CHRISTMAS THE PAGAN CELEBRATION

Well its only the start of November and already we are being brain washed with adverts for Christmas. The first Christmas trees and decorations are already in the shopping malls, supermarkets have everything you need for the perfect Christmas. But this has nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Christ. In fact Christ is not even in the picture because Santa is the main man at Christmas. That big cuddly red suited guy with the red suit (which at one time was GREEN until a certain coke company changed that forever) and white beard.
Why is it that Christian have bought into this, the season to be merry?
Why is it Christians preach all year about Christ but sell out at Christmas?

In fact I have noticed that there is only one of the main stream "Christian religions" that don't sell out (JWs) but we the Christians are ready to attack them for their beliefs, yet at the same time we are the ones that sell out year after year after year.

This reeks of loving God when it suits us and jumping on the pagan bandwagon so that we all fit in to the worlds ways, that world that we preach is running blindly to hell.
Yes what a kill joy I must seem.
No Christmas tree
No Christmas decorations

I do not advocate we all become JWs but I respect that they stand true to what they believe and in fact I respect any religion that stands true to what they believe.
We the light of the world have lost our shine but does it really matter. Hey its only Christmas and we can say we do it because Christ was given gifts when he was born but in all honesty its a pagan celebration.

When you are tucking into your Christmas dinner and opening your pagan gifts (that's after you have asked God to bless the meal and your time with family and friends) ask yourself, is Jesus truly sitting with you at that table.


Just a thought

There are 1000s that have nothing and live in poverty all year. I wonder if as Christians we gave all that money to a local charity within our community would that not be a better way to make an impact.

Reflection

Let us strive to be a relection of our Heavenly Father

THIS WAS SENT TO ME VIA EMAIL AND FELT IT WAS WORTH READING

> SATAN'S MEETING: (Read even if> you're busy)> Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.> In his opening address he said,>> "We can't keep Christians from going to> church.">> "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and> knowing the truth.">> "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate> relationship with their saviour.">> "Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power> over them is broken.">> "So> let them go to their churches; let them have their covered> dish> dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time> to develop a> relationship with Jesus Christ..">> "This is what I want you to do," said the devil:>>> "Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and> maintaining that vital connection throughout their> day!">> "How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.>> "Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and> invent innumerable schemes to> occupy their minds," he answered.>> "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow,> borrow, borrow.">> "Persuade> the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to> work 6-7> days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their> empty> lifestyles.">> "Keep them from spending time with their> children.">> "As their families fragment, soon, their homes will> offer no escape from the pressures of work!">> "Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear> that still, small voice.">> "Entice> them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they> drive." To keep> the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their> home and see> to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays> non-biblical> music constantly.">> "This will jam their minds and break that union with> Christ.">> "Fill the coffee tables with magazines and> newspapers.">> "Pound their minds with the news> 24 hours a day.">> "Invade their driving moments with billboards.">> "Flood> their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs,> sweepstakes, and> every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free> products,> services and false hopes..">> "Keep skinny, beautiful models on> the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that> outward beauty> is what's important, and they'll become> dissatisfied with their wives.> ">> "Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at> night.">> "Give them headaches too! ">> "If they don't give their husbands the love they> need, they will begin to look elsewhere.">> "That will fragment their families quickly!">> "Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching> their children the real meaning of Christmas.">> "Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk> about his resurrection and power over sin and death.">> "Even in their recreation, let> them be excessive.">> "Have them return from their recreation> exhausted.">> "Keep> them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's> creation. Send> them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts,> and movies> instead.">> "Keep them busy, busy, busy!">> "And when they> meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and> small talk so> that they leave with troubled consciences. ">> "Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have> no time to seek power from Jesus.">> "Soon they will be working in their own strength,> sacrificing their health and family for the good of the> cause.">> "It will work!">> "It will work!">> It was quite a plan!>> The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing> Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going> here and there.>> Having little time for their God or their families.>> Having no time to tell others> about the power of Jesus to change lives.>> I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in> his schemes?>> You be the judge!!!!!> ;> Does "BUSY" mean: B-eing> U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?

TAKE TIME

Sometimes we need to just take a quiet moment from our busy lives and embrace all that God has given us. Take a walk through the park and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature, allowing God's wonderful creation to come alive in our hearts and minds. Embrace all that He has created for our JOY in Him.


ps enjoy the photo and click for larger image

what stops people accepting there is a God

What is it that prevents a person accepting that there is a God?

We can see that there has been a decline in the amount of people that go to church over the last 100 years. We can suggest that scientific advances, modern life, access to other cultures and religions has had something to do with this.

Do we really need God now that we can split the atom?
Do we really need God now we can send people into space?
Do we really need God with all our medical advances?

Has mankind replaced God with scientific and technological advances? In part I would suggest that this is true but that cant be the whole truth.

Christians are to blame for the lack of interest in God
Christians are to blame for half full churches
Christians are to blame for churches closing (and there are more churches closing than opening)

So what is the answer?

I believe the answer lies in living out our christian life as Christ lived out His life.

There can be no compromise to the truth of Scripture.
We must preach the authority of the Gospel without compromise.
We must live our lives in the spotlight of non-Christian's and allow them to see the work that God has done and still does in our lives.

I am the first to admit that I am not living the life that Christ died on the cross for.

There comes a time when we must look at ourselves in light of the cross and I have looked and don't like what I see. Yes I have looked in that mirror many times and walked away without cleaning myself, only to come back looking worse. In fact I admit I did not even recognise the person Christ died for.

So I say the answer is within each Christian to get their act together. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. Walk the path of righteousness, in light of the cross, in light of Scripture and be an advert for God's amazing work in your life so that others can be encouraged.

For Jaq

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question… Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair [They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin [They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”] Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume? And I have known the eyes already, known them all The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? And how should I presume? And I have known the arms already, known them all Arms that are braceleted and white and bare [But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!] It is perfume from a dress That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin?Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?… I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep… tired… or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet and here’s no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid. And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while, To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it toward some overwhelming question, To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all” If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say: “That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.” And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor And this, and so much more? It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.”No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous Almost, at times, the Fool. I grow old… I grow old… I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

prayer

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
(Matthew 21 v 22)

Do we believe this statement from Scripture?

How many times have you asked in prayer for something and not received it? I am sure most of us can honestly answer, quite a few times. Yet Scripture says If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
(Matthew 21 v 22)

So can we say that we don't get because we don't believe? I think we would be wrong to come to that conclusion but I believe we have to think about what we are praying for.

1. Will it bring glory to God
2. Will it further His kingdom

For me these are the two questions we must ask ourselves.

I am sure we are all aware of the "name it and claim it" preaching that goes on within some churches but is that really what this passage is teaching?
I know for sure that I prayed 2 times with all my heart and never got what I asked. The death of my father and mother. I begged God to make them well again but sadly they both died. Now did I pray with faith and total belief that God would heal them? I am positive that I did!
Yet God did not heal them and they died. So can I conclude that God never answered my prayers? At first glance yes but if I look a little deeper I have to ask myself, "was it better for them to die and meet God or keep them here were they may have went on to suffer because of their illness"?

How can I really answer that, but what I can say is; that God knows better than me what was the right outcome.
I believe that praying in faith brings us to deeper faith even if our prayers are not answered in the way that we desire. If we look at the lords prayer for a moment "Thy will be done"
So when we are praying we are praying that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Yet we tend to forget that when we pray and seek our own desires and our own will.

As we grow in faith our desire is that God's will is done in our lives and the more we grasp that the more content we become in serving the One True God.

Be blessed