by Ryan Smith | Nov 27, 2018
The Christmas season, for many, is a season of hope. We hope for that special present. We hope for snow (or no snow…Scrooges). Our Christmas songs are tinseled with words of hope for peace, joy and love.
For many of our churches, the Christmas season has become synonymous with Advent. Advent is the time we light sequential candles in church and watch the flames dance as we sing the familiar songs of the season.
As a child, I was always dazzled by those flames. However, I didn’t truly understand what they meant.
Historically for the church, Advent and Christmas have been two separate seasons. Christmas is a celebration of the Son of God’s arrival as a baby in Bethlehem. At Christmas, we celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promises, salvation through the Messiah and the Light of the world who penetrated the darkness.
It is because of Christmas we celebrate the fulfillment of hope, joy, love and peace.
Yet there is no celebration of hope without a season of unfulfilled longing;
no joy without a season of sadness;
no love without a season of isolation;
no peace without a season of war.
Advent is that season.
For centuries, the people of God anticipated the arrival of the Messiah – the Savior who would restore all things and redeem His people. Every page of the Old Testament pulses with the heartbeat of a broken, sinful world and the promised Christ of restoration.
Their faith, like a candle, illuminated the darkness around them in anticipation of this Savior. They longed with great hope, and this hope was their faith.
The arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, is the fulfillment of that hope.
Today, in Christ, we have joy; we celebrate His love; we rest in His peace.
Yet we too long for a day when all things will be made new.
Like Abraham looking to the stars, we know we are people set apart by a God who keeps His promises. Jesus’s words in the closing verses of Revelation linger with every sunrise, “Surely I am coming soon” (Rev. 22:20).
Yet like John, our response echoes with every sunset, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
During the Advent season, as we light candles, read from the Scriptures and sing songs of Christ’s arrival, let us do so at the highest level of bittersweet.
Our song is sweet because Jesus has come! The gospel is true, and God is faithful!
Our song is bitter because we still walk the fallen path of sin and rebellion and anticipate the glorious Kingdom to come when Christ returns.
Hope. Love. Joy. Peace. Christ. This is the season of Advent.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
by Emily Howsden | Nov 26, 2018
If you could travel anywhere in the world, in general or ever for the holidays, where would you go?
There is so much to do and see out there in the world. I’ve had the privilege to do some traveling in my lifetime, and I always find that the journey I take while travelling leaves me a more informed person.
I’ve been to both U.S. coasts, many times. I’ve been to Central America, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and all over the great state of Oklahoma. Which brings me to my favorite place to travel.
That’s right, my favorite place to travel is home. No matter where I am in the world, no matter how historic or how breath-taking it may be, it will never be as special as Verdigris, Oklahoma, because that’s where my family is.
I love nothing more than the drive to my parents’ house, with all of the familiar scenes from my adolescence. Except these days, I always play a game to see what part of my home has changed since I last visited.
Verdigris is a small town that is northeast of Tulsa. There is a Dollar General, a Sonic, a Daylight Donuts, Casey’s General store, and QuickTrip—basically the businesses that are in every small town in Oklahoma. Most of these things, minus the Daylight Donuts and Quick Trip, have been new additions since I graduated high school and moved away for college.
The old high school parking lot, where my car used to get stuck if it rained too much because it was a glorified field, has since been paved and made into a real parking lot. I wonder if Kody Bartley sees that parking lot and rues the day that he got mud all over his dress pants and dress shirt just because he helped me and my sister Abby get unstuck?
Our football stadium, where I played many soccer games—and skinned many knees because in the early springtime in Oklahoma, Bermuda grass is glorified dirt—has since received a major facelift with turf and a real track.
We used to run around the old football field in circles and only experienced running on a track when we went to track meets, because our school didn’t have one yet.
There are now covered walk-ways from building to building at my old high school, which is laughable when I consider the days I got drenched running to classes across campus in the rain.
But despite all the quirks and shortcomings, Verdigris is my home. As I traveled back home over Thanksgiving, I wondered how Joseph and Mary felt as they traveled back to Bethlehem so many years ago?
Did Joseph feel nostalgic? Did he hope they didn’t run into too many people that he used to know? Did they know that they were about to become parents to a baby who would one day save the world?
There is one place that we will all go and call home one day because of that very baby. It will be the biggest homecoming the world has ever known. This homecoming will be accompanied by choirs of angels and trumpets sounds. That is the one place that I know I’ll love going more than Verdigris, Oklahoma.
