Wormwood

Years ago I met an older man who recalled to me that he once discovered a note attached to the back of a tree in a cemetary.

The note told a story which had been found in a book of myths, from some distant place a long time ago. According to the story, the book of myths was based on some fourth-hand legends which might have been started by pilgrims visiting an inn in the city, which had originally begun as a goat farm.

According to the account, there was once a great empire on the face of the earth. They built tall buildings, harvested large amounts of food, and they had powerful rulers.

The construction workers built their buildings out of clay, mortar, and brick. In every building, they also mixed in a large portion of wormwood, although no one could feel it in the walls or flooring.

And the entertainers came with their elaborate productions. They put on dances, plays, and operas. The characters they portrayed were full of mirth and villainy and wormwood, although no one could see the wormwood on the stage.

The rulers were very powerful and controlled their armies to keep invaders away. Their battles were full of many victories, a few losses, and they were also full of wormwood, which no one could hear during the battles.

Their empire grew in strength, power, culture, beauty, might, and the wormwood flew through its rivers and language and history.

The citizens of the empire were themselves full of wormwood. Although they could not sense it, they knew it was there all along. They knew they what they were dwelling with, the wormwood they personally carried, and they began to die by the thousands.

As the empire was about it enter its golden age, darkness fell across the land, and the people began to vacate the largest cities. In the final years, wolves roamed the streets of the towns and the fields turned into barrenness.

The book of myths has been lost, and the pilgrims no longer pass by this city. The goats have taken over the land where the inn once stood, and the tree in the cemetery has fallen over. The old man who explained everything to me has passed away.

If I had kept quiet about the empire, no one would know it once stood here. The people who once claimed their land to be the greatest was the land consumed with wormwood -the land that decayed, the land that was totally forgotten.

Widows, Orphans, and My Hope for Glory

I am God's child. This was not always true for I spent the first 19 years of my life orphaned by sin. I was born into a world held in sin's sway and by my own sin, I was made dead to God. It was through faith in Jesus, in recognizing who He is and what He has done for me that I was adopted into the household of faith and became a child of God. My heavenly Father is a perfect father. He is a fit parent in every way and He meets my every need.

Not only am I God's child but I am also a part of the bride of Christ. Before I came to Jesus, I was as a widow struggling alone in this harsh cruel world. I had no protection and I often fell prey to the wickedness around me and also the wickedness that had taken root in me in my constant struggle to survive. My betrothed now watches over me, protects me, never leaves me lonely, and I am never left to feel used and unloved. He fills every longing of my spirit to overflowing and the harsh memories of before are being washed away, day by day, as I bask in the light of His love.

I am no longer a widow nor an orphan for Jesus visited me and brought me Hope beyond measure. He has left me here (though not alone for His Holy Spirit is ever near) in a world filled with widows and orphans. He commands me to do as He has done for me, visit them in their affliction and take to them the Hope that is Jesus. I am to love God above all others and all others as myself, just like Jesus. This is my calling and what it means to be a Christian, that I take the gospel to the world in love. I do not need a degree in theology, all I need is Jesus living in me. All I am required to speak is the truth about Jesus and allow Him to love those who are now widowed and orphaned by sin, through me. I need no longer fear the sin that afflicts them for I belong to Jesus; I in Him and He in me, and sin has no power over me. The power to overcome sin and death resides in me and Jesus keeps me spotless and clean.

Child of God, never forget where Jesus found you. Do not begin to think more highly of yourself than you ought and don't forget the Great Commission. Do not isolate yourselves from the widows and orphans that surround you and seek to go out of the world. You are left here with a purpose and that purpose is to love; not with human love that seeks its own pleasure but with the divine love of Jesus. This divine love that sets God above all others including self and loves all others as we love ourselves. The love of Jesus that is the fulfillment of God's Will and not of human desire is what the world needs. It is Jesus loving others through us that has the power to turn the world upside down and set it straight.

Child of God, Jesus lives in you through faith. Will you also, through faith, allow Him to live through you that those yet afflicted by sin might turn to Him and live?

Paul said, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" and for those of us in whom Jesus lives our hope for glory is the same. May God use us all in the coming year, to reach others for Christ that by faith, they may also be adopted into the family of God as Christ takes up residence in them. May God renew in us all a hope for glory and a desire to see sinners saved!

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the Fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted by the world.

