Tag Archives: Jesus Christ

For Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas – some things to consider (revised)

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J. M. Chełmoński Partridges in the snow Public Domain via Wikimedia

Reality

The assumption that Christmas is a Christian holiday is nearly universal.

It is an institution, an extraordinary cultural phenomenon, and it is promoted by both believers and those who don’t believe.

Rightly or wrongly, it is also seen as a time when people are more open to the Gospel, so that it has the vote of those whose chief desire is to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.

In other words, Christmas is HUGE, and while we need to warn other Christians about its origins and practices, we need to realize that nothing is going to change unless it is God’s good pleasure. 

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Some thoughts and a little advice

Unless people are pressuring you to participate, you can pay almost no attention to it except at certain times.  

If you don’t celebrate for reasons of conscience, your conscience will be at peace, and this is a good and happy thing when you’re innocent of any particular wrongdoing. 

Remember that the Lord commanded Israel not to adopt the customs of the nations, that their disobedience was meant to teach us, and that your stance is Biblical.

Jeremiah 10:1-2a

Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: 2 thus saith the Lord,

Learn not the way of the heathen,

1 Corinthians 10:11

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

If you watch TV, and enjoy the Hallmark Channel, avoid it for now. Their Christmas movies are appealing, even when they include one of the biggest lies – Santa. Also, Hallmark has been a part of Christmas for decades, and they have a financial reason for promoting this day.

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 

You may still suffer depression, no matter how hard you try to control your thought life and feelings. People are fragile and have little say in what goes on in the larger world around us. So stay in prayer and God’s Word. 

When you see Christmas lights still up in February, don’t complain about the people who do this. Pray that the Lord will grant them repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, Who is the Light of the world (John 8:12).

To say that in some way Jesus is coming to us again this December, as if for the very first time, is unreal and untrue, and reflects pagan thinking that has to do with the notion that time is cyclical. The Lord can’t come for the first time every December, anymore than He can die on the cross every spring or in each “sacrifice of the Mass.” Jesus will return to us one day, maybe very soon, and this is our hope which is grounded in reality. Truth has nothing to do with cycles that are pointless and neverending. It runs in a straight line, moving forward purposefully in time toward the goal of the Lord’s return and His actual physical presence with us forever. So take heart, and declare with Job, 

For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

Job 19:25

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Despite what we see, is God’s church holy? What the Bibles says.

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1 Peter 1:1,2

King James Version 

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

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Hebrews 2:11

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

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Recently, I had a disagreement with another blogger about the condition of the church in our times. When I used the term “the Holy Church,” the blogger let me know that this term isn’t found anywhere in the Bible. I checked and found that this is true, but that the Bible has many things to say about the holiness of the church – Christ’s body, His people. 

Obviously, Christians aren’t holy in themselves. By nature, we were all children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Only the Lord is Holy (Revelation 15:4). But here are some of the many of the verses I found that reveal the holiness of the church that Jesus Christ, the Holy One, the Most Holy (Daniel 9:24), purchased with His own blood.

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The Lord has declared that we are God’s holy temple.

1 Corinthians 3:17

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

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The Lord means to present us as holy.

Colossians 1:21-22

21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

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We have a holy calling.

2 Timothy 1:9

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

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He commands us to be holy.

1 Peter 1:14-16

14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

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He tells us we are a holy priesthood and nation.

1 Peter 2:5

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;

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We are holy because Israel is holy.

Romans 11

15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

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We are called “the holy brethren.”

1 Thessalonians 5:27

I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.

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Our faith is holy.

Jude 1:20

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

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Our children are holy.

1 Corinthians 7:14

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

 

Our hands are holy.

1 Timothy 2:8

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

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We have part in the first resurrection.

Revelation 20:6

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

 

The city in which we have our true citizenship is holy.

Revelation 21:2

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

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Don’t be cast down when you see evil in the church. The Lord will remove and destroy every enemy among us, the tares planted by the Devil in the midst of God’s wheat. The Lord is making us ready to meet Him, and as His bride, we are preparing ourselves for perfect happiness.  

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