Somewhere there are Christians focusing on Jesus.

     It's New Year's Eve and the focus is on the past for the most part.  What did and did not happen in 2016?  What went wrong and what went right in 2016?  Some may even be carrying 2016 over into the new year.  The world's focus is on celebrating with self justified drinking, partying and even violence.  Where is the Christian in the midst of all of this?  Some of the Christians are going to be doing whatever the world does.  Some Christians are going to be sleeping in the new year.  Still other Christians will be bringing in the new year with prayer and reading of the Scripture.  The "dropping of the ball" is in reverse! We should be raising prayers to God who is the real light to the world.  Instead of a God focused celebration many will have a world focused celebration missing the chance to share Jesus with those who are lost.  I'm not saying we don't have much to be thankful for because we have everything to be thankful for.  God has been gracious and delayed the return of his Son so that all still have a chance to be saved.
     Frankly, I have enough stuff in front of me that lends me no time for the past.  Yes, the past exists.  I have no problem remembering the past.  We don't have to remember tomorrow.  Hence we have time to focus on today.  That's the real celebration.  We've been given a new day!  There is no promise for tomorrow.  Yet, we live our lives as if there are no end in sight of tomorrows.  In Matthew the Sermon on the Mount tells us to take no thought for tomorrow (Matthew 6:33).  We are instead to focus on today and doing the work before us.  We miss the point with the New Year's Eve and New Year's Day celebration that the world focuses on.  Satan has taken the holidays to keep the focus on self and selfish wants.  Jesus takes every day to focus on others and their needs.  The Eve and the Day will pass by no doubt about it.  But today is available now.  Where is the urgency the Christian is supposed to feel to share the Good News of Jesus?  Perhaps we need to understand as Solomon did that there is nothing new under the sun.  One day runs into another.  The difference is that the Christian has a purpose that ignites their lives to service to Jesus who gives us life!
     So, what happens after the New Year has begun?  Martin Luther was asked what he would do if he knew for a fact that Jesus was coming back tomorrow at a certain time.  He said, "I would plant another tree."  He would keep going on doing what he had been doing for God.  He would sow the seed in the life of whomever he came into contact with.  That's a good thing to be doing.  Paul had the same belief as did the early church.  Live the day for Jesus and fulfill his commandment to love one another.  Please don't make a resolution this year to keep your focus off Jesus.  Keep your focus on planting another tree.  It's always your choice.  Happy New Year!

Pretending to be an imposter.

     Difficult subject to wrap your head around?  Mine was having difficulty as well.  But I feel that this is what the Lord wants me to write so here goes.  One would think that pretending and being an imposter are one and the same.  Not so fast!  Pretending means we don't really mean what we think, say or do while being an imposter means we are posing as someone we aren't or presenting something we know to be false.  The Christian has filled both roles throughout the centuries and with the same effect of discrediting the message that Jesus has given them to share.  For instance, remember the other day when you were in the lunch room with co-workers and you laughed at that off color joke?  You pretended it didn't offend you.  The imposter in you took over and there you were without the witness of Christ anywhere near you.  Pretending to enjoy a sermon at church because your friend, spouse, parent or someone else wants you there makes you an imposter.  You moved from pretending to imposter when you went to church for any other reason than to worship Jesus.  Maybe you have bumper stickers that advertise your Christianity.  Then you cut off that car or are cut off and the finger comes out.  Pretender to imposter in 3 seconds!  Personally, I like the "saved but not perfect yet" bumper sticker.  IF you are truly saved, you have been made perfect in Christ.  Which is it going to be?
     Hollywood is the greatest collection of pretenders and imposters outside of the Senate and Congress.  I am amazed at the number of singers, actors and actresses who claim to be Christian and yet take roles that are very obviously demonic, obscene and other anti-Christian in their content.  Where is their belief in Christ when they so freely advertise for the enemy?  Why is it so important to compromise your beliefs to appease the world?  Because you can make money doing so.  Not so complicated.  People idolize those who do so and we wonder where the values of the Christian nation we once were have gone.  One of the biggie's lately was that Hollywood doesn't instill violence in the audiences they serve.  Really?!  Why does the Christian even watch these testaments to the devil and the world?  You know if you have watched that which is not of Christ.  Just because they bleep out the bad words doesn't make the show good.  Where is the Christian who takes a stand?  If you don't stand for anything, you will fall for anything.  Remember that if you know Christ that he is with you all the time.  That's not a threat.  That's a fact.  Why?  Because he loves you, cares for you and only wants to bless you and I...if we would only let Him.
     From political decisions to make abortion okay to cartoons that teach our children anything by Christ, we are a pretending and imposter world.  We lie to our kids and other's children and when they are older discover that we have lied to them.  If the Christian adult is okay with lying, then it is only logical to assume that the adult was pretending and an imposter of the Christian faith.  Then they grow up lying to their parents and others believing it's okay and even good.  We wonder why the moral decay is so great?  It's because of us.  I know many men and women who can quote sports statistics as if they memorized every player and team stat.  Yet, they can barely remember one or two verses from their Bible.  Perhaps we need to stop the pretending and being an imposter. Maybe we should put as much effort into what the Bible teaches as we do in our selfish lifestyles.  Maybe we need to LIVE out our faith with those we come into contact with instead of joining them in their lifestyle.  If someone can't accept Christ in me, it's not my problem.  I need to proclaim Christ in every situation and in every way possible so that some might be saved.  What is your choice going to be from this day forward?  Remember, it's always your choice.

Don't judge what you can't see.

    I remember the day as clear as if it happened yesterday.  A woman came up to me and said, "I think you are faking the pain."  After I regained my composure my first response was to enlighten her to what she couldn't see.  There is a problem with what's not seen.  Either people don't want to see it or they don't believe it's true.  This phenomena has been around for many centuries.  When I was growing up in the "good old days" I learned to not show pain.  That's what people wanted to see.  It's what took them to where they wanted to be.  So, today, I don't show pain unless it's absolutely unbearable.  People can't see my pain.  I don't want sympathy.  I don't want anyone fawning over me.  I want people to understand they don't know what's going on inside of me.  Many times I'm in physical, emotional or even spiritual pain just like so many others.  There doesn't seem to be any shortage of people or organizations judging us.  Understand that others have suffered as well.  Paul talks of his vision problem.  He asked God to take the problem away and was told that he, Paul, could take it.  His was to proclaim the Gospel and the God would take care of the rest.  He travelled with Luke who was a doctor and had a scribe for writing what he wrote.  His pain wasn't important.  His message was.
     If you or someone you know is judging your situation, health or other past related issue, they are not focused on today much less tomorrow.  The Christian church is the only army that not only abandons their wounded but also shoots them.  I don't remember who said that but it's true.  Our ability to love, accept and approve of people is impaired with our living in the past.  Seeing only what was we fail to see what is and what will be.  That's not what Jesus did or told us to do.  He said that if you die to self he will be the life within you and that "the old has passed away and the new has come."  Do you believe that?  Can you wrap your mind around that when you encounter someone, anyone, from anywhere?  I'm not going to tell you that you need to subjugate your beliefs to someone else's beliefs.  There is no compromise with the Gospel.  What there is for the Christian is the ability given by God to see the PERSON as He sees them.  We're not to put our view of someone ahead of what God sees.  It doesn't, didn't and won't ever work.  Seeing our fellow mankind from God's point of view renders us effective.  That's a good thing.
     I'm not saying we need to excuse anyone either.  Christians are to hold one another accountable and to hold up the standard set by Christ.  If we only hold up the standard of the world we are not living the Christian life.  If Christ isn't living through you, you are quite possibly not saved and definitely not preaching Christ's death, burial and resurrection.  That's what people should look for in one another.  I know that there are people in physical pain more and less than me.  I know that there are people who have emotional and spiritual pain more and less than me.  Understanding how we live for Christ in spite of our circumstances is what is important.  You and I can be effective witnesses even though there are shortages in our physical life.  Sometimes, like Paul, you and I need to see Christ in others and nothing else.  Just because we live a life that others don't like, there is no conclusion that we are wrong.  We've made a choice to look to what God wants us to see.  We are just a bunch of beggars looking for food.  Have you food to give away?  Can people see that Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to you?  It's all about our making a choice to accept people as Jesus did.  It's always your choice.

