12.20.2008

Hello friends,

How are you? I hope that this Christmas season has been a blessing to you so far- it’s amazing to think that it’s just around the corner and then 2008 will be done. For me the year seemed to fly by, and so much has happened and while I learned a lot about my faith this year I was also reminded of a lot of God’s basic truths.

One that has recently been on my mind is the fact of God’s desire to be involved in every aspect of our lives – and try as we might, there is nothing we can hide from Him either. I think that some of us live as though God only cares about how often or if we go to church, attend Bible study, pray, or read our Bibles. These things are important to the development of our faith. He is certainly involved in those things, but that is not the only place God wants to be found in each of our lives. God wants to be involved in our sexuality and relationships; how we study or work; how we think critically of the world around us; how we treat others and the spaces we live in; how we use our gifts and personalities; how we purchase things, and so on. It would be absurd to think that God doesn’t want to be a part of every aspect of our lives and just as absurd to think that He doesn’t see every aspect of our lives. In Psalm 139, this is painted out clearly: that no matter how far we go or how deep into darkness we hide, God is present and He has made our inmost being.
But I don’t think it stops there. Because of Christ’s birth and sacrifice, all aspects of our lives can be healed and redeemed too, and we can invite Him into places that formerly we didn’t want Him involved. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
How does Jesus impact my view of _____? Is He involved in this?
How might God change how I involve Him in that?

Similarly, I must ask myself the same questions too. In fact, all of us – no matter how long or short we have been a Christian – must ask these kinds of questions so that we don’t become lax in engaging God. As we are reminded of Christ’s birth next week if not this entire month, I pray that none of us would forget Immanuel – God WITH us – once Christmas is over. This is such an epic story of God coming down and entering our world instead of being a lofty mystery in the sky. God took the first step; can we invite Him to enter into the parts of our lives that, seemingly, have nothing to do with spirituality?

In love, prayers, and Christ-
Your sister,
Yvonne

12.10.2008

Hello everyone,

Wow. It's been a month since I wrote a "weekly" email, and plenty has been going on in my life that much of it is a blur. But if you remember from my last Weekly, I mentioned going through a somewhat difficult time and admittedly I'm still in some of it. However, the good news is that there is Good News -- Christ is not very far. What an appropriate season to be reminded of the fact that God in the flesh was born among us, lived among us, and was sent to be our death. I've never thought too much about Advent before, because I never grew up in an environment that celebrated Advent, but what a wonderful thing to ponder over and think about the significance of Christ's seemingly insignificant birth. Baby Jesus in a manger is usually a cleanly depicted affair with clean robes and clean hands, but the reality is that a manger is a feeding trough for barn animals which was probably in a dirty barn. Not very glamorous and surely conditions that many of us now would be adverse to being in at all, let alone to give birth in. Christ's humble beginning is such a picture of God's immense love and desire to heal the desperate condition of humanity. If Jesus could be born in a dirty feeding trough, surely surely He would accept us and dwell with you and me.

A sermon from this past Sunday has been particularly helpful in reflecting on present issues and to really think about the significance of Jesus working on the hidden and damaged places in my heart. Please take the time to give this sermon a listen!

http://fairmount.liberti.org/sermons/advent-looking-for-consolation

Love in Him,
your sister,
Yvonne