Some interesting background on the origin in what we believe is the celebration of the birth of Christ. December 25th is not what we think it is and we won’t find this date to celebrate Him in the bible. Hmmm..
Video by Caryl Matrisciana
m'kayla's korner
Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. Luke 11:35
m'kayla's korner 
This is very thought provoking. My grandmother (age 94 now) has always said that her parents would scare her to death w/ stories of Santa coming w/ either punishment or goodies.
Worse yet, she said that when she found out they had lied about him, she began to doubt what they had told her about God. She said she had doubts for most of her life because of it.
For the most part, I tried not to push Santa much with my boys, but I still think I allowed too much room for Satan to deceive over the years. Too much going along w/ the crowd I guess.
We still have a tree w/ stockings hanging up, but we don’t worship them or think paganly about any of it. But I think material things are an issue at Christmas because the focus is too much on what they want to get from me. Perhaps we should visit the nursing home more often, etc. Theres so much to think about. It’s really hard to change after so many years of a certain mindset. Only God can do it. I pray He does.
I like that they mention on the video the different ways we can observe it—mainly to use it as an opportunity for the gospel. That’s what it’s all about.
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The holiday is so deeply woven into the fabric of our society that is we completely ignore it we are lumped together with Jehovah’s Witnesses and some other groups who don’t acknowledge any holidays. Christians who abstain can come across as self-righteous. Paganism is all around us on a daily basis and is far more threatening to us than the celebration of Christmas. It is merely a reflection of the further corruption of our culture. As long as we have the the liberty to emphasis Christ at Christmas and don’t get caught up in the shopping frenzy and use the holiday as an opportunity to openly talk about Christ, then I see no problem with it. All churches have worship services and it seems that there are redeeming factors.
If we want to get really legalistic about it, we should throw out our calendars. We perpetuated the fantasy of Santa before I knew it was wrong. But we told our children the truth before they went to school and put it on the same level as the tooth fairy and other fantasies. I don’t advocate for Santa now but my children are all grown.
I would say if you are convicted about Christmas and consider it a sin to observe it you should not and if you can observe it in a godly way with a clear conscience, then do it. But this should not cause division.
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The point being what may seem right to us may not be so right with the Lord. It has always been His way to lead His people away from pagans, their gods and their ways.
Deut. 12: 30-31 “Do not inquire after their gods, saying “How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.” “You shall not worship the Lord your God IN THAT WAY; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods.
I know this holiday is a subject many of us are struggling with. But to serve the Lord without these days, no way makes us religious or legalistic.
So this video serves as information and maybe we will begin to take our freedom from sin a little more seriously, because that is the freedom we have been given, not freedom to practice that seems right to us. The heart is quite deceitful. Maybe we will do some research in what God has actually said about these practices, regardless of the Christian stamp of approval we have all be so quick to grab onto.
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Celebrating Christmas with all the Santa rubbish doesn’t make you less christian; neither does not celebrating Christmas make you more christian.
If you actually think so, then you are legalistic because legalism means thinking your Life consists of ‘Jesus and…’ be it Jesus and Church, or Jesus and Social work, or Jesus and whatever. Its Just Jesus.
These issues are not as big as a deal as you make them out to be. The bigger deal is christians struggling with anger, lust, hate, jealousy, unhealthy competition, pride, and the likes, not christians celebrating a ‘pagan’ holiday. After all, Paul did say some ate meat offered to idols because they knew idols were actually nothing. If such happened now, wouldn’t we say that they were engaging in idol worship, though paul didn’t think so?
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Your reasoning makes no sense to me whatsoever – the problem already identified in previous comments. If you truly believe it is Jesus only (which I agree with) then why do you need or support a holiday that has nothing to do with him? We cannot follow Christ and do as we please, we follow what has been instructed in the word. This thought supported in the scripture previously posted. In the end we all have to do as the Holy Spirit leads and hopefully we know the voice of the Lord, rather than the voice of humanistic reasoning. I am weary of the word “legalism” – it pops up all over the place, here without foundation. I simply put up a video with some historical and biblical information, without saying much of anything until the comments started flying. If we are to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, how exactly would that be carried out?
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I’ve actually been thinking about that verse lately “work out your own salvation w/ fear and trembling”—–even talked w/ my husband about it the other night. Hope I can remember how I put this to him—-first of all, to read it in context—-the very next verse tells us exactly how we do this. “For—- IT IS GOD WHO WORKS IN YOU —-to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Wow, ok —so—having that revelation then causes us to realize we have nothing at all whatsoever to do w/ our own salvation—for it was preordained before the beginning of the world—-before we could have had anything at all to do w/ it!! Which means we are ultimately in His hands and His word says its a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God… Heb. 10:31
That’s why we are “working out” our salvation in fear and trembling and He wants us to —-to remind us that we are totally and completely dependent upon Him for it. And isn’t that scary to most Christians??? If not something would be wrong because fear of Him is the beginning of wisdom. We are to serve Him w/ reverance and godly fear..Heb 12:29
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jesusfreak155, as to your reference to eating meat offered to idols, there is much more written to be considered. It has to do with conscience and the effect of doing so on another whose is weak. But this is not part of the topic as we are not talking about food, but pagan roots of celebration. Sin is sin, regardless of how it manifests, pride, hate, jealousy, etc., and the practice of such does not nullify or justify another.
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