Christian New Year's resolutions.

     We have an opportunity to make the new year a great year or we can do the same old thing expecting different results.  The Christian is called to make a new day's resolution every day with our confession that we die so that Christ can live in us.  That's not what a new year's resolution should be.  We are called to be his people every day.  So, what's so important about New Year's Day and the resolutions we make?  If you, like me, have a history of making and breaking resolutions then this may help.  Don't make any resolutions that would be self centered.  They will be broken.  Anytime we focus on ourselves we are unable to focus on Jesus.  When we focus on Jesus we are rendered incapable of focusing on self.  There might be a clue there.  Do you remember the last time you resolved to lose weight, get more exercise, clean your room, and the list could go on?  So, I don't make New Year's resolutions anymore that are self centered.  God has a way of taking care of our focus when we take care of His focus.  If my eyes are stayed on Jesus, then they can't be stayed on me.  Mankind cannot have a dual focus unless their relationship with Jesus isn't.  It's that simple, don't make it complex.
     So, here is a list of suggestions from God himself.  The Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes would be a great place to start.

     1.  Love God.
     2.  Love others.
     3.  Love the lost.
   
     Now, wasn't that simple?  This morning I read Isaiah 58 and learned (again) what true fasting means.  If you haven't read this Scripture, I urge you to do so.  The "fasting" God speaks of isn't abstaining from food.  Nor is it the world's take on staying away from this or that for specified times or places.  I have read the Scripture for some 45 years.  Today was different.  I have been uncomfortable with the fasting concept for some time because we have commercialized the concept and focused on our status instead of God's status.  Putting our agenda first instead of His agenda.  How do we do the above 3 resolutions?  Isaiah 58 tells us.  We are to deny self, give to those in need, cloth the naked, feed the hungry, bring the Message of salvation to those who don't know and repeat.  Other than the homeless I don't know of anyone in my circle that couldn't give up the excess of their closets.  Other than the orphan and the widow I don't know anyone in my circle that couldn't give up food in their cupboard or room in their homes.  Other than the lost, I don't know anyone in my circle that can't give away their faith in Jesus. 
     When we love God, others, and the lost, we make a difference.  When we "play" at religion we make no difference at all.  When we make excuses we aren't serving Jesus but self.  When self is exalted God cannot be.  It's a big choice.  Most people I know have learned that resolutions are made daily.  Jesus commanded it and Paul made an example of this command with "putting on Christ" as the way of life.  This year make the decision to love God in his way as your resolution.  Reject what the worlds influence is and concentrate on the above 3.  In this way God will bless others and you overflowing.  It's always your choice.

Almost isn't close enough.

     I almost finished the job.  I almost made it to the other side.  I almost had some prayer time.  I almost shared the Gospel.  I almost made the most of my time, talents and blessings.  But, I didn't.  Almost doesn't accomplish anything.  Almost means failure.  Almost means missing the mark.  Almost doing the dishes doesn't get the done.  I almost had the house cleaned up, the truck filled with gas and the dogs walked.  But I didn't.  We are an "almost" culture where instead of being able to say "finished" we settle for "almost".  Why?  Because we don't hold up the standard for ourselves and teach our children, friends and families to do the same.  Why bother?  We might just as well put it off for another time, day, or even year.  Almost isn't good enough for you and I.  The Bible says so.  The Scripture says in Matthew, "Be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect."  What?!  Perfect?!  No one is perfect.  Precisely my point.  No one is perfect...except Jesus.  His example of perfection is something that was the work he did so that we could put on Christ in all we think, say and do.  Paul talks about putting on Christ to such a degree that all anyone can see is Jesus in him.  His witness to the world was Jesus and him crucified.  Can we say the same or do we say, "I almost put on Jesus today."
     Almost is the same as saying, "The big one got away."  "I almost hit that big buck." or  "I almost missed that important meeting."  Near misses are not direct hits.  While we live in a society where almost is good enough; that's simply not true for the Christian.  People believe that Christ gave all but refuse to do the same thing.  "I'll keep that little part of my life to myself.  After all, I am not hurting anyone."  "I'll give up everything but my sports car, sports, and smoking and drinking."  Almost..except...but...not good enough.  I grew up not being good enough for so many people.  I wasn't good enough in school, at home, in work, relationships and I certainly didn't preform good enough to make first string on the basketball team.  Sometimes those same people evoke in me that feeling.  It's then that I need to remember most that to Jesus I am perfect in his sight.  He sees me as righteous because he has washed me with his blood.  He presents me to the Father as clean, acceptable and good.  Jesus doesn't know the definition of the word "almost."  The Father and the Holy Spirit don't know the meaning of "almost."  As Christ breathed his last, he said, "It is finished."  Not temporarily or conditionally, but for all eternity.  He finished the job. 
     Because we buy the lie that we aren't good enough, we back off on the try part of life.  We make it the excuse why we don't share Jesus with others.  After all, we can't preach what we don't live.  If I lived my Christian life under the rules of my life before him, I'd be dead or in jail.  Self destruction and hate and bitterness filled my days.  This took me to the place of being convinced that I could never succeed so I might as well be the bad guy everyone wanted and needed me to be.  Under the worlds system we are condemned by our heritage, our standard of living, the color of our skin and the things we have done.  Under Christ we are seen as the saint he created us to be.  The expectations of each are very different.  Because Christ has given us his life, why don't we take his life as ours?  We're asked to die to self and be born again in Christ.  Almost isn't close enough.  Put on Christ and live in Christ every day  It's always your choice.