Col 1:27-28 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Gift Exchange

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if everyone was received into heaven after they died. At first I suppose people would say they liked it, but then they'd start getting curious about hell. Some would want to document hell for academic purposes, calling themselves professors. Others would lead tours down there calling themselves curators. Films would be made by people calling themselves actors and directors. The scientists would study the brimstone. Of course they would say they officially lived in heaven, that they entered into life ... but I suspect heaven would quickly become an empty place.

There is an old legend about Christopher Robin, that he once lost his bear Winnie the Pooh. After searching the Hundred Acre Wood, the boy found his bear at a consignment store. After producing some quarters, a few pennies, and a paper clip, the owner said Christopher Robin did not have enough -even after the boy told him it was all he had. Christopher then told the owner, "There is one more thing I have ... love." The owner, surprised, told the boy, "Well, that is certainly enough." And the boy left with his bear.

The sooner you start testing, the sooner you can start questioning the results.
1st Law of Scientific Analysis

One day all the workers came to the boss complaining the rules were too difficult to understand. "We need a way of knowing immediately what is acceptable and what is not." They said. "Yes," Said the boss, "That is exactly what you need. Here is our new standard: love. As long as your behavior is in love, they are acceptable to this company and to me." The workers grumbled. "I thought he was going to give us a formula or tell a joke. These serious types are no fun."

Some crusaders were given the task of building a make-shift fort out of a pile of ruins. One of the soldiers asked, "Should we find out what these bricks were originally intended for?". "No," Responded the officer. "It is enough for us to know how we ought to use them ... to find their purpose for us."

"I'd like to be beautiful." Said the young girl.
"Beautiful girls are unhappy." Said the older girl.
"I suppose you're right. It would be better to be smart." Said the young girl.
"Intelligent people are the most miserable of all." Said the older girl.

I wonder what it would have been like if the young boy Judas encountered the three wise men on their way to see the baby Jesus. He would probably talk about how the king they seek is so excellent that he needs no gifts and that they should be given to the poor. Then he would probably try to sell the gifts and keep the money.

The pastor mentioned to his wife that he would like to go to her company's Christmas party, but he didn't know if he was invited. The wife said she would find out, and left. He went into his study and began wondering to himself how he should preach about heaven next Sunday. "Lord," He prayed, "What is the single most important thing I should know about heaven? What is it about heaven that we ought to all remember?" Suddenly he noticed that he had received an email from his wife. It said, "I asked specifically on your behalf and you are personally invited."


Picture from here.

A Cold Winter's Night

Winter and death are synonymous in many aspects and as one ages the dread of each can often be equal. When winter comes, all chronic underlying illnesses gain the ascendancy and many who are sick or old or both often do not survive the winter.

My thoughts are here, upon winter, because I am weak and it is very cold and I fear I might not survive. I have seen many winters but not as many as some and I would like to see more and pass through them unscathed. On this cold winter's night when my aching body will no longer let me sleep and I can't find relief, I long only for spring. I long for the warmth that comes when the earth in its orbit begins to draw nearer to the sun. I long for the snow and ice to be melted and then forgotten as the earth moves ever closer to summer's solstice. I long for the fullness of life that is summer.

There are times when winter creeps into my very soul and as my heart freezes over it seems that God has forgotten me. Just as the earth at winter solstice is very far from the sun, so too has my life's orbit taken me to where the warmth of God's love is nearly forgotten. I do not have the power to draw myself back for the orbit of my life is laid down for me by forces that I cannot control. The colder my spirit becomes the more I doubt that I will survive my soul's winter solstice.

If my spiritual survival depends upon me and my ability to correct the orbit of my life then winter will become the permanent state of my soul. However, it is God Who is sovereign and not I and my life has been pre-appointed to me. Through all the seasons of my life, (created by my orbit around God, the very center of life) He is in governance. Though the winter is painful, it is necessary. Spiritual winter tests all that is strong and weak in me; bending what is strong in recognition of an all powerful God as all that is weak and sickly in me dies.

This winter I am reminded of spiritual winter as my body, that is slowly crumbling from its weakness and the illnesses that plague me, is being sorely tested by the cold. The world in which I live is being tested also for it and I are made of the same elements and even the sun will someday, pass away. My physical eyes and mind tell me that all things will someday die and it is winter that will have final and complete victory over all things living. What my eyes see and all that I have learned from observation leaves me with no hope. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes. This is the vertical view produced by the dead of winter in my soul.

