Countdown to 2007 quizzing

(Official) Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2007:
3 weeks, 3 days, 10 hours, 21 minutes

(Unofficial) Countdown to the first practice of 2007:
1 week


Hope you enjoyed this past Christmas season. And being commericial Christmas, once December 26 rolls around, Christmas is dead. Not the Christmas of Jesus. Jesus is still living, and I hope you can in a way celebrate Christmas every day.

Now while most people are ready for celebrating the beginning of the new year , I'm ready to celebrate the beginning of a new quizzing year. I feel it's going to be great. Not only in the competition, but also with friends. I got my three good friends, plus the best quiz coaches a quizzer could ever have. We have a rookie, making us a team of five (so far). She'll most likely be the sub, but by the time Mike is going to Florida, she should be ready to start. Christine's birthday during the quiz season means she can quiz for us again, although turning 21 in mid-January. She'll be able to complete the team bonus well. I think at the bare minimum, we'll have is two quiz outs. Spring City will be the rockingest this year.

If you don't know, the quizzing material is Luke 16-24, Acts 1-9. Sadly, I was only able to write questions for just Luke 16. Well, it's better than nothing. I started trying to memorize Acts 2. I got through the first 6 verses, but hit dead there. I'm going to continue working on that. I need to do more buzzer drills, too. On the brighter side, I've been working at the material for the first week, which is Luke 16-18:30. I can list the 6 and list the 4. Plus, I know a lot of answers for Luke 16. I also have read the material a few times and listen to it a few others. I feel confident with Luke 16. Now to move on to chapter 17 and the first 30 verses of chapter 18. Nevertheless, I'll be ready by January 21 to quiz out every match.

Practice will begin next week, the first week of the year. It's either Wednesday or Thursday. It'll be based on what's best for the majority of the team needs. Either day is fine, I'll make I can make it to either one. The sad news is I can't make it to the practice the following week since I'll be in Missouri for my senior experience. Very upsetting. Still, I will be practicing hard, harder since I am missing a team practice, what I need most. I will rock with the team score and with the individual score.

Quizzing question of the post:
What 6 were the people doing in the days of Lot?

Joy: The Fourth Week of Advent

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." -Luke 2:10

When we think of joy, we think of a synonym of happiness. Sometimes we may think of joy has an extreme, hyper happiness. The dictionary would probably agree with that. But think joy can be beyond that. You can be joyful without always being estatic.

True joy is contagiuos. Being joyful causes those around you to be joyful. The angels and the shepards in the Christmas story demonstrate this. The angels presented the the birth of Jesus with great joy. The angels were so joyful, the shepherds had to see for themselves what the commotion was for. After seeing the newborn Jesus, they to went out to everyone to tell the news, probably in the same joy. The Messiah who was promised to save the people was finally here!

In today's modern world, we see Christmas not as much as a joyful time, but a happy time. Tis the season to be jolly. Yet it isn't always true for everyone. We call them Grinches or Scrooges. I like to call them Charlie Browns. People are hard on them, but I'm not. They're probably like that because they aren't seeing the true joy or love from the real Christmas. That's the biggest way we can know the difference between the two. While commericial Christmas gives us temporary happiness, the things we get will eventually no longer make us happy, just in enough time for Valentine's Day. The joy will get from the true meaning of Christmas lasts all year round. Happiness is temporary, joy is forever. The Santa Claus we base commericial Christmas on is was temporary. Santa is based on St. Nicholas, who was born, sinned, then died. The true Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, who always was, and always will be. God was never born and we never die. Even when we was born, he wouldn't die, even when killed. He would resurrect and be living again. How joyful we can now be now knowing we can be reconciled with God through the offering of His Son!

When everyone remembers the true meaning of Christmas, we gain a sense of hope, peace, love and joy. It's been a wonderful advent season, and now I am prepared for Christmas more than ever. May Christmas be meaningful for all of you.

Merry Christmas everyone!
"Hark the Harold Angels sing, glory to the newborn king...."

