Michael
Michael
3 days!!
Ok, so at the top of the hill by my house there is a church. And beside that chuhrch is a rent-a-sign that the church puts little messages, advertising, on. The current message starts something like this. "No Xmas here." A short message, but one that packs a lot of meaning. They say that "Xmas" is supposed to be an abreviation on Xristos, which was the Greek word for Christ, and so on, but really it is a way of taking CHRIST out of CHRISTmas. Sure you could argue that it is politically correct (but is it really? I mean with all those other unpolitically correct things around...) but a lot of the religious holidays (I guess I can say that considering how secularized Christmas has become) are copying themes from Christmas. (Menorah tree anyone?). Anyway, taking Christ out of Christmas is like having Cookie Monster without a cookie. Unthinkable.
Merry christmas.
Michael
ps. somehow this took me over a week to write. srry!
Hey oh!
'tis December 5th and the Christmas Season is upon us. The Advent candles are out and we are supposed to be reflecting on the meaning of the season. Helped out of course by the advertising moguls of our media saturated culture who are intent on getting us to buy their products. Its sad really. I wonder if the Magi thought that thi gifts would start a trend of saturating people with advertising to convince them to spend, spend, spend. Christ's selfless act of giving himself to His creation, while generally associated with Easter, can also be taken into account during the Christmas season. Christmas is a celebration of Christ's coming, one of the many things He did to save us. This season we should be giving of ouselves to do smething to help those around us. Whether it is shoveling your neighbour's driveways or giving o food drives, or even caroling, we can and need to change our perspective from the "me, me, me" season Christmas has become to the "you, you, you" season it should be. J.O.Y.
merry CHRISTmas
Michael
O.k, so I have slight issues with keeping this thing going. I haven't updated in a while, but it I have been like megatotallyinsanely busy, so I haven't been able to update or get on to do anything. Such are the woes of a grade ten student......
However, I should have something to say.... I dunno....... how about ":Don't try to update your blog in the short ammout of time allotted for lunch break @ skool
I apologise to those (though most likely few) who have been waiting (pro. not) for me to update.
shoot! bell's gone. g2g;
Michael
Currently reading: Philippians 2:12-18
I have had Philipians 2:14 stuck in my head for a couple of years now. 'Y know, something to remind myself when asked to do something I didn't necessarily want to do. But I neve really looked at the section as a whole... when I came across it I would be like "Whoa! Already know it," and move on. But today I stopped and took a good read. And it really got me thinking, in particular the beginning. The words Paul wrote over a thousand years ago are still totally true today. I mean, look around. We live in a world filled with murder, hate, war, all forms of abuse, witchcraft... and in a culture that glorifies substance abuse, premarital sex, adultery, rebellion... and the list goes on. Ours is a chaotic world and it just gets worse. I mean, take porn. Soon almost anyone will be able to access porn on their iPods and cell phones. (Check out www.battlecry.com and www.xxxchurch.com for more info.) And all the while the people of our generation are being told that it's ok and that the world is getting better for us.... almost unbelieveable.
This is where we come in. As Christians we are called to be different (Romans 12:2) to be "children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation,in which you shine like stars in the universe, "(Philippians 2:15). But none of us are good enough to do anything on our own. It would be like trying to get a mud stain out with oil. But with God's help... its a different story. If we fully rely on God, we can make a change and bring light into this dark world. It's tought to do sometimes. "'They will fight against you,'" says the first part of Jeremiah 1:19. But as the second part shows that "'[they] will not over come you, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord." The enemies we face today are no different from the ones Paul and the early church faced, they just come in different packaging and use different methods. And as we plant the seeds in our peers and watch God work, we can rejoice with Paul as we watch the world change.
Michael
