Each year as we approach the season called Christmas, I feel a need to stop and explain some of my actions to many of my cherished readers. The whole intention of this blog is to share Christian values and to spread the Good News of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We cater to those who have a Hebraic mindset, but know Jesus as Messiah. I want to always be honest with those who chose to support my writing.
Most of our readers believe in a seventh day Sabbath and keep it faithfully. So do I. They adhere to the importance of keeping the commandments and carefully observe God’s Holy Days. I do that also. It is wonderful to be able to share these things in fellowship while living in a world which doesn’t seem to think such practices are important. Most of us live in awe and wonder at the way the whole bible and the full Gospel of Jesus Christ can be found in Torah, if you only have eyes to see.
Most readers of this blog are Torah Keepers. So am I.
BLESSED BY FELLOWSHIP
I am so blessed to be in such good fellowship. However, most of these groups, for many valid and understandable reasons, do not keep Christmas.
Here is where God has stretched my understanding. Though I understand and stay away from the pagan practices which are prevalent in the world during this season, God has shown me proof of some of the things that are being celebrated. So it is that I find myself in a very strange place this year. My knowledge has increased and my faith has grown, but often the world I leave and breath in seems so narrow.
I never want to deceive anyone into thinking I don’t join in with part of the celebration of the season of Christmas. My journey has grown to this point, but it has taken a long time. To be honest, my thoughts are still evolving.
However; some of the things I once considered pagan have been redeemed in my mind because of more careful study. I find myself sorting and separating out the truth from the falsehoods.
Most of my new logic evolves around the fact that if Jesus was born in the Fall season, He would have been conceived in the deep, dark months of Winter. If you believe that life begins at conception, you have to ponder whether or not you might not want to join in with the appropriate celebrations that center around the season. Emphasis belongs to that word “appropriate.” Often it is like walking on egg shells.
However; I refuse to let staying away from paganism cause me to lose the celebrating of the greatest miracle of all – Immanuel – Christ with Us. The Conception of Christ is more miraculous than the Birth of Christ. It happened in December. Celebrating Hanukkah definitely helps, but that is only the shadow. I want to celebrate the whole miracle in all of its glory.
IT ISN’T WHAT I BELIEVE THAT MATTERS
Therefore, I hesitate to continue speaking about what God has shown me personally, because the teachings offered here are NOT about me, nor will they ever be. They are about a God so huge that the whole universe is unable to contain His love. It is this love that I wish to share the most.
When God separated the day from the night at the time of the creation, he did something wonderful for all of us. He brought true love into our world. Yet, he did not call this separation or division “good” until the third day when he gathered them together and gave us our gift of “time.” I do not want things here to cause separation or division, but I want the love of Messiah to do what it did on that first third day; to gather and to bring us all together.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES FROM DIFFERENT PLACES
Whenever people gather to worship a God as big and awesome as our God, they are all looking at their experiences from different perspectives. Each of us are different and unique in the eyes of God. He created all of us for different purposes.
That is why I hate to give statements that say “this is what I believe.” God is teaching all of us at different levels and speeds for various and different reasons. Sometimes what He has shown me isn’t exactly what He is showing you. The two things do not contradict one another. They are simply for different reasons and different times. Each person must answer to God for what He has been shown so far.
The fact that we are standing in different places for different reasons doesn’t mean we shouldn’t love one another and share the things that He has shown us in common. Messiah is to be our constant center; always. We are only to reflect Him and His heart.
What matters for each of us is that we are looking at the world from the perspective of our Center – Messiah. We all must worship Him from the place where He has put us and the place where we are standing when He finds us.
SO HOW DO WE CELEBRATE?
One main issue causing many disagreements among believers is how or how not to celebrate the season of Christmas.
For some it is a most joyous time which represents the birth of Christ. This is what God has shown many of us. Others think Christ was born in the Fall of the year. Individuals are at different places in their walk, and God has shown some something else, something beyond what they knew before. They must walk in it.
Some take one scripture passage and decide it makes putting up a Christmas tree the most sinful thing a Christian could ever do. Others see the tree, its decorations and its lights as a symbol of the fact that Messiah has come and He is The Light of the World.
We are all in different places on the journey, but we are all also walking toward the same destination.
WHAT MATTERS AND WHAT DOES NOT?
What is important?
To keep walking in the light that He is giving us, one step at a time as we keep our eyes steady on Messiah.
For many people, their religious customs and celebrations are strictly black and white, with no wiggle room at all. It is their way or the highway. Still some see a need to be graceful and not too serious about allowing others to come to their own truth by God’s guidance within their own time.
In the season called Christmas, many of us drift back and forth between both of these worlds, not knowing when to take a firm stand or when to be silent and give grace. I am often guilty myself, but as soon as I arrive in this place I hear the voice in my head saying, “God does not want luke-warm Christians.” At that point, I can spend hours convincing myself that I must take a firm stand in order not to be luke-warm. As soon as I take that stand I find out my human logic was off and there is more to the story. It is a pattern of up and down, back and forth, listening and thinking through what should happen next. Prayer is the only way to go. Thank God for love and grace.
Believe it or not, this is how we grow.
What would Jesus do?
Even that phrase has been picked apart until it is practically useless in today’s culture. This is sad. It should not be that way. To follow Messiah means to reflect Christ and all that he did as He walked the earth. So, how do we begin to resolve this dilemma?