It is Jesus Who opened my spiritual eyes and He has not left me blind to hope. Though it appears that winter will swallow me, He has filled my mind with the knowledge of God that guides me through the long dark night and the life threatening cold of this season of my life. He speaks to me through His Holy Spirit and gives me comfort and warmth as my spirit, moving upon the orbit He has set for me, is drawn ever closer to Him. As I draw near to God, the deadly cold that has invaded me begins to melt away and I find assurance that winter will not last forever; and if my weakened body should crumble and not survive winter, all is yet well with my soul. For when my body does finally crumble to dust and ashes all that is weak will be removed from me and my spirit will rest in Jesus and from that day forward, I will know only the fullness of Life.

Unleavened Bread or Eating With Dirty Hands

Matthew 15:1-11 Then some pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!

Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor you father and mother' and "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father and mother' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'"

Matthew 16:5-12 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. "Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees" Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

When Jesus walked the earth, He often went head to head with the religious leaders of His day. Religious leaders have not changed much in the 2,000 plus years since then. They are only men who need to put potatoes on the table as all men do and religion is their means of making a living. This is the basic temptation that takes them away from pointing others to Christ and instead toward religion. Jesus removes our need for religion by bringing us into a right relationship with God (thereby, making religion a practice that flows from Christ living in us rather than works designed to lift us to God) and also makes us independent of religious leaders. This is the deception of the devil, that church attendance, tithing to pay ministers and build buildings, and working tirelessly to build the ministry of a man as we listen to his direction and are careful to follow all of his rules and teachings are what is required of those who profess Jesus. This is a type of obedience but it is not living a spiritual life under the personal leading of the Holy Spirit. These are not bad things, in and of themselves, but if they are in opposition to what the Spirit is directing you to do personally then to forsake that direction in order to obey a religious leader is sin. When that leader has forsaken his calling and fallen to the temptation of maintaining his livelihood or even fallen to the greater temptation of gaining wealth and power for himself or his organization, he is deep in sin already and our compliance with him only adds to the burden of sin he has chosen to bear. If our leaders are caught up in this sin and their teachings become a leavening of the scriptures, meaning that they teach good things with a wrong spirit, then we must be faithful to test the spirits and then do as they teach us to do but not with the same spirit that they teach them by. This is the leaven of the Pharisees and it is still working in the house of God today.

There is also a leavening of the believer that takes hold of hearts who have a desire to be elevated above their current circumstances or station in life. This leaven, this wrong heart attitude, makes us vulnerable to the leaven that taints the faith of our leaders. It allows us to believe that we can earn God's blessings and have all that we want in the world when we are careful to do as our church, our 'spiritual' leaders teach us to do. Our wrong desire causes to begin to believe that if we are there every time the church doors are open, if we give above and beyond to the church out of our material wealth, and if all of our free time is spent working the programs of our church, then surely, God's blessings will be ours in this life and their will also be crowns for us in Heaven. This leaven of the believer is the same yeast that puffs up those who mislead us, it is the leaven of self.

Jesus teaches us that if we want to live then we must lose our life. We must take up our cross and follow Him. It is when we seek to save our life that we lose it. When we begin to fear that we will not have what we need to eat or to wear and stop trusting God to provide those things for us, then we have taken the first step away from walking by faith and have instead, begun to walk by sight. It is then that the traditions of men begin to make sense to us. They are practical and, surely, they will produce, through our correct handling of them, what we need to survive. The principles of God are good principles and will make even the life of a nonbeliever better but when a believer trades walking according to the Spirit for Biblical principles only then He has already stepped away from his or her calling in Christ. There is no eternal life in following principles and when God's personal leading is taken out of the picture then what follows is the traditions of men taught as the oracles of God. Rules, and rules, and more rules on what to wear, what to read, what to watch, who to befriend, who to turn your back on, all based upon the Word of God but with a spirit that is far from Him. The spirit of man's traditions is that of a futile attempt to make the things of man eternal apart from God. The spirit that gives the traditions of men their power is a spirit of man's dependence upon other men that are viewed to be greater than the common man. When we begin to fear our circumstance instead of fearing God and trusting Him to provide, we are made prey to those who make of themselves to be special holy men with the answers that can protect us in life. Their teachings may well make our temporary, earthly life somewhat better but that temporary safety and security comes with bondage to those whom we have given power over us.