I hope you don’t miss this homecoming. There are a few things you can do to reserve your spot there. First, admit that you’re a sinner and you have fallen short of the Glory of God. Second, trust that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. Finally, proclaim this Good News from the mountaintops and go make disciples of your fellow man.
What a glorious day it will be when we all get to Heaven. I hope I see you there, old friend.
by Chris Doyle | Nov 23, 2018
Greetings!
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Day. I definitely enjoyed mine, spent with family and will continue enjoying family time this weekend.
This week’s DHD does not follow my usual approach. Earlier this week, I watched A&E’s “docuseries” The Clinton Affair. I have not watched all six episodes, but I have watched most of them and would consider watching again when possible.
The series is not appropriate for children. It features comments about Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs. The series shares a sad narrative on a chapter of American history – a chapter that happened 20 years ago.
What I appreciate most about the A&E series is how objective it was. It truly does not have a political slant one way or another. Criticism is offered about all sides.
And the series also gives the victims a fair presentation, which is a benefit from today’s societal tenor, a greater support for those affected by sexual abuse.
Therefore, I decided to give six takeaways from The Clinton Affair.
- Details of the characters
There’s a lot of interviews, at least 50 people who were involved in this major escapade back in the late ‘90s. The Clinton Affair presents everybody in an excellent fashion. There are those who defend Bill Clinton, those who loathe Bill Clinton, politicians, lawyers, media members, victims and family members and friends of victims.
The presentation of all the interviews is excellent, connecting them all very well. There’s great timing of opposing views, and as I said, there’s no slant. With today’s murky media bias, the series was a breath of fresh air.
- Showing Clinton’s initial deposition
As I said, I have not watched all of the episodes. I started watching Tuesday night, Nov. 20, midway through episode four, and then continued watching episodes five and six. This evening, Nov. 22, I was able to watch the first two episodes through On Demand. The only parts I have not watched are episode three and the first part of episode four.
One of the first scenes I caught of The Clinton Affair was Bill Clinton being interrogated by Paula Jones’ lawyers. As many will attest, Clinton is savvy with a likeable, even charming personality.
As this deposition begins, Clinton is in control. He can lie and cover up his misbehavior in a very believable manner. The series is excellent in presenting commentary from Jones’ lawyer in modern day while viewers watch the Clinton deposition (to be clear, this isn’t Clinton’s famous grand jury deposition when he responds with what the definition of “is” is).
When the lawyers start asking Clinton questions about gifts he has given, it’s amazing to watch his countenance change and to hear the lawyer voice-over say, “This is when he (Clinton) realizes that Monica has been talking.”
Clinton is shown turning beet red and losing some of his composure.
- Resignation of Bob Livingston
Again, there are so many parts of this time of history, happening right in the heart of the U.S. government. Members of Congress were impacted, including U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston from Louisiana.
Livingston was projected to be the next Speaker of the House, but news broke during Clinton’s impeachment trial that the Congressman was involved in an extramarital affair. The series shows Livingston speaking from the floor, criticizing Clinton with voices off screen shouting “You resign! You resign!”
As the shouts continued, Livingston throws an unexpected bomb and announces, after calling for Clinton to resign, he himself would resign. Livingston is interviewed for the series, and he said with a laugh that you could hear a pin drop in the House chamber.
Bravo to the series producers for this segment’s presentation.
- Credibility of Paula Jones
The person who was instrumental in getting the ball rolling on the media frenzy surrounding the Clintons’ controversies is Paula Jones. Throughout the whole corrupted chaos, Jones was always presented negatively by the majority of the media. She appeared unbelievable, and the media used degrading descriptions to depict her.
The Clinton Affair gave her a fair shake. Her interviews in the past were shown, but they also interviewed her in modern day, in a much more respectable fashion.
Paula Jones is a simple lady who was abused by a powerful leader. She was a naive entry-level government worker in the state of Arkansas who thought she was going to be offered a better job when a state trooper led her to a hotel room where Governor Clinton sexually harassed her.
I hope Jones feels some relief from a public view in how The Clinton Affair presented her.
- Restart of Monica Lewinsky
The Clinton Affair helped change my view of Monica Lewinsky. Mostly, I guess I appreciate the wisdom she seemed to demonstrate. Now a contributing editor of Vanity Fair, Lewinsky wrote an article on why she participated in The Clinton Affair.
She is a good communicator now. I remember the interviews of her past, how she came across as a smug immature 20-something. She had an annoying laugh and would be blunt and crass in her responses.
