PLEASE, ROL, I repeat the following thoughts yearly but I don't get a whole lot of feedback. I want to know if the people I pastor {and I wonder what other Christians think too}...those to whom I must give account to the Lord -- are listening and if they are agreeing (if not, why not) on the following: (This is something I wrote a mom today when she asked what to tell her very young kids about Santa -- she asked on a Face book post to anyone who would answer):
"Tell them openly, gently , lovingly to pray for all the kids believing in what is apparently a pagan deity....who but a demon god could be all knowing, omnipresent (on Christmas eve all over the world), and omnipotent (how else would he make it from the Arctic to all over the world in one night?). Tell them no fireplace stockings...it implies waiting for this anti christ to come into their home...the one drawing attention from Jesus Christ to himself.
Start now making sure they "come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing"....
I am SO grieved that so many Christians are so blind about what this does to our kids.
If they start being politically incorrect now and take on the spirit of Elijah/John the Baptist , i.e., preparing hearts for the Lord to take up residence there...then perhaps they will be rooted enough to STAND for the Lord when faced with sex/drugs, etc. as teens!!!!!
Ok...my thinking clearly shows you why River of Life is not a huge, "acceptable" church. BUT: " Broad is the way to destruction and narrow is the way to life"!!!!
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I would LOVE to hear ALL of you tell me your thoughts on the above statement; however, if you just respond with ONE WORD Yes" ....I know you agree; If "maybe" I know you have some reservations (and I may ask you in person "why"), and if you say "no" I would love to hear why....if you are silent I will either assume you 1) automatically delete all emails {and/or correspondence) from me (
) 2) have a broken computer (good reason) 3) you are a coward who hates to take a definitive stand on anything for fear you may have to a) defend it and be unpopular b) think c) have integrity --i.e., be one person all the time, not 2,3 ,4 faced...well...you figure out your own reason... If I am your pastor at ROL OR even if you are a fellow brother or sister in the Lord, IF you are thinking it is none of my business to know, tell me why you think that too.
I think it is the job of ALL of us, not just the pastors, to provoke one another to good works, no? That fact comes straight from the Bible.
As I share things we Christians ought to do/ be (e.g., family devotions, no Halloween, no demonic music...etc....) it gets frustrating not getting feedback -- both intelligent feedback so I can reexamine it to learn more and (what I would consider to be) ignorant feedback so I can teach truth better....
What has been especially frustrating is to teach these things over the years to the people I have pastored in the past or currently pastor and then see someone's social site Christmas picture in front of a fireplace with rows of stockings OR...unthinkable! WITH A MALL SANTA!!!!! But, often these same folks refuse to "defend their faith" in santa, i.e., they refuse to explain exactly why they believe it is ok to tell their kids he is real or even tell them he is just "pretend" but still involve them in the mall Santa ritual! Would those people who do the stocking/picture with Santa things please enlighten me if I am missing something here!
I am NOT being sarcastic -- I honestly, truly, with an open heart am trying to figure out how a Christian can justify lying to kids about santa or even letting santa share ONE MOMENT with the birthday party for our precious Lord! I truly want to know what thoughts come to mind that causes a Christian to be at peace with that.
Comments (3)
Keith & I do not celebrate Halloween in any way, though it's sometimes uncomfortable explaining that to some people because it's such a foreign idea in these parts. We do not do the Easter bunny either, though my mother did teach them the "Here comes Peter Cottontail song." The grandparents also do the Easter basket full of chocolate thing too. (I have little to no control over what our parents do, and I am sensitive to the fact that my parents, especially, probably feel rejected in a way because they see me raising my children in a completely different manner i.e. we've never taken them trick-or-treating, we're going to homeschool, we don't have cable, etc. My parents go to church regularly, my dad is Catholic & my mom is Lutheran, but I don't believe they have the joy and the peace that I know from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Any attempt to get at this subject with them typically ends in them expressing feeling of rejection in some way or another. I don't really know where to go from here on that.)
