The Logos and John 1, Word up!

So, have you ever heard of The Logos? -No, I am not referring to Legos (Although they are an entertaining to play with). I'm talking about The Logos, a Philosophical concept that has some amazing Biblical meaning. But first things first, a history lesson...
The Logos started with a philosopher named Heraclitus who believed that the universe was in a constant state of flux, everything was changing all the time. The biggest problem with everything changing constantly is, how would you know anything? and how could you be sure that the word wouldn't change itself out of existence? As a solution to this issue, Heraclitus introduced the concept of the Logos. The Logos was the unchanging source of wisdom, reason and knowledge that held the universe together; this Logos may have had godlike powers but in Heraclitus' mind it wasn't a god....in fact it had no personality whatsoever, it was simply a "higher thing". Another group of philosophers took the concept further to mean that this impersonal force had the power to alter the course of people's lives, creating the notion of "Fate".
So where does the Bible come into this story? Did you know that has the word "Logos" in it? It does! You are more familiar with Logos than you may think because one of the English words for the Greek word  "Logos" is "Word", understanding what Logos means can give some amazing understanding of the First chapter of John. My pastor started teaching from the book of John this semester at the exact same time that I was taking a philosophy class at school, the words impacted me in such a profound way as I thought about what I had learned in my class that I would like to take you through this passage phrase by phrase to show you what I found. As you read with me imagine that a group of Greek people were reading this gospel, people who understand the Logos and believe that this impersonal concept is holding the universe together....
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word,
- At the very beginning the Logos existed (The Greeks would certainly believed this) 
and the Word was with God,
- The Logos existed with God, Greeks who believed in the Logos were told that this Logos existed with the Hebrew God.
and the Word was God.
- Imagine a Greek Philosopher reading this phrase, The Logos, the source of wisdom, the controller of every person's destiny, the impersonal force that held creation together was God himself! 
John 1:2
He was with God in the beginning.
- This would be a very important verse if it were shared with these hypothetical Greeks because it identifies the Logos as a "He", the Logos isn't an impersonal force anymore! The one that is holding the universe together and providing wisdom is an actual being - not just a higher thing"! I can imagine some Greeks jumping for Joy when they read this. But wait, there's more...
John 1 continues for a few verses talking about how the Logos helped to created everything and how the Logos was a light for the world; I am hoping to talk more about those verses soon because they relate to another exciting brush with Philosophy. But to continue with the Logos I would like to jump to verse 14:
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- This is the best part! We know who the Logos is: He's Jesus! He is the source of all knowledge and as it says in Colossians, he holds everything together: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Col 1:17) He isn't an impersonal force! He is a loving Savior who deliberately gave up everything, took human form, died for our sakes, and than rose again all to bring us into a personal relationship with him! Relationship, this was what the Greeks were missing with their Logos, they just had to accept whatever this force dealt to them in their lives. They could never had a genuine relationship, when times got tough they could never take solece in the Logos presence because the Logos didn't care. But Jesus does care! He wanted a relationship with Greeks, with Jews - with everybody! And that was the reason that John wrote this Gospel in the first place: "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:31)
John was just a fisherman and yet in just three verses, he had conveyed an absolutely perfect message for reaching Greeks with the message and significance of what Christ did for us. How did John do this? There really is only one answer that I can see: God used John and gave him the perfect words to reach a lost people and he can do this with us too! :)

