Christmas

Christmas is about potential.  We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who grew up to be the Saviour of all men.  We collect as families and close friends to celebrate what will be.  Maybe I'm not making sense.

Before the world was formed, God had a plan.  His spirit children (us) needed a world to come to and experience life in a body and learn how to master bodies.  He knew we would make many mistakes and needed a way fo us to be able to return to Him.  (He is perfect and imperfect people can't come back to stay.)

Jesus Christ volunteered to come to earth as a mortal, like us, and suffer more than any man had ever suffered.  He would experience the entirety of human experience and atone for all pain, lost, sickness, and sin--all imperfections--so we could return to God and live with Him forever.

We had known Jesus for a long time, and knew He was the only spirit sibling we had who could possibly make good on such a promise.  We supported this and looked forward with faith to His life.

On Christmas day (or what we celebrate as Christmas day), Jesus was born to a virgin mother.  Heaven had such trust in Jesus that angels proclaimed his birth across the world.  A new star appeared, telling everyone the Saviour was born.

It is the beginning of His perfect life we celebrate today.  We celebrate the potential of a tiny baby child; born in the muddy, flea-ridden stable; lain in an animal's feed trough for a bassinet to become the perfect example to all mankind of how to live and how to return to God's presence.

Christmas reminds us of our potential.  Each of us can choose to be like Jesus.  We can live following His example, repenting of our mistakes because He atoned for our sins.  His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary's Cross allows us to repent and have our sins, though as scarlet blemishes on our souls become white as driven snow (see Isaiah 1:18).

Jesus allows us to fulfill God's plan, to fulfill our potential as children of the Most High.  We can achieve limitless heights because He performed His mission on earth.  We each must do the same.  We must follow all His commandments and help other do the same.  We must find and fulfill our purpose of life.

Then we, too, through Jesus' atonement that rights every wrong, will realize our potential as we stand before God and are ushered into His loving arms once again.

Genesis

And so school begins anew. There's not much more to say than that. Basically time is split between good and better things.

Life is always easier when I prioritize. Best thing to do: wake up early (like 530) and read scriptures. For me, everything follows very easily after that. When I put the most important things first (chronologically) in my day, the rest of it flows pretty much perfectly after that. Not that there aren't flaws that creep up, but all my priorities are straight.

So then I go to work. Laundry is so much fun. :) (Yes, of course that is sarcastic.) I work till my first class starts about 900 and then it's off to the races.

The Lord blessed me a lot this year and so I am living one of my dreams: I am coaching a high school volleyball team. Like as the head coach. Yeah, crazy, eh? Crazier still when it takes about 20-30 hours of my week. But I love it. It gives me something to do and forces me to plan and execute my plans well. I get a lot more done when I am constantly busy. But then, doesn't everybody?

Genesis really has nothing to do with anything but the first line of this post.

But a fun scripture in Genesis gives insight to what God looks like. (Yeah, whoa! God looks like something?)

Yup, Genesis 1:26-27 read: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . . . So God created man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

How can God create something in His image if He doesn't have an image after which to form us? He can't; it's impossible. Even for God. So the logical conclusion is God has an image and likeness. This isn't completely conclusive that God has a physical body, but mix it up with some NT scriptures and you gotta believe it.

Knowing Christ

I have a great opportunity to have a class about the New Testament, focusing specifically on the four gospels, as a part of my course schedule. This class allows me to learn about the life of the Saviour in a way much different from the unguided study we usually take.

I am learning WHO Christ really was and who He is now. I am learning the context of the world at that time, which opens up a huge amount of knowledge I'd never even considered.

I'm learning, most of all, which questions to ask myself and others in order to strengthen my understanding and testimony of the man we call Jesus* as the literal Son of the Living God.

The more I learn the more I am curious (and the less I realise I know). Referring back to Sunday's scriptures, to know God and Jesus is life eternal. And this is one step closer in coming to know him. Corey mentioned that we will know Him because we are like Him. And I add, if we don't know what he was like, how will we become like Him in order to know Him. (Again, perhaps words muddle my meaning.)

Coming to know Him is a lifelong goal, but if we don't start now, to what purpose will our lives have gone when they end? And do we want that startling realisation?

I suppose this is why, in my weak and imperfect way, I strive to be a little better, coming to know Christ in knowledge and in action each day. A smile here, a kind word there is all it takes to get started.

Will you?

*The reason I say this is because Jesus is an English translation of the Greek translation of the Hebrew name he would have been called: Yeshua (English: Joshua)