Anway, I've never known a church or congregation that took such hardline stances on things such as the NFL, Disney, Easter, Santa Claus, etc. as River! I don't mean that in a bad way. It's enlightening to me. Had I never met & married Keith, I probably would take my kids trick-or-treating, see every Disney movie ever made, do the whole Easter bunny & Santa Claus thing and think nothing of it. I don't know if your views are more well-received in an area like Grand Rapids, which Keith dubbs the "Bible capital of the world" as opposed to the Pittsburgh area, where the best day/time to get any shopping done is during a Steeler game because the stores are EMPTY! NOBODY misses a Steeler game in this town. At our old church, Covenant, when the Steelers were in the SuperBowl, they had a Steelers party and played the game on a large screen at the church. And no one would bat an eyelash at this.
Of course, no one knows the work that God has done from beginning to end, but I can say this. In spite of the fact that I was allowed to go trick-or-treating, believe in Santa & the Easter Bunny, watch the NFL on TV, and anything else that came on TV, God still chose to save me somehow. He still filled me with the Holy Spirit, drew me into an intimate relationship with him. I don't know why he chose me & not, say, my sister? My parents? But he did it, in spite of all the worldly influences in my life. All things are possible with God! He simply reached out for me. I wouldn't say I was raised in a what I would now call Christian home, but I found Jesus anyway, or rather He found me! Hallelujah! However, I do not want my children to grow up the way I did, and now I do strive to glorify Him in all that I do but as you know, some people, especially family members, can find that very offensive!
So I find Santa Claus everywhere and have simply decided that while my children may hear/read stories about Santa, I'm going to tell them again & again that they're only stories or folklore as my friend Karen said. We will do our best to keep Jesus at the center of it all. We have a Christmas tree & stockings-I honestly never heard that putting stockings up was like waiting for an antichrist. However, we do not have candy canes & Santas & reindeer & Frosty the Snowman lit up all over our yard. We have a humble nativity that blows over in the wind several times during the Christmas season. We also have many nativity scenes throughout the house. I know you may find this disappointing, however, let me assure you that Keith & I have had to stand our ground on numerous occassions in the face of criticism & utter disdain from our families (mostly mine
). Trust me, we are going severely against the grain. It's definitely an uphill battle when these issues come up, but we are fighting the good fight. I hope you weren't offended by the other comments left on my facebook status. It's just that in this particular geographical location, where the Spirit-filled churches are far and few between and there's an empty Catholic church on every street corner, your comments are probably viewed as radical, people have never even heard of them before, as I hadn't until I met Keith.
I'm with you Rosemary.
I just put this on Face book , but want to put it here too:
OF course all ROL alumni are welcome to respond and everyone else too! To you who struggle with doing Christmas at all, I agree -- that too is a tough call. Jesus said to celebrate His DEATH -- He NEVER said to give Him an annual birthday party.
But, whether the party is commanded or not, I don't know that it is wicked to give Him a party every year or every day for that matter....it just bugs me that satan "got away with" putting it on 12/ 25 which simply appeased those who did the pagan festival saturnalia on that day -- Christmas was slapped over that date. There is practically no chance that in fact WAS Jesus' birthday....Sometimes I wish we would have a party for Him coming to earth EVERY day BUT 12/25 just to get back at that mess of painting a Christian event right over a pagan one and even letting a bunch of the pagan paint (customs, traditions) leak through.
BUT, I did not even bring up the even more volatile subject of not having Christmas at all (which by the way WAS true for some Christian cultures at various times...study the history). I was ONLY bringing up whether to bring santa into it.
This year I am determined to EMPHASIZE the Jesus birthday party more than ever . This is one more year we are still celebrating Christ's birth during this season only because we don't see it as a wicked thing to do and it does give opportunity to discuss the birth of Christ in many venues where we ordinarily would not talk about Him.
And, I ,for one, have questions about the whole tree bit and still have not come to a definite conclusion. We don't put one up in our church either. Or, at home. But, when we go into the homes of friends who do have them, I am not offended because I don't have a final decision on that yet. I WOULD be offended if they had some plastic santa blow up thing in their yard. Not only spiritually but also from how tacky that looks....
