Thanksgiving 2014

"Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name."

-Psalm 103:1

This year I decided to write 10 of thanksgiving topics, but with a twist. For each topic, I wanted it to be outside of the box, and I also wanted to add something about God that I could be thankful for.  

1. Glasses- Without glasses I cannot do anything productive, because everything is unclear and unfocused. I thank God that He is my “glasses”- everything becomes clear and focused when I look through Him.

2. Job- I am thankful for my job, not only because it gives me money, but because I learn so much through it. While working there I learned about patience, hard work, patience, kindness, and patience. I thank God that He is continually working in me with great patience. 

3. Clucksters- I love the chicken at Clucksters. Pretty self-explanatory. I thank God that He is my portion and bread of life. 

4. YDJ- I am so blessed to be a part of YDJ. I’ve been especially blessed to be a leader for YDJ. With Abe leaving to Vietnam, more responsibility has been put on the rest of us, but it’s a joy to serve my friends in YDJ. I thank God for being a part of my life and for leading me.  

5. Music- Music has always been a big part of my life, whether it be praise team, piano, band, or orchestra. Music is so unique in that everyone can enjoy it, even if they are not a musician and cannot fully understand it. I thank God that I can enjoy Him, even though I do not fully understand Him. 

6. Messenger Bag- Before I got this bag from my work, I always had trouble finding the right bag for church. This bag perfectly carries my things for the weekends. I thank God that He carries me through life, especially in the hard times. Here’s a poem I really like by Mary Stevenson called “Footprints in the Sand”. 

“One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,

other times there were one set of footprints. 

This bothered me because I noticed

that during the low periods of my life,

when I was suffering from

anguish, sorrow or defeat,

I could see only one set of footprints.

 So I said to the Lord,

‘You promised me Lord,

that if I followed you,

you would walk with me always.

But I have noticed that during

the most trying periods of my life

there have only been one

set of footprints in the sand.

Why, when I needed you most,

you have not been there for me?’

 The Lord replied, ‘The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, 

is when I carried you.’”

7. Earpods- I use earbuds every day to listen to music on my iPod or computer. I thank Jesus because just as the headphones connect the source of music to me in a form I can understand, Jesus connects the source of life, God, to me in a form I can understand- love.

8. Bed- I love to sleep. Just like Clucksters, it’s pretty self-explanatory. I thank God that in Him, I can find true rest. 

9. Basketball- Basketball is my favorite sport, and is a great way for me to exercise and have fun at the same time, which is not natural. I thank God that although having a relationship with Him may seem like exercise and hard work, it is always enjoyable. 

10. Time- Time is extremely valuable, since no one is guaranteed tomorrow. I thank God that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He holds time in His hands, and graciously gives me time, even though I waste so much of it. I pray that I would use my time to glorify Him.   