A believer who has fallen into this trap has fallen into a very dark place. It is a place that causes Satan to rejoice for he knows that as long as we are in bondage to religious leaders and their traditions, our lives will be largely ineffectual for Christ. How better to defeat a Christian than to keep him or her in a place where their faults are continually pointed to and labeled as their failing of God and giving them the responsibility of righting the matter through correct choosing. How better to keep others from coming to Christ than to keep those who know Him in a world of their own making, kept separate from those sinners that need only Jesus to be free from their sin. How better to hide the Light that has come into the world than to surround those who are of that Light with darkness by convincing them that they are responsible for keeping themselves free of sin through their own works. How better to keep these sinners saved by Grace from living by that same Power that saved them than to replace faithfulness to God with faithfulness to the institutionalized church. How better to return such a one to a state similar to the one from which he or she was saved than to replace the personal leading of the Holy Spirit with leading of men, special in the sight of men, and their traditions.

Let us do as Jesus says and eschew the leaven of the Pharisees and of the religious leaders of our own time. Let's not forsake gathering together with other believers but also let us not allow that group of believers and the men they choose as leaders to place themselves between us and God. No matter how intelligent or charismatic a leader may be, let us not forget that he is only a man and not the mediator between us and our Heavenly Father. God may bless us through him but we are not dependent upon him to reach God. God has reached us through Jesus and nothing can ever again separate us from His love. We have been washed of all our sin by the shed blood of Jesus; our sin is covered and God no longer sees it. Jesus tells us to come and eat His flesh and drink His blood for this is spiritual food indeed. It will not pass through us as other food giving us only temporary sustenance but will actually, produce Jesus in us and make us like Him. We are invited to this feast of faith, a feast of unleavened bread, with our hands yet dirty with sin that no outward washing can remove; for when this feasting upon Jesus is over, our hands will be made permanently clean from the inside out and we will never be defiled again by anything that comes out of us. We will no longer sin. This is the manifestation of the eternal life that we receive only from Jesus in the moment that we first begin to believe in Him. There is no principle of conduct or rule to follow, Biblical or otherwise, that can replace this gift of faith in Jesus. There is no power like the Power of God in Christ.

Jesus lives in us and sin no longer has the power to defile us. Walk according to the Spirit, be free from sin, go where ever He directs you to go and fear not! Walk according to the Spirit and see the Laws of God fulfilled through your life. Come to Him in the trust and innocence of a child, dirty hands and all; and be sustained forever and ever more, eternally, upon the unleavened bread of faith. Amen.

Jesus, My Reason

JoyIndestructible has recently offered her approach to understanding Christmas, and she makes some good points. I am unable to tell by her style if she is describing her approach or prescribing it for others.

If our Christianity is nothing more than venerating a day on the calendar, then it is worthless. I cannot agree with her more on this point. Nothing counts except for faith expressing itself through love.

Here is the devotional truth: one day we will all present our lives to the One who gave us life. He will not care which days we ate, which days we fasted, which days we celebrated, which days we stopped others from celebrating. Nothing will count except faith expressing itself through love. Everything else will be consumed as by fire. Everything not done in faith is sin.

More than anything else, we must understand that against love there is no law. It doesn't matter if someone is jumping on their bed, cutting the tags off their pillows, watching questionable shows on television, etc ... if they are behaving in love then there is no law that stands against them.

I lend Joy the microphone not out of my human calculation but out of my inner conviction. She writes like someone who understands what is important to God, and she sets a good model for others. I have a lot to learn from her.

My preference is to 'let each person be convinced in his own mind', and I wish to say nothing to discourage those who prefer not to celebrate Christmas on December 25th from the conviction of their hearts. What I do wish is to show how the issue is neither here nor there, and to offer some assurance to those who celebrate the gift of Jesus on December 25th.

Consider Joy's words:

I know that Jesus was not born on December 25th so I don't celebrate that day as His birthday.

As soon as I see the word, "Know" I get nervous. Do you really know Jesus was not born on December 25th? How many people were using the Gregorian calendar back then? Have you talked to eyewitnesses who recorded the exact date? What if someone received Jesus into their life on December 25th? Couldn't such a person claim Christ came down into their own life on that day?

I am sure that if He wanted His birthday celebrated, He would have made known the true date and would have commanded that we do so. He did neither and instead, the only religious observation He commanded was the celebration of His last supper.

If you are really so sure, if you are certain in the serious certainty from God that brings men assurance in the face of death, I have no argument and I have no wish to destroy such a measure of faith.

Yet consider this:

The Bible tells us that Jesus celebrated the feast of Dedication. What is the Hebrew word for dedication? It is Hannakuh. Yes, that is right, Jesus celebrated Hannakuh.

