By Your Side

I recently heard this song by 10th Avenue North and I thought the lyrics were really good. So I added the song to the playlist below (if you want to listen to it) and then we played this song at our last Wednesday night Bible study and talked about the lyrics a little.

I think the line "why are you striving these days" is a great way to start off the song. The striving leads to the next line - "why are you trying to earn grace". WOW!! What a line. Grace by definition cannot be earned and yet because we often have little understanding of grace or we are caught up in the way this earthly world works, we often find ourselves trying to earn God's grace. We need instead to rest in all that God has provided for us. We don't earn it; he gives it to us freely!

And then the lines "why are you looking for love" - looking somewhere else besides God. "Why are you searching as if I'm not enough". God is enough. He is all sufficient. And yet we are often trying to fill a void in our lives with something else. We aren't standing on the fact that He is enough.

Anyway just some thoughts here. I really like this song. Listen to it and read the lyrics and I think you will like it too!

By Your Side

Artist: Tenth Avenue North

Album: Over and Underneath

Why are you striving these days?

Why are you trying to earn grace?

Why are you crying,

Let me lift up your face,

Just don't turn away.

Why are you looking for love?
Why are you still searching, as if I'm not enough?
To where will you go child,
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run?

And I'll be by your side

Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you.

My hands are holding you.

Look at these hands and my side,

They swallowed the grave on that night,

When I drank the world's sin

So I could carry you in

And give you life.

I want to give you life.

And I'll be by your side

Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you.

My hands are holding you.

Cause I, I love you.

I want you to know

That I, I love you

I'll never let you go.

And I'll be by your side

Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you.

My hands are holding you.

My hands are holding you.

Long Time, No Post

Well, apparently it has been a while since I posted last - January 8th to be exact. I could blame in on the fact that on Jan. 12th, Brittany and I welcomed our second son into the world and have been trying to catch up on sleep ever since. But you know full well that this is not the first time or even second or third time that I have failed to update the blog consistently - oh and by the way it probably won't be the last time. So let's just move forward.

In January we took our Sr. High group out for a Snow Day. The only problem was that it was one of the coldest days of the year. The sun was out and it looks nice in the pictures, but the windchill was close to -25 or so. Needless to say, we only stayed about an hour.

After that we took the bus back to the church where we hung out, ate pizza, spent some time in God's Word together, and had fun together. And it was WARM!!

Here are some pics from the short sledding day:

Hiking up the hill

The view from the top

Mr. Sadler - ready to go

Going down!

Jakob in mid air - heading down!

Hopefully next year it will be a bit warmer for our snow day excursion. But even amidst the cold we still had a lot of fun!

Is This True of Us?

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. (NIV) Philippians 4:8

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV) Romans 12:2

Christmas Story Fallacies, Part 3

Sorry it has taken so long to get to part 3 - it has been a busy few weeks - that business can be the source of another post.

So since it is Christmas Eve, this is the last one I will get to, so let's make it a doozy.

Fallacy #3: The modern day nativity scene

Where to begin.

Our modern day nativity's usually look something like this: A stable scene with baby Jesus in a wooden trough filled with hay. The star is above the barn, and the shepherds are present along with the wise men and their gifts. And of course Mary and Joseph are there next to Jesus.

Now we have already dealt with the wise men situation - they are not present when Jesus is a baby. They were added due to flannelgraph and marketing conspiracies (okay, I'm just kidding but who really knows).

This is what the Bible text says, "And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:7 (NASB)

As I researched some information about Christ's birth, where He was born, and what the manger looked like, the only thing I think I know for sure is that our present nativity scenes are not accurate. What is accurate - it is hard to say for sure.

Let's make these observations:

• Mangers during this time were probably not made of wood, but carved out of stone.
• The Bible never mentions a barn/stable.
• The Bible never mentions an innkeeper - I have heard before that this innkeeper had a stable out back for the animals of the people staying in the inn, and so he put up Mary and Joseph there.

