A MEDITATION ON CHRISTMAS

When I meditate on this time of the year and on what we call the Christmas (word not found in the KJV of the Bible) season I must conclude this is the most divisive time of the year just ahead of Easter. I wonder why these two holidays divide so many people in the world. Now I will tell you from the start Karen and I do not celebrate Christmas how can we the word is not in the KJV Bible, but we do celebrate the birth of our precious LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. As Christianity began to spread many were alarmed by the continuing celebration of pagan customs among their converts. We even see this throughout the New Testament Church as Paul constantly battled against pagan and cultural traditions from taking root in the young Church. At first the Church forbade this kind of celebration. But it was to no avail. Bible historians claim that the Christmas celebration was invented to compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also to the Persians (Babylonian Chaldeans) whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. Oddly enough it was during this period the three Wise Men (also Magi) (Matthew 2:1) learned of the Star of Bethlehem by reading the prophecies of Daniel the Great Magi (Daniel 1:1-7). Sadly this religious deception continues today, even though the faces and names has been changed the spirit and intent has not. We Christians seem to be good at making up things to satisfy our flesh for fulfillment. Now as I said Karen and I do celebrate the birth of Christ, there is a huge difference. As we watch the news we cannot believe all of the fighting to keep Christ in Christmas. Where in the Bible did Jesus ask us to remember His birth? Now I can find plenty of Scriptures in the Bible where Jesus has asked us to remember His death, “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (1 Corinthians 11:24-26) Who wants to remember Jesus’ death when we can remember His birth? Yet few Christians really remember His death (Romans 6:3) while they go crazy in remembering His birth. I wonder why? Yes there is a wonderful story about the birth of Jesus in the Bible, but where are we commanded to make His birth an annual holiday like we in American have made: Independence, Veterans, or Valentine Day even Halloween? And when you merge religious with traditions and customs you have an unbeatable national money maker. Is not Jesus’ birth much more? Yes my friend I am afraid we have gotten off track and the merchants of the day (and for 100s of years) have capitalized on our selfish greed (maybe only in America, but I think not) and great presumption. The same way Hollywood has recently discovered the untapped market for Christian movies. I find it really strange how many Christians today would rather go to a movie then to Church to hear about Jesus. I wonder why? It is not about fighting to keep Christ in Christmas or even about a baby in the manger. You know we really like seeing baby Jesus in the manger, but you know my friend Jesus is not a baby any more, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34) Today Jesus is not a defenseless baby in the manger He is our victorious King of kings, Lord of lords, and some day soon He is coming back to earth not as a baby, but as a judge (to kick butt) and rule (to set righteousness in order) in the earth. Something else we are puzzled about is why Christians want to beat up on the Atheist in Washington State who put a sign beside a manger display in the Capitol building. I thought we were to witness to them and tell them about Jesus? There is not much of a Christian witness when we shake our fist and gnash our teeth at someone over a wooden display. How can this sign destroy the eternal timeless message of our precious savior Jesus Christ? It cannot and will not. Has the love of God been displaced by Christians wanting their traditional religious symbols? I too can speak for God and sadly I must say yes. Jesus did not come so that we could decorate our trees and yard with gold and silver balls or blinking lights. Jesus did not come so Christians could deck the halls with a blow up Santa Claus and reindeer on their roofs and lawn. What do we do with these verses? “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not.” (Jeremiah 10:2-4) Maybe we should ignore them or maybe the Holy Spirit made a mistake? I think God is very clear in what He is saying, but we continue in the lie with Christmas trees (a German custom) out from our American tradition (now transported to the world) and because we do not want to offend family members. Just look at the Christmas trees in churches today? What do we do with these verses? The answer will be what we do with Jesus. Never forget the Gospel message of Christ is very offensive and at times even divisive to the non-believers, but truth is truth. Either we will stand for truth or compromise for the lie for the sake of peace on earth. The truth is Jesus did not come so we could have songs to sing at our annual Christmas musicals. It is amazing how old Christmas recordings from people long ago