The day after for the Christian

     Well, the guests have come and gone, the food eaten, presents opened and the celebration of Christ's birth is over.  Not exactly, but that DAY is over.  We should be celebrating every day of the year the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus who has provided a way for us to have eternal life with Him.  Every day should be Christmas, Black Friday and Easter all day long for the Christian.  Why?  Because there is no other name by which mankind can be saved.  While a pastor I preached the death and resurrection of Jesus at Christmas.  People were appalled that I wouldn't be preaching the birth of Christ.  When the season was over people understood that the birth was only a small part of the story and certainly not the end of the story of our salvation.  Nor were any of the big three the end of the story.  However, they were THE story should be center in all of our lives every day of the year.  Jesus encouraged us to not dwell on yesterday or tomorrow because they were unimportant.  Rather he said we should set our eyes on God and make every day all about Jesus. 
     If Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and if we are to be dead to self and have Jesus living through us, it only makes sense that we too are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow in our love of God.  But are we?  Do we take Christmas, Black Friday, and Easter and make them one day events surrounded by a few weeks of consumerism?  If we do, we miss the point.  Maybe you have been missing the point.  It's not hard to do when mainstream Christian churches and their people don't take every day and make it about Jesus.  The church calendar was destroyed by Jesus with his coming, dying and resurrection so that we could all savor eternal life every day.  There is no longer Sabbath.  There is no longer the Law.  There is no longer life lived in fear if we take to many steps on a holy day.  If you don't believe me, believe the Bible where in Matthew we read the Sermon on the Mount as a guide for our daily reading and living. 
     Yesterday was Sunday, December 25th, Christmas.  Today millions of people will go back to their old lives going off to work, daycares, coffee stops and toil that consumes our days.  Today many Christians will be back to some worldly ideal of "normal" and not be found celebrating Christ.  Today the world goes on as if the event was over.  Are you one of those who fit this description?  Do you have that history repeated since childhood and practiced in your own family?  Perhaps you find yourself putting away the Christmas decorations, presents and left overs to go back to where you were.  Today you have the choice to make life shift stages.  You have the choice to step off the old stage and onto the new stage.  Leaving a lie for the truth.  What are you going to do?  Remember, it's always your choice.

Morning has broken like the first day.

     Merry Christmas!  Hope your day has dawned with the hope and love that Christ's birth has brought to so many.  May your day be filled with presence and be seen as His present to us as it was intended.  May you not be consumed with making the day what you want but rather what He wants.  He wants love, laughter and life to be celebrated just like His first day!  There is no reason for selfishness or stubbornness today.  There is no room for anger or sadness today.  This day's reason for being is made of the Love of God in the form of a baby born in a manger.  Lowly, humble and sent for one reason only.  To love you and I.  We then are to love others as he FIRST loved us by coming to us in form like us...in baby Jesus.  Go through the day as a baby who is loved.  This is my Christmas wish for you. 

In His Love,
Steve

Christmas Eve of destruction!

     What?!  Yes, we are on the eve of Christmas and the eve of destruction.  Your response is requested by the Lord of the universe and the Lord of life.  You can be active in both and cause celebration in heaven!  What on earth are you going to do that could cause such an uproar by the heavenly hosts?  Christmas Eve is all about the coming destruction wrought by God by the birth of Jesus.  After all he did say that he would destroy the temple.  He did throw the money changers from the entrance to the temple.  He did upset the Jewish world with his salvation to you and I.  How much more destruction can there be?  Lots!  Jesus fulfilled over 600 prophecies between his birth and his resurrection.  Not bad!  The biggest of which is bringing salvation to all who believe.  Here's part of the picture.  The salvation that God offers requires belief in his Son, Jesus.  By no other name may man be saved.  That's Scripture.  Listen to it.  Those who do not know the Son, the Father doesn't know.  How sure are you that you are known by the Father?  Many who profess Jesus as Lord aren't saved and will spend eternity in hell.  Why?  Because Christmas Eve was and is the eve of destruction.  What the world perceived and what the world rejected continues to today with men and women and children who are not believers.  Eternity in hell  is an eternity of destruction.
    "What a happy subject you present today!" you say.  Yes, it's happy if we are in touch with what the Bible says.  Only those who look back, look to idols, look to false gods, look to society or themselves for salvation are unhappy.  Blessed are those who hear the Word of God.  Rejected are those who reject God.  It's of their own doing.  We don't participate in the destruction if we are believers.  The unbelieving bring about this destruction all by themselves.  God has given ALL free will to be exercised in all things here on earth.  The greatest choice is to acknowledge whether Jesus or you are the God of your world.  That's what the birth of Christ marked for mankind.  The birth of Jesus marked a choice for all the world to choose destruction or eternal life.  There is no other choice.  Believing in any other way than Jesus is self deception.  Remember that in being self deceived you need only convince one person...yourself.
     Want to water down the Gospel so that you feel good?  Welcome to destruction.  Want to alter the Bible to mean what you mean instead of what God means?  Welcome to destruction.  Choose to not celebrate the life we can choose with Jesus?  Welcome to destruction.  What's worse is we are teaching others and OUR children that destruction isn't so bad.  Really?  Knowing you are sending your children, spouse, friends, and others to hell isn't so bad?  Welcome to destruction.  You and I cannot escape the fact that much of the world is going to hell.  Further, we are doing little or nothing to change that.  Why is it we alter our beliefs so that others are not uncomfortable?  It's not going to be comfortable in hell.  Choosing to believe any other gospel than the Gospel means you aren't saved.  Period!  Why be part of he destruction when you can be part of the creation by bring Jesus, the only present, to those around you whether you love them or not?  Being saved by Jesus isn't something you can trade for on Craigs List or by online.  Being saved means we use our free will to die to self and then open our lives for Christ to live there.  Totally!  It's all your choice.  It always has been and will be until he returns and revokes the choice we have.  What are you going to do on this eve of destruction? 

Christmas

Christmas

The nature of Christmas

Christmas is a hodgepodge of celebrations, personal behaviors and attitudes, rituals of worship, the selling and buying of a lot of gifts, and public and private gatherings that are brought together from ancient pagan festivals, a variety of ethnic traditions, the biblical stories of Jesus’ birth, historic religious traditions and practices and beliefs, and secular business strategies that are all focused around December 25th.
There is a lot of personal and collective controversial opinion regarding whether or not Christmas is a Christian holiday, a pagan festival that should be rejected by Christians and ignored by enlightened citizens of the modern world, a set of nice stories and traditions about love and giving that are worthy of being emphasized once a year, or just a very agressive business strategy to get millions of people to buy and give a lot of goods.

