Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays? Are we missing the point?

Over the last 3 days I have received a minimum of ten emails (not including Facebook notifications) with a popular Youtube attached. The three minute clip portrays the frustrations of a few passionate Christians declaring their determination to keep Christ in Christmas.

I have circled this issue once or twice myself. How ‘bout you? Do you find yourself in a similar way - walking away from a service counter shaking your head because they wished you happy holidays, rather than merry Christmas? Do you reach your boiling point because Government buildings are no longer willing to put up Christmas trees, because of their symbolic connection to the “reason for the season.” As a way of speaking your piece, maybe you now sport the bumper sticker demanding “they” put Christ back in Christmas. I’ve been there, and have felt your angst.

Here is the question I keep coming back to;

Happy holiday or merry Christmas, if that is where our focus is, are we the ones missing the point? Sure we can cling to our right to keep Christmas “Christmas” and not just a holiday. My concern is, if we scowl and huff away, muttering a big bah-humbug beneath our breath, what is our Christmas message? If we don’t bother to take the time to look our service provider in the eye, and share a smile, if we are just another grumpy “holiday” shopper, what do we even have that they want? If we honk our horn and make hand gestures at the man who took our spot in the mall parking lot, or madly rush about purchasing our coveted gifts, then push our way through to secure our place in line so no one gets in front of us - what is the reason for the season?

Most of the sales clerks are only following the orders of the share holders that run the company they work for. Whether they believe in Jesus or not, the staff that serve us, don’t have a choice if they want to keep their jobs. I can’t help wondering if we are not just like the Pharisee’s Jesus was speaking to, in the Sermon on the Mount. I don’t think Jesus would have cared nearly as much about the title of our celebration as much as the condition of our hearts and the message we are sharing about His Kingdom.

Earlier this year, while Kim and I did a bit of research on holidays while preparing to lead at a women’s event. Here is what we learned about Christmas. For many centuries, Christians understood December 25 to be the birthdate of Jesus. Conflicting information contained in the Bible (seasonal information suggesting the time of the year) gives pretty good evidence that a December birthdate for Jesus, was not possible. The bible does not give an exact date for Jesus birthdate, nor does God ever command us to give annual observance to the day Jesus was born. I have to wonder, if God wanted us to acknowledge the specific birthdate of Jesus, wouldn’t He have told us the date?

Further research indicated that, what we have adopted as, and claimed as our right to celebrate “The Christmas Season,” was in it’s original intent nothing more than a Pagan holiday. Saturnalia was a Roman festival. During the week of December 17 until December 23 the Romans celebrated the dedication of the temple of the god of Saturn. The traditions of gift giving and merry making were also instituted by the Romans during this festival along with some other distasteful acts. The Christmas tree has it’s own ungodly history not worth getting into at this time.

Some Christians in the fourth century assigned December 25 (the Winter Solstice on the Julian Calendar as Christ’s birthday (and thus Christmas) because pagans already observed this day as a holiday. Kudo’s to these Christians for stepping out in an attempt to bring some redemptive qualities to the increasingly evil celebration.

Taking all that into account, can “they” take Jesus out of something He was never “in” to begin with?

Then again, “in the beginning everything was created by God through Christ,” including the people who wish us “Happy Holidays,” and our coveted “Christmas” Day.

God had several occasions that He did instruct us to observe, yet we would be hard pressed to find even a few Christ followers who recognize one of those occasions. For instance, God commanded we observe the Sabbath and gave us guidelines on how to do so.

To those who have set their hearts to follow Jesus, He left us something much bigger to focus on " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Perhaps our goal this Christmas might be to see how we can glorify our Heavenly Father, by loving those He puts on the front lines to serve us.

Carolyn Arends has a beautiful song that I think we could adopt as our theme for the Christmas season, it is titled, They will know we are Christians by our love. In the end, love will be the last thing standing, so my challenge to you is this; Will you choose the gift of love, over Christmas this year?