On Descartes, Contentment and Thanksgiving Day

What is Thanksgiving day about? Is it a day where we remind ourselves how lucky we are compared to others? Is it a meal that gives us strength for the frenzied Black Friday Shopping the next day? I'm pretty sure that both of these would be pretty sad ways to celebrate Thanksgiving because they fall woefully short of what Thanksgiving actually means.
As the name suggests, Thanksgiving is about being thankful but exactly does that mean to us? I think that being thankful is directly tied with being content, If you are satisfied with everything that God has given you and realize that it is all a gift from him that you could never deserve, you will want to thank him all of it, for everything.
The problem is that contentment is not a very popular sentiment these days. In  society full of advertisements, self-help books, and plastic surgery, it becomes easy to believe that we are "missing out on something", that nothing is ever "enough" for us. We begin to hope that if we buy one more song, one more clothing item, one more get rich quick scheme that probably won't work anyway, that we will suddenly feel happy and complete. Unfortunately this isn't limited just to things that you can buy, it has a nasty habit of creeping into relationships as well. When we are alone, the only thing that we can think about is wanting a friend, once we have friends, we want a romantic relationship, once we have that, we want to get married and once we are married we want to have kids, a house with a two car garage, a successful job.....and it just keeps going from there. Our sinful nature is never satisfied which is one of the many reasons why we shouldn't let our selfish ambition run things -we never have enough. As Solomon says in Ecclesiates: "Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content." (Eccles 1:8)
This issue of contentment is something that is really close to my heart because it is something that I have struggled with for this entire semester (This whole year actually) God was giving me so much and I couldn't see it because I was discontent. God would answer something that I had prayed for and I didn't even notice because my attention had turned over to the next thing that I wanted on my bucket list. I had wanted to attend CCU for several years and even when it seemed more and more fiscally impossible I kept pushing and pressing to get in. But God single handedly got me into Metro, who would have guessed that one of the first colleges to pop up on a statewide Google search would be affordable, relatively close by and that God would be able to get me in even when the administration didn't like the envelope that my Homeschooling Highscool Transcript was in -This was a providential gift of God! When I worked at Camp I kept feeling like my job wasn't as vital as the jobs that I saw other people doing, I kept feeling as if I was put in the wrong place. Only on the last day of Camp did I learn that my job was making a difference and that I was in the perfect place (On a side note: I'm applying to do this same job again next summer) once again, God had given me so much and yet my selfish nature wanted something more. In another case, I really liked someone (For about two years!) and I was hoping that a romantic relationship would develop between the two of us. This desire became an obsession and when it became clear that it wouldn't happen, I was hit with yet another wave of discontent. But what I failed to see was that God was still giving me so many blessings that I just wasn't noticing because I wasn't content. When I started college I felt lonely, overwhelmed, awkward and out of place , yet, within 48 hours of starting college, God had already provided me with so many wonderful friends through the amazing college student ministry that I am a part of.
So how do we begin to notice the blessings around us? How do we find contentment? This semester I learned a lot about contentment through a Philosopher named Rene Descartes. This may seem a bit strange but I was taking Introduction to Philosophy this semester and I often connect the concepts I learn in various classes like puzzle pieces. Anyway, Descartes was a Philosopher who introduced an interesting concept called "Methodic Doubt". When I think about Methodic Doubt, I picture a giant trash can; anything that you cannot be 100% sure of, anything that you could have even the slightest reason to doubt gets tossed into the bin because it is "unreliable". Can you count on your computer? Most of the time but sometimes it doesn't start up right so it has to go into the bin. Can you trust your perceptions? Sometimes but there are also times when you can be so certain of something, so sure about the way that someone will react and yet find yourself to be completely wrong; so into the bin it goes! Can you trust your senses? Most of us can, but what about the schizophrenics that hear voices that aren't actually there? What about us? Sometimes we think that we see something or hear something that isn't there; so your senses need to go into the bin too. In the end, Descartes found that there were only two things that he could be sure of: 1. The fact that he exists because he can think about things, and 2. The fact that a loving, truthful God exists who holds Descartes' existence together. Descartes later explains how we can be sure about other people and the environment around us but for the purposes of explaining contentment, I will stop here. (Don't worry, I know that there is a reality and I also know that you exist)
Descartes thoughts on this matter really made me think. If You and God were the only things in the entire universe, if the only thing that you could ever be sure of was God's presence in your life, would he be enough for you? This was an idea that I pondered, wondered and struggled with but what I finally realized is that God is all that I really need, he is way more than enough for me. This also means that anything else that we have in our lives: our friends, knowledge, wealth, children, husbands, wives, homes, pets, siblings, beds, clothes, appearance, food, health, his sacrifice on the cross on our behalf and even the very breath in our lungs are all gifts from God. That is how we can become thankful, we realize that everything that we have ad everything that we are is because of God's hand in our lives, and at least for me, the praises just our out from there!   
"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior." (Hab 3:17-18) 

I'm Back!

