The Reason for the Season

I know it’s been awhile since I typed anything for this blog. I’ve just been thinking of a few things recently that I really wanted to post for everyone’s thought and consideration. As I’m sure you know today is December 3^rd, and that means Christmas is just around the corner (22 days and counting)! It’s a great time of year filled with many presents, good food, holiday music, and everything else there is to offer. As wonderful as all these things are, however, they aren’t the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. The real reason for celebrating Christmas is to commemorate the miracle birth of Jesus Christ by a virgin. It’s not really Christmas unless Christ is in it. There are several areas where, even though many people want it to be different, Jesus still plays a prominent role. Take traditional music for example. Let’s look at a traditional Christmas song, “Silent Night”. The end of the second verse says, “Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born”. What does that mean exactly? Savior from what? Also, during military funerals and such, someone on bagpipes is playing the song “Amazing Grace”; regardless of whether you’ve been in church before or not, I’m certain that you’ve heard this song played at one time or another. But what is that song talking about? The first verse says, “Amazing grace/How sweet the sound/That saved a wretch like me/I once was lost, but now am found/Was blind but now I see”. What does this mean exactly? I’m going to explain to you what things from these songs mean and how they relate to all of us.

First, let’s look at the phrase “that saved a wretch like me” from “Amazing Grace”. The Bible says in the book of Romans chapter 3 verse 23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. How do the lyric phrase and Bible verse relate? They both say that we’re all sinners. This means that we’ve lived contrary to what God says we should be doing. Anything wrong we’ve done such as lying, cheating, stealing, or being greedy is classified as sin in God’s eyes. When we sin we come short of the glory of God, and that makes us a wretch in comparison to Him. This is one thing that I see about God and Christ found in the song “Amazing Grace”.

Second, let’s look at the phrase “I once was lost” from “Amazing Grace”. Because we are sinners who fall short compared to God, that means we are lost and unable to find God. Since we have disobeyed God and He sees us as wretches, He has seen fit to punish us for our sin. The Bible says in Romans chapter 6 verse 23 that the wages (payment) for sin is death. The reason that man physically dies is because everyone sins during their lifetime, no matter how “big” or “small” the sin is. As well though, man dies spiritually. We can’t find God spiritually because, as sinners, God has separated us from Himself and won’t allow us to have any kind of fellowship or union with Him. Therefore, we’re lost and have earned the penalty of dying both physically and spiritually because of our sin.

Third, let’s look at the phrase “Christ the Savior is born” from “Silent Night”. This is talking about two amazing elements in the life of Jesus Christ. There is the birth of Jesus by a virgin, truly an amazing miracle. Jesus was both God and man because He was not born from a physical father; He was born through the Holy Spirit. He lived a perfect, sinless life. Jesus went about offering the kingdom of God to the people, but they rejected Him and accused Him of things He didn’t do. They hated Jesus so much that they put Him before a court and He was sentenced to death for crimes He hadn’t committed. Jesus was nailed to a cross and left to die. He did die, but He miraculously resurrected from the dead three days later. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He paid the price that we couldn’t pay (the wages of sin) by dying on the cross for crimes that He didn’t do. He suffered and bled and died on the cross for us. Therefore, Christ is our Savior because He is offering us salvation from spiritual death and from eternal punishment that God would otherwise be giving us. Jesus had the power to rise from the dead, so He has the power to raise us from the dead spiritually if we trust in Him.

