$221,112,520,000
This is the average amount of money the United States spends on Christmas gifts every year!
THINK ABOUT HOW MANY PRESENTS THAT BUYS!
If you ask me, that's a pretty unfathomable amount!
Christmas is just around the corner!
My mom and I went out to the mall looking for a dress for homecoming just the other day and let me tell you ...
WOW! WOW! WOW!
It was BUSY!!!!
It was CRAZY!!!
You couldn't help but run into people because it was so crowded!
Finding a parking spot ...
I think we both know how that goes!
INSANITY!
So what's the point, Hannah?
Well, I'm glad you asked!:)
My point is ...
The idea of the season of Christmas is GIVING.
Right? Right.
Right? Right.
God gave us Jesus ...
We give gifts to others ...
Etc.
BUT
Some people are buying all these gifts to get something in return.
The scenarios are endless ...
Are they trying to get someone's attention?
Are they trying to get gifts?
Are they wanting attention drawn to themselves?
It may look like they're giving for the right reasons, but their heart might not be in the right place.
It may look like they're giving for the right reasons, but their heart might not be in the right place.
We can all get sucked into this kind of mentality. I know I have.
If you really think about this, this kind of mindset is a lot like the people of Judah.
They are fasting.
This religious practice is good in the eyes of the Lord.
BUT
They have the wrong motives.
On the surface, it looks like they are doing it the right way and doing the right thing, but they aren’t doing it for the right reasons.
They want people to look at them, instead of humbling themselves and pointing to God.
The Pharisees are a good example of this in the New Testament.
In the passage of Matthew 6, it says,
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." ... "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
We see in this passage that they use their 'acts of righteousness' to glorify themselves.
They ignore the fact that they need to be selfless & do it for God's glory & not their own.
This religious practice is good in the eyes of the Lord.
BUT
They have the wrong motives.
On the surface, it looks like they are doing it the right way and doing the right thing, but they aren’t doing it for the right reasons.
They want people to look at them, instead of humbling themselves and pointing to God.
The Pharisees are a good example of this in the New Testament.
In the passage of Matthew 6, it says,
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." ... "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
We see in this passage that they use their 'acts of righteousness' to glorify themselves.
They ignore the fact that they need to be selfless & do it for God's glory & not their own.
Fast forward to the present ...
Today at church, I saw a great example of selflessness & selfless giving.
I go to Blackhawk Ministries & each year during Christmas time they choose a organization to partner with and give donations to.
This year they partnered with As Our Own.
I go to Blackhawk Ministries & each year during Christmas time they choose a organization to partner with and give donations to.
This year they partnered with As Our Own.
As Our Own describes themselves as, "A Christ-based, community-driven movement in India that rescues vulnerable children from certain enslavement and exploitation, caring for them as our own."
The church's goal for the amount of money they want to raise is $200,000.
This much money would care for about 45 girls for a whole year.
This goal is more than twice the amount they wanted to raise last year.
So far, there has been about $94,000 raised.
People have been so generous.
Helping people they'll never meet ...
Asking for nothing in return except for the hope of having them accept Christ as their Savior.
It's like looking in a mirror ...
If you think about those movies with the popular girls in it, they have their little mirrors in their purses, so they can look at themselves throughout the day, because according to them, it's all about them.
Judah & us ...
We're a lot alike.
We both can start to begin to point the mirror at ourselves & fixate the focus and glory on ourselves.
We want it to be all about us & strive to look good in the eyes of others. We forget that it is most important to worry about how we look in God's eyes.
Now think about this ...
If we subtly turn the mirror, the focus changes.
If we point the mirror away from ourselves, then someone else is in the reflection.
If you're in my Bible class, you will be receiving a little mirror with a cross on the back of it.
Put it in a place where you know you'll see it.
Let it be a reminder to you to take the focus off yourself & instead, point it at others & most of all, point it at God.
This is what God desired of the people of Judah & that's what He desires for us, too.
To point to Him & others.
That's the complete humbleness he asked of Judah & what he loves to see from us!
† Jesus, thank you for humbling yourself & coming as a baby to save us. Help us to change the focus off ourselves and onto You & others. Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me with this Bible project! You are amazing, God! I LOVE YOU! Amen.
Great illustration, definitely relatable.
ReplyDeleteGood job with connecting the points about giving, and then taking the focus off of us.
ReplyDeleteN-Jeezy
ReplyDeleteI love your excitement and how you tell stories, it keeps me interested and willing to read on C[=)
Great analogies. Good job explaining the pharisees actions. Love what BlackHawk is doing for kids in India.
ReplyDelete-Logan N.
I love the Application and the object. Great job connecting the passage to our lives. I think this will really help in my life.
ReplyDeleteRenee Pulver - I love how you put your own personal life experiences into your blog. I really helps me relate to your different circumstances. Also your mirror analogy is perfect! It is so true on how we really to start to point the mirror toward ourselves and how we begin to easily think that everything is about me.
ReplyDeleteIt's really amazing how wealthy the United States is. I really love how Blackhawk Church takes some of that money and gives it to a good cause. It would be really cool to see over the years all the billions of dollars being spent to become less and less.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a great reminder! We are selfish people who want self-glorification and acceptance..but we need to look through God's eyes not others! Love your item..the mirror with the cross on the back! Great reminder to stop looking and focusing on yourself but focus on God! Great job Hannah!
ReplyDeleteHannah,
ReplyDeleteIn many ways I do these same things. I need to look out and learn to praise God and not myself with trying to be seen. I need to do everything through Him.