In my opinion, most of the Hannakuh stories are myths added years later to a story about purifying the temple. This doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned: Jesus' dedication of himself to God was something that was very real, and it was not delayed and made up later.

Where does it say in the Old Testament that we are to celebrate Hannakuh? It doesn't command us (or anyone) to celebrate Hannakuh anywhere in the Bible. Jesus could have said, 'Well, if God wanted us to celebrate it, He would have put it into the letter of the Scriptures.' The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Jesus' celebration of Hannakuh was righteous because he celebrated righteously.

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the righteous who do not believe nothing is pure.

Does Christmas have a pagan origin? Who knows? What do you call Christmas? If you consider Christmas to be a continuation of an earlier pagan/animistic holiday, then maybe for you it has a pagan origin. If you consider Christmas as a replacement for that holiday, or if for you Christmas was a time of repentence where God gave you the gift of his Son and this is the origin of your understanding of Christmas, then for you it has nothing pagan whatsoever.

This I believe in my heart: Santa Claus was no pagan. Saint Nicholaus was a person who was recognized as a believer in Jesus Christ by the church in the fourth century. Despite his mistakes (ahem, punching Arius in the face), he lead a godly example for other believers to follow, and in my heart I believe people are served by having an example of a person who lived Christ's words: "It is more blessed to give than receive". Also, Santa Claus believed Jesus was God when that was not widely held (or at least not in some parts of the empire).

Generally speaking, I fail to see how the origins mean anything.

If God originally instituted the Levitical priesthood, does that mean all Levitical priests were blessed? No, many of them, such as Eli (and later priests like Annias) were severely punished by God. Just because something means something to a person who does one thing, it doesn't follow that it means the same thing to another. There were also godly Levites as well.

The children of Israel left Egypt with treasures the Egyptians gave them to leave. These treasures were originally obtained by pagans who lusted after more possessions. Was it wrong for the Israelites to take the treasures? No, it meant something completely different to them. Their faith sanctified the treasures in spite of their origins.

I want all men to live in freedom with one another. We should not impose rules on each other that are not in the Bible. I support Joy to this end. I command no man to celebrate on any given calendar day, and I insist that he be given the freedom to celebrate what God has done on any given day -especially for the day called "Today".

If JoyIndestructible knows of people who are forcing people to observe Christmas by the Catholic calendar she is right to rebuke them. If she forbids people to remember the gift of Christ on December 25th, she forbids people to do what is pleasing to God.

We would all do well to remember that the wise men we see in the nativities (of pagan origin) brought their gifts (of pagan origin) to the Lord. They left their lands as soon as they saw the star. Most scholars think they arrived long after he was born (maybe December 25th, who knows?).

Did God rebuke these wise men who brought these gifts? Did the infant Jesus tell them that they picked the wrong date to bring them their most precious things?

No. I believe God honored these travelers, even though they were pagans.

So let us not become contentious about these matters (just as Paul refused to become contentious). Instead let us recognize the earnest efforts others make to draw near to God. Let us remember the woman who asked Jesus about the right way to worship God (whether it had to be in Jerusalem) and was told that the true worshipers are the ones who worship in spirit and in truth (which is to say, inwardly).


In all things may God reign in the hearts of those who fear him!

I have borrowed the nativity picture from here.

The Reason

Jesus is the reason for the season; this phrase that has become the modern Christian mantra is true. Jesus is the reason for every season as in Him and through Him, God has created all things and in Him all things are held together. For the Christian, Jesus and telling others of Him is our reason for living during this winter holiday season and also every day of the year. We belong to Jesus and not to ourselves and our salvation is reason enough for celebration through-out the present season and for as many seasons as God has appointed us to walk upon this earth.

I know I have strayed from the original intent of this popular mantra and given it my own meaning. I have done so with a purpose in mind, that of reminding myself and other Christians who read this of what we should be focused upon during this time of year that so many hold to be special. Though many of us say, "Jesus is the reason", write it on cards, and have it painted on store front windows, I'm not sure that our words are really an expression of right focus. In recent years, it seems to have a more political meaning and has become a kind of battle cry against those secular progressives that want Christian values removed as the underpinning of the United States government and culture. Though I believe that Christians should be involved in politics and make an effort to keep Christian thought and values upon the common table of ideas, I don't think politics should be the focus of our faith nor where we place our hope for a better world. There are greater battles to be fought, at this present time, than keeping nativity scenes in court houses and pressuring retailers to continue saying, "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays". Our focus, as always, should be on spreading the gospel and seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ.

