things that we don’t want to open our minds to. With an open mind, our imagination can be used to create terrible things. Murder and violent crime are both the product of imaginations that were open to the wrong things. There are things in our world that we don’t want to let into our minds.
But the solution is not to become close-minded either. If you can only accept the things that you see or the things that you can logically understand than you’ll doom yourself to a very small life. God gave us our imaginations because He wants us to use them. So a closed mind isn’t any better than an open one.
The solution is not to be open or closed but rather to be singular. A singular vision, one that is focused on Christ, will open your life to an amazing world unlike anything that you have ever experienced. The great thing about a singular vision is that it does have boundaries and constraints. A person of singular vision has things that they will not do and things that they are driven to do all because of what they are looking at.
Singular vision is maintained by principles. We have to make sure that the principles by which we maintain vision line up with God’s Word. But a healthy singular vision is a platform for greatness. There is no limit to the things you can achieve if you are able to focus your life singularly on Christ.
Christmas isn’t about becoming open-minded. It’s also not about close-minded “Scrooges.” Christmas, rightly understood, is about refocusing your vision. With Christ on your side and in your sight, your hopes and dreams can become a reality.
I can imagine that there was at least one close-minded shepherd at the first Christmas. He probably stayed behind with the sheep trying to figure out what he ate that caused him to hallucinate and see the angels. Because his mind was closed he missed out on the amazing experience that his fellow shepherds would enjoy (seeing Christ).
There were probably some open-minded shepherds there too. But God had done the ‘unimaginable’ (something very real that requires the use of imagination): a child born by Divine providence to a virgin in a barn. The wonder of the manger wasn’t the location! The brightest light wasn’t the unusual star in the sky, but the baby born inside. And that baby would inspire the faith and the imagination of millions of people.
So sketches of angels are fine. Studies of the astronomical events that could have caused the appearance of what seemed to be an extra star on the first Christmas are fine. Presents and Christmas trees are all fine. But what is really important this Christmas is for you and I to get our eyes fixed singularly on Jesus. After all the greatest imagination in the universe is not in the mind of any man but in the limitless mind of God.
Merry Christmas,
Jeremiyah
Saturday, December 13, 2008
KEEP IT TOGETHER
Well, it was a long week. I actually fell asleep around 8 PM before getting a chance to write my blog. But not to be remise, I still wanted to leave you with an inspirational thought. I believe it was Henry Ford who said that, "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." Interesting that "keeping it together" is in the middle. I would say that the key to keeping it together is to do the things on either side of it. Don't forget to come together with the friends and family that God has put in your life. And when you come together, work together. Its amazing how feeling that you are not alone in the things that you are working for will help you 'keep it together' even when times get rough.
Cheers,
Jeremiyah
Cheers,
Jeremiyah
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Cast Away
One of my favorite movies is Cast Away with Tom Hanks. Tom Hank’s character ends up stranded on a tropical island. The only friend he has is a volleyball name ‘Wilson.’ I still cry every time Wilson floats away from the raft.
But what about guys like that? What about the person who lives on an island or a place that is secluded by him or herself? If no one ever reaches those people to tell them about Jesus, does God still hold them responsible for knowing Him? How can God judge someone if they lived their life in a place where they never heard about Him?
I want to say that these are great questions to ask. I actually get concerned about Christians who never ask this. The Bible does have an answer. In order to talk about the Bible’s answer, I’ll need you to think: who, what, when, where, why, and how. We’ll start by talking about the big one, the ‘who.’
First and foremost, I believe that we are designed with an inward longing to know God. Ecclesiastes 3:10 says that God "has also set eternity in the hearts of men." There is a part of us deep inside that doesn't belong to this world. Deposited in our hearts is a piece of heaven. And that longing produces a desire to find out where we belong.
It’s like having a puzzle piece and wanting to find out where that piece fits and what the puzzle looks like when it’s complete. I believe that by design each and every one of us asks in some way, "Is God out there?" We are made in His image, we reflect His existence. Now not everyone knows about Jesus or all the details of the Gospel, but I believe that every man, woman, and child on this planet is created with eternity inside of them.
This is what I call the Genesis 4:26 principle, "then men began to call on the name of the Lord (Yahweh)." Even with murder and violence being introduced in to the world by Cain and his descendants in the first part of Genesis 4, people still ended up calling on God. That inward longing drove them to call on God and God answered. And as you read the stories of the patriarchs in the Torah, you will even find a number of "pagan" people who knew exactly who God was.
Psalm 145:18 says "the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth." I believe that if anyone calls to God, truly wanting to know whether or not He exists that God answers. God’s name is on the tip of our tongues. But we have to choose to respond to that imbedded inner longing. We have to choose to call to Him.
But God didn’t stop there. God actually designed the world and even the universe around us to re-enforce our inner longing for eternity with Him. Psalm 19:1-6 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”
The heavens (skies) actually declare God’s existence. There isn’t a place in this world where the voice of the skies isn’t heard. And their witness translates into every language. Every day when you get up and see the sunrise, see the clouds moving overhead, watch it lightning during a storm, view the moon and the stars beaming in the night sky, or watch the horizon at sunset; the heavens are declaring God’s existence. The skies are re-enforcing that inward longing for God.
So God’s existence is something that is imbedded into us by creative design. And it's also imbedded in the world around us. Psalm 33:5 describes how our world reflects a creative design by simply stating, “the earth is full of the goodness of God.” Every plant or tree that grows, the mountains reaching up into the sky, all of the many types of animals, the depths of the oceans, every child taking his or her first steps; all reflecting the goodness and the greatness of God.
