It's that time of the year, we celebrate the birth of our Lord God and Messiah (Savior) Christ Jesus. There's many movies on (both secular and Spiritual) that tell the story of the Nativity and no matter which movie I watch, both sides tell a very different version of the one from the Holy Bible. I love the one told by Luke as it's the one with the most information and know that to be truth.
We've all seen Nativity scenes either plastic or live ones at churches and many we set out in our homes but they are all full of Biblical errors. The biggest one is that the wise men did not come to see the Christ child at His birth but rather when He was around 2 years of age. So seeing the magi with their gifts of gold, frankinsense (sp) and myrrh is an error. Yes, they brought the gifts but not at His birth. In fact, we know very little about the conception, birth and the life of our young Messiah because the authors of the Bible did not feel they were inspired by the Spirit or were not relevant to the ministry and message of Christ Jesus. I can only speculate but He probably had a fairly normal childhood. The only thing about His youth we do know is that He was fully aware of His Deity by age 12. The next age we encounter Him is when He began His ministry at the age of 30 and until His death at 33. Where we got santa claus for Christmas is a little confusing but I get the idea of maybe why but today, it's too secular, commercial and meaningless for me to desire to celebrate it in any traditional way. I'm going to throw out a personal opinion here about maybe why we were never told His date of birth...it's not important. It doesn't matter to God if we acknowledge it or not. We're not blessed if we do, cursed if we don't. Oh, and I'm not one who is dogmatic on Christmas is pagan, therefore NO true Christian should celebrate it. We are FREE in Christ. All things are lawful to us, just not all things are profitable. If you are sinning by how you celebrate December 25th, the Holy Spirit is going to convict you. If you aren't convicted, either you're not saved OR you are not sinning. I know people who seem to worship their Christmas tree. It has to be absolutely perfect with every gorgeous, expensive ornament perfectly placed and it is the CENTER of the celebration. Even the ornaments are secular. No Nativity scenes, no stars or angels, nothing that points to Christ. Everything we say, do, feel and think should point to Him. That's the Christian life. Going shopping is not Spiritual but if you leave God at home, you leave grace, mercy, compassion, etc. home too and turn into another tired shopper, impatient and wish everyone would let you go to the head of the line. You complain and gripe about prices or if they don't have your brand. Bring Him along, you bring the other. Try it knowingly and see what a difference it makes and just how often you do leave Him at home. Oh, it's not Spiritual, we all have to shop. Yep, we do but we are the ones who can show the way to Him. The world is blind to it. Just think about that for a bit. This is no Christmas debate. Right or wrong in your eyes, follow your conscious. Like Jesus Christ told Peter when he asked what was going to happen to John at His ascension...basically, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, PETER.
My last example, but certainly not the only other one, is the story of the flood. We all heard about the Ark, flood, dove and rainbow but what we remember most (and plenty of kids' songs say it), we remember the animals. They came on in pairs! Two by two; male and female. We see pics with all the happy animals with their heads sticking out the "window" (which makes NO sense at all since there couldn't have been any windows on the ark) and there's the sun and rainbow, our beautiful and first physical covenant with God Almighty. Also, this is just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and not necessarily Biblically sound and is definitely not doctrine or teaching. I'm just to fix what we broke by believing the lies we were told by many when raising our kids who are now today's problems (or some are but it's in a large part our own fault. Feel free to agree/disagree and feedback, ideas, etc.are most welcome. That's what fellowship is for and one of the intentions of this blog...to make us think and unlearn the lies.
This is a difficult story in truth and rather than just mentioning it, rather than teach Biblical untruths, maybe we shouldn't be teaching the story of the flood to young children. Why do I feel this way? It's because only the "unclean" animals came on in pairs but the "clean" animals came in by 7s. Now we can assume it's for sacrifice, possibly food although I think at that time we were still vegetarians, or maybe it was to repopulate clean animals faster. Any, all or none may be the answer. However, we must teach our children the Bible is 100% truth. How can we then make that claim that the Bible is true once they find out we lied to them? It's a sweet, awesome story when told like this but it was a horrible event in our history. All but 8 people perished. It must have been like living in literal hell for God to destroy almost everybody He created. Maybe our misleading pretty little stories we told our kids hurt the Bible's credibility later in life. Do you remember when you learned the truth about Santa? You were disappointed and maybe felt lied to and manipulated, kinda foolish to believe in an all-powerful, all knowing, ever present being? Do those characteristics sound like Someone else we KNOW to be real? Is us teaching our kids santa is real, even with the very best of intentions, causing them to doubt our all knowing, ever present, all powerful God? Our adversary is smart, slick and evil. While God works things to the good, bad or evil, only satan works all things for evil when he can. I never cared that santa is an anagram for satan either.
The fact is, do a bit of research on where the idea of Santa originated. It's a beautiful, loving story that shows the true message of Christ Jesus. In short (research it for yourself), a very rich man named Nicolaus used all of his inheritance to help those in need and at Christmas, he made sure every child had a toy. He was just a man. He loving, generous and Godly man. What is wrong with telling our children that that's who the "real" santa was and that we Godly parents carry on his legacy of love to all we can. They can "play or pretend" santa is coming but the best mystery and gift is the love he showed.
Teach our children the truth of the Bible! Maybe more will stay in the faith when they know they were taught the truth and not pretty stories. God bless and Merry Christmas!
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