Dimensions

"'Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?' declares the Lord. 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' declares the Lord."
-Jeremiah 23:24
      First of all, I would like to say that this blog post is going to be more theoretical than practical. This post will just be some thoughts I had regarding dimensions and I do not claim all of this to be true. This post was inspired by the movie "Interstellar" by Christopher Nolan, which deals with relativity, dimensions, time and space (Side note: I recommend the movie, it was good). So all that being said, what is a dimension? It's actually a bit difficult to describe without using an example, but at it's most basic a dimension is a direction of space. The way dimensions are described is with coordinates, and the more dimensions you have in a space, the more coordinates you need to describe a location in that space. Fortunately, most of us know what a dimension is because we learn about it in our math classes, so I don't have to explain it in great detail.
      While dimensions are typically used to describe space, they can also be used to describe other things as well. For example, many people regard time as a dimension. With that in mind, how can we expand our definition of dimension to cover time as well as space? I believe that we can describe a dimension as "a limiting or binding factor that can be used to describe position". Sorry if that seems inadequate, but it was the best I could do. What exactly do I mean by this definition?
      In math, we know about dimensional "spaces". There's one dimensional, two dimensional, and three dimensional, also known as 1d, 2d and 3d. In a one dimensional space, everything within that space is constrained to one infinite line, which describes the entirety of that space. No point in that one dimensional space can ever leave that line, or it would cease to be one dimensional. This is what I mean by "a limiting or binding factor". The dimension limits every point to that line. In a two dimensional space, every point is limited to an infinite plane, and in a three dimensional space, every point in limited to an infinite cube (or any 3d shape really).
      As humans on this earth, we exist in a four dimensional world. There are the three dimensions that describe our space, and there is also the time dimension. This means that we are limited to three dimensions in space, and are bound by time. We cannot cease to exist within these four dimensions, because we are four dimensional beings. In other words, we cannot go to a fifth dimension. It's also very difficult for us to imagine anything outside of these four dimensions, because we have never experienced any other dimension. We are limited by these four dimensions, so we never really consider any other dimension (unless you are a mathematician or physicist maybe).
      While thinking about dimensions, I wondered, "what about God? is He bound by any number of dimensions? if not, what is the nature of His existence?" Before I try to answer those tough questions, I want to again talk purely about space. Let's think about a two dimensional space. More specifically, let's think of something like a painting or a drawing. Imagine that you are a single point in the painting, and that you are bound by the painting's two dimensions. Try to imagine what the painting would look like from within the painting itself. You wouldn't be able to see much of the painting, would you? However, because we exist in a three dimensional space, we can see the painting outside of the two dimensions. We can see the entirety of the painting; the colors, lines, composition, and beauty. The painting looks totally different when we view it outside of it's two dimensions.
      You can probably guess where I'm going with this by now, so let me wrap up. Last time I wrote about God's nature and how He is infinite, where we are finite. I believe that this means God can also exist in more than four dimensions, if not infinite dimensions. Or perhaps God does not exist in any dimension, since He is unbounded and unconstrained. In any case, we know that God exists outside of our four dimensions. This means that God is not bounded by time or space. This also means that God views us very differently than we view ourselves. God can see the entirety of our lives, outside of space or time. God not only exists in every place, but also in every time.
      People often wonder why they cannot see God. If God exists outside of our four dimensions, perhaps it makes sense that we cannot see or comprehend Him. Think again to the painting. If you were a single point in that painting limited by the two dimensional space, you would only be able to see what is in that space. You wouldn't be able to see anything else, such as the artist, even if the artist was right next to the painting. The only way you would be able to see or experience the artist is if he decided to touch the painting, thus entering the two dimensional space. You would never be able to see the entirety of the artist though, because he exists in more dimensions than you could see or understand. Maybe this is also why we cannot see or understand the entirety of God. We are just a part of His creation, and He is the artist. The only way we can experience Him is when He decides to touch us.
-Smart
       