Oh, and by the way, here is one more interesting piece of trivia to make you smile; The biblical word for holiday comes from the Hebrew word hanachah (a holy day) meaning, “to rest, settle down and remain, to cause to rest, give rest to, make quiet.” Noah Webster’s Dictionary defines it this way; “A consecrated day; religious anniversary; a day set apart in honor of some person, or in commemoration of some event.” Christmas, or Holidays it all = Holy!

~ Peace on Earth and Good will toward men ~

Donna

Live Passionately - Follow Paul

I can’t help but remember all those have fought for justice and liberty so that we who call Canada home, could live in such incredible freedom. It is November 11, a day of remembering the official end World War 1. Many have given their lives so that you and I would not live under an oppressive government.

God continues to impress upon my heart the freedom I have to worship Him. Yet it doesn’t escape my knowledge that around our world many people continue to be persecuted for their faith in Jesus. We should pray continually that God might use us to encourage the hearts of any who do not experience the freedom to open a bible and study God’s word.

Many continue to put their lives at risk to bring freedom to those who are oppressed. God meant it to be so. Just as He gave His life for us, we are meant to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Do you ever wonder what drives a person to continue on in the face of danger?

We could call it - passion.

Passion is a barely controllable emotion often experienced with great energy. A desire or enthusiasm that sends us in hot pursuit of something. Often, when we are in pursuit of such things we are trying to fill a void within us.

Did you ever have something you were passionate about? Your experience may have begun with an excitement, even to the point of feeling that this might be the reason you even exist.

My oldest son Brandon exhibits passion in almost everything he does. He is an “all or nothing” kind of guy. If he isn’t going to give it his all, he doesn’t bother doing it at all.

From a very young age, he was pumped about the game of hockey. As hard as it was to get him out of bed on a regular morning - on a hockey morning he would be up and dressed and sitting in the car by 4:00 am, without even so much as an alarm clock.

Brandon studied the game, learned the strategies, spent hours on the ice and when he wasn’t playing, he watched every NHL game he could on TV. At times he even adopted the names of his favorite players, wore the team jersey; even slept in the darn things.

It’s often that way at beginning with our faith in Jesus. We show our enthusiasm; reading our bibles, joining bible studies, listening to nothing but praise and worship music, even raising our hands to him. We adopt the name “Christian,” (though maybe not out loud in our secular circles). Often we even wear a cross around our neck, maybe not taking it off for an indefinite amount of time.

Brandon had aspirations of becoming one of the great ones. As he approached young adulthood however, his dreams of the NHL faded and along with it, his fervor. He has since moved on to other things and I wonder - have you?

Did following Jesus get a little mundane for you? Or worse, have you felt like it is just too hard? Sometimes would you agree, that life was easier before before you decided to follow Jesus? If that sounds like you - you are not alone!

We all have desires for many kinds of things.

Passion has often been linked to our sexual desires, the pursuit of people, work, health, entertainment, money, food and even ministry. There is nothing wrong with enjoying any of these things. However, when they become our obsession, when we can’t get enough of them, when our pursuit for self gratification becomes our only pursuit, we do not bear the image of our family ties. I hope you have not given up your ferver for Jesus, because Jesus wants your all or nothing.

The Bible talks passion. God does not define passion as a self-centered motivation for action. God suggests our passion is what propels us on to seek His higher calling for our lives.

Take a look with me at the life of a passionate man from the Bible.

Saul was the Hebrew name of the man we would later come to know as the Apostle Paul. Saul was born of the tribe of Benjamin and raised under Roman citizenship. He became a scholar in Jewish tradition and interpretation of Scripture. Saul called himself a Hebrew of Hebrews - indicating his great pride and a passion for the law.

As a Pharisee and according to his own account Saul violently persecuted any who called themselves Christ followers. Our first introduction to Saul comes during the savage stoning death of Stephen in Acts chapter 7. Saul was an onlooker during the Stephen incident but from there, Saul became a ringleader; an instigator of such executions.

We are told in Acts Chapter 8 that Saul brought havoc on the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women committing them to prison. The disciples were well aware of Saul’s infamy, and because of his threat, believers were scattered through out Judea and Samaria.