A brief history of Christmas

It was common in ancient cultures for people to gather together in festivals at the time of the Winter Solstice on December 22nd. These gatherings were associated with the worship of sun gods, as with the Stonehenge community and the Romans. In Europe the festival was associated with the slaughter of cattle that could not be fed during the winter months and the subsequent feasts and relaxing social activities. Yule logs were burned in German and Scandinavian countries, and candles were burned in many of these festivals. Fruit was tied to the branches of trees to encourage the return of the warm sun in Spring.
In regard to the influence of the biblical stories and the birth of Jesus in these celebrations, the accounts are not without pagan comparisons. “The Hindu god Krishna, Gautama Buddha and Zoraster were reputedly the product of virgin births. Alexander the Great, Constantine and Nero claimed to have virgin births....In the ancient world virgin birth was a sign of distinction.” 1
The date of December 25th for the birth of Jesus is not biblical. “December 25th was celebrated worldwide for thousands of years before Jesus was born....” 2 “This date was first officially recognized on Roman calendars about 336 A.D. having been decreed by Pope Sylvester in 320 A.D. to coincide with the sun-god feast, Saturnalia.” 3 It is generally recognized that if the visiting shepherds had been out in the fields with their flocks (as reported by Luke in the New Testament book of Luke 2:8), the birth of Jesus would not have been in December.
The biblical story of the Magi (Matthew 2:1- 12) has been interpreted and illustrated in various Christian legends, artistic drawings, songs, and children’s pageants since Medieval times. Three gifts are mentioned, but it is not certain that there were only three Magi. Other details regarding the Magi have been given unsupported interpretations, such as their races and ages.
The features of Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, and the giving of gifts also have their particular histories. Saint Nicholas became a bishop at the age of 17. At the age of 30 he served as the bishop of Myra (the city of Demre in Turkey). After being jailed by the rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire for ten years, he was released by Constantine. Later he helped him in Constantine’s conflict with Arius that produced the Nicene Creed in support of the unity of the trinity at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.
After this victory, Saint Nicholas became the subject of many legends. One of these including a poor family with three daughters who had no wedding dowries and were faced with the prospect of having to become prostitutes. He threw bags of gold through a bedroom window for two of the daughters and another bag down the chimney, which landed in a stocking that the third daughter had hung by the fireplace to get dry. He was noted for his generosity with children, and became the patron saint of Greece and Russia.
The veneration of his legends was abolished by Luther in many European countries, but not in the Netherlands. In Germany the figure of Saint Nicholas was replaced by “a tall Christ child” (Christkindl) who was known as Kris Kringle in English-speaking countries. 4 “The transformation of Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus happened largely in America -- with inspiration from the Dutch. In the early days of Dutch New York, Sinterklass became know among the English- speaking as ‘Santa Claus’ (or ‘Saint Nick’).” 5 In 1809 Washington Irving created a tale of a “chuppy, pipe-smoking little Saint Nicholas who road a magic horse through the air visiting all houses in New York. The elfish figure was small enough to climb down chimneys with gifts for the good children and switches for the bad ones.” 6 The poem “The Night Before Christmas”, reputedly by Clement Moore in 1823, “replaced the horse with a sleigh drawn by eight flying reindeer” and an “elf”who brought children only presents without any switches. 7 Thomas Nast, head cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly magazine, “depicted Santa Claus from 1863 to 1886 as an unaging, jolly, bearded fat man who lived at the North Pole....” 8 He had a red suit trimmed with white fur. “The first department store Santa Clause was at J.W. Parkinson’s store in Philadelphia in 1881.” 9

Pros and cons regarding the celebration of Christmas by Christians

The annual celebration of Jesus’ birth is not taught in the Bible. “Celebration of birthdays -- even including that of Christ -- was rejected as a pagan tradition by most Christians during the first three hundred years of Christianity....” 10 But in order to counteract the heretical Gnostic claim that Jesus had not been a mortal person, Christians began to emphasize the Nativity account of “the Incarnate God as a lovable infant born to a holy mother”. 11 But they “condemned the inclusion of Saturnalia customs such as exchanging gifts and decorating homes with evergreens” and cutting and erecting and decorating trees (which is condemned in Jeremiah 10:3–4). 12
The Protestant Reformation in 16th century Europe resulted in the rejection of many teachings and practices of the Roman Church and a return to the authority of the Bible for the practice and teaching of the Christian faith. So these Protestants did not observe the celebration of Christmas, the “mass of Christ”, which had been established by Constantine.
Presbyterians suppressed the celebration of Christmas in Scotland where it was considered a normal working day until 1958. 13 English Puritans abolished the celebration of Christmas in 1647, and they didn’t resume the tradition of caroling until the 1800s. Christmas was not widely celebrated in New England until 1852. 14 In 1836 Alabama became the first State to recognize Christmas. Some “fundamentalists still regard Christmas to be an un-Christian pagan holiday, which they do not celebrate”. 15
In the light of these different traditions, legends, pagan associations, unbiblical additions to the accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Bible, and controversial history among Christians each person has to decide whether or not to celebrate Christmas and what to do during this annual festival in their various locations. Some groups within our society want to remove all references to Jesus, the Christ, from any public statement regarding Christmas. They are satisfied if it is only celebrated as a festive holiday for merry feasting and the sharing of gifts without reference to Christ.
Parents are challenged with the difficult task of trying to explain the relationship between the historic biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus and all of these legends and traditions as their children grow older and begin to ask questions about various details. Christian ministers and priests have to decide how to balance the biblical story with the non-biblical legends and traditions in services of worship and their preaching and teaching ministries. Companies have to decide how they are going to advertise and promote the celebration of Christmas to their customers. The leaders of governments and the representatives of their citizens have to decide how they are going to legislate that all of the people of their nations behave during this world-wide festival.

The basic significance of Christmas

The basic message of Christmas is the announcement that God, the almighty creator of the universe, has come into the world in the human form of a person whose birth name is Jesus. This is the news of God’s incarnation in human flesh. The apostle John has given the appropriate meaning to this historic event in his statement that, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only (referring to Jesus Christ), who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18 ).
In his account of Jesus’ life and ministry, John does not mention the details of Jesus’ birth that are cited by the other writers Matthew and Luke, not even the name of his mother, Mary, nor the presence of any shepherds or Magi who brought him gifts. In this account (John 1:1–18), John refers to Jesus Christ as “the Word” (verses 1 and 14) This term (“Logos” in the Greek language) was understood by the Jews to refer to “an agent of creation” and by the Romans in their knowledge of Greek philosophy as “the principle of reason that governed the world”. 16
In regard to gifts, the gifts of the Magi that were given to Jesus and Mary and Joseph in their act of worship, or the gifts that are shared between family and friends in this Christmas festival, it should be recognized and emphasized in our celebrations that the primary and most important gift is God’s gift of “his one and only Son” (John 3:16) whom he sent into the world “to save the world” (John 3:17).
Without the message of God’s incarnation in human flesh and the gift of his Son, Jesus, for the salvation of the world, the celebration of Christmas by Christians or anyone else is just another secular festival among many on one’s calendar of annual holidays. There can be no “peace” on earth or real “joy” in a human’s heart apart from the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The gifts of these blessings through the birth of Jesus Christ is worth celebrating and the sharing of God’s love to the world is worth repeating over and over again in gifts and contributions, but we Christians need to make sure that our Christmas celebrations are for the glory of God and nothing else; certainly not for the worship of any sun god, saint, or material gift.

Coffee is a comfort food!