Concerning not wanting to offend someone by letting them know where I stand on santa, I just think letting kids believe in santa is FAR MORE wicked than making the mistake offending someone by having a glass of wine or eating pork in front of them and finding out later they don't believe in doing that (which behavior is closer to what the Romans passage is speaking of when we are told to not offend our weaker brother). .santa is deified by thousands of kids because of adults lying to them. I think this is a time for Gideon to do some idol smashing and let the consequences be as they may. When they were going to kill Gideon, his dad said to let Baal contend for himself.....well, let santa contend for himself if he be who it is said he is. I think many Christians do the "let's play santa, but we all know it's really dad" thing. I don't even think that is really appropriate...why not just be the parents giving gifts to your kids -- why do the santa pretend thing at all? Why? Tradition? WHOSE tradition? There are 1000's out there who actually BELIEVE in a man with reindeer coming to their home and parents who get MAD if you liberate their kids from that lie. Do we want to perpetuate their tradition? Maybe it comes down to fear of man vs. fear of God.... .
Another Christian point I have read in rather reputable Christian magazines is that at one time there really was a St. Nick who had some of the same character/behavior tendencies as the modern santa claus. Well, there really was a Mary too, but she would be appalled at the place some have elevated her to and even feel to try to communicate with her today! The same would be true for the real St. Nick who apparently was some humble, ordinary, loving man of God. What has he got to do with the santa "prayed to" (via wish lists on letters) today ?
I challenge ME and all of us to grow deeper into thinking /analyzing -- finding TRUTH. And , once we know truth, having the courage to stand on it . The Bible says that overcomers "love not their lives unto death". If we cannot even suffer the rejection from our families and/or community that comes with disagreeing with them about santa, how in the world are we going to stand up for truth if it would mean dying for it ( as is happening to MANY today even as I write -- subscribe via the Internet to the Voice of the Martyrs and you can read all about it)..
If anyone wants to give me some answers concerning the tree thing, help yourself... I am aware of an anti tree decorating verse in the Word , but the context suggests they worshipped the tree and I doubt if any Christians do that....and , I put lights on some of my fake silk trees just for decoration and I find it hard to think the Holy Spirit is grieving over that.
He does, however, grieve over idolatry.....
I just wrote to Meg Drudy:
I really appreciated your taking the time to reply on Xanga!
For the record: I am not against watching the NFL -- the problem was that there were times people wanted to skip a regularly scheduled ROL service to watch it. I told them to record it, don't listen to the radio (i.e., find out the results of the game) on the way home, and then enjoy it when they got home as if watching it while it was happening. My issue was with prioritizing the NFL OVER a church service. Now that we meet on Sabbath, that issue has faded.
They, however , still hear me sometimes say I think there is a "sports god" in this country (world!) and that -- although sports are healthy at many age levels -- making into what it has become ("stars", gambling, putting sports WAY aboving serving God, etc....)-- is NOT healthy!
No, it is NOT easy to be what we are in Grand Rapids. ALL the same "traditions" are exercised here. One evangelist told me he was invited to minister at a church on "Easter" and was stopped short in his speaking because they were having an egg hunt that day!!!! This was a Spirit filled church! And the man is an overseer of many churches in Bulgaria, has a Bible college, and actually spent time in prison during the communist era because he preached Christ even though it was against the law. They wanted to cut him off so they could go hunt eggs??? Is that insane?
I absolutely agree with you that the grace and patience of the Lord can reach us in spite of being raised in a bunch of mess!!! And, I backslid consciously from around 19 through around 25 and God STILL drew me , reclaimed me, and is using me.
I am in NO way suggesting that parents who have made some mistakes with their kids have put their kids in a place where they cannot ever hope to have a blessed relationship with the Lord!
I do pray that your parents will cease to feel rejected simply because you have made some opposing choices!
I pray too that they study out your choices. Many of these things can be readily understood (i.e., holiday traditions that are actually pagan) by some simple internet searches and studying. No need for them to feel rejected...they just need to learn why you think the way you do.
I am so happy you are "with me" on a good deal of this thinking......
I pray you and I come to full truth and maturity in how to act in this world!
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