I don’t think I have anything new to say about this topic I haven’t already shared, but this is a special time of year for us now – whereas we used to dread it because our abstinence created so much conflict and stress. You think the holiday season is stressful? Try explaining to everyone again and again why you don’t celebrate it at all! That gets exhausting because it always leads to more and more why questions, and none of those answers led to Jesus, but to me. One of the first questions people asked was, “Do you believe in Jesus?” and the answer was “Yes, but..” and in the ensuing explanation, Jesus got set aside.
This year has been incredibly difficult for us. Looking back I can assess the experiences as speed bumps, but while going through it all, it felt more like racing toward a cliff. I am looking forward to Christmas here at home with all my kids, and now a new grand baby too. Just to be together and healthy fills my heart with so much gratitude for what He has brought us through.
Recently we have made a new group of friends who are not all Christians. Tomorrow the kids are getting together to exchange crafts for a Christmas party. I don’t have to make some excuse about why I can’t come. I can go and pray for open doors to share Jesus… even though I am in great need of courage to share Him in a society that doesn’t need Him anymore.
There is another man who has this boldness for Christ and he has inspired me many times. He lives where there is genuine risk of persecution, but he wants Christmas to be a time to draw people’s attention to Jesus, right in the city of His birth. We can quibble over days and laws, but I would rather be filled with His Spirit to speak for Him whenever and wherever He leads. Christmas, Ramadan, or Halloween. What matters is that people see Him!
8thDay4Life 
No, No, No. Come on. This is not what the Bible says. God did not say to take these festivals of the nations that have rejected Him and clean them up “Christinize” them then have a honky dory time. He said to stay away from them! He gave us good rulings, good appointed times to celebrate. Why is this so hard to get?
I thought I had replied to your comment JEMS… well I know I typed it out. Where it went I have no idea. And it was really great too. 🙂 I do plan to have a honky dory time though at any rate… every day. To me… all days are the same. There are customs, but no more holy days in my New Covenant understanding (Romans 14). I totally understand your position. Spent a long time there myself. I pray you are truly blessed in finding the One you seek.
We have the Almighty and awsome God as our authority. Does it really matter what it all means to us? Our hearts and feelings are not that reliable. Romans 14 does not say what you might think. It certianly doesn’t obolish anything. Niether did Jesus. Reading through your articles, it looks like you have been on quite the spiritual gernney yourself. I will pray for you as well.
Spiritual Journey. Ya that’s it.
I really thought you meant gurney.. lol. As in on a stretcher. Which wouldn’t be untrue this past year. I have shared alot about my valleys as well as my mountaintops, thankful for the freedom to be transparent. Thank you for reading.
That’s funny. Look, I don’t mean to sound condemming. There are just things that I read in the Bible that in my opinion doesn’t jive with what’s being preached. These last few years I have done alot of research from church history, church fathers, origins of customs, the catholic church, Reformation, hebrew and greek word searches and again basically feel that something ant adding up here. I am not out to slam Christianity. There is nothing within Christianity or the HRM that I won’t grasp hold of or let go. I want the truth.
With that said, I want to ask you a question I have asked others but yet to receive a reasonable reply. When Jesus (no I don’t have a problem with saying Jesus I perfer His hebrew name but certainly don’t believe I am saying hail zus or what ever) back to my question, sorry. When Jesus said He came saying the same thing as Moses, they would not believe Moses and would not believe Him. What was the same thing and do we believe it?
Hi JEMS. I had nearly two days offline… sorry to be slow to reply. I assume you are speaking of John 5? …On the matter of receiving a reasonable reply I will say this, we have to first determine what the whole goal of Scripture is in the first place.. because that decides how we interpret everything. Law focused perspectives generally approach the Bible as a book of Law.. and everything must revolve around that, even Jesus Himself. But one day I saw Jesus was the entire focus and point of everything.. and everything pointed to Him, and for Him – it changed everything for me. And this is EXACTLY what Jesus is trying to tell the Jewish teachers also in this passage:
Joh 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
Joh 5:31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true.
Joh 5:32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.
Joh 5:33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
Joh 5:34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
Joh 5:35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
Joh 5:36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
Joh 5:37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
Joh 5:38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
****Joh 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me******
Joh 5:40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Joh 5:41 I do not receive glory from people.
Joh 5:42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
Joh 5:43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
Joh 5:44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Joh 5:45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
Joh 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
Joh 5:47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
What is it exactly that Jesus is wanting them to learn from Moses? What is the pleading in this entire passage? What is it they are not getting? These are the questions to ask, and in that you should find an answer. Obviously they didn’t have any trouble with the Laws of Moses…because they were continually trying to accuse him of Sabbath breaking, or some other infraction. So what was it about Moses they didn’t believe? I think you will be able to find a reasonable answer if you are truly wanting Truth.
For me the truth is no longer a neatly packaged set of doctrines. It’s just Jesus.. all that He said, did, is, and promised. Being right never made me more loving or compassionate. Looking at Jesus does.