Hi guys! I'm Back!
I know that it's been a while and some of you may even be wondering who I am at this point (I'm still Emma),  but there have been a lot of exciting things going on in my life lately. I worked at Camp IdRaHaJe over the summer which was amazing! The chance to work wth so many kids and have fun sharing Jesus with them (And yes, Paracord was also a pretty big deal at the craft shop). Just like what usually happens when I work at camp, I learned a lot about where I was in my faith and what I still need to hand over to God (I'll try and share a more specific post about camp soon). After camp I had a little flex time and then I was off on another adventure, this one was called: College. Yep, I started my first semester of college. All of this has been quite fun and exciting but also very exhausting!  Once I started college, I was able to have the added blessing of joining a ministry on campus called AMP which has really helped me to grow and connect with Christian students on campus. I have been taking several great classes and I will probably be mentioning my Philosophy class a lot in the next few posts. Philosophy has been by far the most challenging of the classes that I am taking, it has helped me to figure our some of the aspects of my worldview and I have learned a lot about the modern values held by our society....it is also the place where I have occasionally felt like my faith was being attacked by a sledgehammer. I hope that I will be able to post more regularly now- especially considering that I have a new smartphone which means I can write while I'm in transit. I will return soon with exciting new posts, I just wanted to tell you guys that I'm back. :) 

Hardship is Worth It

"The LORD has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes." Lamentations 2:17 

This verse jumped out at me today because I found it confusing. This verse was telling me that God had planned to send the Israelites into captivity, to have them be gloated over by their enemies- this part I understood, people like Jeremiah had spent their entire lives warning the people of this coming judgment. The part that I found confusing was how this message meshed with what God said about his "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11). How did God have plans to prosper them while at the same time planning to hand them over to Babylon? This got me to thinking about one of the questions I've heard a lot of people ask: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Although the Israelites were hardly considered "good" people at the time, although they were being sent into exile as a punishment for their idolatry; it still got me wondering about why we have so many trials and so much pain in our lives. I started looking around in the Bible and I found these verses that really helped me with my questions: "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:2-3) Part of God's plan was to send Jesus to earth, to have him go through some of the worst pain imaginable, to have him die; all of this to reach God's ultimate purpose- to draw us to him. I think this is something that we need to remember whenever we go through hard times, Jesus went through some really hard times to save us; maybe we are going through our own hard times in order to bring people to him. I could have stopped at this verse but the message that I needed just kept coming: "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" (Hebrews 12:4-7) When this last verse says to "endure hardship as discipline" it wasn't saying that "all hardship is discipline", to me it was saying that we should treat all hardship as an opportunity for training and as a chance to be stronger in our walk with God, God gives us these chances because he his treating us as his sons! But Wait! There's more: "If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:8-11) The temporary hardships that we have to endure will produce a harvest of righteousness for us and for others, a harvest that will be worth the pain. I know that I've posted a lot today but I want you to remember that when you are going through a hard time, the hardships will be worth it in the end, in fact, with all the good that can come from it you may come back asking for seconds! Remember that it is worth it and that God will be with you through it all!

Memories 2011

I know this seems like an odd time to bring this up but we had a pretty great year back in 2011. While 2011 was sprinkled with both good and bad times, I think it is important to remember how much we have all been blessed so by God on a daily basis. Every year I make a video to show some of what my family did last year and to remind me of everything that I can be thankful for. It took a while to make this film due to some problems with my computer overheating as well as the overall length of it. I had to split the video in to two parts so that I could share it, the first part is fine but the second part had the sound disabled because of copyright issues, for this one feel free to turn on your own music for musical accompaniment. Remember how much God has blessed you, both last year and every single day, minute, and second!