     I've just finished my first cup of the day.  It was just like I like it.  Hot, strong, black and in my 1 1/2 cup.  I brewed the fresh ground beans and put them through my machine.  The odor always gets my senses going.  When it was done brewing I transported it to my recliner where I read my devotions (another comfort item) and did my daily journaling (another comfort item) while I sipped and enjoyed my first cup of the day.  Comfort comes in many ways.  I joked last night that I should open a cooking school for Midwest cooking in my home.  Meat and potatoes with butter.  Does it get any better than that?  Maybe if the meat is bacon!  Comfort comes in all manner to each of us.  Some like to comfort shop, comfort read, comfort paint or build.  It all depends on how we start our day.  Sure the coffee is good.  Caffeine doesn't wake me up.   It doesn't make me go to sleep either so I can enjoy my comfort all day long if I wish.  Reading the Bible is always a comfort.  Whether it's disturbing or promising, the Bible is always comforting for those who know the Lord.  Maybe we know what the ending is going to be.  Kind of like when I brew coffee and know what the first taste is going to be when the coffee his my mouth.  Maybe the Bible isn't comforting for those who are perishing.  It leaves a bad taste in their mouths.
     Meat and potatoes!  Life's staple food especially when you add butter!  What would we do if we didn't have the basics?  With a plethora of spices and cooking techniques available we can just about create any special cuisine.  The trouble is we forget what meat and potatoes taste like.  We do the same with our relationship with God.  We add this and take away that to make the Word more palatable and lose the taste of what is real.  When we taste the Bible for the first time we taste the meat and potatoes of the Gospel.  Time, church messages and complacency take away the real message of the Bible.  If that didn't occur we wouldn't be so lazy as Christians and would do what we know we should be doing.  I'm not saying we shouldn't spice up our meat and potatoes anymore than we shouldn't spice up our spiritual lives.  Quite the contrary, Paul urged us to become Jesus to the world.  Taken at full strength that would be a comfort meal for anyone who is searching to live the Christian life. 
     The people around us either are for us or they are against us.  We listen to those around us in wise and foolish manner.  Their message is either something that builds us up and draws us closer to Jesus or pulls us into the world's view and their comfort.  Some people feel guilty of their false comfort and take an active role in drawing others into their area of comfort even when it's clearly not what Jesus would like us to do.  When people do this it helps them feel better because those around them tend to be a bit worse off then they.  The false comfort of the world is a constant draw.  It has it's season for all of us but shouldn't.  There should be no comfort from any spiritual world except Jesus.  None.  It's like drinking barley coffee. Yes, there is such a thing and it's awful.  Tofu can be comfort for some but it's not the same as a good steak or roasted chicken.  We tend to fill our lives with little false comforts and then think we are disqualified to spread Jesus to our world.  That's not what Jesus wants, died for, and rose from the dead.  If you are a Christian he has risen you up to be the comfort to the world in spirit and truth.  It's always your choice.

Just what is it that we are waiting for?

    What is it that we are waiting for?  What is it that consumes our daily hours and months?  Why the preoccupation with the past and future that consume our today?  All of these questions bombard us with the need to self analyze our thoughts, actions and words in light of God's word.  Yet, we don't act.  Why?  James 4:17 "If we know what is right to do and don't do it, we sin."  Pretty simple and yet, we don't act.  The time is drawing nearer and nearer when it will be to late to do what we were supposed to do today, to and for others, in obedience to the Lord.  Just what is it that we are waiting for?  Feed the hungry, care for the orphan and the widow, be kind to those less fortunate, and many other commands of Jesus confront us daily.  We are besieged with the need to act out of faith with what we have for the pleasure of God.  "It's just to overwhelming!  I will watch TV instead." "I have plenty of other stuff to be doing for my own comfort and pleasure."  "I'll do it tomorrow when I have more time, after I've been paid, after I take care of all my wants."  Any of these could be your excuse to disobey God.  That's sin.
     As I sit here writing this blog I am aware there is much to be do and no excuse for an idle Christian.  Today my life may be desired of me.  I may be taken home to be with Jesus at any moment.  Today I have time, resources, and ability to bring the blessing of God to others.  So do you.  What are we going to do?  Maybe we need a committee to put an agenda together for discussion.  Perhaps we should consult our calendars and appoint a coordinator to sync the agenda so that Christians know what they should schedule to do for God today.  It might help if we include time so that we can properly prepare and do the job the way we think it ought to be done.  We should pay attention to political correctness and not offend anyone with the saving grace of Jesus.  Just who is running this show?  All of the steps to doing what God wants done that I've just listed are sin.  Why?  Because we already know what we are to do.  What we need to do is get off our lazy butts, stop making excuses and jus do what God wants under His terms with whom He wants blessed.  Is that so hard?  Just what is it that we are waiting for?
     Faith is the evidence of what is unseen.  Do you believe that?  If you do, you don't worry about having anything put in place by man's hand before doing what God wants.  He will provide.  He always has and always will.  To do nothing is to disobey God and not love those whom he loves.  People think there are no repercussions for doing nothing.  Wrong!  Jesus said, "When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me."   He goes on to say that if we deny him before man (lack of action), that he will deny us before the Father.  How are you and I going to feel when we die and are before God's throne?  We will be asked what we have and have not done.  We will be reminded of missed opportunities and the lack of witness that could have brought yet one soul to Jesus.  We will review our selfish lives wasted upon our lives and not spent for Jesus.  Remember that this is all about choice.  It's always your choice.

Why Do We Put Up Christmas Trees?

How Evergreen Christmas Trees Came to Honor Eternal Life in Christ

 

y Mary Fairchild

Updated December 07, 2016.

Today, Christmas trees are treated as a secular element of the holiday, but they actually started with pagan ceremonies that were were changed by Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Because the evergreen flourishes all year around, it came to symbolize eternal life through Christ's birth, death, and resurrection. However, the custom of bringing tree branches indoors in the winter began with the ancient Romans, who decorated with greenery in the winter or put up laurel branches to honor the emperor.
The changeover came with Christian missionaries who were ministering to Germanic tribes about 700 A.D. Legend holds that Boniface, a Roman Catholic missionary, cut down a massive oak tree at Geismar in ancient Germany that had been dedicated to the Norse thunder-god, Thor, then built a chapel out of the wood. Boniface supposedly pointed to an evergreen as an example of Christ's eternal life.

'Paradise Trees' Featured Fruit

In the Middle Ages, open-air plays about Bible stories were popular, and one celebrated the feast day

To advertise the play to illiterate townspeople, participants paraded through the village carrying a small tree, which symbolized the Garden of Eden.

These trees eventually became "Paradise trees" in people's homes and were decorated with fruit and cookies.
By the 1500s, Christmas trees were common in Latvia and Strasbourg. Another legend credits German reformer Martin Luther with putting candles on an evergreen to imitate the stars shining at Christ's birth.  Over the years, German glassmakers began producing ornaments, and families constructed homemade stars and hung sweets on their trees.
Not all clergy liked the idea. Some still associated it with pagan ceremonies and said it detracted from the true meaning of Christmas. Even so, churches began putting Christmas trees in their sanctuaries, accompanied by pyramids of wooden blocks with candles on them.

Christians Adopt Presents Too

Just as trees started with the ancient Romans, so did exchanging gifts. The practice was popular around the winter solstice. After Christianity was declared the Roman empire's official religion by emperor Constantine I (272 - 337 A.D.), gift-giving took place around Epiphany and Christmas.
That tradition faded out, to be revived again to celebrate the feasts of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra (December 6), who gave gifts to poor children, and tenth-century Duke Wenceslas of Bohemia, who inspired the 1853 carol "Good King Wenceslas."
As Lutheranism spread throughout Germany and Scandinavia, the custom of giving Christmas gifts to family and friends went along with it. German immigrants to Canada and America brought their traditions of Christmas trees and gifts with them in the early 1800s.
The biggest boost to Christmas trees came from the immensely popular British Queen Victoria and her husband Albert of Saxony, a German prince. In 1841 they set up an elaborate Christmas tree for their children at Windsor Castle. A drawing of the event in the Illustrated London News circulated in the United States, where people enthusiastically imitated all things Victorian.