Lastly, let’s look at the other phrases from “Amazing Grace”. What is this amazing grace that’s being sung about? Well, the Bible says in the book of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 that by grace we have been saved through faith (in Jesus Christ). Grace is defined as unmerited favor; in other words, God is showing us mercy and love when we as sinners definitely do not deserve it. He’s offered us this amazing grace by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins as it says in John chapter 3 verse 16. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 say that we’re saved by grace through faith in Christ and that it’s not anything we can do on our own. It says that our salvation isn’t because of our works because then we would be boasting about it. Salvation through Christ isn’t accomplished by anything we can do, because we as sinners in God’s eyes will never be able to meet His standards on our own. That makes the grace He gives us even more amazing, because it shows that He loves us SO much when we really have nothing we can offer to Him in return. And when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and realize that nothing but Him can save us, the results are quite amazing as well. “Amazing Grace” says “I once was lost but now am found/Was blind but now I see”. God opens our eyes and reveals to us how we can have true life in Him. He takes away our spiritual blindness and shows us the way to Him. That’s truly amazing grace.

The things I’ve just mentioned show that Christ still plays a prominent role in traditional music that is played by society today. He’s mentioned frequently in the various holiday songs and also songs like “Amazing Grace” that are heard often in our world. That’s why Jesus can never really be taken out of Christmas or Easter, because He’s what the holidays are really all about. Christians in particular can take great joy in the holidays, because they know that Christ has wonderfully saved them from their sins and that He is the true source of their joy in life. Truly, Christ is the reason for the season.

Update of things happening

Wow, a LOT has happened since my last blog post. Too much for me to mention in fact. So I'm just gonna mention the things coming up this time around. First, I'm back doing Biolife again. After my last blog post, I've been blocked like 3 times from donating b/c my pulse rate was too high. But I think that's getting fixed now so I've been able to donate again, praise the Lord. Earning money for camp plus whatever spending money I can use. I'm getting a good amount on my Biolife card right now.

Second, tests and stuff. I've been doing pretty well on all my tests recently, though I know there was a test in Intro to Lit that I've definitely failed...no doubt in my mind about that. I say that I've lost a battle but not the war; I'll move on. We have exams this next week (first week of April). I have a 1 Corinthians exam on Monday, an OT exam on Wednesday, and a NT exam on Thursday. Busy week for me! Lots of studying and testing. I pray that everything goes well and that I get good grades on it all. I've been averaging high 80s/low 90s so I'll probably do pretty good. Updates on that coming later.

Lastly, sports. Mizzou is my huge topic now. Mizzou basketball has won the Big 12 tournament and is now deep into the NCAA tournament. We beat Baylor in the Big XII championship and have beaten Cornell, Marquette, and Memphis in the NCAA tournament so far. That's a pretty good list of teams that we've beaten, ESPECIALLY Marquette and Memphis!!! I honestly didn't think we'd beat Memphis on Thursday, but we won 102-91! Now today (Sat. March 28th) we play UConn in the Elite Eight part of the tournament. This is gonna be a HUGE game for us; if we win, we're bound for the Final Four for the first time in Mizzou history!!! I'm hoping for a win today of course :) We'll see how it goes. VERY exciting times for all true Mizzou fans. M-I-Z!!! Z-O-U!!! Fight Tigers fight!

That's all for now! Updates coming later on; sorry I haven't updated for over a month.

Happenings of Late

Here are a few updates from the past few days. First, we had an OT Survey II exam on Friday morning. I stayed up till about 5:45 studying for it and then got a couple hours of sleep. I think the exam went pretty well overall; some areas I had down pat, others I was sketchy on. We'll see what my score was here pretty soon I'm thinking.

Second, I gave plasma again on Friday (so I did it twice last week, Wed. and Fri.). I got $40 on my account Friday which was really cool. I'm gonna start giving plasma on Mondays and Wednesdays because it's more convenient I guess. I've been going with friends instead of driving myself.

Third, I treated myself out yesterday kind of. I drove myself to the Dubuque Walmart and bought me a new pair of sneakers. My old ones I've had for about 2 years now, and they've got really bad holes in them at this point. These new ones are the exact same model and everything, except I bought size 9 instead of size 8 1/2. Hopefully they'll last me another 2 years or so :) As part of the time out, I also went to McDonald's and bought myself some supper. Then I went back to college.