Take a Risk!

I have never been fond of taking big risks and I'm not entirely sure why this is. Maybe I don't like to get out of my comfort zone, maybe I don't think that it will be worth it in the end. But I think the biggest reason that I avoid risk is because I am worried about getting hurt, worried about failing. Recently though I have been learning that we need to take risks in order to do what God calls us to do. He isn't going to abandon us, he will be there for us through the entire process. This reminded me of the story where Jesus walks on water: Jesus had just finished feeding the 5,000 and had told his disciples to row to the other side of the lake while he sent all the people home. When he had finished doing this he went up on the hillside to pray (Matt 14:22-23). It was about 4:00 in the morning (Between 2-6 A.M)and the ship that the disciple were on was being thrashed around by a storm that had come up. Then the disciples saw Jesus coming out to them, just walking on the waves. In biblical times, the sea was considered "the abyss" and only the bravest people sailed upon it in the first place. The waves would have been equal to death in the disciples eyes and to see Jesus just walking over the top of them, they were convinced that they had seen a ghost and started screaming! "But instantly He spoke to them, saying, Take courage! I AM! Stop being afraid!" (Matt 14:27, AMP) "I AM" was the name that God used to describe himself in the book of Exodus: "And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; and He said, You shall say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you!" (Exodus 3:14, AMP) By walking on the water Jesus was sending two messages; that he really was God and that he had power of the abyss (death). Then Peter replied to Jesus: "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." Jesus told him to come and so "Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus." (Matt 14:29, AMP) Peter had done it, he had taken a big risk! He had gotten out of the boat and stepped onto the abyss because God, who had authority over the abyss was calling him and he was walking toward Christ. But then something happened, "But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me [from death]!" Peter saw where he was, he remembered that for all intensive purposes, he was walking on top of the waters of death. He had been looking forward to Christ up until that point in order to get the strength to continue in this impossible task, but then he got distracted by how frightening it was to take a risk like this. He started sinking into the water! His worst fears were happening, the abyss was swallowing him up and so he asked for Christ to save him. "Instantly Jesus reached out His hand and caught and held him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat knelt and worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God!" (Matt 14:31-33, AMP) Jesus caught Peter when he fell, he picked Peter up when he failed and and saved him from death. We can be confident that he will do the same for us! When God calls us to do something, we need to get out of the boat that is made up of our comfort zone, our "needs" and whatever it is that we put our trust in. We need to get out, take the risk and walk to wherever he leads us. We can be confident that is we take a risk to follow God, he will keep us safe and even if we do start falling (Or failing), we can know that he will always be there to catch us. We can also know that if we follow God's call, it will ALWAYS be worth it! I have probably already shared this verse but it amazing how much it applies to this story and to our lives: "I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:9-10) Don't be afraid to take risks to follow God's call!

Enough

This is a poem that I wrote: 

I’m not confident enough 

I’m not strong enough 

I’m not smart enough 

I’m not tall enough 

I’m not skinny enough 

I’m not pretty enough 

I’m not creative enough 

My vision and crazy eye are certainly not good enough 

But maybe that’s not what really matters, maybe that’s not what you see; these all could be considered fatal flaws but you’re the one who put them all in me. 

It isn’t my job to figure this out, I’m not the one writing this story; you can use all of this stuff for my better and for your glory. 

You love me more than enough can derive 

You’ve forgiven me more than enough can describe 

You’ve redeemed me in more than enough can begin 

It will take more than enough just to win 

Enough simply isn’t enough when compared to you. 

You have a plan that you’ll lead me through. 

I know that you are all I need and nothing else would I rather receive, you are way more than enough can be, you are much better than enough to me. 

We need to stop comparing ourselves to others and just be amazed with the wonderful people that God created us to be! Whatever weaknesses and faults that we feel that we have are there for a reason: so that God's strength can be evident in our lives! That was what I was thinking about when I wrote this poem :)