Christmas Tree Lights and the Light of the World

The popularity of Christmas trees took another leap forward after U.S. President Grover Cleveland set up a wired Christmas tree in the White House in 1895. In 1903, the American Eveready Company produced the first screw-in Christmas tree lights that could run from a wall socket.
Fifteen year-old Albert Sadacca convinced his parents to start manufacturing Christmas lights in 1918, using bulbs from their business, which sold lighted wicker bird cages with artificial birds in them. When Sadacca painted the bulbs red and green the next year, business really took off, leading to the founding of the multi-million dollar NOMA Electric Company.
With the introduction of plastic after World War II, artificial Christmas trees came into fashion, effectively replacing real trees. Although the trees are seen everywhere today, from stores to schools to government buildings, their religious significance has largely been lost.
Some Christians still firmly oppose the practice of putting up Christmas trees, basing their belief on Jeremiah 10:1-16 and Isaiah 44:14-17, which warn believers not to make idols out of wood and bow down to them. However, these passages are misapplied in this case. Evangelist and author John MacArthur sets the record straight:
"There is no connection between the worship of idols and the use of Christmas trees. We should not be anxious about baseless arguments against Christmas decorations. Rather, we should be focused on the Christ of Christmas and giving all diligence to remembering the real reason for the season."

Syncretism Definition to the Christian

Sébastien Désarmaux / Getty Images

By Jack Zavada

Updated October 18, 2016.

Syncretism Definition

Syncretism is the mixing together of two or more unrelated religions. It has entered the news recently as people increasingly seek to reconcile the beliefs of Islam and Christianity. However, syncretism has a long history, dating back to the Jews' exodus from Egypt into the Promised Land.

History of Syncretism in Judaism

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, Aaron and the people had made a golden calf, mixing worship of Yahweh with the idolatry of Egypt. This was a direct violation of the First Commandment: "I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me."
God the Father knew pagan gods would be a temptation to the Jews when they entered Canaan. That was why he ordered Joshua to wipe out the Canaanite people and their false religions.
Syncretism continued through the period of the Judges. Even though Judaism was the lawful religion in Israel, many Jews, like Gideon's father, also worshiped pagan deities, such as Baal.

 

After Solomon became king, this forbidden mixing of beliefs continued. His many foreign wives introduced Solomon to their gods and he made sacrifices to them, although he knew better.

The kings following Solomon wavered between sole worship of Yahweh and an unholy syncretism allowing devotion to the false gods popular in the region. One of the most notorious offenders was King Ahab, who together with his wife Jezebel, put many of the prophets of Yahweh to the sword. The prophet Elijah rose up to oppose them and triumphed with a colossal display of God's power at Mount Carmel.

Syncretism in Christianity

In New Testament times, syncretism remained a problem, as converts and false teachers tried to introduce untrue beliefs into Christianity. In 1 Corinthians 10:18-22, the apostle Paul warned Christians not to fall prey to idolatry, saying the sacrifices of pagans are made to demons. He told them to avoid the syncretism of combining Greek philosophy with Christianity, in Colossians 2:8:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (NIV)

Many centuries later, theologians such as Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) also tried to combine classical philosophy with Christianity. During the Reformation, the Lutheran theologian George Calixtus (1586-1656) proposed reconciling the differences among the Lutheran Church, Reformed Church, and Roman Catholic Church, so everyone could be baptized and take communion at any church.
Syncretism has long been a problem in missionary efforts, where indigenous converts try to hold onto their previous pagan beliefs and mix them in with their newly acquired Christianity. It also plays a part in the popular Prosperity Gospel, which blends Christianity with positive thinking, visualization, and materialism.      
A prime example of syncretism is New Age, which combines various aspects of Christianity, Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, along with Wicca and Native American beliefs, throwing in astrology, spiritualism, and positive thinking.
Despite efforts to prove the similarities between Christianity and other faiths, Christianity cannot be blended with any other religion because it is unique. Only Christianity has grace, God's unmerited favor freely bestowed on followers. Instead of requiring members to do something to earn their way to salvation, Christianity calls people to receive forgiveness and heaven solely through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Only Christianity teaches that righteousness cannot be attained through personal striving:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18a, NIV)

Bible References to Syncretism 

Deuteronomy 5:7; Joshua 23:16; 1 Samuel 7:3; 2 Chronicles 33:1-7; Isaiah 44:6; Hebrews 13:9.

 

Something borrowed...hope you like it!

Entering a large grocery store a couple of months ago, I was startled by several large displays near the checkouts and exits.
There, nestled in between the bins of fresh Halloween treats, were stacks of boxed Christmas chocolates and stocking stuffers.
The Christmas season had begun and it wasn’t even October.
Sometimes it seems that the gap between Christmas and the rest of the year is getting shorter. This eagerness to get a jump on holiday cheer is purely practical from a retailer’s point of view: Stores typically make more than half of their yearly sales during these few short weeks. Shopping has become a pretty substantial part of the North American Christmas tradition.
Yet Christmas is and should be so much more than what we buy. Gifts are fun, both to give and receive, but they are only symbolic of a much greater gift:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The love of God came down to earth - now that is something to celebrate!
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the busyness of Christmas. That doesn’t mean we have to lose track of the significance of this time of year, or miss out on the opportunities it can present.
Here are some simple ways that you can incorporate the real meaning of Christmas into your family’s holiday:

A Savior Has Been Born to YouThrow a birthday party for Jesus, complete with birthday cake. This can be particularly meaningful for younger children, as it puts Christ’s birth in a context they can relate to.
No Room in the InnA favorite Christmas tradition in my family (and in many other families, I have discovered) is a re-enactment of the Christmas story. Several years ago I wrote a formal nativity script for our family. Everyone was assigned a part, from Grandma and Grandpa right down to the newest, three-month-old grandchild. It was wonderful to watch each person - particularly the little ones - begin to explore what the character they were playing might have been like, or how they felt about the arrival of the baby Jesus. Our family has refined our dramatic tradition to include a creative element: Fifteen minutes to make your own costume from anything you can find in the house (or attic/basement).
Glory to God in the HighestI come from a musical family, so music has always been a big part of our Christmas celebrations. But you don’t have to be a musician to celebrate the birth of the Savior through Christmas carols, or to share with others the good news of His redeeming love. Gather friends and family and go caroling in a wing at your local hospital or seniors’ residence. Check with your church or other local churches to see if there are any folks who can’t get out of their homes during the holidays and take your caroling to them. Music is a great way to open a door for talking with people about the spiritual context of the holiday season.
Good Will Toward MenGift giving is a wonderful way to reflect to each other, God’s love for us. This seems particularly true when we are giving of our time and gifts to those in need. Here are just a few examples:

• Volunteer together (include the grandkids!) – to pack toys and food into hampers that will be delivered to needy families before Christmas or to serve Christmas dinner to the homeless at a downtown mission
• Forgo traditional Christmas gifts – make a donation in someone’s name rather than giving that person a gift; take a child out to eat at their favorite restaurant and then take them to the toy store where they can choose a gift...for a less fortunate child; band together with friends you might normally buy gifts for and pool your resources instead to help a family in need or support a favorite cause.

Good News of Great Joy...
...for all people – Christmas is a time of unusual openness to spiritual things. Jesus is on everyone’s lips, whether they know Him or not. There is no greater gift you can give those who have not yet met the Lord than to share with them the good news of the real Christmas. Here are some ideas:

• Invite your loved ones to church - many churches go to great lengths when they plan Christmas services, to reach those who do not yet know Christ. Perhaps there is a musical or play that dramatizes Christ’s birth and the meaning of His coming, or a special Christmas carol service. These are not only a great way to spend time celebrating God’s grace with the people you care about during the holidays, but a wonderful beginning for a conversation about their spiritual beliefs.
• Invest in some literature (booklets, pamphlets or tracts that convey Christmas greetings in addition to the message of the gospel) – these are a wonderful way to share Christ with someone, particularly if you fear that you “won’t know what to say.” Hand these out to your neighbors with holiday baking or chocolates, pass them on to guests you have invited to your church Christmas play, or share them with carolers when you invite them in for hot chocolate.