One encouraging thing I got from the series, and then verified in her article, is her view of apologizing. She said she would apologize to Hillary Clinton, if she ever saw her again, and to others.
“I know I would do this (apologize),” she wrote, “because I have done it in other difficult situations related to 1998. I have also written letters apologizing to others—including some who also wronged me gravely. I believe that when we are trapped by our inability to evolve, by our inability to empathize humbly and painfully with others, then we remain victims ourselves.
“So, what feels more important to me than whether I am owed or deserving of a personal apology is my belief that Bill Clinton should want to apologize. I’m less disappointed by him, and more disappointed for him. He would be a better man for it . . . and we, in turn, a better society.”
As a Christian, when I read her comment “inability to evolve,” I want to say inability to surrender our life to Christ. There is some humanistic flavoring in Lewinsky’s comments, but I think she comes close to presenting the way Jesus taught how to live and to treat people.
- Effect on the Clintons
I said the series gives an objective view. The ones who appear with the least positivity are Bill and Hillary Clinton. In my lifetime, the president who receives the most negative commentary from the entertainment world would be Richard Nixon. The Clinton Affair hits Bill and Hillary with the level of extreme criticism that would mirror what has been given to Nixon. In my opinion, all of it is deserved.
It’s a different day. The mistreatment of women, especially to the horrible level of sexual harassment or abuse, is viewed more forcefully with punishment.
This is not something that should be viewed from a political lens. Rather, treating all people with respect should be a priority for everybody. This is what Christ taught and demonstrated. May we all model His leadership and example.
by Michael Foust | Nov 22, 2018
The Disney movie Ralph Breaks the Internet (PG) opens this week, telling the story of two people who travel the information superhighway to try and salvage a friendship and career.
Ralph is a big guy with a big heart. Oh, sure, he has massive arms and a chest the size of a small car, but deep inside he’s a tender guy who only wants love – specifically from his best friend Vanellope.
Ralph and Vanellope are video game characters who live behind the wall of Litwak’s Family Fun Center, an arcade that boasts video games from the past and present. Ralph’s day job is within the video game “Tapper,” while Vanellope works inside the game “Sugar Rush” as a racecar driver.
When a customer inserts a quarter, Ralph and Vanellope get to work, making sure the game goes as expected. Most of the time, the game goes as planned, but sometimes – as happened recently — things can go haywire.
The problem started when a wild-driving Vanellope veered off the racetrack. The customer then accidentally broke the steering wheel, rendering the Sugar Rush unit useless. To make matters worse, the Litwak’s Family Fun Center owner decided to junk the game instead of fixing it.
That’s OK, though, because Ralph has a solution. He and Vanellope will search the Internet, find a replacement steering wheel, and give the unit new life. And they’ll remain friends forever. Right?
The Disney movie Ralph Breaks the Internet (PG) opens this week, telling the story of two people who literally travel the information superhighway – through the modem and the phone line – to try and salvage a friendship and career. It is a sequel to the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph and stars John C. Reilly (Wreck-It Ralph, Guardians of the Galaxy) as Ralph, Sarah Silverman (Wreck-It Ralph) as Vanellope, Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) as an algorithm character named Yesss, and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) as the video game character Shank.
The movie is fun, funny and family-friendly, as it gives children a lesson not only on the ins and outs of the Internet but also its many perils. When Ralph and Vanellope enter the Internet – which looks like a megacity – they experience the same emotions we all felt when we first logged on. They’re amazed and a little intimated. They see big bright skyscrapers (that’s Amazon, Facebook and YouTube), annoying, chatty people (those are pop-up ads), and a smart, fast-talking man who knows everything (he’s the search engine – a man named KnowsMore).
Their goal is to find eBay, which supposedly has the steering wheel they need.
Many of our favorite Disney/Star Wars/Marvel characters also make an appearance, including R2-D2, C-3PO, baby Groot, and nearly every princess in the Disney realm.
Warning: minor/moderate spoilers!
(Scale key: none, minimal, moderate, extreme)
Violence/Disturbing
Minimal. For sensitive children, the most disturbing part of the movie takes place within a video game known as Slaughter Race, which has a dystopian city landscape; cars race down abandoned streets that are ruled by a woman named Shank and her friends. Questionable-looking characters live here. Later, Ralph and Vanellope enter a dark, underground region where a grotesque Jabba the Hut-looking creature lives. (He has a brother who “lives” in his chest – sort of like a conjoined twin.) The film concludes with Ralph and Vanellope battling a giant (mostly friendly) monster.