The Nature of Man and God

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?"
-Job 38:4
      In my church's young adult meetings, we are having presentations on different people of faith in the past. These people include George Muller, Polycarp, C.S. Lewis, and other similar people. I am scheduled to give my presentation on St. Augustine very soon. While reading St. Augustine's book, "The Confessions of St. Augustine", it made me think about the nature of God and man. I've written before on the fact that we are spiritual beings, and that we are sinful. I know that the nature of man and God are both very difficult to discuss in full, but that isn't my goal. I want to focus on a couple of ideas that should help us understand man and God.
      The first thing I want to discuss is purpose. I often talk about purpose, because it is extremely important to understand. I'm not going to delve too deeply into what our purpose is, but rather how our purpose defines our nature. The nature of man is to have a purpose. We are purpose driven people, whether we think so or not. People are never content doing nothing- they always feel the need to be doing something. This is why we love distractions so much, because it gives us something to do when we have nothing better to do. Many people's purpose is to make themselves happy and comfortable. People work hard to make money, because they believe that money will make them happy and somehow give them happiness.
      I've said most of this before, but what I've learned is that people have to look outside of themselves to fulfill their purpose. Think about it; no one was ever content in fulfilling their purpose within themselves. This is because we actually cannot fulfill our purpose within ourselves. This why people always look to find a good job, a good spouse, or numerous other things in order to fulfill their purpose. You might be asking yourself, "our happiness is not our true purpose is it?", and you would be correct. Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. What's interesting about our purpose is that it is not about us; it is about God. Also, we are not able to glorify and enjoy Him on our own, we need His help.
      To summarize what I've discussed so far, man must look outside of himself in order to both find and fulfill his purpose. Man is incapable of finding or fulfilling his purpose by looking within himself. This is because man's purpose is both found and fulfilled in God, not man himself. Now let's think about God. Does God have a purpose? I believe so. What is God's purpose? This is a more difficult question, but I believe it is probably similar to ours; to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That may sound strange, and to be honest, it is. We are so used to people glorifying something outside themselves, and enjoying something outside themselves. However, God's purpose is found within Himself. God does not need to look outside of Himself to find His purpose or to fulfill it. This is a key difference in the nature of God and the nature of man. Man must look outside of himself to find and fulfill his purpose, but God's purpose is both found and fulfilled within Himself.
      Let's continue and think of other qualities of man. Let's think back to the beginning; creation. Man is a created being, and always will be. Man is not able to create himself, or even to create anything. (What I mean by create is make something of nothing). However, God was not created, He always was. God always existed. Let's also think of man's limitations. A man is bounded by space and by time; a man cannot be everywhere at once, and he is bounded by time. In other words, a man is finite. On the other hand, God is infinite, not bound by space or time. He is everywhere, and time has no hold over Him; He exists outside of time. Lastly, let's think of man's worth. Man's worth is defined in so many different ways by people, such as appearance, monetary value, or contribution to society. However, a man's worth is really only found in God. Again, we have this idea of a man having to look outside himself. God's worth is defined within Himself; He needs nothing else to establish his worth.
      There are many things that separate man's nature from God's nature, but I could only touch on a few. Man must look outside of himself to find his purpose and worth. Man is created and finite. God's purpose and worth are found in Himself, and God is uncreated and infinite. A man cannot create himself because he is limited and finite. Therefore, he cannot find purpose or worth within himself. Why is this? Think about where purpose and worth come from. Take a stapler for example. A stapler was created by someone, and that person gave it a purpose; to staple paper together. How much is the stapler worth? It depends on the creator. He defines the purpose and worth of that stapler. If I did not know what the purpose of a stapler was, I would only have to look at the creator. The same is true for us. Since we are created, our purpose must be found in the Creator.
-Smart    

Harmony

"Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth."
-Psalm 96:1
      As you all already know, I love music. Music is one of those things that everyone can appreciate, regardless of who you are. Music is everywhere; it's in theater, movies, tv, grocery stores, elevators, and many other places as well. I already written extensively about music before, but today I want to focus on a particular style- acapella. For those of you who don't know what acapella is, it is a style of music where there are no instruments, just voices. Acapella music can be one melody, multiple harmonies, or when the voice replicates the sound of an instrument. In this post, I want to talk about acapella music where there are multiple harmonies.
      Why am I talking about acapella music? Recently our church has created an "official" vocal team, where a group of people sing acapella songs every now and then. As you may have guessed, I am a part of this team. Last Sunday we sang our first song together as this new group. If you have not heard acapella music before, I would highly recommend that you take a listen, because it is really special. After we sang that song on Sunday, I got a lot compliments regarding our song. The absence of instruments really emphasizes the harmony between voices, and it's something really special.
      Despite what it may seem, I am not writing this post just to praise how amazing acapella music is. I want to talk about harmony. What is harmony? In musical terms, it means a combination of notes that creates a specific arrangement called a chord. I could go on and on about the various kinds of harmonies, but that is not the point of this post. I want to talk about the other kind of harmony. Harmony's non-musical definition means agreement or concord.
       You may have noticed that the two definitions of harmony are actually similar in some regards. The way harmony is created in music, especially acapella music, is when two or more people work together to create a chord. A chord has a very pleasing sound, especially when it is sung well and together. The way harmony is created outside of music is when two or more people work together to create agreement between each other. In both cases, people must work together in order to create something that could not be created alone. They work together to create something greater than what they can do themselves.
      Many things in life are easier to accomplish if you work with someone else. The reason many people struggle with working with others is because they lack harmony. The just assume that harmony should be created, but they forget that it takes work. Everyone has to work together in order to create harmony. In music, if even one person sings the wrong note, the harmony is broken. I realized that the hardest thing to overcome when trying to achieve musical harmony is to do your part. If you do not practice your part, you will not be able to achieve harmony in the group. Many times, if you do not do your part, you will end up following someone else's part. However, everyone has to learn their own part, and contribute to the group's harmony.
      The same is true outside of music. Everyone has certain talents that God has given them, and they differ from each other. If people start following other people, they will waste their own talent. Everyone should contribute to the group in the way that God enables them. Creating something greater than yourself requires you to work together with others. The Bible speaks often of the importance of working together. This is because if everyone contributes in their own way, greater things can be accomplished. We are not called to live on our own, but to work together and create harmony.
-Smart  

