Posted on 12/14/2013 2:56:27 PM PST by InHisService
Perspective, perspective, perspective... All good gifts come down from the Father of Lights. Light is what we crave... living, dazzling, wondrous light. Even for the none believer, the lights of Christmas spark a sense yearning for real living light. Some will argue that Christmas was a pagan holiday. Well, it has been redeemed, just as all pagans, when they believe, are redeemed. The believer who is free to see Christmas as a high holy day, in celebration to the king of kings, is not wrong, for his motivation is to praise God and to enjoy the good gifts from above. Rejoice, and again rejoice, for the Son of God was born in a world of darkness, to be a light to the world. I will celebrate Christmas, no matter the humbugs.
Constintine changed the date of Christmas to the 25th to coincide with ra,the sun worshippers holiday.
Jeremiah 10 in the ot is pretty clear
10 Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. 2 This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
people can celebrate Christmas, their choice, just as the jews don’t celebrate , for a different reason. We all will answer for our deeds. I do like the Christmas specials though! LOL LOL
Okay. I’m a long time FReeper and I looked at your past posts. Sorry, that’s the nature of the internet.
You have a lot of unhappiness from stuff you had no control over in your life. I’m sorry you have so much hurt in your life. I’m a mom and feel bad for you and want to help.
Please don’t look to atheists to define your life. You have lost joy. I have at times too. It’s easy to slide into the ‘no joy’ zone and feel sorry for ourselves.
Been there, done that. I have lost joy, but never my belief in Christ. My father, who I loved dearly, died of a brain tumor on December 17th, 2010.
This time of year now generally beats the crap out of me. It’s dark. It’s cold. And the memories of what brain cancer did to my dad could wreck me. I spent the season of joy at a hospice house and then arranged my dad’s funeral. On the day of his service there was a big snowstorm that prohibited a lot of family members from attending. There was still a packed house.
Because, you know what? My dad wasn’t a “church” guy but he gave 24/7. Tipping the guy that did his car work. “Go get a couple of beers guys.” Gave to the disabled veterans and visited them. Taught me about money, served his country, and thanked God every day for his blessings.
What troubles me is that you don’t seem able to have Christmas in your heart all year long.
Look into your own heart.
The Winter Solstice for we that reside in the Northern Hemisphere is the shortest day of ‘sun’ light every year. This is the appointed time wherein Emmanuel = God with us was Divinely conceived.
It was at the Spring Equinox that marks His sacrifice for us.
The Autumn Equinox marks the time wherein the birthday as flesh baby of Christ.
So Christmas is the celebration of that appointed time of the conception not the literal birth.
Wonder if there is an appointed event yet to take place at the Summer Solstice?
I believe there is no way any person will ever remove Christ from Christmas. However, I will say that some people really go out on a limb every year attempting to relive childhood memories. OR to make up for lack of good childhood memories and they spend not one second in memory of what this date actually represents.
For me it is an attempt to not allow the personal emotions of any one individual to draw my attention from that remembrance. For God so loved the world .....
He gave His only son.
Interesting that a person gets persuaded by what other people do or don’t do and think or don’t think.
Well, I don’t know if you are being sarcastic, but the point he is trying to make is that some things that we can’t see, touch or measure are true, and they are very important things.
He gave His only Begotten Son.
December 25th may be the date of Christ’s conception...even MORE reason to celebrate His dwelling amongst us!
And, don’t forget, God said He was as a great Fir Tree (evergreen, undying).
I shall celebrate Christ’s conception and have a fir tree in my home and enjoy it—Christmas is a great gift.
Last night - but of course, most of the people there were Christians.
Love it!
I, too, have stopped fretting about gifts and parties and decorating and the inevitable let down the day after Christmas when the bills and pounds get piled on top that we KNOW must be addressed. I remember, as one of five kids, always being a little disappointed with the whole thing. The build up, seeing all the presents wrapped and stacked under the tree Christmas morning, hot cocoa and cinnamon bread waiting after the gifts were torn into and the smell of turkey beginning to roast in the oven, seemed to lead to a let down, and I didn't really know why.
These past several years we have made it a point to NOT make the season about gifts and treats and feasts. My husband and I exchange "mushy" cards and I usually get Mom some new slippers and maybe a robe or nightgown. Nothing expensive. Mom and I fix a special dinner for the three of us - though this year we are having a small Christmas Eve get together with a few close friends (we may do this every two or three years) and I have put up my collection of Boyd's Bears special holiday snowmen and a wreath on the door - no tree, though. All and all it's pretty low key and I find that I don't feel that same let down anymore. I will always love "Christmas" because of what it really represents - the celebration of the birth of the Lamb of God - remembering that precious ultimate gift and making new traditions that become our very own to be treasured year after year.
Thank you for your article.
Far fewer people really celebrate Jesus as the reason for the season anymore and commercialism has taken over. You are correct that remembering Jesus should be an EVERY DAY kind of thing as is helping the needy, being kind and cheerful and cherishing family and friends. Christmas traditions can be heartwarming and wonderful and are what we make of them. If more people remembered that, we'd be doing much better as a nation. I hope you and yours have a very merry Christmas.
Doesn't sound like she was wrong about that, though. ;o)
Gonna have to agree with you there, Arthur. If we teach kids that there is a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and/or Tooth Fairy and they find out later that we were lying to them, I can’t help but wonder if they will think we lied to them about God, too.
No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus.
Amen, Fester!
I heard a girl say something along those lines about Jesus (i.e., that he was like Santa Claus, i.e., nonexistent and “something your parents tell you to try to make you be good.”) But I don’t know how common it is.
My parents didn’t tell us about Santa Claus or try to fool us into believing in him. I think all of us did briefly, but I had certainly figured it out by the time I was five, or even four.
That was God’s confirmation and celebration an event as it occurred in real time - and the event only occurred once. It had to be celebrated as it occurred - for at that time the only true God was incarnated in flesh in His only begotten Son.
It was NOT the celebration of a past event that had occurred on the same day. There WAS such a celebration of a single DAY that occurred annually for the Jews, and that was the Passover - so they’d never forget it and its significance.
Never in the first centuries of the church did they ever celebrate the birth of Christ. It was a practice - as the original poster noted - that was adopted around 300 AD when many pagan practices were adopted by formal Christianity - most brought in in the time of Constantine who wanted to satisfy the populace when he declared Christianity the national religion and pagans would have protested if they had not been able to keep their current practices. That’s just factual history.
The New Testament was written as late as 80 AD approximately, and there is not a word in any of the writings in the NT that speak of any practice of celebrating Christ’s birth. If it were practiced by the early saints, or was important, it would have been in Paul, Luke’s, Peter’s or James writings or another saints writings - but it is not.
But this disparity in views should not affect our fellowship in Christ. It is NOT a central matter, only a peripheral one.
“I didn’t want to appear as a snarky Grinch during the Christmas season. “
Why is it we never see gifty people say such a thing?
“A Christian celebrates the birth of Christ while observing Christmas. “
Well said. That’s what we do.
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