Some Biblical scholars say that the word "inn" actually is referring to a guest room in a house. So with this thinking, Mary would have had the baby in a home in the main gathering area because there was no room in the guest room for them. And since there were mangers in these main gathering rooms (because the livestock stayed in the house at night), she placed the baby in a manger.

That thinking basically takes our little "Western minded nativity" (like the picture I included) and throws it right out the barn window.

Others I have read would say that this manger would have been in a tower in the city. This tower would be used by shepherds to watch their flock. In the bottom level of the tower was a place where sheep would give birth. When these sheep gave birth, the priestly shepherds would wrap them in swaddling cloths and lie them in a manger. The reason for this was to keep them from having defect since these sheep born in Bethlehem were used for the sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem about 5 miles away. So when the angels told the shepherds where to find the baby, they knew right where to go.

I am not positive about either of these examples, but I am pretty confident our modern nativities are Biblically inaccurate in a few ways. Now, my purpose in these fallacies is not to be the religious Christmas grinch, but rather to remind us to examine the Biblical text and understand that an undertanding of the culture and lifestyle of the time will give us a different view than trying to impose our culture and lifestyle on the Bible.

These fallacies do not take away from this most important truth: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humbled Himself and took on human flesh. He became a human and was born as a baby. He did this so that He could pay the price for sin that no other human could pay. He grew to be a man and died on the cross to pay for our (mine and your) sin because He loved us. He rose from the grave on the 3rd day, defeating death. He made it possible through His death and resurrection for every human being to be reconciled to God through faith in His finished work. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved..." Acts 16:31 (NASB).

Christmas Story Fallacies, Part 2

I mentioned at the end of Part 1, that the next thing I would deal with would concern the nativity and the wise men.

Fallacy #2: The wise men visited BABY Jesus.

There is no doubt that these wise men or magi from the east did visit Jesus. But based on the nativities we see, these wise men visited Jesus when He was a baby. Many of them imply that the wise men were there with the shepherds when Jesus was born. This is not what the Bible tells us.

Back to Matthew 2:1, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea...behold magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem..." (NASB).

In Matthew 2:11 we read that the magi entered the house. This was not where Jesus was born. It is obvious that since His birth, Joseph and Mary had found a place to live in Bethlehem. In addition in the Matthew 2 passage, Jesus is referred to as the Child. This Greek word for child is different from the Greek word that would have been used for a newborn infant.

So how old was Jesus when the wise men visited? We can't say for sure, but he wasn't a baby and he was under the age of 2. How do we know that? Well, later in Matthew 2 we read about Herod's plot to kill Jesus. In order to make sure he killed him, Herod ordered that all the children 2 years old and under be killed (v.16). Where did Herod get this number? In v.7, we read that Herod met with the magi to find out when they saw the star? It seems that Herod was using this as a time when Christ would have been born. So from that information, Herod decided to kill all boys 2 and under. I would think that Herod would have added a little bit of time to make sure that he killed Jesus. I mean what if they were off a day or two and Jesus was 2 years and 2 days; Herod wouldn't have wanted to miss killing this one called the king of the Jews. (v.2).

So I would say that at this time Jesus was probably between 1.5-2 years old. Somewhere in there. Also, consider that the magi traveled from the east; not a short journey.

So why do all the nativities include wise men? I don't know. Maybe some of you know why. I haven't researched that. Maybe they want to sell more pieces. Maybe someone got confused early on and it just stuck. Maybe they were trying to put all of the visitors to Jesus together. Maybe it was a flannelgraph conspiracy (I don't hate flannelgraph, I just think it is interesting how much flannelgraphs can shape the minds of young children and confuse them if they are not accurate). But none the less, the nativities of the wise men visiting baby Jesus with the shepherds are not Biblically accurate.

So what do you do with the wise men in your nativity? That is for you to decide. My wife sets them up on the other side of the room as if they are traveling for their visit. Maybe you have other suggestions.