Love: The Third week of advent

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."-1 Corinthians 13:13

It was hard narrowing all 700 verses with love in it down to one. I chose this one, from the most favorite chapter to be read at weddings, 1 Corinthians 13 (which is known as the love chapter). I like this because it mentions 2 of the 4 advent candles. I think perhaps they should replace one of the other 2 with faith, or faith a 5th week of advent. Faith does prepare us for Christmas just as much as the others.

Love prepares our hearts for Christmas. To truly understand Christmas, we must understand love. First, we know God is love (1 John 4:8). Therefore, we can conclude everything God has done for His people is out of love. We know God loved His Son Jesus. He said at His Son's Baptism and Transfiguration. John 3:16 is the most famous Bible verse. The beginning of it tells us why the Lord gave us His Son. "For Go so loved the world..." We learn from the Bible that the greatest show of love is to give up his life for friends (John 15:13). That's why Jesus died on the cross. God the Father loved God the Son, but he also loved His people. That's why the Father and the Son allowed the Son of God to be crucified. As Richard J. Foster said in his book The Celebration of Discipline, "Love, not anger brought Jesus to the cross." The Son of Man died for us out of love.

Comparing the Christmas story to advent themes, I see love in Mary, the mother of Jesus. Just like our parents love us, their children, Mary loved her child, Jesus. She probably cared for it, wanting to make it comfortable, and not in pain or discomfort. She probably wanted to hold it and not let go. As she held it, she could only guess of how this little boy would be the messiah. Oh, if she only knew. I'm reminded of the song "Mary, did you know?" The songs talks about the baby growing up, performing miracles, and becoming Lord over all. But it doesn't mention anything about Christ's death. Did Mary know how He would die on this cruel earth? Did Gabriel tell her something like:

"On the night of the Passover, your son will be betrayed by one of his closest follwers and friends. He will lead a crowd, who just earlier that week was cheering and praising the enterance of your son into the capital. Most of the crowd will be chief priests and the teachers of the law, who are just jealous of his popularity, and his knowledge of how they aren't pure and perfect. Really, they feel threatened by him. He will be put on trial in front of 3 men. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, arguably the worst execution method in all history. Furthermore, he will refuse any pain killers. The worst, you'll be there to witness every minute of the suffering of the child you will bear for the Lord."

Probably Gabriel told her nothing of that sort. If the angel did, Mary will have been an emotional basket case. She would have cried at the annunciation of Jesus's birth, the birth, when she lost him at the age of 12, when he decided to leave to begin his ministry at the age of 30. No mother wants to outlive her child, know how her child will die, nor wants her child to suffer through it. But although Mary would witness her son's violent death, if she only knew what was going to happen next: a victorious resurrection. Jesus knew everything that was going to happen, but still went through with it. Now that is love.

When we understand Christ's love, we reflect why we should love. Jesus told us in John 13:34&35, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." We must love because we can be identified as followers of Jesus because we love. We should love year round, but when Christmas comes, we must really love. How do we do this? During Christmas, we usually show love by giving. But I think we've missed this. We only give to our family and friends. But's God's love is to everyone, not just our family and friends. Sometimes by giving love to others, especially in public, we can rob others of the feeling of the love of Christmas. I realized this as we watched Charlie Brown Christmas yet another year. He wasn't feeling Christmast because of the commericialism of Christmas. The love commericial Christmas tells of is receiving love through the Christmas cards and presents one gets from family friends. If our family and friends love us, they will give us things. Reverse is true, too. We believe if we truly love our friends and family, we must get them presents. We're giving, just like Jesus commanded, but I think we're missing the point. We should be giving for more than just "love" (which isn't even true love, it's the fuzzy feeling love). So how do we separate ourselves as Christians from the worldly Christmas? We got to get out of the cycle of giving out of fuzzy love, and we can do this by getting back to the true love of Christmas. We got to get together, talk this over, and realize our friendship won't change whether or not we get gifts or not. If it means no one giving or getting gifts, so be it. We also must be giving gifts to others beyond family and friends. These means presents for the poor, authority, strangers, unpopular, unliked and the hated enemies. People we wouldn't give to normally. They're the ones who feel the lack of love during Christmas. It's not only important that we give to them, but we must give equally to them as everyone else. Then not only will we be giving the true love of Christmas, we will be reaping it back to ourselves. We will be living the life of love Christ set an example for us to live.

