Monthly archive: November, 2006

The Miracle of Christmas (Part 1) “The Climax of Christmas”

November 26, 2006, by 1 comment

I finally realized why I’ve always looked forward to the day after Thanksgiving––the day when I can finally listen to all my Christmas music without feeling like I’m abnormal! As I was listening to some new songs and some favorites this weekend, it hit me that unlike most music styles, Christmas music is always tied to a story. Jesus, miraculously born from a virgin, comes into the world to liberate it and save it from its own destruction. There’s more to the story, of course, but it’s always a message of hope, a message of peace, a message of redemption found in an event that happened 2,000 years ago.

What is it that touches your heart? What is it that reaches deeply within the soul, cries out to let the emotion and wonder of life express itself fully, in all its glory? What is it that calls us to deeper and higher places to find what we are looking for? And why is it that for many Christians the answer is found beginning with a story of a baby, born in an untimely manner, but just at the right time? While so much is expressed in the event itself, so much pivots around it also.

The climax of the story is just beginning. Of course it would be exciting!

Doug

Doug Stuart is a committed follower of Jesus and passionate about building for the Kingdom of God through education and mobilization. He is a regular writer at LibertarianChristians.com as well as the founder of Living Loud.

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Apple Certified Professional – Motion

November 21, 2006, by No comments yet
Yet another certification for an Apple professional application. Motion is Apple’s professional motion graphics application, which basically takes objects, moves them, renders particles, replicates, and creates all sorts of fun pizazz for video. For instance, often DVD menus that are jazzed up are done in a program like Motion.

Now I just have to get some work to use it in a practical way!

 motionicon.jpg

Doug

Doug Stuart is a committed follower of Jesus and passionate about building for the Kingdom of God through education and mobilization. He is a regular writer at LibertarianChristians.com as well as the founder of Living Loud.

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Apple Certified Professional – Aperture

November 20, 2006, by 2 comments
apertureicon.jpg Today I passed certification for Apeture, Apple’s professional photo management application. I passed on the first try, which was relieving. Failing meant taking it again, but that’s over now, and I can pursue other certifications, too.

Now I just have to learn how to use a real camera!

Doug

Doug Stuart is a committed follower of Jesus and passionate about building for the Kingdom of God through education and mobilization. He is a regular writer at LibertarianChristians.com as well as the founder of Living Loud.

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The Present Reality of Eternal Glory

November 17, 2006, by No comments yet

As I was talking with my wife and as I read from a book a passage in the New Testament, I wondered if I’ve taken the word “eternal” too futuristically?

Therefore we do not lose hear. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

When we think of “eternal glory,” immediately our mind races to heaven, the after-life place where we go if we are believers. But I wonder if there is not a present reality to the eternal glory. Could it not be true that tomorrow I will be more glorious than today? Could it be that the day-to-day renewal spoken of, that unseen and eternal glory, is building in our inner reality today? I cannot help but begin to wonder if today begins a new glorious realization, as each day should begin, rather than just getting on through the day and ending up “in glory [heaven].”

There is a battle going on, and without any hope of glory, we die. I struggle so much to see with “the eyes of the heart” because my mind has been programmed and conditioned to think more strongly than my heart feels. But the heart is the wellspring of life, says King Solomon, who no doubt knew what he had done to his heart as he turned from the Lord. If the heart is the wellspring, then the mind comes second. But what does that mean? I search and pray and discover that I cannot get beyond thinking about what that might mean, which puts me in a bind because if I can’t but think about the heart, than I certainly cannot begin to feel my heart in order to see through it. Make no mistake, I make decisions based on feeling rather than intellectual power, but when it comes to spiritual matters, it is difficult for me to actually live out of my heart.

I wonder what will happen when I finally learn how to trust God’s desire for me to live out of my heart. I want to. I know I need to. But I just don’t fully understand.

Maybe I don’t need to.

Doug

Doug Stuart is a committed follower of Jesus and passionate about building for the Kingdom of God through education and mobilization. He is a regular writer at LibertarianChristians.com as well as the founder of Living Loud.

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