Ten Thanksgiving Topics

"In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
-1 Thessalonians 5:18
      Thanksgiving was yesterday (as of writing), so I decided to share ten things I am thankful. Why should you read about what I am thankful for? The point is that hopefully you will learn more about me and are encouraged to think about what you are thankful for. I've written about Thanksgiving every year I've had this blog, so this year I thought I'd just share my personal thanksgiving topics. Here we go:

1. I am thankful for my life. It's funny how often I forget to be thankful that I exist. God didn't have to create me, yet He chose to. There are billions of people in the world, and I'm blessed to be one of them. Simply existing seems like something very simple to be thankful for, yet I am thankful for it. However, even more than just existing, I'm thankful that I have life- life that comes from God.
2. I am thankful for my youth. The older I get, the more I realize that I am blessed to be young. Age is such an interesting concept; the older you become, the more you realize how valuable youth is. I've seen myself change so much from my younger years, and most of that change has been for the better. Although I am not as young as I once was, I'm thankful that I am still a young person. I thank God that I have good health and energy to do things. Sadly, I do know this will not last forever, so I am thankful now.
3. I am thankful for my family. My parents have spent so much time, effort and money to raise me and my brothers. Sometimes I try to imagine how much money they could have saved if they did not have to raise me, but I always fail. The amount of time, love, money, and effort they spent to raise me is incalculable. I am also thankful for my brothers, who bear with my many faults. They also are fun to hang out with every once in a while.
4. I am thankful for my church. My church, UBF, is such a great place to be. Every time I go to church, I just feel so welcome and loved. The people there are great people who love each other and readily welcome anyone who attends our church. I really feel like I belong to my church, and I am so thankful for that. There are people of all ages, and it is always fun hanging out with the youth group and college group.
5. I am thankful for my Bible teacher. My Bible teacher is awesome. Although we often don't meet because we are busy, every time we do meet I am blessed. Many times we will just chat about the Bible or just different topics on our minds. My Bible teacher is a great listener, and he always has good input to the things we end up talking about. I have really been blessed through my Bible studies with him.
6. I am thankful for my country. People often say that America is great, and they are absolutely correct. The United States is a very developed country, and we get to enjoy many things that other people simply are not able to. Here in the US we are able to live very comfortable, which unfortunately doesn't happen all over the world. Although I am thankful for the privilege of living in a developed country, I do realize that living here often makes me forget that not everyone can live in this way.
7. I am thankful for my job. The past summer, as I have mentioned before, I got my first job. It's definitely a struggle to keep up with work and put in my hours, but it definitely is worth it. Having a little bit of financial freedom has really made me grateful. I no longer have to keep bugging my parents for money, and I also can buy more things that I like. Even more than the money though, I am thankful that my job has taught me how to be patient. 
8. I am thankful for my blog. Having this blog is a great way for me to write out my many thoughts on different things. I remember that before having this blog, I often would have thoughts and forget them easily. Now that I am able to write down my thoughts, I can look back and remind myself of different things. Most of my blog posts are me simply writing about a topic that I have been thinking about, with no real structure to it. I also hope that this blog has encouraged you all that read it.  
9. I am thankful for my Bible. The Bible is a source of wisdom, knowledge, and life. Although I don't read the Bible as much as I should, I realize how true it is. It has so much wisdom to be learned in it, if I would just take the time to read it. The Bible also tells me who God is, and how great He is. I learn about how I should live my life, and how I can honor God. Reading the Bible is fundamental to growing in Christian faith, and I thank God for it.
10. I am thankful for my God. What can I say about God that hasn't been said before? A hymn I recently heard again has a very good lyric about God's love- "Could we with ink, the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were every stalk, on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll, contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. (The Love of God)" That lyric pretty much sums out the vast love that God has for us. I am so thankful for God and His love.