This may be shocking to some but I no longer celebrate a traditional Christmas and I have come to this decision because of my deep love for Jesus. First of all, I am not a Catholic and Mass has no part in my devotional life. I do celebrate the birth of Jesus each time that I read about it in the Bible and every time that God brings the wonder of His earthly incarnation to my mind. I know that Jesus was not born on December 25th so I don't celebrate that day as His birthday. I am sure that if He wanted His birthday celebrated, He would have made known the true date and would have commanded that we do so. He did neither and instead, the only religious observation He commanded was the celebration of His last supper. Jesus did not come to establish a new religion and rituals, traditions, and special days were not of great concern to Him. Jesus came to die for the sins of all of us and to save us by imparting eternal life to us through faith in Him.

I no longer bring a tree into my home or decorate as I know that Christmas trees are Druid in origin and my conscience won't allow me to do this even though decorating at Christmas was once my favorite part of the holiday. I do not tell my grandchildren about Santa nor participate in that game as Santa is also of Pagan origin and Paganism has no part in my life in any season. I belong to Jesus. The decision to eschew the Pagan practices that are a big part of the Christmas celebration did not come directly in response to my gaining knowledge of their origins. For many years, I bought into the notion that it was harmless and that it brought lost persons to church and gave Christians an opportunity to share Jesus. In recent years, Paganism has become a very popular religion and even if many Christians do not know where Christmas really came from, Pagans do. I could no longer be comfortable with such an alliance with the world that I feel can be confusing to those who do not know Jesus. I want Pagan people to be able to see the difference between Jesus and the gods that they embrace and for that reason, I have separated myself from many traditional Christmas practices.

I do not put myself into debt buying presents. I don't expect presents from others. I do not build high expectations of a special day when all should be perfect in myself or in any other person that I have influence over. I do not stress myself out with Church programs and performances either in taking part in them or attending them. I don't overwork myself cooking big dinners nor do I spend a lot of time making or eating unhealthy food and giving it to others. My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and stress and eating wrong hurts my body. My conscience will no longer allow me to harm my body or do anything that encourages others to do the same.

Jesus is the reason why I have made all of these changes in my life and in the way I observe December 25th. Yet, December 25th is a day to be redeemed as is all the time that God has appointed to me to live on planet earth. I am not on a crusade to educate Christians on the evils of Christmas but I do desire that all the words that I write and speak be edifying to my brothers and sisters in Christ. I do not judge other Christians who choose to observe Christmas in the traditional American way and I do not wish to add to the controversy that also seems to have become an American Christmas tradition. Though there are many things I do not do in observation of this day, I can't go out of the world even though I am not part of it and there are many things that I do participate in. I enjoy church and I go to church at this time of year as I endeavor to do the rest of the year. I love to praise and worship Jesus with fellow Christians. It is always a good thing to have extra time off to spend with family and friends and I take advantage of it. I enjoy buying gifts that I can afford for the people I love and I do. It is a good thing to reach out to the poor during the winter months and give them something warm to wear or something extra to eat. If Christmas reminds me of this, I do so. I hope to always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and careful to perform all the good works that God presses upon me to do. I desire that my life be an expression of the Love that is God and December 25th is as an important of a day to do so as any other.

So you see, Jesus is my reason for my choosing to observe Christmas as I do. I am not asking that any other do as I do. Just as Jesus did not come to establish a new religion, neither am I much interested in reforming any religion. I am interested in making Jesus known to those who do not know Him. I am interested in encouraging my brothers and sisters in Christ to keep their eyes and hearts set on Him. Most of all, I am interested in working out my own salvation with fear and trembling and living my life as the Holy Spirit insists that I live it. My prayer and my hope for any and all who may read this post is that Jesus also be your reason, your guide for living, during this holiday season and all of the seasons of your life.

When Darkness Fades To Light!

Temporal life is a fearful life fraught with the constant struggle of avoiding all that threatens to bring life to an end. The only certainty of temporal life is death. The reverse of avoiding danger is remembering all of the right things to do in a futile attempt to make one's self stronger than all that threatens us with death. For each of us, the battle will someday, be lost.Some prefer to shake their fists in the face of death rather than live such a careful and fearful life. They deny their fear of mortality and embrace it by emotionally numbing themselves to that fear through risky and destructive behavior. They often give up early on and decide to eat, drink, and be merry and live this short life as they please. The problem is that this behavior often does not lead to sudden, painless death but to many years of suffering long after the party is over.

