You know...this is the time of year where you start seeing all the bandwagons come out loud and clear. Believe me, I hear ya. I can easily jump on bandwagons that have loud, clear messages about something that is in the Bible. The problem is that I don't think people really want to hear about our bandwagons any more, people want to see lives that look different than everybody else's, lives that shine with the glory of Christ. Over the last year or 2, God has really been teaching me a lot about His Sovereignty and the power of the Holy Spirit to convict another's heart in a way that my stupid, opionionated, cutting words could ever do...and believe me, it's been a long road and one I've definitely not mastered. I had a problem around Halloween, I've never really been a hollaween fan and it predates being born again...just not my favorite holiday and this year it stretched from the last week of September all the way through October and I found myself venting to a friend, who lovingly reminded me that's it not about our stance or hatred of something, but our desire to love others into the family of Christ. I still don't love halloween, but I did receive a major attitude check.
I am going to insert my favorite scripture here: Be Still (Cease fighting) and know that I am God, I WILL BE EXALTED!
Christians often start ranting about how it's CHRISTmas not Xmas. In the ancient texts x was the symbol used for Christ. So I almost always write Xmas and in my Bible while taking notes and studying scripture, all references to Christ have an x. I am not x'ing Him out of my Bible, merely clarifying which of the Trinity is being talked about. We humans cannot take Christ out of Christmas, Jesus knows when He came to earth and He promises that He will be exalted. It is for His glory that we are all striving.
People have already started talking about Happy Holiday vs. Merry Christmas. I love the Lord with all my heart, except for on days when I didn't die to self first, but sometimes Happy Holidays is appropriate, there is more than 1 holiday being celebrated this time of year, after all. I know that we are fighting a very real war out there, and that there may be a time very soon when the Christian church really will be persecuted in our nation. However, I don't think that standing and yelling on top of every band wagon is going to bring others to the Risen Savior. But meekly loving others, being kind and generous, and falling to our knees for our country may loosen the flaps on the box where we've stored the Holy Spirit and reignite His fire and set Him loose across this nation.
We haven't talked much about Santa in our house. We just haven't made a big deal about it...we've never had pictures taken with Santa, although Elijah did once at school. We don't make cookies...there are presents (hard to wrap ones) that get left out on Christmas Eve and maybe the kids assume they come from Santa. We just don't talk about it. We don't even put from names on the packages...it's more about giving the gifts than it is taking credit for who gave the best gifts. We spend time talking about giving to others. We sponsor a family and give them gifts. We bake together and take goodies to our neighbors. And we have a huge birthday party, complete with a cake for Christ to help remind the kids why we celebrate Christmas.
No comments:
Post a Comment