-Smart

Testimony

"He then answered, 'whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."
-John 9:25
      I've meaning to write this for a long time but I kept putting it off because of schoolwork and different things. My church has been learning about the Gospel of John, and I wanted to write about the story of the blind man who was healed (John 9). We had actually studied this passage many weeks ago, but again I hadn't gotten around to writing about it. Regardless, the passage is quite simple, but is a great reminder of how we should live. Jesus is passing through an area, and He sees a man who was blind from his birth. Jesus then spits on the ground, and puts the newly formed mud onto the man's eyes. Jesus then instructs the blind man to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash. After the man washes in the pool, he is completely healed from his blindness.
      Obviously the healing of the blind man is an incredible miracle, but I want to focus on the man's response to his healing. When the man is healed, the Pharisees come and question his healing. They conclude that because the man was healed on the Sabbath day, the healer must be a sinner. The Pharisees continue to question the healed man, but the man's response never changes. The previously blind man insists that Jesus is a man of God because only a man of God could heal blindness. The Pharisees decide to just ignore the man and leave.
      When Jesus heals us from our sin, our response should be one of thanks. In addition to thanking Jesus, we must give testimony to what He has done for us. The man who was healed of his blindness is a great example of this. He was not afraid to tell others of the great miracle that Jesus had done for him. Even against great opposition, the man still proclaimed that Jesus was a man of God. When Jesus healed the blind man, the man put his faith in Jesus. He wanted everyone to know that it was Jesus who healed Him, and continued to give his testimony to the Pharisees.
      We learn that the Pharisees end up not listening to the healed man. Not everyone will listen when you give testimony to what Jesus has done in your life. However, we should not let this discourage us. If we truly believe that Jesus changed our lives and He is able to change lives, we must continue to testify of Him. We sometimes think of this as some kind of burden we have to carry, but it is actually a privilege. The blind man didn't testify about Jesus because he felt obligated to, he testified because he wanted to. He knew that Jesus had changed him, and he didn't hesitate to testify. We too must testify to others who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
-Smart

Who are We? (Part 2)

"...being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."
-Romans 3:24
      My last blog post talked about the nature of human beings and the fact that we are spiritual beings. We know this because we do not treat each other simply as physical beings, and we do not treat ourselves as purely physical beings also. For example, we encourage one another not because our physical bodies need to be encouraged, but because encouragement lifts out spirit. We feel guilt when we hurt someone, we feel anger when someone hurts us, we feel sad when someone insults us. These feelings are our spiritual nature that God has given us.
      Today I want to dive a little deeper into who we are. If we all agree that we are spiritual beings, the natural next question is the nature of our spirits. Are we naturally good or evil people? Why? According to the world's standards, a "good" person is one who follows the law, helps other people, and pays taxes (silly example but you get the point). An "evil" or "bad" person is precisely the opposite; one who breaks the law, and hurts others. However, if I were to ask people whether the nature of a human is good or evil, I bet that there would be no common answer. Some people would say good, others would say evil, and still others would say both.
      The unfortunate reality is that we are evil beings. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". We are naturally evil and our inclinations are always to sin. We were created in order to have a relationship with God and to glorify Him, yet because of Adam's and consequently our sin, we broke that purpose. We no longer glorify God, but we live to glorify ourselves, and because of this our relationship with God is broken.
      An interesting thing I heard while listening to a podcast by Ravi Zacharias is that everyone knows that they are not good, yet they are so quick to reject the idea that they are evil. We all know that we are not good people, yet our nature is to believe that we are. Our sinful nature says that if we do enough good things we can be "good", yet we know that are not. Without acknowledging that we are not good people, we can never accept ourselves and we will never give ourselves the chance to know the truth. Knowing who we are is an essential step in living in the way that we were intended to live.
      Another effect of our evil nature is that we are broken and incomplete. We were never intended to rely on ourselves, but we reject the idea that we need someone to help us. If you want some evidence to this claim, just take a look a your life. How many times have you said that if you get this one thing, or this one job, or one boy/girlfriend that your life would be better? We think is this way but we know that these things can never satisfy our need for a fulfilled life. Nothing in this world can repair our broken lives.
      Of course I cannot end without discussing what we are supposed to do knowing that we are evil and incomplete. Thankfully, there is a solution to our broken lives, and yes, I am talking about Jesus. Jesus Christ came into this world not to condemn us for rejecting Him and sinning against Him, but to restore our relationship with Him. He came because He knew that we are sinful and lost people, and He came to save us from sin. We cannot accept Jesus' offer for an eternal life if we cannot accept who we are. We are not people who can live on our own; we need someone to save us from our sin. That person is waiting for us with open arms.
-Smart