There is a better way to live, even in this temporary body of flesh and blood, than by following the dark light of fear. There is a way to be free of the fear of death that does not require emotional numbing. There is a way to overcome and rise above all that is set to destroy us without having to constantly be aware of every danger set against us. There is a way to live joyfully in the midst of every pain and sorrow that is common to us all. The Way is Jesus the true Light that fills those who believe with eternal life.

Faith in Jesus is victory not only over the fear of death but of death itself. Just as when the sun rises and all the lights of the night fade and then vanish, so too does death fade and then vanish in the heart of every believer who trusts Jesus and places their life in His hands. Even when their bodies crumble into the dust, the elements of the earth from which they were formed, that Light burns even brighter than when in full health. In the most hopeless moment of temporal life, the hope of Jesus overcomes every dark fear and has the power to guide the spirit home.

If you are tired of living in fear beneath the shadow of death, turn to the Light that is only, Jesus. If partying no longer satisfies and the safety of riches has made itself known to you as a lie, turn from the way you are living to the Way. Turn away from the lies of the world to He Who is Truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He will lead you out of the darkness making your temporal life abundant as He fills you with His eternal life. Jesus is Life without end.

The Evolution of Snobbery

Roger Ebert recently reviewed the Ben Stein film Expelled. You can read Roger's review here.

Some of my friends have been talking about how Roger doesn't 'understand' Intelligent Design or Creationism. Personally, I think he understands these views well enough. The problem is the snobbery he reviews them with.

This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions (Soviet marching troops representing opponents of ID), pussy-foots around religion (not a single identified believer among the ID people), segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, and makes a completely baseless association between freedom of speech and freedom to teach religion in a university class that is not about religion.

Often times film critics like to find the most colorful ways to put down a film. I wonder if it is an unspoken way that critics rank each other (certainly Robert Ebert is the king). In any case, any venue can go bad when it is overly colorful, and I find this critique (as his others) goes far over the line.

If a critic wants to say he doesn't like a movie, he is always entitled to his opinion. I would prefer it if he could articulate which elements he does not like, but if he wants to say that the movie is an unlikable movie -he really has far exceeded his say. This is the origin of snobbery.

Take some of Roger's claims here:

[His film] ... draws unwarranted conclusions ...

Isn't this just a snobby way of saying you didn't agree with the conclusions?

Roger is not content to voice his opinion as an individual, so he increases his scope to say -not only does he not agree with the conclusions- these conclusions are totally impossible to agree with no matter who you are.

Roger Ebert makes the accusation that Ben Stein leaves out that he has religious beliefs. That seems like a valid criticism to me (although not in the scoffing way Ebert says it). On the other hand, Roger Ebert is not up front about what his pressupositions are.

In some ways the film and the critique from Ebert suffer from the same problem: neither side is owning up to what they believe because they consider their opinions in themselves to be petty, trivial, and meaningless.

The scary thing about this that if you don't take your own opinions seriously, your opinions are not serious opinions. Both men are lacking in their ability to fess up to the fact that they have made interpretations.

The problem isn't just with film-reviewers who hide their closet secular agenda.

Personally, I am hard pressed to say who wields more snootiness: film critics or darwinsists. Expelled makes reference of this as well.

One of the people interviewed by Stein (who if I am not mistaken is something of an ally of Richard Dawkins) notes that Dawkins is a slimy lizard. The snobbiness of secular scientists is so vast, it is hard for their own side not to see it.

Again, the origin of the snobbiness is the insistence on forming opinions for other people. Evolutions insist their interpretations are not, in fact interpretations at all. They are 'conclusions'.

Even though Darwinists have never been able to prove their findings (and there really is no way to do it), they still proclaim it as (and fight to claim) that evolution is a fact. If you want to see an example of how snotty these scientists are, check out this so-called encyclopedia article on Evolution as Fact.

Wikipedia praises Darwin as the man who "realized" the "fact of evolution". The snowball really began rolling down the hill as soon as Wikipedia first started claiming to have a 'neutral', non-point of view perspective (by the way, another way to describe the condition of having a non-point of view is "blindness").

The problem is not that secularists are incorrect (and I believe they are very, very incorrect). The true problem is these people believe they know everything, and their pretentions have led them to abuse their roles as scientists to soapbox for their opinions.

At the same time, these men are really cowards in that they are too ashamed of their opinions to own up to them. This is why Jesus insisted that people answer for themselves when he asked them who he was.

From the perspective of mere devotion, it must be noted that as soon as someone becomes snobby about a subject, it means they do not love that subject.