come back to life every Christmas. Jesus did not come so we could run ourselves to death, buying presents for people, while going further into debt. It is no wonder support in America for missionaries and humanitarian programs dwindle to almost to nothing this season of the year. I am afraid the true character and nature of man comes out during Christmas. We even plug in a written list to a jolly fat man in a red suit that drives a sleigh of reindeer around the world in one night to make sure we get want we what for Christmas. Why do we think we should get a present on some one else’s birthday? Our selfishness and self-centered nature really comes shining through. Oh Lord please forgive us for the indulgence of our wrong attitudes, greed, and lust. Jesus did not come to give us a Christmas season to feed our passions. The Bible is very clear why Jesus came. Jesus tells us in His own words, “The thief (not the devil) cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Jesus came so that we “might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” not to get a bunch of Christmas presents to satisfy our flesh. Jesus came so that we might (our choice not His) have the life of God dwelling within our heart and lives. The creative eternal life of God moving in us and out from us to the world. Also in John Jesus tells us, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) Jesus came so that we might have life eternal (one part of salvation) which is knowing His Father (and ours), so that we too could “know the only true God” as Jesus did. So we too could know the sublime unity of knowing God as Jesus did. I would think that would be worth far more than anything we can buy each other. Did you know, Jesus (even though the Prince of Peace) did not come into the world to bring peace as many of the major denominations and religions of the world tell us. Religious deception always leads us away from Christ into the traditional religious worship of the customs of man (like Christmas and Easter) and into a good works salvation thinking. Oh no Jesus Himself said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I am come to set a man at variance (Strong’s #1639 to cut into two parts, cleave asunder, sever) against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. 37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39) Jesus has come to cut our hearts out of the world with His word, the sword. Jesus has “come to set man at variance against” or sever every relationship where we love someone or something more than Him. Jesus came so that we could take up our cross (not Jesus’) and follow Him. Jesus came so we could lose our life so that we could then find our life in Him. We know and are persuaded if we lose our life for His sake we shall find it. We also know many of our friends will disagree (we hope and pray this is not the case) with this article, but that is okay getting the truth of the Gospel message out is more important than our friends getting offended at us. If they get offended at us over this article we know they probably are not our friends anyway. We have learned this truth the hard way. Please do not allow yourself to be deceived (your choice) by any pastor or person that says, “it is not a Heaven or Hell issue or it does not really matter” oh really? This thinking my friend is just spiritually wrong and a very subtle form of deception that has been carried on for 100s maybe 1,000s of years by the religious denominations and merchants both working hand-n-hand to get customers. Sadly at the heart of why we focus on the Christmas story and baby Jesus in the manger is so we do not have to deal with a risen Savior. How much more religious can we (like the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17)) who could not totally sell out be than to bow down and worship the Christmas story and the sweet little baby Jesus in the manger? This satisfies our religious flesh and helps to ease our guilt and feeling of disobedience from rejecting God’s word to us. Who wants to allow God to deal and judge in their hearts exposing areas where we must allow Him to work? It is much easier singing another song about Christmas as we buy presents for our family or even as we buy a present for some poor people who live down the street who we neglect the rest of the year. It is far less painful to go to every church musical and spend all we have than for God to be able to show us who we really are. Who wants to allow God free rein in our heart and lives to conform us into the image (icon) and character of Jesus Christ? Very few people do and the rest continue in this traditional religious lie year after year. I think I will end with a very sobering word; if you need a traditional religious holiday to know God sadly my friend your heart is very far from Him and you will never come to know Him. Let us turn our hearts away from the religious traditions of Christmas and allow God to bring the truth of His character and nature to us. It is our choice whether we desire presents on Christmas morning or the knowledge of God, we cannot have both.

