What I Learned Today

An interesting thing happened today, I was asking God how I can grow closer to Him and a book that was on my night table fell off and landed by my feet. It was my copy of “Mere Christianity” written by C.S. Lewis that I have been reading this past week. I proceeded to read and there was my answer. On page 59 Lewis wrote about how when we become Christians we develop a “Christ-life”, or a new life that God gives us to replace the old and I came across an interesting line. Lewis wrote “But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from Christ-life inside of him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” A thing that has mystified me is how to “crucify my old self” as Paul writes it; I understood the believing and accepting part but it was the changing that eluded me. Then I came across that passage and realized this, He wants to be with us. The amazing thing about Jesus’ death was that as Lewis puts it, it makes us right with God. There is no doubt that we are inherently bad, we are so to speak born bad (whether to the bone or not I don’t know), but because of Jesus God gives us a chance to be with Him. Being a Christian is more than believing all the “stuff,” it’s a life with God. We must give up our old self and when we do God does a really cool thing He actually works in us through the Holy Spirit and the closer we are to Him the louder His voice is and the more evident He is in our lives. God desires us to do good works, not to earn His love or to just please Him (we should do good works to please God but that’s not the main point), but we are to do good works out of worship and so that we can be with Him.

What Time Is It?

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was a new watch, I generally do not wear a watch considering there always seems to be a clock nearby, but I set it to the correct time and wore it often. One problem I encountered is that the clocks in my school are five minutes slower than my watch so I never have the correct time. I have the time that I desire to have but not the actual time I need to follow in order to have the correct schedule. Our lives can be like that, in a way we all can be on the incorrect time. I have often had the problem of living in the future instead of the present. I plan out my days, and even life putting me five minutes ahead in a way. Well God’s time doesn’t work that way, He doesn’t work in our schedule for example four years ago I wanted to go on a mission trip to Mississippi to help rebuild houses and I ended up going last August, a three year delay. A delay to me, but according to plan for God, He heard my request but He chose not to answer it right away. Sometimes our biggest problem is blinds that we put in front of our eyes, our shortsightedness of God’s plan. James 4:13-16 deals with boasting about tomorrow, and how if we can’t say what will happen the next day how can we plan our lives? The only way I can be on time for my classes is to set my watch to the correct time, the only way we can fully live our lives for God and the way He intended is to set our lives to His time.

Red Sox News

Well Jim Rice got into the Hall of Fame today, he waited 14 years for this moment, I was also thinking it’s weird he waited 14 years and he was number 14. I remember one baseball season I was number 14, but I guess I didn’t get his talent at the plate from that. I also heard a rumor that the Red Sox are delaying on Jason Bay’s resigning. I think the Sox should definitely keep Jason Bay and hold on to him for as long as they can, for the past few years Jason Bay has been a 30 homerun guy, and he’s also fast which gives him a good amount of triples and doubles. Who homered in the ALDS game against the Angels? Jason Bay, if the Red Sox don’t resign him they are giving up a good player. Also I will predict that J.D. Drew, Dustin Pedroia, and Jon Lester are going to be the players that really come through in 2009. Well spring training starts soon and then the home opener against the Rays in April.

Can You Hear Him Now? Good.

If I could give only one piece of advice on how to grow spiritually it would be to read your Bible. The Bible is God’s word and by reading it we are spending time with Him, we are hearing His voice. In the business of life we can sometimes lose track of things. One of the main problems with daily devotions is just that, they are daily. They become routine it’s like in Groundhog Day when Bill Murray knows exactly when everything is going to happen, we start to expect them. The daily devotions themselves are not wrong they are actually a good thing it is our approach to them that is wrong. A problem I have had and seems widespread is to read the Bible to just get through it, to finish it. As I’ve seen when you do that it gets boring, you start skimming through the non-action parts and not understand it fully. What does this have to do with what I started out with? I have often marveled at the ability to hear God’s voice, it is an ability that has eluded me. I don’t mean that I can’t hear at all, just not all the time it’s like a radio it can be clear one minute and full of static the next. With the business of life combined with sin we can get lost and lose that connection. So why is my one piece of advice to read the Bible? When we spend time in God’s word we understand Him we recognize His voice. We end up growing closer to Him and then the static starts to fade and we hear just His voice. Jesus stated to the Pharisees in John that He is the good shepherd and that His sheep recognize His voice. This year if we are to grow spiritually if we are to recognize His voice we must first spend time in His word, if I could add one thing to mu piece of advice it would be this: read the Bible, and read it as it is, God’s voice speaking to you.

There's the bubble boy!

Have you ever seen the Seinfeld episode with the “bubble boy”? I got a good laugh out of it but also thought, in a way we can be “bubble people”. We all sin; there is no denying it but what happens when we live in our sin? Of course we’re all in a way living in sin but I mean living in the way of accepting. There is a popular “why bother” belief going on that says that it is okay to sin and that we will be forgiven and it is all okay. Well I say that is wrong and it makes bubble people. We are forgiven but it is not okay to sin. When we live in our sin we cut ourselves off from God, sure we still go to church and read our Bibles but we are separated. This separation is much worse than the brick wall I wrote about before because it is a transparent barrier unnoticeable (sounds like some kind of medical diagnosis). We end up walking in bubbles, separated from God, but not really. Something I’ve been doing this year is memorizing Bible verses, (I cannot stress the importance of this enough) and a verse that stuck out to me is Galatians 5: 16 “So I say live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of sinful nature.” We are not to live our lives accepting our sin, we will sin there isn’t much avoiding it but we are not to accept it into our lives we can’t let it be a part of us. When we let sin in our lives we cut ourselves off from God, I say that this year we pop our bubbles and experience the life that Jesus offers.

What is with the Sox?

So what is with the Red Sox? Everyone is getting all these new young players, all the big hitters and the Sox have just been working on their bullpen! I know the Red Sox had a pretty bad bullpen to start the 08 season but Masterson came through for us and Okajima pitched well towards the end of the season. And what’s with the catcher situation is Varitek going to sign or not, he’s a great catcher but offensively he is basically an automatic out. The Red Sox should keep him for a few more years so he can train someone to be a replacement. I don’t want to get any hopes up, but I’ve heard that the Red Sox are interested in acquiring Hanley Ramirez who is the hitter the Red Sox need; he’s a big homerun guy who can guarantee about 30 homeruns a year and can also steal bases once he gets on. Well the season is only four months away so I guess we’ll see then. Also the opening game is going to be a big one as the Red Sox face their postseason rivals the Rays (I still call them the devil rays) in Fenway.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, may God be an ever present factor in our lives and may He watch over us and protect us as we grow in faith. May 2009 be a year of spiritual growth, may it be a year of closeness to our Lord. Also may 2009 be a good year for the Red Sox. Once again happy New Year.