Enjoy all the good things Christmas has to offer this year as you celebrate the reason for the season:

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

If you don't know Jesus as your King and Savior, you can start a relationship with him today by simply surrendering your heart to him. Here is a sample prayer.

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I surrender my soul and open the door of my life to You and ask You to come in as my Saviour and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Bring peace to my world this Christmas. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.

It just isn't enough!

    It's 20 degrees this morning.  I'm in my warm house with food, clothing and heat.  That isn't the case for everyone.  From war torn cities and villages to the homeless on our streets there are so many without heat, food, clothing and shelter.  Though there are many Christians who try to make a difference in these folks lives, there are many more Christians who do nothing.  Turning a blind eye to focus on their needs and wants over their fellow man.  Christmas is supposed to be a time of giving testimony of the greatest gift of all; Jesus coming to man.  God with us.  What do you think the less fortunate think when God's people don't care about them?  None of us can do everything.  All of us can do something.  When we are not wanting to help there is a failure of our own doing.  Yet, there are many who can see that don't see.  There are many who hear but don't hear.  There are many who can help but don't help.  Have you ever thought what you would do if the roles were reversed?  I have.  While living in Chicago quite a number of years back I had my wake up call.  I volunteered at a homeless shelter.  The city of Chicago refused to allow the shelters to open until it was 15 degrees or colder.  That meant these men, women and yes, children were all out on the streets in the very cold weather. 
     Remember that Jesus' earthly parents had travelled from Egypt to Bethlehem around this time of year.  It was winter there as well.  Maybe it was cold and maybe it wasn't.  The results were the same.  When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem they were faced with being a pregnant homeless couple with only what they carried on the donkey and on their bodies.  There was no place to stay because the limited  beds were occupied.  They ended up in the stable with the livestock.  Smelly, maybe cold and definitely without food.  Jesus knows what the homeless feel like.  He knows what it means to have others not attend to the needs of a pregnant mom on a donkey looking for a place to lay down for the night.  Yet, they did exactly what so many Christians do today.  Nothing.  I agree that some make homelessness their choice.  That doesn't mean you and I can't offer to help.  I agree that some are trapped in the prison of mental health or drug addiction.  That doesn't mean you and I can't offer to help.  I agree that many will refuse our offer to help.  That doesn't mean you and I can't offer to help.  You and I can do something.
     I find it amazing that Christians are concerned about the souls of others but do nothing to bring the help to them.  I find it amazing that so much food is thrown away in private homes and restaurants instead of using it to feel the hungry.  I am very amazed that we have full and overflowing closets of clothing and shoes when they could be best used when given away.  Are you amazed as well?  Do your heart strings get pulled at the plight of the lost and needy or are you so self focused that you don't even see them?  It's not someone else's job.  It's your job.  When we think that someone else is doing what needs to be done we ignore the work that God has fitted us to do.  What special training is needed to had a person in need a warm jacket, gloves and a sandwich?  None.  Does it really take a group or committee to organize and bring about (after several meetings) the good that you and I can do by bring to others what God has brought to us?  It's all about choice and of course it's always your choice.

Here we go again!

     Another Friday and 24 degrees this morning.  Clear sky and frost on everything.  It's the kind of morning when you want to roll over and go back to sleep.  Sometimes I do.  Other times I get up and my first move is to get a cup of nice hot coffee, sit back in my recliner and look out my back patio door at the marvels of creation all around me.  It gets better with the second cup!  Sometimes I get a quilt to cover myself.  My Boston Terrier climbs under the cover and goes to sleep.  My Blue Heeler climbs into his bed by the recliner and does the same.  We like the early morning solitude when all the conditions are right.  I would imagine that you would as well.  It's nice to be able to have a morning set aside for nothing!  Of course sooner or later I need to leave my cave and meet the world.  It's something I don't particularly like to do.  It's not that I don't like people as I do like people.  It's when I compare the place I just described to being out among people that it seems like I don't like people.  Sometimes it's the commuters and sometimes it's the store personnel.  Perhaps you experience the same with those you work for and with.  Comparisons aren't particularly fair. 
     There are a lot of things I could be doing this morning but none of them trump the time set aside to do nothing.  Christians, I believe, need to do this from time to time.  Take a mental health day or just call in and explain that you just can't get out of bed this morning.  Of course they would understand!  Not!  Taking time apart is essential for each of us.  That means being apart from anything that separates us from communing with God.  You may feel guilty at first taking this time for your relationship with God.  Get over it.  He's more important than anyone or anything in the world.  Who knows, maybe he has something planned to share with you.  He knows you and I and knows we listen best when we don't have distractions to engage with.  We, Christians, have been trained by the world to continually be distracted from time alone with God.  We have our radios in our cars, cell phones that can do anything but burp, and television programming that anyone can find something to watch.  It's called relaxation time but it's not quiet time.  We would like to think so but it's not somewhere that we can be still before God. 
     So, here we go again, trying to rationalize and justify our choices and exclude God from the equation we call our life.  If you and I are Christians we don't have "our life" as we have given it to Him.  I went to a church once where there was going to be a week of fasting.  People were told that fasting could take the form of anything they wanted to give up for a week.  Whether that meant time on the computer, watching television, or anything else you could find.  However, that deprivation doesn't turn into a craving for God.   At least not like not eating and spending time in prayer and meditation.  I once fasted for 40 days and besides the weight loss enjoyed not having the distraction of anything but my bottle of water.  Okay, some of the water was in the form of coffee!  After 3-4 days the cravings went away and I settled into a time much like I described in the opening of this blog only it was every day all day.  I still went to work, commuted, sat with my family, watched television, and did ordinary things.  The difference?  No one but God and my family knew what I was doing.  The Scripture tells us to keep such things in private. 
     I'll get up in a moment and I think I'll bake some cookies and clean the stove.  Then maybe I'll go outside and take care of the chickens.  Who knows, maybe I will work on a project.  Perhaps I'll ponder the greatness of God as I do all of them.  All I know is I will move through my day with all kinds of choices.  It's always your choice.

Christian hope

Definition of Hope

     Hope is a positive attitude of expectation and anticipation regarding one’s future. Although your next moment and all of its subsequent moments into the distance cannot be clearly seen, you still expect the circumstances of your life in the future to be positive and to be beneficial to your well-being. You hope to be relatively comfortable, safe, and happy.

