- Christmas! by Ready2Rapture
18 y
3,370 12 Messages Shown
Blog: Bible Study
That’s right, I said it. December 25th isn’t Generic Winter Holiday, or The Holidays, or Season’s Greetings Day, it’s Christmas.
Ever ask yourself: Why is December 25th a national holiday, and no other day in December? Why is it a "season of peace and goodwill"? Why do people buy each other gifts to exchange on that day?
Secular though it may be, and pagan in origin as many of its elements are, the "problem" is that Word— Christ. Anything but that, in today’s PC world. They hate Him so much they want his Name stricken from every facet of public life. They want history revised to ignore the most influential Individual who ever walked the earth. They want a sterile, Jesus-free zone. They don’t want Immanuel ("God with us"), they want him out of their faces.
Now it’s true that the likelihood of Jesus having been born on that actual day is pretty well zero, but that’s beside the point. The Bible never tells us to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, but that’s beside the point too. The point is that Jesus is Public Enemy Number One in the world, and they hate Him and any nation that still dares to breathe his Name. So they scream and stomp their feet and plug their ears and destroy all they can, because they are spoiled little brats that must have their own way. Tolerance is out the window when it comes to Jesus.
But He’s not going away! He’ll give those peoople enough rope to hang themselves. They will appear to succeed for a time, but the party will be short-lived. Soon the Name of Jesus will be revered again, and the PC Police will be jailed. And that time is approaching fast. So take heart Christians, our Day will come.
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Ready2Rapture
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- Jesus is the reason for the season!!! by White Tiger
18 y
1,446
Hi Ready2Rapture :)
Jesus is the reason for the season!!!
'Twas The Night Before Jesus Came'
'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.
The children were dressing to crawl into bed.
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.
When out of the East there arose such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!
When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!
The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.
In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.
The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound.
While all the rest were left standing around.
I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.
In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!
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White Tiger
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- Re: Jesus is the reason for the season!!! by Ready2Rapture
18 y
1,925
That's a great poem WT, thanks for sharing.
By any chance do you know who the author is? I'm pretty sure I've seen it or something like it before.
This whole "don't say Christmas" thing reminds me of the words to a Newsboys song, "I'm not ashamed", where it says somethiing like...
What are we sneakin' around for?
Who we trying' to please?
(...can't make out what he says here but it ends in "sins"), Apologizin' like we're
spreadin' some kind of disease
In a world where people like Gould are pushinig hard to get Christianity defined officially as a mental illness, we need all the more to exercise our rights of free speech before the UN takes them away.
"The Lord giveth; the Government taketh away."
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Ready2Rapture
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- Re: Jesus is the reason for the season!!! by kerminator
18 y
1,582
You guys are correct the whole & real reason is to celebrate least we forget the meaning of the birth of Jesus...
Ya, we know that he was most likely born in the Spring of 02 BC, (BTW: notice how they have introduced this " Before Current Era " crap; to try & cover up any reference to him) and many other not so correct things, BUT still the reason for Christmas is the remembrance of HIS Birth!! They could have picked any other day, but it all comes back to the actual celebration...
It is too bad that many people still only think of others at this time of year... Most people are only interested in Getting something at Christmas time... I think that just a simple single reminder type gift would be more appropriate for exchanges in place of all the other multitude of stuff exchanged... It many cases it borders on greed and attempting to give something in order to get an advantage or more favorable treatment from others... HUH!!
Lets learn the who, what and why of Christmas; if anyone out there in CZ land is confused let me know and we will talk... Enjoy a blessed Christmas... Kermit
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kerminator
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- "gift exchange" by Ready2Rapture
18 y
1,747
You guys wouldn't believe what such a simple phrase can do to rip apart a family, all of whose members are Christians!
I have a lot of relatives, and we have had Christmas gift exchanges in the past. Due to the quantity of persons involved, we had always drawn names from a hat to make sure everybody got at least one gift. We also decided on a ballpark figure for the cost of each gift, all in the name of "fairness".