Caleb Kroft
Wow, that sounds like a great organization. I hope they ended up raising the 200,000. Also I love the choice of object. That will be a great reminder for me.
ReplyDeleteI really like the analogy of the mirror and turning it to change the focus. It really hits me hard because everything I do is focused on me. Instead I need to focus everything on God. -Cam
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing reminder! It is so easy to focus in on myself and to do things for myself and not do it for God. Even when I do nice things for other people I need to think about my motive behind it is it out of love for that person or wanting to show them Gods love? Often my answer is neither and the answer is I wanted them to think more about me. Great post Hanna! -Andrew Rarick
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard about "As our own" I was excited to see how it would turn out. Last week I found out that we had raised over $240,000 and I was blown away. I love how you connected this with the reflection in the mirror. It was a new way of looking at things (no pun intended) and really challenged me to take my focus off of myself and unto God.
ReplyDeleteI go to Blackhawk ministries as well, and I was so excited to see the sum total of all the money raised for As Our Own. When they announced that we had raised over $210,000 and were still receiving donations my jaw dropped to the floor. It was truly amazing to see that there are still people who will give so much money with only a feeling in return.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on the other portion of your post, very well done indeed. I also chose Isaiah 58 for this project so I know for a fact that you definitely nailed it on this post. Excellent analogies by the way, they helped in understanding the connections you made.
Cheers,
The Rev.
I think it is great what the organization is doing for the children, and your object is very good as well. I think it will help to get attention away from ourselves and more to what is important.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a good reminder of what really matters in life. We all get so wrapped up in earthly things that we forget about what really matters, God! God should always be the main focus of our attention.
ReplyDeleteLogan Choka
I think that this blog is done very well. I love how you showed the selfish people, and the people who are only doing "good" for their own glory, and then you go and show those who are truly serving God and doing his will. I love that comparison, and this is a great blog.
ReplyDeleteI think that this blog is done very well. I love how you showed the selfish people, and the people who are only doing "good" for their own glory, and then you go and show those who are truly serving God and doing his will. I love that comparison, and this is a great blog. I also loved how you brought the giving at Blackhawk in, because it is very relevant to give a gift to those people at christmas time, because it is all about the sacrifice that Christ made, and the biggest and greatest gift ever given.
ReplyDeleteI really liked it when you said, "Judah & us ... We're a lot alike. We both can start to begin to point the mirror at ourselves & fixate the focus and glory on ourselves." I liked how you directly related the passage to us which helps to focus on the main point, and the application. Good job Hannah.
ReplyDelete~Jackie
This is a great reminder for high schoolers, and adults also. If the focus is on yourself instead of on God, your actions are useless. I also go to Blackhawk Ministries and I love what the church is doing.
ReplyDeleteThis entry hit home pretty well for me. Nobody wants to admit it, but we all do things for attention, and hope that people will notice, but honestly, God doesn't care about that kind of stuff. We all need to focus on glorifying God, and turning the "mirror" towards Him.
ReplyDelete-Marta B.
The mirror is a really great object! I like how you said, "If you subtly turn the mirror, the focus changes. If we point the mirror away from ourselves, someone else is in the reflection." This a true reminder to stop gazing at yourself in the mirror, and point it towards others and God!
ReplyDeleteThat is so true, Hannah. You're really wise, to be able to see past all of the things we as teenagers struggle with. I especially loved your application object - a mirror that we need to point away from ourselves. Brilliant!
ReplyDelete-Sydney McKown
I'm really glad that you mentioned As Our Own. We have been raising money in church every Sunday last month, and I realized how big of a deal it is to raise money for those girls and to teach them about the Savior. I really liked how you used that to show selflessness, because we will never meet these girls but they will have the chance to meet Christ through it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good post. I completely agree. I think that the mirror was a great object. We need to focus on God, and not ourselves.
ReplyDelete-Tim
This was a great post. It related your passage to something we all love, Christmas. And your Application Object was great.
ReplyDelete-Ben Flick
I had no idea that we spend that much money on Christmas presents! The mirror really tells us how we serve ourselves instead of what we should be serve, God! I love how you made a picture of Christ on the back, it's very creative.
ReplyDeleteGreat application object! I liked how you gave an illustration that we all can fathom and really think about easily.
ReplyDeleteHannah this is great! You have a great perspective of what self glorification is and whats wrong with it exactly. I also like how you easy your application is to understand.
ReplyDeleteAlli Joy
Thanks for the reminder, in how we should no look at our own self, but others. The mirror in our lives does need to be faced the other direction, just like Christ did for us. Very well thought out and explained!!!
ReplyDeletematt Neff
That is exactly right, people always think that we just need to be accepted. But that isn't the case at all.. Yes we should be accepted, but not by people around us but by God! Great message!!
ReplyDeleteAlex Seabeck- I love that you put a actual number to how much money we spend on gifts for Christmas! I appreciate this because it is a great reminder how much money we waste on temporary things instead of furthering God's kingdom with the money. I also like the Mean Girls example because we all have watched the movie and can relate and understand what you mean when we can look too much upon ourselves instead of looking at, and adoring Christ.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so great and interesting how you mention the numbers for Christmas every year! I really like the colors of your blog, and how everything is set up. It's wonderfully written, and extremely relatable.
ReplyDelete-Izzy McClung
Wow, that sounds like a great organization. What a great cause that the money is going towards I hope they ended up raising the 200,000. Also I love the choice of object. That will be a great reminder for me.
ReplyDelete