So each and every one of us is responsible for the ‘who.’ No one passing from this earth and entering heaven has the right to say, “God? Who?” God’s simple answer will be, “I put a little piece of me inside you and I gave you the universe to remind you that I was there!”
But there are also a number of other questions in addition to the ‘who.’ If God exists, what do I need to do about it? When do I need to respond to God? Where do I go to get in touch with God? Why did God create me? How do I get to know God? Just like the earth and the skies, as Christians we are responsible for re-enforcing the ‘who.’ But perhaps our greater responsibility is to answer what, when, where, why, and how.
Reading through the New Testament, the Apostles didn’t get into a whole lot of trouble talking about ‘who.’ Most people already recognized their inner longing for God and could see God’s glory reflected in the universe around them. Where the Apostles ran into opposition is when they started talking about what, when, where, why, and how.
This is still true for us as Christians today. There are a lot of false voices in our world looking to pervert people’s inner longing for God. And behind all of these false voices is some type of sinful motive. And their method of choice for ensnaring people is to provide false answers about what, when, where, why, and how. Whether they ensnare people or repulse their desire to pursue God at all; those false voices have done their job.
God can take care of the cast away on a desert island. He isn’t so limited or unconcerned about us that He can’t reach the people we can’t. And God has already imbedded a longing for Him inside of us. He has put a reflection of His glory in the universe around us. But it’s our responsibility to ensure that when people desire to call on God that they know how to “call upon Him in truth.”
Cheers,
Jeremiyah
But what about guys like that? What about the person who lives on an island or a place that is secluded by him or herself? If no one ever reaches those people to tell them about Jesus, does God still hold them responsible for knowing Him? How can God judge someone if they lived their life in a place where they never heard about Him?
I want to say that these are great questions to ask. I actually get concerned about Christians who never ask this. The Bible does have an answer. In order to talk about the Bible’s answer, I’ll need you to think: who, what, when, where, why, and how. We’ll start by talking about the big one, the ‘who.’
First and foremost, I believe that we are designed with an inward longing to know God. Ecclesiastes 3:10 says that God "has also set eternity in the hearts of men." There is a part of us deep inside that doesn't belong to this world. Deposited in our hearts is a piece of heaven. And that longing produces a desire to find out where we belong.
It’s like having a puzzle piece and wanting to find out where that piece fits and what the puzzle looks like when it’s complete. I believe that by design each and every one of us asks in some way, "Is God out there?" We are made in His image, we reflect His existence. Now not everyone knows about Jesus or all the details of the Gospel, but I believe that every man, woman, and child on this planet is created with eternity inside of them.
This is what I call the Genesis 4:26 principle, "then men began to call on the name of the Lord (Yahweh)." Even with murder and violence being introduced in to the world by Cain and his descendants in the first part of Genesis 4, people still ended up calling on God. That inward longing drove them to call on God and God answered. And as you read the stories of the patriarchs in the Torah, you will even find a number of "pagan" people who knew exactly who God was.
Psalm 145:18 says "the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth." I believe that if anyone calls to God, truly wanting to know whether or not He exists that God answers. God’s name is on the tip of our tongues. But we have to choose to respond to that imbedded inner longing. We have to choose to call to Him.
But God didn’t stop there. God actually designed the world and even the universe around us to re-enforce our inner longing for eternity with Him. Psalm 19:1-6 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”
The heavens (skies) actually declare God’s existence. There isn’t a place in this world where the voice of the skies isn’t heard. And their witness translates into every language. Every day when you get up and see the sunrise, see the clouds moving overhead, watch it lightning during a storm, view the moon and the stars beaming in the night sky, or watch the horizon at sunset; the heavens are declaring God’s existence. The skies are re-enforcing that inward longing for God.
So God’s existence is something that is imbedded into us by creative design. And it's also imbedded in the world around us. Psalm 33:5 describes how our world reflects a creative design by simply stating, “the earth is full of the goodness of God.” Every plant or tree that grows, the mountains reaching up into the sky, all of the many types of animals, the depths of the oceans, every child taking his or her first steps; all reflecting the goodness and the greatness of God.
So each and every one of us is responsible for the ‘who.’ No one passing from this earth and entering heaven has the right to say, “God? Who?” God’s simple answer will be, “I put a little piece of me inside you and I gave you the universe to remind you that I was there!”
But there are also a number of other questions in addition to the ‘who.’ If God exists, what do I need to do about it? When do I need to respond to God? Where do I go to get in touch with God? Why did God create me? How do I get to know God? Just like the earth and the skies, as Christians we are responsible for re-enforcing the ‘who.’ But perhaps our greater responsibility is to answer what, when, where, why, and how.
Reading through the New Testament, the Apostles didn’t get into a whole lot of trouble talking about ‘who.’ Most people already recognized their inner longing for God and could see God’s glory reflected in the universe around them. Where the Apostles ran into opposition is when they started talking about what, when, where, why, and how.
This is still true for us as Christians today. There are a lot of false voices in our world looking to pervert people’s inner longing for God. And behind all of these false voices is some type of sinful motive. And their method of choice for ensnaring people is to provide false answers about what, when, where, why, and how. Whether they ensnare people or repulse their desire to pursue God at all; those false voices have done their job.
God can take care of the cast away on a desert island. He isn’t so limited or unconcerned about us that He can’t reach the people we can’t. And God has already imbedded a longing for Him inside of us. He has put a reflection of His glory in the universe around us. But it’s our responsibility to ensure that when people desire to call on God that they know how to “call upon Him in truth.”
Cheers,
Jeremiyah
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