Looking Back

I don't think 2008 was my best year, but it certainly had a few accomplishments in it. Off the top of my head:

• I finished reading the Bible again and am planning on doing it twice more in 2009.
• I went out running 185 times
• I ran my first 5k and broke the 8:00/mile barrier
• I remained gainfully employed
• I managed to blog fairly regularly and with some meat
• I finished my formal Greek education and began my Hebrew
• I finally beat the game Thief 3
• I learned the fundamentals of lockpicking
• I taught Lily how to play chess
• I finally got on Facebook and it helped me reconnect with a long-lost friend

These are all personal things. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that there were many big strides made regarding family or work. Work I don't care so much about, but as 2009 looms ahead I see the need to be more affectionate and more "present" with my family. It's great that I spend time with the kids at the grocery store and such, but I particularly need to meet Lily where she is rather than where I want for her to be. This is especially true with Amanda.

For all of you who read this I do pray that 2009 would be a year where you enjoy sweet fellowship with the Lord.

Enjoying Festivals

Zechariah 7:5-6
(5) "Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?
(6) And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

We're about to have our last and first festivals of the year. We plan on going to a friends' house for their bit New Years Eve family open house. Then on Thursday we're going to the McKenzies for our annual pork and sauerkraut meal. Both events should be fun.

I think that New Years is kind of an arbitrary time to celebrate. I do think that there is something about going from 12/31 to 1/1 on the calendar. I also think that there is something about taking some inventory on the past year. However, I also think that resolutions should be made throughout the year.

I also think that this time of celebration of 2008 and hope for 2009 needs to be Christ-centered. Was our Christmas celebration for us or for God? How about Thanksgiving? How about Easter? If there is one holiday that absolutely screams for Christ-centeredness it is Easter since that is a holiday unique to Christians.

The Jews had a calendar of feasts as well. Their problem is that they lost sight of the reason for them. I hope not to do that with ours.

More Predictions

Zechariah 3:6-10
(6) And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua,
(7) "Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.
(8) Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.
(9) For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
(10) In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree."

A bit earlier in this chapter we see that Joseph was clothed in filthy garments, but they were exchanged for clean. If you go back to Leviticus you see how important it is to be clean in the presence of the Lord. Unfortunately, we cannot clean ourselves up. The good news is that the Branch will clean us up. That Branch is Jesus.

Verse 10 contains a prophecy that I also take to be a command. Am I inviting my neighbor to come under the Branch? I'm trying to do that more and more, but it is still convicting. As Penn said in this video, we had better be telling people the good news.

Trusting God

Habakkuk 2:18-20
(18) "What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!
(19) Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
(20) But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."

God is God whether we like it or not. We may not always understand how He goes about His business. We may not always understand why things happen to us. However, in the end, God is God and we are not. Therefore, we must be careful not to fashion our own gods to replace the God who is.

In the church we like to emphasize how God is love. That is certainly true. However, the gospel is only glorious because God is also just and full of wrath. If He were merely loving then there would be no reason for Christ to die. There would be no wrath or justice that needed satisfaction. However, Christ became the perfect sacrifice for sin so that we might come into the presence of God and not fear His perfect justice.

The book of Habakkuk ends with a fairly famous and yet sobering passage:

Habakkuk 3:17-19
(17) Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
(18) yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
(19) GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

We are to rejoice in Him no matter what is going on. Our response to Him must not depend on our circumstances. We all go through peaks and valleys in life. God is still God and still in control no matter what is happening. And, ultimately, He is still worthy of our praise and honor no matter what.

Psalms 146:1-2
(1) Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
(2) I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

I love it when a complete gospel message comes out of just what I read as my daily reading. Read through the Bible in 2009!

Guess Who's Coming?

Micah 5:1-9
(1) Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.
(2) But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
(3) Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.
(4) And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.
(5) And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men;
(6) they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.
(7) Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man.
(8) And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
(9) Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.

I love seeing Jesus in the minor prophets. Here we see the prediction of His birth as well as His triumphant return in glory in the last days. Today is the last day of the Advent season and tomorrow we celebrate the Incarnation or "God with meat" as Mark Driscoll calls it.

This is definitely a busy and stressful time here. It looks like we have all the pieces in place except for the one gift I really want to give Amanda and it hasn't arrived yet. There's still hope for today...