My Thoughts

My Thoughts on Christianity and Other Things

Archive for the tag “Meaning of Christmas”

21 Dec 2017

Jesus

Who is this Jesus? What is Christmas all about? Does anyone know anymore? If you watch a modern Christmas movie on television, you get romance and… something. I don’t know, they often talk about some kind of ‘Christmas magic’. Whatever that is. But you never hear about Jesus. Is there anyone out there that knows anything about Jesus? Or even knows His name?

What is interesting is that some people who have heard the name of Jesus, are angry about it. They are angry with not only God, but also with His Son, Jesus. They say with much anger, that there is no God, and they mock the name of Jesus. What is even more interesting is they say that since they do not believe in God, or Christ, the Lord must not ever be mentioned. Not even for Christmas. Often they say they are too smart to believe in God.

Brain dead hypocrites! They place Santa Claus at the highest place of honor at Christmas. Are they saying that they are so smart as to not believe in God, yet they believe in Santa Claus!?

But who is this Jesus? What about the angels you might hear about for Christmas?

Luke 2:8-12 talks about how the shepherds were terrified by just one angel.
In Matthew 26:53 Jesus said He could ask for thousands of angels for protection and it would happen.
In Genesis 19:21 an angel agreed not to destroy a whole village for a little while.
All through the book of Revelation, it talks about angels going to war, destroying all kinds of things and killing people. Also in Revelation 21:10-14 there are twelve angels guarding the the gates of New Jerusalem.

Angels are strong powerful creatures, who can do great harm and destruction, if they choose. They can be very scary beings, not cute wimps like in some pictures.

Now for Jesus. John 3:16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

When Jesus was born in the manger, He wasn’t surrounded by cute smiling cows. These were big beasts with cow snot dripping from their nose. And the sheep were not cute little cuddly fuzzy things. These too were farm animals that may be dirty and smelly. Also don’t forget the rats. I’m sure there were rats. This is what I believe Jesus was surrounded by, when He was born.

Yet these very great and mighty angels bowed down and worshipped this small new born child. Why? Because as great and mighty these angels are, they knew this small child named Jesus is greater and mightier than any of them. Jesus is LORD of all, and nothing can change this fact.

John 1:1-5 says the Word was with God, and was God, and created everything. John 1:14 adds, the Word became human and that He is God’s one and only Son.

No wonder the angels bowed and submitted themselves to Jesus. Jesus is God! And yet He loves us so much, He became flesh just so He could die for our sins. Then He rose from the dead, with His own body, breathing and eating with others, then went up to Heaven.

Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s birth. I know some will say that Jesus was never born in December. I know. So what? It doesn’t change the fact that on December 25th we still celebrate His birth.

Christmas is all about Jesus, our Lord.

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10 Dec 2013
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Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

It’s Christmas time. Time to go to the stores and buy gifts. It’s part of our culture. And like it or not, we will hear “Happy Holidays” as we stand at the checkouts buying these gifts.

As Christians, we celebrate Christmas and not Consumer Day or some other generic holiday. So as Christians, this bothers some of us, and yet others of us say it’s no big deal.

So what do we do with store employees and stores that say “Happy Holidays”? Some say that we should boycott the stores. I’ve heard some say we should write letters demanding they say Merry Christmas. But I must ask; will boycotts change the minds of CEOs? I doubt it. What about writing letters? The main thing I see happening is they will see Christians as a bunch of angry people. But we are not angry people. We just want to remember Jesus and celebrate His birth without having this other stuff crammed down our throats. So what should we do?

First remember many people are stressed out this time of the year. Second we must remember that we must stand firm for our Lord in love. After all Jesus come so that whoever believes in Him willingly will live. Forcing Jesus on others is counter-productive. So what should we do?

I have a suggestion. I’ve done this for several years now. When someone says “Happy Holidays” to me I try to always smile (a real smile, not like an angry dog bearing its teeth) and say “Merry Christmas” back to them. When I do that two things usually happens. One they almost always smile back. Two many times they will say Merry Christmas back to you. In other words, even though they may say Happy Holidays to you, most often they will love hearing Merry Christmas back from you. So no matter what; say “Merry Christmas”.

O Holy Night sung by Kenny Rogers with the lyrics

Merry Christmas

Posted in Christianity and tagged , , ,
03 Dec 2013

Christmas

Is Christmas about joy or stress? Unfortunately for many people it’s about stress. They must do this and they must do that, and to make it worse; they feel they must buy things whether they can afford it or not.

Our culture says you must bring a tree into your home and decorate it. The last twenty years I questioned this.

God created us, and gave us life. God wanted us to live with Him and for Him. Again life. But mankind did wrong and blew it. But God loved us so much that He sent His Son to be born (again life) so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life . Again life! So to celebrate all this life, why are we suppose to bring big dead plants into our homes? Please understand, I am not against Christmas Trees. I am only questioning some of the traditions.

Another tradition I question is all this buying and selling and going into debt. Now I’m not against buying and selling and giving gifts. But come on, even the Pink Panther gets caught up in it.

OK I’ll be serious for a little bit. To be honest Christmas is very difficult for some people. Some people may be poor and can’t afford gifts for their kids. Some are part of a very large family, with lots of people to buy gifts for. On her side and your side. And what do you get them. What if Uncle Hank has everything and needs nothing? Uncle Hank even says he doesn’t need anything. But you still feel obligated to get something because the culture says if you don’t, then you’re a cheap-skate and a scrooge.

So we stress out getting trying to figure out what to get everybody, then rush home to wrap it very quickly so we can them rush off to mail it to Aunt Sally or who ever. Will they get the gift in time?

Several years ago my Dad in his wisdom said that instead of the stress of buying gifts for each other; we should use the money we would spend and give it to a charity of our own choice. That removed so much stress; it’s great. Of course we still get gifts for the kids.

What about Santa Clause and his reindeer friends? This has been part of our culture for generations. As far as I know, this Santa Clause has little to do with what Christmas is really about. I like what someone told me a long time ago. He said that in the beginning he and his wife told their kids there was no Santa Clause and that it’s all pretend. They did tell their kids about St. Nicholas also told them that Christmas is really about celebrating the birth of our savior Jesus. It’s OK to pretend and have fun, just remember it’s all about Jesus.

So they put up a Christmas tree and all that other stuff, and the kids have fun sitting on Santa’s lap; but they still know the truth.

Christmas was never meant to be about stress but about life. A verse that I have quoted many times in the past is John 3:16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. This Son named Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The same Bethlehem that is in Israel today.

Here is a little song with a Norwegian accent. I’m glad it has the words. I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas

This next song is also in a Norwegian accent. Unfortunately I couldn’t find one with the words. It’s hard to understand, but there’s enough movement that I hope many deaf and hard hearing people will enjoy it. Walking In My Winter Underwear

This last song is not silly a song, but instead is about Jesus Himself. Many people like this song. I hope you will too. Mary Did You Know

Merry Christmas

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