Saul was breathing threats and murder while on his journey to Damascus when suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Saul fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”

When Saul stood up, though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. He spent the next three days without sight, fasting and praying. At the end of those three days a man named Ananais visited Saul, as he was directed by the Lord. Ananais laid hands on Saul, prayed, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Saul’s sight was restored. In a later account, Ananais describes the experience as seeing scales fall from Saul’s eyes.

We are told that once Saul received his sight, he was immediately baptized. He then went out and began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues saying, “He is the Son of God.”

This fundamental change in Saul did not go escaped by anyone who had heard of him.

Have you found that to be true about yourself? I wonder if, like Saul, people would notice the difference in us? In the time you have known Jesus, have people questioned you saying something like, “Wow - you’ve changed - what’s going on with you?”

We look at this Saul’s former life so that we can see the stark contrast that should, no that MUST, take place in the life of every believer once the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence in us.

Note three things that occurred as a result of Saul’s encounter with Jesus.

1. First, Saul lost his sight.

2. Saul later gained new vision (which was marked by something like scales falling from his eyes.)

3. Finally Saul received an identity change (marked by the change in name from Saul to Paul.)

These three things should be typical of the profound change we all experience when we encounter and decide to follow Jesus.

Listen, (imagine my tone of voice raising here) IF we have the Holy Spirit in us, our eyes, which were once previously set on self-interests and our “can do for me” attitude, should be completely refocused. We need to gain new vision, an new perspective. Just like Paul, the scales must fall from our eyes.

Our new identity in Christ should be as clear to others as Paul’s name change was. But most of us are still just blending in. How will the world ever know we have something different?

Once we have been gripped by the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives our passions should mirror Paul’s. Paul was passionate about two things - you can’t help but notice them, because he talks about them in every letter he wrote. Because Paul understood the grace that redeemed him from his old sinful nature, Paul pursued holiness.

Holiness can be described something like devoting of ourselves to moral Godly conduct. No longer walking in sin, but in the power of the Holy Spirit by whom we have been made pure.

For a long time after I became a follower of Christ, I really wasn’t following Him at all. Sure I read my bible, sang worship songs etc, but I was not pursuing a life of holiness. I somehow hoped that I could slide under God’s radar screen, still behaving in some of the ways just like I used to. Then God grabbed my heart and He did some pretty intense twisting. God reminded me - there is no room for hard hearts in heaven. I’m not even talking about the BIG sins here, I’m talking about the sins we commit in our heart that grieve our Father.

We will never live truly passionate lives, in fact we will live with a huge void in our lives, so long as we are walking in sin. If we are not pursuing Holiness - God can’t use us for for Kingdom building, which is the next part.

Paul was all about justice.

We are to seek the highest interests of others at all times. We are called to take care of the poor and the oppressed. Did you notice what Paul did the minute he was baptized? He started preaching the Gospel.

Preaching the Gospel may look different to everyone. It may be that you are mentoring someone who is a few miles behind you in their walk of faith. Perhaps you serve in a soup kitchen that feeds the homeless. Some may sit in a Pregnancy Care Center, holding the hand of a young pregnant teen.

Again, once you are gripped by the Holy Spirit - you cannot stop Him. The Holy Spirit was meant to preach the Gospel, and to testify to Christ. At some point, you will be called to give a verbal account for why you believe. You can count on it. You should be prepared for it.

These two reasons - are the reasons you exist.

Paul wrote two letters to the Church of Corinth. In his second letter he reminded the church and eventually US - “For the Love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, [emphasis mine again] but for Him who died for them and rose again.” We are meant to follow His example, and let the Love of Christ compel us!

Just as freedom in North America came at the great cost of many human lives, Our new identity and subsequent freedom has come at the ultimate cost. The cost of the cross. What amazes me is how often we take what was given to us for granted and continue on living a selfish life.

The world was and still is living under the oppressive Government of Satan. Paul knew the world needed a savior and he was not it. Paul lived his one and only life passionately ensuring that He spread the good news of the hope he himself found in Jesus.

Shall we not do the same? LEST WE FORGET what the triumph over slavery cost.

Praying for you - that your life will be filled with the Passionate pursuit for Holiness and Justice!

~ DL