Sexuality/Sensuality/Nudity
Minimal. A male body building character wears speedos. Vanellope sees the word “lingerie” in the Internet world and mispronounces it. A pop-up ad man promotes a website with “sassy housewives.” Yess wears a belly-revealing outfit. If you’re curious, Ralph and Vanellope are not boyfriend/girlfriend; they’re just good friends.
Coarse Language
None. We hear butt (4), gosh (3), heck (1) and “good L-rd” (1).
Other Positive Elements
After her video game breaks, Vanellope rebuffs Ralph’s suggestion to be lazy and not work. Ralph and Vanellope truly care for one another as friends. The film has a touching finale.
Other Stuff You Might Want To Know
We hear burping at a (root beer) bar, which is treated like a real-world bar (without the drunkenness.) A character jokes about “serious duty.” Ralph and Vanellope twice lie to get their way; they get caught once. They steal a car and are caught. Ralph enters the comments section of a website and reads comments from Internet bullies (such as: “what a useless loser.”).
Life Lessons
The film gives us lessons on working hard (Vanellope), friendship and dedication (Ralph and Vanellope), the perils of the Internet, and forgiveness and reconciliation (Ralph and Vanellope).
Worldview
Adults spend an average of 11 hours each day interacting with media, according to a Nielsen report released this year. That number includes television, smartphones, tablets and computers. Nearly two hours of that is spent on social media, according to a separate study by the marketing agency Mediakix.
Ralph Breaks the Internet ridicules our addiction. We see Ralph record silly videos (eating hot peppers, for example) in hopes of going viral and earning money for the steering wheel. We then see adults in the real world – including at their work cubicles – watching them.
This Internet addiction, of course, has a cost. It takes time away from the more important things of life, including our time with God (Psalm 46:10).
But the primary theme of Ralph Breaks the Internet involves friendship and trust. Vanellope wants to move away from Ralph and work at Sugar Rush. Ralph, though, believes she’s abandoning him and ending the friendship. The central question becomes: Can Ralph and Vanellope remain friends but have different interests? How can they remain friends when their lives change? Those are questions that can spark a discussion with children on the ride home.
What I Liked
The Stars Wars characters. The Internet world, with its zany figures. The messages are great, too.
What I Didn’t Like
A joke about lingerie doesn’t belong in a children’s film. Many kids will ask uncomfortable questions.
Sponsors
McDonald’s is a sponsor. Get ready for Happy Meals with a Ralph Breaks the Internet theme.
Discussion Questions
- Why did Ralph not trust Vanellope? What helped them heal their division?
- Can friends have different interests? Can they remain friends when life changes? Have either of those things ever happened to you?
- Is the Internet a good or a bad thing? Name 3 good things about the Internet. Name 3 bad things.
- How do we know if we’re addicted to the Internet and social media? Name 3 ways (such as a device-free dinner) that we can ensure we’re not spending too much time on the web.
- Why do people act differently on the Internet than they do in real life? Have you ever experienced Internet bullying?
Entertainment rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Family-friendly rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Rated PG for some action and rude humor.
by Brian Hobbs | Nov 21, 2018
They’re everywhere. Small ones. Big ones. They demand our attention every day, including on days like Thanksgiving.
I’m talking about screens, these “glowing rectangles.” Yes, society is in a screens craze. From personal devices to flat screen TVs, there’s almost no way to get away from screens these days.
I do not need to quote studies for us to realize that screen time is taking a bigger bite out of our daily lives than ever. These tech devices have numerous perks, such as entertainment, commerce, means of communications and even physical fitness apps and prompts. Yet the drawbacks are significant, especially when it comes to relationships.
This means Christians must regulate better our attention span, so we are not drawn away from Scripture and prayer. It also means we need to focus better on the people around us, instead of staring at screens all day (You have my approval, by the way, to stop reading this blog on a screen right now and focus on the people around you).
Here are three ideas to help you this Thanksgiving to focus more on people than screens:
- Unplug. Thanksgiving is one of those times when a majority of people are off work. This is your chance to cease checking work email, calls and texts. Take one day this year to have your phone away from you.
- If looking at screens, do so as a group. From watching the Dallas Cowboys football game to going out to a movie, screens can be enjoyed as a group. If you are going to enjoy some screen time, this Thanksgiving, try doing so as a group instead of a collection of atomized individuals.
- Make it a habit. If less screens for you on Thanksgiving goes well, try making a habit of it. Whether one hour a day or one day a week, such as Sunday, make a habit of checking your personal screen device less often. Apple’s iPhone itself has come out with some helpful tools to regulate screen time behavior, as well as numerous other helps out there.
