Thomas Christianson
Why Are People Being Such Jerks?

Have you noticed people are becoming more and more inconsiderate out in public? If not, can I come live where you live?

Why Are People Being Such Jerks?
Thomas Christianson
An Argument Against Voting

An argument for why Christians should strongly consider not voting in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

An Argument Against Voting
Thomas Christianson
Go Away, Jesus

Multiple times, Jesus was asked to “Go Away” in his ministry. Let’s look at why.

Go Away, Jesus
Thomas Christianson
The Value of a Life

In a world of infinite issues to argue about, where is the common ground?

The Value of a Life
Thomas Christianson
The Fast, Easy Way To Be A Bad Leader

There’s one particular trait that is held by many of the worst leaders. Good to know for anyone who wants to avoid them, or avoid become one of them.

The Fast, Easy Way To Be A Bad Leader

Christmas

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Why Christmas is Unfair

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This past Sunday marked the beginning of Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas when we spend time considering the meaning of the birth of Christ in our world. Speaking of this event, the prophet Isaiah wrote: "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us')." (Isaiah 7:14)

I love that the name 'God is with us' is used. In our world, we deal with many challenges and difficulties, large and small. From personal struggles to global problems like terrorism and refugee crises. I am grateful that God is with us in the midst of these problems.

This year, my church is considering the idea that God has invited us to a gift exchange.

When you are going to visit family or friends for Christmas, you try to make sure that you bring something that will make them happy. It would be terrible to receive a great gift and have something underwhelming to give in return.

Yet, in the original meaning and concept of Christmas, we find ourselves in exactly that situation.

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Seeing Red: 3 Things To Remember In The Midst Of Cup-Gate

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Good grief. We've gotten ourselves into quite the 'discussion' over the past few days. Let's take a moment to recall how we got to this point...

Starbucks released a cup for the holidays. It was a minimalist design which included traditional Christmas colors - primarily red - and did not include snowflakes, doves, wreaths or any other traditional Christmas symbols as have been used in some cases in the past.

In response, a man named Joshua Feuerstein uploaded a video to Facebook where he decried the style of the cup as an indication of the anti-Christmas agenda of Starbucks, along with their 'refusal' to say Merry Christmas.

This has led to quite the social media firestorm. Our nation has not been so concerned about the color of an object since a certain dress from earlier this year.

We're now at the point where backlash has resulted against not only Starbucks, but also against Feuerstein himself and those who agree with him. Many Christians reject his 'culture war' viewpoint. I've heard the word ignorant ascribed to him numerous times.

That catches us up and now, let's just take a time out.

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Retelling Christmas: A Story of Joy

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balloonsThis past Sunday, I got to speak about the joy we find in the Christmas narrative. Pretty much everybody who discovered what God's plan is - and that they get to be involved in it - are filled with joy. You know what? I don't like ending a sentence with the word 'joy' and a period.

Joy needs to have an exclamation point after it.

Joy!

JOY!

That's better. Okay, back to the blog post:

But it's not just at Christmas that people discover JOY! regarding God's plans:

Matthew records a story on Easter Sunday (I know, I know, now talking about Easter at Christmas. I shouldn’t do that...)

Anyways, Matthew tells us about some women heading to Jesus’ tomb on what would become known as Easter Sunday. When they arrive, they find an angel has rolled away the stone and the angel shares with them the news that Jesus has risen.

Here's what happens next:

Matt 28:8 “The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great JOY!, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message.” (emphasis mine)

These women discovered something God was doing, and it filled them with JOY! These women got to be the first people to share the Gospel.

(Just quick side note here. If you're a woman and you feel that God is calling you to ministry, what more authority do you need than the fact that God chose women to be the very first messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? God's gifts are not separated by gender. That's my riff on that.)

The bottom line is that if you want JOY! in your life, find out what God is up to and get involved.

This doesn't mean you won't have difficult time and circumstances arise. But if we remember that God is all about renewing and restoring all of creation and we get to be a part of that, there's a JOY! at the core of that which no circumstance or situation can ever fully smother.

So share the message of JOY! that the God who made us and knows all about us loves us and wants to have a relationship with us, because this is not something we're supposed to hold onto and hoard. God was pleased to share this JOY! with us, now we should go forth and share it with others.

Put other people first by volunteering.

Do something randomly nice like paying for the check of a family at a restaurant without them knowing

Give a Christmas present to somebody totally not expecting one from you (and tell them not to go get you one, but give something to charity if they feel a need to reciprocate).

Tell stories of JOY! in your life this Christmas in honor of the God who shouted it to us through his own son Jesus!