It's Coming

Captain Zarton is on his way.

The Nativity Story

I saw The Nativity Story Monday evening. It is depicted beautifully and captures the emotion that must have been felt by Mary and Joseph in the months leading up to the Holy birth.

Please, go see this movie, but hurry it won't be around past this weekend. You will be blessed by it.

Frosty's 12 Days of Christmas

Swazzle has produced a series of videos in which Frosty interviews some of the denziens of the North Pole. It is wonderfully made. Check it out.

Sean Johnson is even showing how he built Frosty on his Puppet 101 blog.

A Bit of Clarification on Pride

The point of the latter part of yesterday’s post is if we do not come to God in unreserved humility, then we do not come to God in the spirit He wants from us. Therefore, if we are not in the correct spirit, then we cannot really approach God at all. WE can not relate to God in anyway in and of ourselves. It's not up to us. Our interaction with Him must be on His terms.

We are told by our inheritance can come to the Father boldly which I interpret as I can worship or make request without fear, but again if we think we are worthy of this gift because of something we've done, we have missed the point entirely. We can approach God without fear but only because the blood of Jesus allows us.

Thankfully, He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us come to grips with His terms. We, as humans, can not by our very nature submit ourselves without help. The Holy Spirit moves us to give in to unnatural desires and humble ourselves to God almighty. It gives us the strength to choose to bow to Him.

Oh, Snap! Moment

Have you ever had one of those “Oh! Snap!” moments when all of the sudden you realize that you are completely and totally wrong? To say the least, I have had several while I’ve been reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I think this one book all Christians should read at some point in their life. The latest "Oh! Snap!" has to do with “the Great Sin”-Pride.

Now, I will be (or would have been) the first to tell you I am not prideful. In fact, I know people who are prideful and I am nothing like them. Humble to a fault I am. I’m proud of the fact I’m humble.

C.S. Lewis writes:
It was through pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

I’ve always maintained that selfishness was the root of all sin, but once I consider this, pride is the underlying root of this egotistical behavior. If we were not proud of ourselves and thought we deserved special consideration, then selfish actions would not follow.

If that weren’t enough to put me in my place, consider this:
The more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, “How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?” The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride.

I've never had anyone "shove their oar in" to my knowledge, but there's more:

That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people.

Oh, Snap!

I don’t think C.S. Lewis is saying that we can’t be proud of our kids or even of a job well done. We can be self-confident but I believe the real danger lies in thinking that by some feat or intellect that we were responsible for achieving anything worthwhile. Remember all of our works are like filthy rags in front of the Father. I am afraid that, in all honesty, I am prideful more often than not. Thankfully, this sin as all others will be forgiven by just asking and believing. One last thought:

It’s better to forget about yourself altogether.

Attaining Virtue

I am currently reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia guy). I came across this passage and it is so powerful I just wanted to share.

After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again…I cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thin is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.