WTFMT-39 HGM on 20 Dec 2016

WILDERNESS TRUTHS FOR MODERN TIMES-39   (Without Margin Notes)

TEXT: "Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore: Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink. For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing." (Deuteronomy-7)

 

I. THE CHANGING OF PATTERNS

A. When God, in training us, calls us from a particular situation, do not be overjoyed. He may be calling us to even a more difficult situations.

B. God will bring us from one pattern to another. The children of Israel never had to buy water; they never had to buy meat. But now they do. Things are not as easy as they used to be. Training does not get easier; it gets harder. But, as we are being trained, we are gaining strength and are growing in Him.

C. Do not allow changing patterns to discourage your dedication to the Lord. Changing patterns are an absolute necessary. Today you wear size 10. Tomorrow you will wear size 12. God will change your patterns to suit your growing needs.

D. In addition to patterns changes in circumstances and training, even prayer patterns will change. As there are changes in the outward natural and physical patterns, there will be changes in the outward and inner spiritual patterns.

E. As our patterns change so does our understanding and knowledge of God. We then see His love in a greater way, as such as never seen before.

F. This love of God for His people contains a tremendous desire to give. His ultimate giving is not seen in the things He provides, but in His giving Himself. God wants to share Himself with His people to such an extent that we become partakers of His divine nature. This is what the Peter expresses, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (II Peter 1:4)

G. This is quite a task God has, getting into us His own character. Partaking of the divine nature lays the foundation for the partaking of His character. Partaking of the divine nature is instantaneous at the new birth, the divine character, however, takes a lifetime.

H. God must put a divine character in one who is filled with "undivine" characteristics. In order for the love of God to become characteristics in us, hate must be eliminated. In order for the dedication of God to become characteristic in us dedication to self must be eliminated. In order for God's spirit of giving to become characteristic in us, selfishness must be eliminated.

I. God puts the squeeze on us, to squeeze out certain juices in order to make room for other kinds.

J. If we know what God is up to when the pressure is on, when the fire is burning the dross, we can better maintain our personal dedication. When we understand what God is doing and why, we will more readily endure the fire and the valley of the shadow of death.

K. God's peace will not characterize one is whom there is unrest. In order for God to work divine trust into us, He must squeeze out that "undivine" doubt. This is the reason for the wilderness and the trials. Every trial, every circumstance, every experience, will be tailored our personal being and needs.

L. Through all the testings and times of enlargement of God is translating truth into our life and living. Know this and be faithful to Him. Know the Truth for the Truth will make us free to live it.

II. PARTING THOUGHTS

A. There is so much to know of the things of God. But knowing is not enough. Someone may explain faith to you. You may read six books on faith. But all that does not cause you to live it, nor even to have it. God by His Spirit must translate that truth to our life. Do not be to concerned about how He does it. We just be willing to endure whatever it takes to get these things of God into our everyday living.

B. God's work within us, in order to develop us into His image, may at times be unpleasant. Some believers consider these unpleasantries evil. I wonder where they get this. It does not come from the Bible.

C. The thinking that adversity is evil comes from certain logical conclusions drawn from particular truths. But God does not operate on logical conclusions. The apostle Paul certainly did not come to such a logical conclusion. Paul saw glory in the suffering, rather than evil. "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Hebrews 2:9) Paul saw that the suffering works a very great glory in us.

