Christmas? Bah Humbug?

No one has suggested a topic for September, but I thought I would write about Christmas as I did last December here.

One blogger has written four posts called "Christmas and Holy Time, Seasons of Scrutiny". Calvinised Pipe The CP blogger quotes Dr. Richard P. Bucher in Christmas is Not Pagan:

The problem was not that the Galatians were observing holy days and seasons. It is that they were being taught that such observances were necessary for their salvation, a complete contradiction of the Gospel that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Similarly, to observe Christmas because you believe to not do so would be sinful is wrong and you would fall under Paul’s exhortation in Gal. 4 & 5. But to observe Christmas in your Christian freedom, because you choose to, not because you have to, is completely permitted before God.

A Puritan's Mind uses Regulative Principal is the proof for not celebrating Christmas, but allowing certain traditions such as "Frosty the Snowman." This is incredible to me--go secular but do not celebrate Christmas!

Pastor Todd Ruddell has a thoughtful sermon with emphasis on Exodus 32:1-8, Jeremiah 10:1-16, Colossians 2:16-23, 2 Chronicles 34:1-7 and Matthew 28:18-20.

Expense and Trouble of Christmas Giving. Some of our extended family do not give gifts anymore and I don't believe it is because they are Reformed. I prefer to give, even though we are on a strict budget. Giving gives me joy and of course I can do that all year long. The wise men brought gifts to Jesus. I have learned to not expect gifts from people anyway. I like phone calls and face-to-face conversations the best. I no longer want my husband to put lights up on the house--he has fallen off a ladder once, and the joy of the season doesn't have to mean elaborate decorations.

My husband and my pastors have NOT spoken against celebrating Christmas, but we don't make it a part of worship at all.  I also see in Romans 14:5 that everyone must be convinced in his own mind.  Colossians 2 says to not let anyone judge you in respect to festivals, or meat or drink.

I am thinking that it might be a stumbling block to our neighbors were we not to observe Christmas.  We started an annual neighborhood Christmas party when we moved to this house in 1991 and I enjoy having decorations for the real meaning of Christ’s birth in our home when others have been over. Except for the new Social Media, Christmas cards are almost the only way many friends and extended family all over the country keep in touch these days. We send out an annual letter and I think we can do this in November this year and thereby not offend those who do not celebrate the tradition of Christmas.  Romans 14 also talks about the principles of peace, joy, mutual upbuilding and faith. 

Cultish for a Christian to not celebrate Christmas? Is this the same logic as Jehovah Witnesses who do not pledge allegience to the flag of America? How far should we take this? Not use pictures of Calvin and Luther in case that has reverberations? What do you think, gentle reader?

God's will for my life: Today, I'm sick.

Selling God's grace at a deep discount.



That's how it goes. We all were coming down with something. Pastor Greg said he was getting over a cold. Pastor Gary had one already. I was coming down with one. But wait just a second. This isn't supposed to happen to a Christian, is it?

Well, in this edition of Radical Grace Radio, we had no choice but to talk about finding God's will for your life, since literally billions of dollars have been spent on self helps books and seminars, prayer beads and trips to faraway places. It seems like people everywhere are seeking God's will for their lives.

Well, there's a couple of things that come to mind here. One, is this: If you're a believer in Christ, and you're in him, how much in God's will can you be? Think about this. Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now had sold over 2.5 million copies as of May 23rd, 2005. It's 2010 now, and he's written another book, Become a Better You, which sold out it's first printing of 4 million copies in 2007... That's a lot of money spent on self help, just on these two books alone.

I know how Christians are thinking. They worry, day by day, that they are NOT making the cut. It's no wonder, since the world trains us to think this way. You have to work, and you have to do well at what your vocation is if you want to keep working. That's how the world works, and that's how we're trained to think. So of course we think this way with regards to God and all He does.

But Here I'm not going to take the usual take on this *. I'm going to, instead, suggest that what's going on here is unbelief. See, for the average believer (like all of us), we look around and it's very hard to see what God is doing in our everyday lives. With eyes of faith we believe that God is doing things in our lives, but it's very difficult to stay in that sort of mindset. So, we either make the move to help God along by learning to be more cooperative with Him, or we secretly harbor the notion that God isn't as interested in what's going on in our lives as we'd like.

Take Abraham, for instance. He had the sure promise that he was going to have a son as his heir. God said it would happen, but Abraham (then Abram) eventually agreed to sleep with his maidservant, Hagar. Now, I'm not suggesting that Abraham became an unbeliever, because St. Paul tells us that Abraham didn't waver in his belief in the Promise... Yet, he did still sleep with Hagar, didn't he?

I think this shows just how desperate we fallen sinners really are. Even when we can remain in faith, we have a severe problem with remaining faithful. Paul tells us that Abraham didn't waver in his faith, yet he did fail to remain faithful.

Just goes to show you. We're such smart alecks, and so smug. But what do we do, nearly every day? We sell God's grace at a deep discount. We have to learn to unlearn this way of thinking quickly. God is always involved in our lives.

"I am with you always even till the end of the age".




God's will for my Life: Today I'm sick

Ex Christians: Broken by Spiritual Gifts?

Misapplication of Spiritual Gifts




In this edition of Radical Grace Radio, we talk about how the Spiritual Gifts are misapplied in such a way that Christians wind up broken and sorrowful.

There was a woman at my old church, which was a Pentacostal Church, who was scheduled to recieve her "annointing" one night after many weeks of being taught about fruits of the spirit. All the people who attended classes came up front to be prayed over and begin speaking in tongues... but when it came to be her turn, she didn't start speaking in tongues. She was inconsolable. She thought that since she didn't speak in tongues that God had rejected her! After all, if she learns what she needs to do, and does them faithfully, but she doesn't get the annointing to speak in tongues, what could that possibly mean?

That's why we do this program. We have no choice but to offer a corrective for stuff like this. People's souls are riding on it.




Ex_Christians: Broken by Spiritual Gifts?