But this year I opened my big mouth and said "Time out! Are we Christians or communists? Here we are turning gift giving into a social engineering project that would make a CPA blush. How can it be possible to give in the true sense of the word, while demanding an even exchange in quantity and quality? Did we give something back to Jesus, or just gratefully accept what we could never earn? To truly give, we'd have to put no restrictions on it, and instead of calling it an exchange, it would just be a time of expressing our appreciation of others as each one felt so moved. In fact, "gift exchange" is turned into an oxymoron when it comes not from the heart but from the checkbook."
My words were twisted beyond recognition. It came back to me as "So Christmas is a time of disappointment and unfairness then! It's a time for the rich to flaunt their wealth by buying expensive gifts, so the poor are made to look less generous!"
I was sorely tempted to point out to the individual making these statements that they had the biggest house on the nicest lot of all the families, so should we all take that as flaunting wealth and making the rest of us feel bad? But I bit my tongue-- which then earned me the reputation of giving everyone the silent treatment.
So I said that, in order to not rain on their parade, I have no intention of participating in further such "exchanges"-- which on top of "the silent treatment" has earned me the title Scrooge. What a mess! And all because I thought we had lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas. It hasn't even arrived yet, and already I feel robbed. I can no longer give anyone a gift without also buying gifts for everyone I'm related to, and they must all be the same price. There are social customs, and then there are bureaucratic nightmares.
All of which proves only that Christians are human, that we are not a bunch of robots that all look and think the same, and that no matter how mixed up we get, we still all agree that God gaves us a priceless Gift. No matter how commercially, legalistically, or selfishly we do it, the fact is that we still remember someone named Jesus who offers salvation as a free gift to anyone who asks. He demands nothing in return, as if a gift could be earned. What we do in response to having accepted salvation is to come not from legalistic outward compliance to a written law, but from a grateful heart.
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Ready2Rapture
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- Re: "gift exchange" by kerminator
18 y
1,456
Oh My; I understand what has happened, though I do not agree...
It seems as if we humans, have take a simply principle of exchanging gifts and made it a time to either out shine or completely impress others... Why??
First as you have eluded to: there is nothing we can give GOD / Jesus, that HE either needs or does not already have the power to get!! Fact...
Second the idea of getting or giving gifts is an attempt to satisfy our desires for earthly things... BTW: Most of which we do not need!!
Next This seasonal giving has driven the Retail merchants to capitalize on the period to make huge profits... Don't blame them they are just like the ants at the picnic, if the food is there go for it!!
Finally the whole idea of having to give or have someone get something for Christmas has nothing to do with the celebration of the remembrance of the birth of Jesus... It is just a way to allow people to satisfy their desires... Most likely it offered a reason and continues to make people want to participate in the Holiday!! Like it or not... HUH!!
Ya, before we go round and round about; " BUT the Wise men brought and gave presents..." They were following a custom or practice to actually present something of value to the person being honored!! This did not happen each and every year of Jesus life; and since HE has been dead and ascended over 2000 years, How and why do we think we are doing anything close to the original gift giving?? It is just a nice idea that has been blown out of proportion now a days...
BTW: We realize that people do honor and give gifts to people today who are alive and able to receive them on their birthday and some other occasions...
So where do you draw the line?? What should anyone get?? How much?? When you give to one person and not others are you not discriminating?? Besides what is the real purpose of giving someone a present just because it has been done for some years?? Why not honor people when ever they deserve it, or maybe when they complete some phase of their life?? And why not all year long rather then just once a year?? It seems that we have a very confused situation here...
OH! And I really do not want to debate anyone over this centuries old practice!! It is act of the society... To each his own; may you each enjoy a wonderful Christmas Season even if you do not give or get any gifts!! Best to you all...
BTW: Most of the world does not participate in the Christmas season gift giving... DUH!!
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kerminator
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- Re: "gift exchange" by ren
18 y
1,432
| I don't have a problem with large families making gift exchanges. I wasn't at your family gathering but if someone came at me with a speech about christians vs. communists, I'd think they were being a little self righteous. I think setting price limits is a good idea because it will remove resentment. People are human beings after all. People like getting gifts at Christmas. I don't understand how setting limits on how much people should spend on a gift is social engineering but again, I wasn't there.
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ren
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- Re: "gift exchange" by ren
18 y
1,335
| BTW, I wasn't calling you self righteous because I really don't know you. I just know that one has to be careful about how they say things to people, a good word in season.
