There is a lot in American culture that distracts us from truly celebrating Christmas. To an observer the meaning of Christmas might appear to be about gifts, or spending time with family. Yet, Christmas is not supposed to be about gifts, or even family. It is about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is for this that we celebrate Christmas.

Below is the real Christmas Story according to Luke in a letter to Theopholis.

Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.

The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
When Herod was king of Judea, there was a Jewish priest named Zechariah. He was a member of the priestly order of Abijah, and his wife, Elizabeth, was also from the priestly line of Aaron. Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God

This past Sunday my former boss, Jean Steinberg, passed away. She had been fighting cancer for a number of years. About one year ago I learned that she was a Christian and that she knew her cancer was terminal. My brother in-law, Greg, passed away at the end of last year from cancer, so Jean and I would sometimes talk about this experience. She was confident of where she was going, because of her faith in Jesus. She was a very strong woman and kept working no matter how bad she would feel.

Yesterday evening I attended her memorial service in Fort Myers. Some of her brothers and sisters were there, and I was overjoyed that they were all very dedicated Christians. So I know her daughter has a good network of family to help her through this loss. And a good number of Atos Origin employees came to the memorial service as well. The entire Memorial service was a testimony of the power of Christ in Jean’s life. I would suspect that the majority of the people attending the memorial service were not followers of Jesus. And this is when I realized why Christians die.

On occasion, I have wondered what my memorial or funeral service will be like. I know this may sound odd, but I do daydream about this sort of thing. I always imagine Christian friends and family being there, and knowing that they cared about me. But last night I realized, Jean had a close network of people who were not followers of Jesus. Most of the people that came to her memorial service heard a message that they desperately need to respond to. Her life became a testimony to them. And I believe that this is why Christians die. So that Christians can be a testimony to those who are not followers of Christ.

I want my memorial service to be full of people who need to know Christ. I want the recounting of my life to be a testimony to those who do not know Jesus. I want to be building connections now with people who are not already followers of Jesus. That is what life is truly about, sharing God with everyone around us. Hopefully, these connections will not be so weak that it takes my death for them to hear the gospel, but I recognize that for many people, death is the only thing that shakes people hard enough that they will take Gods message seriously.

Until last night I had sometimes wondered why Christians die. I mean couldn’t God spare his children from death? And yesterday evening I realized that it is truly simple. We die so that others can come and hear our testimony at a time when they may actually listen and understand the message.

I know Christians can sometimes be critical of other Christians who spend time with non-believers. But I am coming to realize, that if we only surround ourselves with Christians that we end up living in a bubble where the Kingdom of God is hindered. And I think it is for this reason that I have felt a strong pull to stay away from full time ministry. Full time ministry so often pulls you into the largest of Christian bubbles. Jean’s life has been a great example to me, and I look forward to the day that I can share with her again in paradise the blessing that her testimony was to those left behind.

Here is the text from Jean’s Obituary as published in the news-press on November 7th, 2007

Guestbook for Jean Steinberg

Here is the third sermon in the Urban Legend series from Lifechurch.tv.

This video also gives the ‘answer’ to what is going on with the ‘ghost’ in the other two videos from this sermon series.

Here is the second sermon from the Urban Legends series at Lifechurch.tv

I know a lot of Christians start out thinking that since they are on God’s side that their life will be perfect, meaning that they will always be happy, because of course God wants us to always be happy. When people think this and trouble comes their way their faith is completely shaken, because their reality does not fit into what they believe about God. Happiness isn’t the real goal. Check out the above video to learn more about this topic.

And if you want to see more sermons from this series you can check out LifeChurch.tv

I have spent a good portion of this afternoon watching sermons from LifeChurch.tv

I came across a series called Urban Legends and I really like the approach they are taking as they approach some of the misconceptions people have about God. So I am going to share that series over the next few days on my blog.

I watched a video the other day by a guy named Rob Bell called, ‘Dust’. This video taught me something that I had never heard before. Not to brag, but usually this is not the case. I often hear things that get me thinking about something differently, but rarely is something completely knew placed in front of me. This video answered a question I have had for a while, one that I have never heard a satisfactory answer about. That question was: “Why did Jesus disciples drop everything and follow him when Jesus said ‘Come, follow me.’” I have always thought, that there must be more to this story. Maybe the gospel writers left out some important instructions between Jesus and these men. The most common teaching I have heard to answer this question has been that they just knew that Jesus was special, but I honestly have never bought that simple explanation. They knew one thing about Jesus at this point, that He was a Rabbi. Until I watched this video by Rob Bell I didn’t understand how powerful that simple fact truly is in understanding Jesus disciples. So I recommend getting your hands on ‘Dust’ if possible or check out the sermon video at the bottom of this blog post where Rob Bell explains Discipleship at a Church. (this is an excellent video but is a bit longer than the ‘Dust’ video)

Here is a teaser of the ‘Dust’ video. (Only about a minute and a half of the 14 minute video)

Discipleship Video
I found this video online, it isn’t the Dust video, but it is Rob Bell explaining a lot of the information presented in the full ‘Dust’ video. I highly recommend watching this video to understand what it means to be a disciple in the context that Jesus disciples understood it.