OFFICIAL Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2007:
33 days, 18 hours, 22 minutes

Peace: The Second Week of Advent

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." -Luke 2:13,14

I could take this post and spend the whole time raving about how our God is favoring peace, not war, then go into the whole non-violent resistant, pacifist thing. I could use the 274 times peace is mentioned in the Bible to verify, but I'm not going to. Maybe a short, tame one at the end, but I reall want to focus it on something else we can all agree on. Peace is much more than the opposite of war. I learned this as our Sunday School had classes on the topic of peace. It was a DVD series, with class discussion in it. The program had a definition of peace that cirriculated throughout the lessons-

"Peace is when everything is the best it can be." -PeaceDVD (www.peacedvd.com)

Of course, I couldn't say it right, and everytime I tried, I pretty much quoted a popular praise song. I would say, "Peace is when everything is as it should be." If you didin't recognize it, it comes from the praise song "Blessed be the Name." But it comes down being the same thing? If the world was as it should be, as God intened it, without sin, then everything would be at the best. That's peace. We see a peace in the garden of Eden. The garden is peaceful because everything was as God planned, nothing wrong or out of place. Adam and Eve walked with God. They were at peace with their maker. When Satan came in and Eve fell to his temptation, that peace was gone. When God promised them a messiah, not only was he providing a way to get out of the sin, but a promise of restoring the peace. Isn't that what Jesus did coming to earth? That's what the angels meant when they were talking to the shepherds in Luke 2:14. The hymn "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" rewords it when it says "Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconcile."

Remember, when the Israelites could come into God's presense, it was not peaceful. First, there were several preparations one had to go through to be able enter the Lord's presense, from cermonial washing to performing sacrifices to wearing the right thing. Even when they could go in, it was was enter, do your business, and exit. No tarrying. It was very hard. Perhaps the man entering the Holy of Holies were in great fear doing his job. God was seen as the boss, not a friend. One wrong move, and you were gone. But as this Christmas season comes, remember that the child born would eventually die on the cross, splitting the heavy curtain dividing God from His people. God was saying, "No more of this bossy business stuff. Let's be personal. Let's become friends. Let's talk." God gives us the oppurtunity to have that peaceful relationship with him again. How much more perfect will it become when we have it in the new Heaven and the new Earth!

The characters in the Christmas story that show peace have to be Mary. Mary had a big assignment. Based on we know of culture back in the time of the New Testament, Mary was probably between the ages of 12 to 17! I don't think any of the girls around my age I know would want the responsibility. On top of that, Mary was engaged, not married. Being pregnant and not married was a dangerous situation. Mary could be punished for that from just being disgraced to being stoned to death. Mary must have been freaked out. But God's messenger Gabriel put Mary at peace with that. That's another gift God gives us in this gift giving season: a peace of mind. Not a piece of His mind, a peace of mind. The Holy Spirit relaxes us when deep down inside we want to panic. Just as the children's song tells us, it is the peace that passes all understanding. It doesn't make sense to be peacefully calm, when we really want to be tense.

As I was writing my Christmas cards, I came across one that said "Peace on Earth." Christmas is the one time of the year we wish we could stop all military combat and have world peace. We think it's unlikely to happen, but it did happen. On December 25, 1914, in the midst of World War I, the German and British soldiers stopped fighting and took up what is now known as "The Christmas Truce" (Google it if you don't believe me). The troops ceased to fight and celebrated the birth of Christ. The men met in the middle of no-man's land. Banners was made, carols were sung, gifts were exchanged between countries, and a friendly game of soccer was played. Some scholars are doubters of this; they say the event demonstrates at this point of time the war was still not taken seriously. But I think it was. The men realized that both sides had Christians who celebrated the holiday. They were united for a while as God's children. The next day, the fighting resumed. Wouldn't that be great, to do it again? For one day, especially a day where it is promoted to have no fighting but a time of peace? Not just war, but any kind of fighting. No homocides, no bar fights, no bullying. And to continue that, why can't we have it for more than a day? Why can't stop fighting between neighbors and nations all year round? It would be our way of helping the Lord restore that peace that he intended.

