Some thoughts on Christmas
So for sometime I have debated with myself if I should post this note, and I finally decided I should. For the past few years I have been practicing a personal policy of not giving gifts to people for Christmas, because if I did it would just be fulfilling some sort of empty cultural obligation which kinda makes me sick. For to me the whole season to me is just completed sick and twisted, it is the epitome of the celebration of the human condition, a completely selfish and sinful state. Some will disagree with me and say that they go and do good deeds during this time but they forget that the reason they do though kind acts is so that they feel like they are being good people, and maybe to earn credit/merit to obtain a heavenly reward. I am not advocating that we should stop doing good to others, that would go against all biblical teaching. I recognize that those who read this will be a mixed audience, the redeemed and the non-believer, but it will be good for both groups to hear this, our first priority is not to serve man, it is to worship and glorify God. We must recognize the incredible depravity in which we exist, that all of us are irrevocably damned by our sin and it is only through divine intervention that we can be saved and that is what Christmas is about, not family, not tradition, not serving man, not buying gifts, it is the Incarnation! It is God being so infinitely merciful that he sent his Son to live with us, rebels against the Sovereign, and to pay for our sins and to redeem his church. Christmas can only find meaning and virtue in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christmas in its current state in the West is an orgy of worship for materialism and the fallenness of mankind, giving hundreds and thousands of dollars to spoiled brats, pointing their minds and hearts to death rather than teaching them of the Messiah, where life is found.
About the only thing that really gets me excited about Christmas is to read the Old Testament, to see the darkened state of Israel, God's chosen people and then read the prophecies of the Messiah, knowing and reflecting on how they have been fulfilled Jesus Christ! Thus I propose a challenge to everyone who reads this: read through the Old Testament seeking out the messianic prophecies, and then think about how sinful and wicked your life is and reflect on the fact that you do deserve heaven as a reward for your life because no one is good enough for heaven. Then think about how if you do want to live a fruitful life, a life that does good and then at the end of it is gifted with eternal life. This is only possible with a savior, the person of Christ, the Incarnated God, Emmanuel.
"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life - and the life manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us - what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."
-1 John 1:1-5 (NASB)
About the only thing that really gets me excited about Christmas is to read the Old Testament, to see the darkened state of Israel, God's chosen people and then read the prophecies of the Messiah, knowing and reflecting on how they have been fulfilled Jesus Christ! Thus I propose a challenge to everyone who reads this: read through the Old Testament seeking out the messianic prophecies, and then think about how sinful and wicked your life is and reflect on the fact that you do deserve heaven as a reward for your life because no one is good enough for heaven. Then think about how if you do want to live a fruitful life, a life that does good and then at the end of it is gifted with eternal life. This is only possible with a savior, the person of Christ, the Incarnated God, Emmanuel.
"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life - and the life manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us - what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."
-1 John 1:1-5 (NASB)