The Claims of Christ

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me."
-John 14:6
      I know that it's been a while since I have posted on this blog, but that's because I've been a bit busy with school and I haven't really had anything to write about. However, I want to keep this blog going, so I thought I would take some time out of my schedule and write. Recently I have been reading the book "Basic Christianity" by John Stott, and I have continued listening to Ravi Zacharias' podcast, "Let my People Think". One interesting thing was brought up in both of these- the claims of Christ. What does that mean? Let's think about it.
      We can assume that Jesus said a lot of things when He was on this earth, because we know that in the gospels Jesus spoke many times, and that was only three years of His life. Obviously we can only see what Jesus said during the three year period described in the gospel, and what He said in other books of the Bible as well. If you have read the gospels and are familiar with them, you will know that Jesus was often teaching. Most of what Jesus said (at least what is recorded) was to teach others, whether it be the disciples, the crowd, or the teachers of the law.
      What I find interesting about Jesus' teachings is that most people would agree with them. As a matter of fact, even people who are not Christians sometimes say that Jesus was simply a good teacher. They admit that what Jesus teaches has value in life. Mark chapter one describes when Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. Verse 22 tells us that "the people were amazed at His teaching". When Jesus taught, people listened because they realized that His teachings were good. Even people today would agree that His teachings are good. For example, no one would argue with the idea that we should love one another and we should do unto others as we would have them do to us.
      Another thing Jesus talked about was Himself. He made claims about who He was and what He came to do. His claims included, but are not limited to: "I am the Messiah", "Destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days", and "I am the way, the truth and the life". Not all of these are direct quotes from the gospels, but you get the idea. The main thing we can see from Jesus' claims about Himself is that He is not an ordinary man. No ordinary person would say the things that Jesus said about Himself. No one would claim that they are the Messiah, or that they will die and then be raised to life. Jesus was claiming that He is God.
      This is where people have a problem with Jesus. Remember that earlier I said that people like Jesus' teachings. They agree with the things that He taught the people. However, people take issue with Jesus' claims about Himself. There are a couple reasons I can think of why this is. One reason is that people simply don't believe in Jesus. They think that there is no way He could possibly be God. Another reason is that people think Jesus was a liar. I think that the biggest issue people have with Jesus' claims is that it requires a response from them. People can agree with Jesus' teachings because they are just nice principles and ideals to strive for. However, people can't accept His claims about Himself because it requires them to believe in Him as God and Savior.
      To fully understand what implications Jesus' claims have, we would have to talk about who Jesus is and who God is. However, that could take a very long time. If you are interested in learning more about who Jesus/God is, I suggest reading more of my blog, or more importantly, reading the Bible. For now, let's just discuss a bit about Jesus' claims and their implications. Jesus claimed that He was the promised Messiah, and that He is God. This means that He holds all authority to judge, but He also is powerful enough to save. Jesus claimed that He is the way, the truth and the life. If we want to find the way, know the truth, and experience eternal life, we have to believe in Jesus. Jesus' claims demand a response from us. Either we accept Him as God, and we believe in Him, or we reject Him. This is no small matter. If Jesus' claims about Himself are true, then our response to Him has massive consequences.
-Smart