Hope: 1st week of Advent

I noticed how in the pas I always just complain about how commericial Christmas has become and how the holiday is depressing for the less social. Well, I know how much you people don't like me complaining. I know I haven't said anything to change it. I thought of a way to do this, and the way I came up was to prepare the mind for a spiritual Christmas. Come to think of that, advent does that. Many of today's churches don't focus on advent. Only the more "traditional" churches do. Both my church and my school are focusing on the pre-birth scripture (Luke 1). That's cool, but I think Advent gives a better mindset to prepare us on the ultimate Christmas gift: Jesus Christ. Here are my thoughts on the advent theme of the week.

"David said about him: 'I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence." -Acts 2:25-28

This one of th 174 verses mentioning hope in it. One of the books of the Bible where hope is dominant is Job. The man who lost everything still had hope. I thought back of what could be the first instance of hope. I guess the earliest instance could be right after the fall. Adam and Eve must been pretty hopeful that the messiah God promised would come rescue them from the hard labor they now had to do in the sinful world. But you really don't see it in Genesis. Most of the time, they are more consentrated on starting a great nation. Enoch was the only one proclaiming about the Messiah. It wasn't until Israel went through a series of on conquerers and rescuers that they wanted a rescuer that could deliever them permantently: the Messiah.

During the opening years of A.D., there was a bit enflared feeling of the returning messiah. The radical Zealots wanted the Romans out. The flare of hope must have been strong. I would guess that just like now, their were expecting him to come out of the sky, or someone, who was a high leader or very spiritual, to get a diving calling while doing a spiritual ritual to lead his people in revolution. If this was so, how much more Mary must have been suprised with the news. The Messiah was now going to be a baby, growing to a small child, growing to a teenager, and finally becoming an adult. On top of that, he would come out of the humble home of a carpender. If word got around, people would lose hope. "Oh great, the one Messiah God sends is a nobody."

The passage above is actually Simon Peter quoting a Psalm. Peter explains that David in this Psalm was talking about the Messiah, Jesus. David says his body now lives in hope. Since Jesus died on the cross, how much hope he has given us for a happy ending! I think if I was living in Old Testament atonement, I would always be worried. Did I do the right amount of sacrifices to cover up my sins? Did I cover all my sins? I did it all correctly, right? No sense of being sure. But now, with Christ as the perfect sacrifice, we can be 100% that all who call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved from their sin. What hope we have in Christ that will have a better life.

Let's go back to the first arrival of Christ. Think about the mindset of the few who knew the baby Jesus would be the Messiah. There's Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the magi (which are not necesarily 3 in number). As they gazed upon the infant, they must've needed hope. It looked like any other infant, just in a low and humble surrounding. How could we be sure this is it? Maybe they wanted to say, "That's it?" Imagine the shepherds following the directions of the angels, or the magi, following the star. Maybe they were expecting a palace. But what they didn't get that. Not even the inns would have a room for the upcoming Messiah. Heck, maybe Joseph even tried that! "Don't you understand? My wife is giving birth to the Messiah! You're turning down the Savior of the World!" But I think God had placed His Son's birth in a lowly place so even the lowest would relate. I believe that if Jesus had been born in 21st century world, his would have been born in an alley, lying in a barrel or a shopping cart. Now even the homeless can relate to Jesus, and have hope in being rewarded in heaven. So whoever you are, high or low, rich or poor, popular or unpopular, you can put all your hopes in Jesus.