As Thanksgiving comes and go, let’s all give thanks for what God has placed in our lives and what’s most important. And let’s try to balance out screen time with “others time.” In so doing, I think we will be glad we did and give thanks for it, even beyond the holidays.
by Angela Sanders | Nov 20, 2018
It’s been three months. Three slow, surreal months since my mother-in-law, my God-given Naomi, passed from this life and stepped into her eternal reward. Final bills have been paid. Most keepsakes have been distributed, and that which can be left until spring has been tucked away until everyone is ready to pick up where we left off.
It’s time now to huddle up and focus on the holidays and each other.
Things will be different this year, of course. The shopping list will be shorter. There will be gaping holes in our schedule, and laughter of a certain timbre and intensity will be noticeably absent, to name a few.
It will hurt. Deeply.
But I know this: God will be there, carrying us, comforting us, and teaching us things humans only learn by walking paths none of us want to travel.
Here are a few things I’ve learned so far:
God’s grace really is sufficient.
Anyone who knows me knows that medical things freak me out. I’m the mom who couldn’t even take her kids to get their immunizations by herself because she would faint, so the idea of walking Brenda through her cancer journey was intimidating at best, a living nightmare at worst. The first time I stepped into the cancer center, my cheeks went prickly cold and my ears began to ring. I’ll never forget telling God there was no way I could do this even for a day, much less for an indeterminable stretch of time. In answer, He granted me an acute awareness of His presence that not only kept me from fainting that day, but enabled me to smile and crack jokes that eased everyone else’s tension.
Six long years later, I helped dress Brenda’s ulcerations, stayed in the room as the hospice nurse bathed her fragile body distorted by the cancer that was eating her up, and assisted her with more private needs. On her last day, I knelt in front of her, her forehead boring into mine as she fought nausea, a bucket between us. Her tiny arms hanging heavily on my shoulder, I inhaled her feverish exhale and absorbed the vibration of her every moan. As my emotional and physical strength cracked and shattered, God replaced it with His and made me what I needed to be.
Death itself is a non-event.
In the months leading up to her physical death, Todd and I spent a lot of time and energy anticipating Brenda’s final moments. Wanting those moments to be the very best they could possibly be for her, we shared our hearts early, read Scripture over her, over-communicated details to one another, and juggled schedules to make sure we didn’t miss the difficult, but fruitful struggle we’d built up in our imaginations. It never happened.
When Brenda’s time came, her soul simply stepped out of her body into eternity like anyone steps from one room into another, the transition imperceptible but for the absence of her labored breath. And that was it. A split second, and she was free. No struggle. No pain. Just peace. When it was over, I actually felt a little silly for dreading it and wondered whether Brenda would have chosen the agony of prolonged resistance if she’d known all along what a non-event her moment of passing would turn out to be on this side.
Fear of anything but God is pointless.
Illness is scary, cancer in particular. There are worse afflictions, I’m sure, but cancer seems to be the beast with whom we are most familiar, the one whose shadow haunts the healthy. Because we know what it does to people, we dread hearing that word from a doctor’s lips. When you do, everything that seemed scary before fades into the background, not gone, but diminished in light of the news you just received. Suddenly, getting cancer before it gets you becomes the number one goal.
Except it can’t get you. Sure, cancer can take your strength, your mind, your body, but it can’t get YOU, the soul that lives on after the battle is over, no matter the outcome. This being true, the decision a person makes concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ is more important than any decision they make concerning treatment options. Thankfully, Brenda put her faith in a crucified and resurrected Jesus, the sinless Son of God, for salvation from the consequences of sin when she was a young teenager. She wasn’t perfect by any stretch and would have been the first to admit that, but she always knew, deep down, that she was a permanently adopted child of Almighty God.
As tyrannical as Brenda’s illness proved to be, devouring her body before our very eyes, the lion Cancer turned kitten in the end, weaker than the hope Brenda had found in Jesus, limited in its reach as she slipped right out of its clutches, and small before the great big God that ultimately delivered His child safely home.
In a few weeks, they’ll lay a headstone on Brenda’s grave that reads, “See you soon!” at the bottom, a promise from us to her. Thanks to what I’ve learned through recent events, that’s a welcome thought now rather than the sort-of scary one it used to be, and I can run into the unmapped in-between, whatever it holds, with confidence and joy.
This holiday season, my thanksgiving will be better informed, and my worship of the King born to set us free will be more genuine and heartfelt. Yes, things will be different this year, but some of those changes will be good.