REACHING GOD

The "nominal" church (remember we are the true church, the Bride of Christ not a denomination or organization) today has done a poor job at best in helping the people get to God. Paul in Ephesians shared this truth to the Church at Ephesus to establish a base line of thinking and to lay a foundation in them that would enable them to rightly understand the functioning and the power of this mystical body. Paul writes, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:" (Ephesians 4:11-13) Notice the giving of "apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers" was not for the edifying of the church, but for "the body of Christ." There is a huge difference. And the job of the "apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers" was for "the perfecting of the saints" to enable and empower (through teaching and personal example) the people to be able to reach God not be entertained. Again not the perfecting of the church. The goal was for us to come "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:" God's idea was for us to be conformed into the stature and character of Jesus Christ not build some organization. We my friend are the church, "we are the workmanship of God . . . " (Ephesians 2:10) Sadly, we (the apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists, and some, pastors, and teachers) have taught the people how to sing, dance, do skits and dramas, pray (to a certain degree), give money to the church, do good works (feeding and clothing the poor), even traveling the world in missions under the banner of the "great commission," but have miserably failed to teach the people how to reach God for themselves. And why? Well if the people can reach God for themselves there is no need for a pastor to call when they need something from God. There will be no need for a pastor to pray over them or even intercede on their behalf in their time of crisis or time of need. Now there are times when we must come for prayer, but this is often a stop gap method and should never be the norm in our daily Christian walk. At times the LORD will direct us to someone who does have a call on their life in spiritual gifts, but that is a very very small portion of the Body of Christ. Most Spiritual gifts I would say 90% of the Spiritual gifts are for the administration (see 1 Corinthians 12:28) of the day to day running and operation of a local body of Believers. Somehow (I am sure due to our self-important thinking) we all have gotten it backwards thinking we all have Spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 for the Body of Christ. This is an old trick to keep people involved and coming to church like giving people certain jobs just to keep them at the church. I have seen this for years. Now the LORD will use us, but very few are called by God to be "apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers," but the rest are called to be pew sitters and the better pew sitters we are the better God can be to the Body of Christ. Back in the late 70s there was a notable shift in the delivery of the Gospel message from evangelism to teaching. Everyone was suddenly teachers and scholars. It was like when we had our church in Germany many of the African pastors living in Africa were just that pastors or lay leaders, but somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea they became apostles, prophets, and bishops. Magically they were transformed in the Spirit so they could have a bigger title (how the church is influenced by titles) and name to fleece the flock more completely. The title Jesus gave Himself knowing He was the Son of God was the "Son of man." Is the servant greater than the Master? How we like to have Dr. and letters added behind our name. Funny how we can help plant a church and now we are called bishop or "Bish" by our close friends. Do we really think adding titles to our names is going to help us get people to know God? The goal is not to add to our selves, but to help people come to know God. When we started our church in Germany after every service I would "open up the altar" (not sure what that really means) for those who wanted prayer, well Sunday after Sunday the same people would come forward asking for the same things week after week. After a while of this and getting phone calls in the middle of the night I saw I was teaching the people to bypass God and come to me or come to me to get to God. Either way both are 100% wrong. God must be first in our lives and first on our lips when we reach out. This what Jesus taught the disciples in Luke in what we call the LORD's prayer. "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil." (Luke 11:1-4) I always found it odd that John the Baptist could teach His disciples to pray before Jesus could teach his disciples. Jesus taught the disciples to pray "abba Father" or direct address to the Father. Now the disciples thought this to be strange because they as good Jews have been taught to pray "avia Father" or around through to the Father. Every Christmas season many folks sing a song called "Avia Maria" which means salvation through Maria. Jesus was teaching His disciples prayer it is not around through to the Father, but direct address to the Father. This too is what we need to teach our folks to pray (which is translated many ways: comforter, asking, beseeching, but most translated direct address) directly to the Father and do not go through anyone that means your pastor, teacher, mentor, friend, whomever. I saw in reality my job was to work myself out of a job. The more I could do to get our folks to do for themselves the better off they were in God and the more time I had for my time with the LORD and my family. How liberating this was. So that is what I did. I took my hands off the reins and let the folks do what God had called them to do. It was wonderful. I would come to service at 10:45 (unless I wanted to go to Sunday School) and take my place in the audience and when I was called by Joseph (our assistant pastor) to minister the word or talk about something we are doing. If not I did not need to be seen or get involved. Everyone knew who and what I was, no need to tell everyone. Anyway how else are the leaders of Christliche Gemeinde Stuttgart (our church) going to learn how to be better leaders? How else are they going to learn how to succeed or fail? My Bible Teacher Charles Haun said he was not a teacher (only the Holy Spirit can teach us), but a dispenser. I have thought about that over these many years and you know he is right. We can teach no one anything. All we can do is dispense to other to one another what God has put in us. That should be our goal. To dispense God out from our lives helping others reach God is some way. As we look forward to 2017 and beyond we better be able to get to God on our own if not we will never make it and then what will we do?