Here are some verses that have made me think during my read through the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 5:17-18
Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of Gods law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.”

Matthew 7:1-2
Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others.[a] The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.”

Matthew 7:21
Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord! Lord! will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”

Matthew 16:24-25
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Matthew 18:3-4
Then he said, I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Matthew 18:18
“I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid[a] on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

Matthew 21:21
Then Jesus told them, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and it will happen.”

Matthew 22:31-32
But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So he is the God of the living, not the dead.

Matthew 25:29-30
“To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:42-46
“For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me. Then they will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you? And he will answer, I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.

I finished reading the Old Testament early last week in my journey through the Bible in 90+ days. I was going to try and write a little bit about each of the last few books in the Old Testament, but those posts would be very similar to things I have already written before. So instead, I am going to talk about the Old Testament as a whole and what I have learned through this read through.

First let me begin by saying that the Old Testament is still very relevant to Christians. It is not a goup of books that should be ignored. The Old Testament creates the very foundation for being able to fully understand the New Testament. The Old Testament gives an amazing picture of God’s character. Through Genesis to Malachi it is clear that God is all loving, compassionate, just, and holy. And God often teaches people through bad situations. I have often heard the question “If God is loving then how can He allow bad things to happen?” Usually the good Christian answer is simply say that ‘God makes all things good in the end, we just can’t see this from our perspective’. But I think a more accurate picture is that we are stubborn, thick headed, and down right disobedient. And God uses bad situations to force us to look to Him and Him alone. He doesn’t do this out of anger, but out of perfect love for us. This is how God dealt with Israel. He was gracious and very slow to anger. He allowed many generations of disobedience before He acted against Israel. But when it was clear to God that only through exile and destruction would Israel truly come back to Him, He did bring Israel’s enemies to conquer them and drag them off to foreign lands. If anything the Old Testament clearly teaches us that bad things can come from God, that it does not need to mean that the devil is out to get you. It could mean you need to get right with God. As Christian’s we shouldn’t forget this, love doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen. When we teach that the devil is behind all bad things we can seriously mislead people and give the enemy credit for God’s work. It also takes away the responsibility we may have in the situation. We can clearly be in a bad situation due to our sin, with God trying to bring us to our knees so that we will look to Him as our last resort.

The Old Testament is also a group of books about Hope. Nearly every book focuses on how things are not perfect. How God’s people don’t follow Him well, and how messed up the world is since humans have sinned. But in all of this there is the constant hope for a time when God makes it all right. When God saves everyone from all that is wrong in the world. A picture of a God who is just to all, the righteous and the unrighteous. A time of blessing and of punishment. For Israel the hope is all in the future, much of the Old Testament was glim for Israel, focusing on her disobedience and then punishment by God. Yet at the same time clear that Israel, though a disobedient nation, is special to God. When you finish the Old Testament it is hard to be excited since the last group of books are simply depressing. But all of the prophets shared a glimpse of the hope to come, a hope that would come through Israel.

The Old Testament also shows us how much we need God to be merciful with us. Israel had God’s laws and could not obey them. Israel had God’s prophets and could not listen to them. Through God’s interaction with Israel it is clear that the hope in the future is not found in a group of rules or laws. But these rules and laws show us our desperate need for a God who is gracious and merciful, because we will always fail to uphold those laws perfectly. God did not have plan A, the Old Covenant, and then a plan B, the New Covenant because plan A failed. Plan A was designed to show us our need for plan B. Without Plan A (the sacrifices), Plan B (Jesus sacrifice) makes no sense. God has worked through history intentionally with great purpose. He has done things so that we can know His character and desire to be His children.

Many Christians have not fully read the Old Testament and my theory is that due to a dominant idea among Christians being: that the New Testament (New Covenant) has done away with most of the Old Testament (Old Covenant). The Old Testament also seems to be treated by many as short stories for children or used as simply a general reference resource. But I challenge you as an adult to read the Old Testament fully so that you will know God better. It isn’t all cute pictures and stories like you might remember in vacation Bible School. I think you will be challenged by some of the ideas and things that God does in the Old Testament, so your view of God will be stretched and refined to what is a more accurate represenation of the creator and sustainer of the universe.

So now I am moving into the New Testament (a set of books more familiar to many of us) so I am interested to see what new insights I may glean from having read through the Old Testament. I believe I have a more accurate picture of God now than I have ever had before and I am looking forward to what He will teach me.