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ren
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- Re: "gift exchange" by Ready2Rapture
18 y
1,691
Alright, I guess I need to give more detail.
It started with emails from a sister wanting to restrict gift giving to ONLY the exchange gifts and nothing else. If anyone wanted to give a gift that was not part of the exchange, they were to do so in secret, as if ashamed of being generous. We weren't even allowed to by little token gifts like candy for the kids or perfume/cologne for adults. That's the problem.
But everybody's missing the point here. I was venting my frustration over people who try to impose ridiculous restrictions, just giving my opinion. This isn't just me coming out of the clear blue sky to lecture people at Christmas. I wasn't after a big intellectual debate on gift exchanges in general.
So I'm sorry I ever posted anything personal here. Just forget it.
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Ready2Rapture
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- Re: "gift exchange" by ren
18 y
1,344
| Oh well that's different. I hate being controlled by people in that way. Every family has a controlling personality and the control doesn't have to be in a direct way. I'll never understand why some need to be so smothering. I think such people have major issues in their lives and they find one thing they can control. If you had posted this piece earlier I would have said that the rest of the family SHOULD NOT go along. if you go along with what these people say, the behaviour only gets WORSE.
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ren
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- Re: Jesus is the reason for the season!!! by White Tiger
18 y
1,449
Hi Ready2Rapture
It was printed on a wallet sized card I had kept since 1984. It was written by Dianne Frances Donenfeld of Bethany Farms, she has the copyrite and allows others to use it freely. It is shown on most websites as "author unknown".
The card was put away and I don't even remember packing it when I moved or why I kept it, because I was about as far from being a Christian as I could be. At the time, my life was centered around drinking and partying every day for years, and I am ashamed to say so now but I doubted there was a God and I did not believe everything in the Bible.
I saw the card again for the second time and I wanted to share it because it has so much meaning now.
I am fairly new at being a Christian. I was saved in october 2004 and was baptised by submersion in a lake near here in october this year.
I never liked and never wanted to go to church during my life, and if I did have to go to a church on occasion I could't wait for it to get over so I could get out of there thinking church was a waste of time.
That all changed when I least expected it. My life was changed suddenly in one night.
My wife bought two tickets to a Crabb Family concert for my birthday because she saw me turn on the TV one night and this guy Jason Crabb was singing a song and I told her I liked his voice. I just sit down and listened this guy singing a song.
I didn't know this concert was at a church and the concert was called a "Revival", I didn't know what a revival was or meant, but I went anyway and told her I was only going to listen to music and was not going to sit there and listen to any preaching, when the music is over I'm going straight home.
I never believed people when they talked about being touched by the Holy Spirit and always thought it was in their imagination or just a feel good moment and living in a fantasy world of their own creation in their mind.
All those thoughts and beliefs were changed that night when I was least expecting anything to happen other than listening to some music, especially to an unbeliever like me. But I am going to tell you right now. The Holy Spirit is very real and the most powerful force I have ever witnessed or felt in my entire life and it was much more than a feel good moment, He is very much alive and real, and would not let go of me, and I felt I had wasted so many years by not letting the Lord come into my life way before that night.
I was one of the most unworthy and doubtful people in the world, but The Holy Spirit chose that night to prove me wrong with a power that I just can not explain as much as I would like to.
That night I asked for and received forgiveness, and I now enjoy going to church and being part of the flock of Jesus.
I still do not know much of the Bible and I have much to learn. That is why I love visiting your website so much, it is food that helps me understand more about the Bible and what it means to be a Christian.
charles
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White Tiger
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- Re: Jesus is the reason for the season!!! by Ready2Rapture
18 y
1,589
That's awsome, WT (Charles?)! Thanks!
You don't know how much I appreciate your posting. This year has been one of the worst I can remember, with 2 deaths in the family, a sister going back to her abusive husband, sickness, family bickering, and the goings on here. I'd say more but I'm learning it's best not to air too much personal info out in public. Right now I am stopping to listen carefully for the Lord's direction, as it seems I'm being prepared for something. I have no idea what. But if you ever want to talk, feel free to email me. I'm no expert or scholar but God knows where my heart is.
Thanks again bro.
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Ready2Rapture
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