Spirit and Truth!

(John 4:24)  “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Life has so many subtle traps to it; we often do not even see them as such. Things we have come to accept as the norm and in fact if challenged with actual factual evidence there is a part to us that looks to resist even the facts withal our being. A case in point would be Christmas; if we had to go back and we bothered to study its actual origin we would be horrified. It is a pagan festival that has polluted society and left most believing that the Christmas celebration was founded by Christianity. It was not, that is a lie!

What is our instruction from the Word of God, without isolating a particular pet subject as many have their own and I would not want this now to become mine, but to say this; we, as Christian, would surely want to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, discerning good from evil.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:23-24) 

It would then therefore be good for the Christian to know the truth on all subjects, wouldn’t you agree? Although knowledge puffs up, it is also useful if applied correctly in wisdom. It should make us more in-tune to the ploys of the devil and all his traps, whatever they may be.

“The truth is that all of the customs of Christmas pre-date the birth of Jesus Christ, and a study of this would reveal that Christmas in our day is a collection of traditions and practices taken from many cultures and nations. The date of December 25th comes from Rome and was a celebration of the Italic god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god. This was done long before the birth of Jesus. It was noted by the pre-Christian Romans and other pagans, that daylight began to increase after December 22nd, when they assumed that the sun god died. These ancients believed that the sun god rose from the dead three days later as the new-born and venerable sun. Thus, they figured that to be the reason for increasing daylight. This was a cause for much wild excitement and celebration. Gift giving and merriment filled the temples of ancient Rome, as sacred priests of Saturn, called dendrophori, carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession. In Germany, the evergreen tree was used in worship and celebration of the yule god, also in observance of the resurrected sun god. The evergreen tree was a symbol of the essence of life and was regarded as a phallic symbol in fertility worship. Witches and other pagans regarded the red holly as a symbol of the menstrual blood of the queen of heaven, also known as Diana. The holly wood was used by witches to make wands. The white berries of mistletoe were believed by pagans to represent droplets of the semen of the sun god. Both holly and mistletoe were hung in doorways of temples and homes to invoke powers of fertility in those who stood beneath and kissed, causing the spirits of the god and goddess to enter them. These customs transcended the borders of Rome and Germany to the far reaches of the known world.” (Last trumpet Ministries)

There is much more we could address but that is not where I wish to go this morn, my point is this, we often overlook the simplest things as acceptable and the norm and yet they are very improper. But I want us to look a little deeper than the surface, look at the spirit behind Christmas; it is about celebration and an acknowledgement of unity to those who are not necessarily Christian in the true sense of the word.

Look at what will happen when the anti-christ comes against the two prophets of God (probably Moses and Elijah). Notice the unity and the attitude of the world, those who are not true Christians, and yet their way of celebrating the death of these prophets is to send each other gifts.

“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." (Revelation 11:3) 

“And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.” (Revelation 11:5-10) 

If we will not sit up and begin to pay attention to the obvious, where will that leave us when these real trials begin? Some say that the Christian will no longer be around when this takes place, it may well be true, time will tell! God Knows!

Nevertheless, remember blinkers were designed for race horses and not for men or woman.

I have just isolated a particular example, exposing blatant error that we choose to discount, this is but one example I could have chosen others to illustrate the many other subtle traps we by choice look to ignore. May God give us eyes to see, Amen!

This post is not about any personal vendetta against Christmas, even though I have chosen to no longer celebrate it with family and friends. It is about us becoming more alert to the delicate deceptions in life so that we can become more effective as Christians for Christ!

Signing off

Tyrone