Christmas time

There is a relaxing beauty trapped within the South African bushveld that cannot be easily replaced. Even though the hum of the air conditioner does its best to break the tranquillity of the soothing bustle as the birds and insects converse across the grasslands, thankfully I am able to distant that droning interference and just take in the moment. Similarly just like a cool pool is able to relieve an individual from the baking sun, so too does the bushveld calm me from all anxiety. As Christian we have all been commanded to be anxious for nothing! Easier said than done! Nevertheless a post we must aim for in Christ.

I have lived enough to understand the power of substance abuse, all it really achieves is an escape from reality, and only for a time. It is the “silly season” the Christmas holidays that affords so many individuals an excuse to indulge in a pass to excuse the flesh of some of its captivating pleasure as acceptable. And sure, the older we get, the better we become at disguising what we know to be an abomination to our heavenly Father from others. King Solomon understood this well. If it wasn’t for the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and his mind, “the mind of Christ” we would all be in serious danger of hell fire. But praise be to Him that although Christmas has been high jacked by Satan and his followers and many a Cristian has been taken by his plot to deviate from how we should conduct ourselves over this time and because we have His Spirit we are not totally fooled by the masses, praise God for this!

All I ask is that we be honest with ourselves and to all the Christian parents that still engage it the Christmas spirit with Santa Claus as a big part of the festivities, please refrain from the trickery of it all. It really helps no one in the bigger scheme of things. Especially ones children, all it achieves is to confuse them. It’s a unique idea that takes their eyes of Christ and places it onto someone else and promotes lies as acceptable.

The reason the Christian lives is to worship our glorious king, this concept may well be foreign to the masses, however, the Christian is well aware of the truth of this statement or at least should be. Jesus died so that we could be set free, there is no greater thought above or beyond the universe. Jesus paid the price for my sin, WOW! So why would I ever want to allow the decay of the Christmas festivities to deviate from that truth, I have made up my mind and I will stand firm on my persuasion. 

Although there may be many things we do that are barely acceptable to our heavenly Father and the idea of chopping down trees (mentioned in the book of Jeremiah) and decorating then with shiny things in the name of Christ could well be amongst that list, however doing it in the name of father Christmas is certainly not one of them. That in itself falls under an abomination before God. It is obvious that God is a jealous God and He will not share His glory with another, especially when his arch rival the devil is behind it all. Just so long as peoples attentions deviate from God’s intervention in sending a Saviour into the world so that individuals would recognize their sin and understand that they need to be saved from themselves and that God has afforded us all a chance to repent and call upon the name of His beloved Son our glorious Saviour to find forgiveness and be ushered into the fold of the only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We must make up our minds, is Christmas a day to be celebrated as the birth of Christ, which is obviously not accurate if we had to study the actual times and seasons of Christs birth. A day introduced by the Catholic Church many years ago; it is a day that appeared in our calendar somewhere along the path of history as it was smuggled into our timetables and given its place. Then interestingly enough Santa Claus appeared on the same day and not another, just to throw in another “straw-man” so that the world could shift their attention to an alternative with great success. As Christians it is up to us to set the tone, especially when it comes to our families, without the hard conversations we may never be faithful in sharing the gospel effectively with those who have shunned Christ’s sacrifice.

Make a stand for our great King, the One who bled and died so that could have our names penned into the book of life, so what if you take a little heat in the kitchen standing over a steaming pot as your sister-in-law is force to address the issues of Christmas for the sake of the gospel and the sake of her families souls.

Many years ago and after just a little study I was convince about the truth of Christmas and by the grace of God have stood my ground. Whatever your conclusion, be firm on it but above all use this time to point people to Christ!

  

May the strength of Christs Spirit persuade all of this certainty and may it help turn the corner for the fence sitters.

Signing off

Tyrone