Be sure to check out the insightful little lesson on one aspect of Christmas’s importance here, at the Desiring God blog. Jesus not only was human, but he still is, a fact which ought remind us to the greatness of the miracle of what God has done for us and of what God continues to do for us.

He (God) became “fully human”, and not only was, but still is, which is so important. But, you’ll have to hit up the link above to read why. I don’t want to just reproduce the whole article here.

Oh, and the pic is, of course, not really supposed to be baby Jesus – it’s my new little baby girl. I thought you might want a reminder of what a beautiful little human baby looks like. Just replace the blue background with the inside of a manger and you should be good.

There are only a couple of days left in Advent. Check it out:

This morning in church I listened to Garnett Slatton talk about spending the morning with God — not in a time-consuming manner (since most of our time seems to be consumed with other things), but in a way in which we begin our day conversing with God. Hopefully by starting off the day with that conversation, we can keep it up throughout all that we do.

The “conversation with God” is another way of talking about prayer, which leads me to the question: what exactly is prayer? Is it simply a conversation between us and God? Is it us clearing our minds of our distractions in order to focus only on God, instead of on ourselves? Is it something sometimes, and something different other times?

I do believe that prayer is a conversation between God and me. I also have prayer before and felt like I heard nothing in response. That is not unusual. So when I feel like the conversation is more of a one-way thing, even when I am listening (since a typical response to this will be “you just must not be listening hard enough”), does that make the prayer less valuable? Perhaps my prayers will lead me to change. Certainly praying to God gets my mind off of my own selfish desires and onto him, and that’s important. Sometimes, though, I pray selfishly, focusing solely on my wants and needs, so what then?

Truly, the way prayer works is a deep mystery. Since we do not understand the connections that we have to God, how can we hope to understand how or even why prayer works?

Of course, that’s not to imply that we should not seek to understand what prayer is or how it works. In fact, I’ve included a little flash thing, below, to show you what others have had to say about the subject. And please chime in with a comment: what do you think prayer is? how do you think prayer works?

Will Evangelicals Help Save The Earth? runs the subheading of this story from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

It’s an interesting question, and the article/column is excited about a February ’06 statement by Evangelical leaders called the “Evangelical Climate Initiative”, which you can read about at www.ChristiansandClimate.org.

In the Bible (Genesis 1), “God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” That was the first recorded command to humankind, right after God created and blessed them. (The second chapter of Genesis does give us the story of God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which may, chronologically have occurred first, but I mean, here, that it is not the first-mentioned command.)

Clearly God gave the authority to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion [...] over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Rather than see that as a blank check, however, I believe that the God-given authority comes with responsibility. We (human beings) are to responsibly exercise our dominion over this world.

I’m all for a healthy environment; I have/get to live here too. Perhaps the better question than, “Should I, as a Christian, be pro-environment?” is to ask, “How are we to care for this world that God has entrusted to us and balance that with being fruitful and multiplying?”

My brother (Ben) highlights a call in the Washington Post to stop stereotyping evangelical Christians. The Post column rightfully points out the role of Christians in the promotion of social justice, because of “a love for their neighbor.” It does sound like evangelicals are working to “save the earth.”
Social justice is not all that Christians are called to do, of course. There is Jesus’s essential call to “make disciples of all nations.” And I neglected to point out, above, that the human responsibility to manage the earth is truly a job of management. God does not say “the whole world is yours.” On the contrary, the Bible often says that the earth is the Lord’s. We are stewards.

Clearly, Christians should not and do not want to see the climate entrusted to them ruined. Perhaps that should be another reason to not stereotype. Not everyone agrees on how far or where to go in caring for the environment. But regardless of what we think about global warming, let’s ensure that we don’t forget about how we handle the gifts we have been given:

For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:14-30)