Fourth, my accident. When I got back to college, I loaded up my arms and walked from the parking lot to the school building. However, I slipped on a patch of ice in the parking lot that I hadn't seen. Down I went, right on my right ankle. I know I twisted or sprained it because it started swelling up. That was last night around 5 PM. Now it's after 1 PM the next day and it's still hurting, though not as swelled up as it was. I've been icing it and elevating it the past few hours. Hopefully it heals on its own so I can go to classes and such without any problems. I don't know why the Lord saw fit to bring this accident upon me, but I'm glad that it's not any worse than it is now. I'm pretty sure I didn't break anything and I'm thankful for that. I'll update on any progress with my ankle.

More updates to come in the next few days. Oh yeah, Lord willing I'm going to a college basketball game on Tuesday! One of the guys on my floor got tickets to a Marquette basketball ggame against Seton Hall in Milwaukee. That's gonna be SOO fun assuming I can go! I can't WAIT till Tuesday! I have two big tests on that day though, so I have to deal with those first :(

College Life Update

It's been a couple weeks since I last posted an update, so here goes. I've done Biolife twice now for donations, so I've gotten $40 from that so far. It's very cool to have my own debit card with $40 to spend. I want to get in a rhythm for donating, like Mondays and Wednesdays or Wednesdays and Fridays. It's REALLY easy to do and the rewards are worth it :)

School itself is just chugging along right now. I had a test in my 1 Corinthians class last week and got 33/50 on it; only 66% so a failing grade :( I'm gonna talk to the teacher hopefully and see exactly what the deal was with that. I think he might be somewhat negotiable depending on whether my arguments for the answers are strong or not.

Our weather here in Dubuque has been FANTASTIC lately. It got to around 47° yesterday which is WAY warmer than normal for this area. Until the last few days we still had over a foot of snow on the ground; now it's all melting away and there are huge puddles of water left behind. I saw the forecast on Tuesday (2/10) is supposed to be around 56° as well; just amazing!!!

This week of school is partly going to be our Christian Ministry Seminar. We had our first meeting tonight, and we'll be having seminar workshops for tomorrow and Tuesday. It's basically a bunch of camps and other ministries that have come here to promote their ministries for summer work etc. We don't have actual class for tomorrow or Tuesday, but have the seminars instead. Hopefully it'll be a spiritually rewarding and eye-opening time for me :)

That's about all for now!

Homework, Biolife

Yesterday was quite unusual for me in regards to homework. I did all of my homework pretty much right away, and by 8:30 PM I was completely done. For me that is REALLY bizarre; I don't even get started on stuff till 7-8 or so. It gets weirder than that; I went to bed at 11:45 or so! Now THAT is unusual! I haven't gone to bed before midnight for I don't know how long! I know that I've never gone to bed that early here at Emmaus, and I can't think of when I last did at home either. Crazy. It was actually quite glorious to know that all my homework was done, and the 8 hours or so of sleep was quite nice too :)

Now for Biolife. Today I finally got my physical (third time was the charm; other 2 times I was too late). This means that I'm now officially a plasma donor! I'm going for my first donation tomorrow at 2:30 PM Lord willing. You can donate up to twice in seven days; the first time it pays $20, and the second time you get $40 (until the end of Feb. when it drops down to $35). So if I keep up with it, I could be earning approximately $60 a week by giving plasma for like 1-2 hours total. Amazing. How it goes tomorrow will determine if I give again and how often. This has potential :) That's all I have for now!

First Blog Post

This is the first post on my brand-new blog. I figured I'd start one up just to update people who may not be on Facebook or whatever. This is called White Boy Fresh's Blog because my nickname here at college is White Boy Fresh. It was given to me by my best friend Derrek, and it's really stuck actually; almost everyone calls me that here. Anyway, I just wanted to get a blog started so I can post videos and photos and updates for folks back home. I hope you enjoy what I post on here! God bless!