For example, there are a lot of people who call themselves 'wine experts', (surely they must know everything about wine!). They always appeal to their laundry lists of rules about what foods go with what wines, which areas grow the best grapes (Can you imagine that? To claim that some places in the world have better wine because they were grown in a certain place? I have never been able to taste a difference like that; I don't mind it if that makes me unsuitably cultured).

If a person really loved wine, they wouldn't call themselves wine experts. They would call themselves wine lovers. But how many people call themselves wine lovers? People would think they were a bunch of drunkards putting on a show of their education and refinery, which is exactly what wine snobs are. They are ashamed, so they call themselves wine experts.

There are also experts in the fields of money laundering, kidnapping, terrorism, extortion, and -I might add- science.

And that brings us back to the theory of evolution: the scientists who profess evolution never love it, or talk as if they love it. The ones I have seen (like Richard Dawkins) talk like it is immaterial whether they even like the theory or not ... this is done to hide their biases, but also because they do not really care for their theory.

From a strictly scientific approach, it is irrelevant whether an examiner loves his theory or not, and that is why the strictly scientific approach fails to explain life. It is ignores (or pretends to ignore) the prefernces and love of the individual. It is totally detached from a person's inner values.

From the authority of the Word of God we are not to take up the mockery and scoffing of the film critics, and we are not to live by sight (as the scientists do). We must remember that it is very easy to see how unhappy these people are. They win their university fellowships (sometimes), but their whole lives are just for show. The truth is their lives have become a burden for them, and that is why the talk about everything in such a disinterested, uncaring way.

We are instead to take full responsibility for our opinions. We should daily examine the things we love, and ask ourselves how zealous we are about valuing those things. This is the path that leads to happiness. This is the perspective of mere devotion.

Just Another Billboard

Full size image here.


This was statement was often quoted in the writings of Soren Kierkegaard.

Terms of Victory

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."
Ephesians 6:11

The phrase 'spiritual warfare' has become such a cliche expression in churches, that it is hard to see how it continues to mean the same thing it originally intended (or anything at all for that matter). So often teachings on 'spiritual warfare' only give us the perspective of how a successful commander leads his troops into battle.

There are important truths to know about how God leads His troops into battle, (how our adversary is not flesh and blood, how our God is not vulnerable to the enemy in any way, etc.), but clearly the shoes of our commander-in-chief are not the ones we called to fill. Although we are not God, spiritual warfare writings often speak to us as though the task of highest importance were to have the top-level view of the battlefield.

We forget how the Bible speaks to us: not as an army in masse, but as soldiers in God's army.

"...so that you can take your stand..."

It is important to note that believers are not called to fight against all the forces of darkness. We are not commandos called to bring down the entire army of the enemy. That task can only be completed by God. Paul instead tells the individual troops, "you can take your stand".

If the entire army of the devil is united against a single believer -if this is what that believer must stand against- God will give that believer all the stength he or she needs to put on their full armor and oppose the enemy and all his forces.

A soldier does not need to understand all things, but he does need to understand the terms of victory. He is not called to bring the enemy to an unconditional surrender. He is not called to bring the enemy to an epic, world-historical finish. The soldier of Christ is commanded to be victorious with regard to his own self.

"... your stand against the devil's schemes."

It is important to realize what our enemy is after. He is not trying to tear down church buildings (although that may be happening in parts of the world like China), and he is not trying to tear down the governments where Christians live (although the people may be quite capable of doing that on their own). Our enemy is trying to take down individual soldiers. Just as we are called to stand aginst the devil's schemes, the devil has called his forces with their fiery arrows to stand against us.

We are the battlefield.

This is what makes the cost of defeat so peculiar. When the devil secures a victory against someone, the world may continue spinning, the nations may go on their way, but the person himself is defeated, and the defeat is supremely personal.

Just as the cost of defeat is very personal, so too the victory is a tremendously personal victory. The day is coming when all the battles shall be over and the soldiers shall present themselves to their commander.

On that day it will not matter that the battles have come to an amicable conclusion, or that collateral damage was avoided, etc. What will matter is how well the soldiers succeeded in standing, and Paul makes it clear that God has fully empowered us with the ability to stand.

Therefore we ought to stand, and we should do it in the full armor he has entrusted us with. It will not matter how well we understood the battlefield, or how well we took someone else's stand, or how finally the defeat against the enemy was concluded. Our orders are to take up the full armor of God in standing firm against the forces of the devil.

Picture from here.