Sources of hope

     If everything is great in your current circumstances, you probable expect them to continue in that positive way. After all, you’re not going to do anything to ruin the picture; right? You may even hope that the future will get better because you’re going to work to make it so.
     If your circumstances aren’t so good right now, you may hope that they will get better in the future, because they can’t get much worse; right? Your going to do what you can to make some changes that you believe will make some positive changes in your circumstances.
     That is a worthy goal, but the fact is that there is a lot in your circumstances that are beyond your control. You can’t control the stock market or even those closest to you in your family. You can’t control the politicians in the nations of the world or even your neighbors next door. You can’t control your boss or even your co-workers, and if you are the boss, you can’t control your competition around the corner or across the world.
     There are some aspects of your life over which you have some control, and you may be able to make some changes in respect to some of them that might have some positive benefits in your circumstances. But you are going to get older and you can’t stop the passing of time or control some of the basic effects that this process has on your body and the physical circumstances of your life. This life and its circumstances are terminal for everyone!
The source of your hope for positive circumstances in your future is basically outside of your control. The positive benefits that you hope to receive in the future will come to you generally through your relationships with others! They will provide that future for you. You won’t be able to provide it by yourself. And it is the qualities of the persons in those relationships that will have the most influence on your hope for your future well-being.
      The process is much like that of getting good water that is pure, clear of any foreign bodies or pollution. Maybe you regularly buy bottled water just to make sure that it is as pure and as clean as possible. You know that you can’t get good water from a polluted well, and thousands of children and adults in many underdeveloped countries of the world get sick and die every year from drinking polluted water from the streams that run through their villages.
       You shouldn’t hope or expect to get positive benefits from sources or relationships that are polluted by the evil of this world or full of selfish sins. They are in no condition to provide you with any lasting positive benefits now or in the future. The stock market responds to the greedy, profit-seeking efforts of those engaged in the businesses and investments of the world. Most of the politicians of the world continue to try to maintain their positions and influence for their self-serving aims of fame and fortune without much regard for the common good of others, even the citizens of their own countries. A lifetime of savings can be wiped out in a moment from a major natural disaster or the fraud of a trusted company executive.
     We each live on a battlefield where there are few guarantees for anything positive happening in the future. There is little job security, even in careers that have traditionally been very secure. Maintaining one’s health is a constant struggle, particularly as we get older, and there are new or persistent dangers revealed in our diets and environments and circumstances every day. Change is the only constant factor that we observe around us, and the world doesn’t seem to be becoming a better place in which to live.

Your best source of hope is from God

      Your best source of hope for having a positive, safe, and comfortable future will come from God. God is love! He doesn’t change everyday or even every century in accord with market cycles or political polls. He is pure holiness, pure GOODness, unpolluted honesty and truth. He is absolutely in charge of the future. He is almighty, the sovereign creator/owner or all that there is. There is nothing that you can acquire for your future comforts and safety that is not already his! Apart from what God can give you, you have no hope for a positive future.

Only Jesus can provide you with any hope for your future

     One day you are going to die or be brought to stand before Jesus, whom God sent into this world and whom he made judge over it, and all of the benefits and resources that you have acquired from this world for your future will be gone. All that you will have for your future of eternity will be what Jesus has prepared for you through your personal relationship with him.
     Before Jesus was crucified, arose from his tomb, and returned to God, his Father, in heaven, he told his disciples not to be “troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1–3 in the Bible).
As you and I trust, which is a synonym for faith, in God and in Jesus, Jesus’ promise to prepare a home for us in heaven and to return and to take us there to be with him and his Father for eternity provides us with hope. It is this promise of Jesus that secures any hope for you and me!
Being raised by parents who live in a personal relationship with Jesus may enable you to get to know him. Participating in the services and classes in a church where Jesus is honored and glorified may enable you to grow in your relationship with him. But apart from a personal relationship with Jesus, which you must accept yourself, your future, especially your eternal future, is grim. You are without hope of having a GOOD future. 

Pros and cons regarding the celebration of Christmas by Christians

Pros and cons regarding the celebration of Christmas by Christians

     The annual celebration of Jesus’ birth is not taught in the Bible. “Celebration of birthdays -- even including that of Christ -- was rejected as a pagan tradition by most Christians during the first three hundred years of Christianity....” 10 But in order to counteract the heretical Gnostic claim that Jesus had not been a mortal person, Christians began to emphasize the Nativity account of “the Incarnate God as a lovable infant born to a holy mother”. 11 But they “condemned the inclusion of Saturnalia customs such as exchanging gifts and decorating homes with evergreens” and cutting and erecting and decorating trees (which is condemned in Jeremiah 10:3–4). 12
The Protestant Reformation in 16th century Europe resulted in the rejection of many teachings and practices of the Roman Church and a return to the authority of the Bible for the practice and teaching of the Christian faith. So these Protestants did not observe the celebration of Christmas, the “mass of Christ”, which had been established by Constantine.
     Presbyterians suppressed the celebration of Christmas in Scotland where it was considered a normal working day until 1958. 13 English Puritans abolished the celebration of Christmas in 1647, and they didn’t resume the tradition of caroling until the 1800s. Christmas was not widely celebrated in New England until 1852. 14 In 1836 Alabama became the first State to recognize Christmas. Some “fundamentalists still regard Christmas to be an un-Christian pagan holiday, which they do not celebrate”. 15
     In the light of these different traditions, legends, pagan associations, unbiblical additions to the accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Bible, and controversial history among Christians each person has to decide whether or not to celebrate Christmas and what to do during this annual festival in their various locations. Some groups within our society want to remove all references to Jesus, the Christ, from any public statement regarding Christmas. They are satisfied if it is only celebrated as a festive holiday for merry feasting and the sharing of gifts without reference to Christ.
Parents are challenged with the difficult task of trying to explain the relationship between the historic biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus and all of these legends and traditions as their children grow older and begin to ask questions about various details. Christian ministers and priests have to decide how to balance the biblical story with the non-biblical legends and traditions in services of worship and their preaching and teaching ministries. Companies have to decide how they are going to advertise and promote the celebration of Christmas to their customers. The leaders of governments and the representatives of their citizens have to decide how they are going to legislate that all of the people of their nations behave during this world-wide festival.

The basic significance of Christmas

     The basic message of Christmas is the announcement that God, the almighty creator of the universe, has come into the world in the human form of a person whose birth name is Jesus. This is the news of God’s incarnation in human flesh. The apostle John has given the appropriate meaning to this historic event in his statement that, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only (referring to Jesus Christ), who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18 ).
In his account of Jesus’ life and ministry, John does not mention the details of Jesus’ birth that are cited by the other writers Matthew and Luke, not even the name of his mother, Mary, nor the presence of any shepherds or Magi who brought him gifts. In this account (John 1:1–18), John refers to Jesus Christ as “the Word” (verses 1 and 14) This term (“Logos” in the Greek language) was understood by the Jews to refer to “an agent of creation” and by the Romans in their knowledge of Greek philosophy as “the principle of reason that governed the world”. 16
     In regard to gifts, the gifts of the Magi that were given to Jesus and Mary and Joseph in their act of worship, or the gifts that are shared between family and friends in this Christmas festival, it should be recognized and emphasized in our celebrations that the primary and most important gift is God’s gift of “his one and only Son” (John 3:16) whom he sent into the world “to save the world” (John 3:17).
Without the message of God’s incarnation in human flesh and the gift of his Son, Jesus, for the salvation of the world, the celebration of Christmas by Christians or anyone else is just another secular festival among many on one’s calendar of annual holidays. There can be no “peace” on earth or real “joy” in a human’s heart apart from the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The gifts of these blessings through the birth of Jesus Christ is worth celebrating and the sharing of God’s love to the world is worth repeating over and over again in gifts and contributions, but we Christians need to make sure that our Christmas celebrations are for the glory of God and nothing else; certainly not for the worship of any sun god, saint, or material gift.