I ponder this every year during this season. It truly makes me sad. Sadness is not what God desires for us. He wants to give us joy and abundance.
How can I show my readers the beautiful Christmas tree that represents The Light of the World to me? What if it offends them and they mistake it for pagan worship?
Would it offend them to see an artist’s vision of how St. Nicholas looked? Probably. Are they going to associate that with satanic thinking instead of why I use it? (I have it because St. Nicholas spent his time helping widows and orphans by gifting them from his own wealth. In remembering this about him I’m thinking of James 1:27 which reads; “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”) My intentions in the story of St. Nicholas is to reinforce the weight of this scripture. His life was a good example of this verse.
How do I begin to reconcile these traditions if I am a firm 7th Day Sabbath and Holy Day Keeper as well as a true (yet never perfect) follower of God’s commandments?
As I said in the beginning of this article, it is all about perspective. As we grow our perspective widens, similar to how one might look through a telescope. In my own walk, I have reached a new perspective lately, that of The Church being an extension of Israel. I used to think of The Church and Israel being two separate entities. Now I see them as one extension of the other. I see Christianity as an outgrowth of Judaism, with Judaism being the root and Messiah being the tree and the followers of Messiah being the branches bearing fruit.
Perhaps I could restate that in another way and say that I believe The Church is made up of the fruitful branches stemming from Messiah rooted in Israel. We all support and confirm one another. The Church doesn’t replace Israel, it is an outgrowth and an example of the fullness of an Israel that has discovered Messiah.
I find my answers from Torah but am ever learning and still growing. Many of my Hebraic interpretations may be different from what is commonly shared among many such groups. One different part is that I have come to observe Christmas again. Not the commercialism or materialism, but only the TRUE parts of the season called Christmas.
If God shows me different tomorrow, I will change my mind again. Life is about growing and transforming. Sometimes we make mistakes and we have to ask forgiveness and start over. Like all humans, I make many mistakes. That is why I hate that this conversation about honesty comes up every year. I simply feel a responsibility to be honest and open with all of my readers. That honesty corresponds with my desire to live out the truths found in Torah.
Maybe because of this perspective, which includes the observance of some parts of what the world calls Christmas, it looks as if I’m mixing paganism and Christianity. I’m not doing that. Simply stated I am letting the objects inside my home represent the Gospel as God has shown it to me.
I love keeping the Holy Days and all of their truths. It is my constant goal not to let materialism and commercialism or paganism seep into my lifestyle in any way, shape or form. I suppose I could say that in my heart today, Christmas and Hanukkah have become two parts of the same beautiful story. That is why I desire to observe both as accurately as I am able with my limited amount of knowledge.
What I have and what I use inside my home is all dedicated to God and the promotion of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We NEVER worship pagan deities here. May that never be said of us. If God shows me that this has seeped in because we are observing a few of the symbols the same as the world, I will reverse this decision. That hasn’t happened yet.
Our tree illustrates that Messiah has come as The Light of the World. I see Hanukkah as a shadow of the coming of Messiah. We observe Hanukkah in a Christian light, including the miracle of Messiah of which it symbolically speaks. In my home we acknowledge that Messiah was born in the fall and conceived in the winter. Both seasons and reasons are celebrated here.
It is also important for us to represent a lifestyle that reflects life over death. That the life of Christ began at Conception matters to us. It is part of our interpretation of the importance of the celebration for this present season. In other words, Conception and Birth are all part of the same life-giving process. We celebrate them in that order by honoring Messiah with both occasions. His Conception was not normal. It was a miracle. So was that first Hanukkah which shadowed it.
For us, St. Nicholas was simply a man blessed by God who gave of his time and possessions to help those who were less fortunate. We feel we are commanded to do the same. The acts of giving and fellowship that we follow are meant to honor and adore Messiah and those that He has called to serve with him. You may have noticed that the scriptures are full of stories that honor other men. All of these stories encourage us to be better people.
It is that simple. Yet; it is that complicated.
On the other hand, I admire people who believe so passionately that they are willing to take a stance for what God is showing them at the moment. I agree that our world is being swept into a nightmare of pagan practices, more and more each day. To try to end these practices should definitely be a goal of every follower of Jesus. I understand the motive behind the stance. My actions are merely seeking balance.
There was one stage in my own life when I went eight years without celebrating the season of Christmas at all. I was completely content to do so because that was what God was showing me at the time. All I could see were the pagan parts. Now I have eyes that can see further. I learned a lot, but it didn’t stop there. Eventually, I found out there was more, and I expect the “more” part of this journey to be never-ending. Messiah is constantly making all things new. He is ever teaching us how to live at a different level.
As we go through this season, to be unique and different from the crowd is part of being Christian. I don’t condemn those who decide NOT to put up a tree or let the legend of St. Nicholas be part of their experiences because they have associated these things with pagans instead of Christians. Just know that I, personally, do not associate it that way at the present. I admire those who do for taking the stand for what they believe. Always understand I respect that. We are all in different places on this journey.
All of this said to ask that any readers following the blog who do not believe in celebrating Christmas in the same way we portray it here to give mercy and grace to us for the present civil month. I think you will find you agree with every other month’s portrayals in the blog. Our emphasis on God’s calendar will take you deep into God’s ways. We are basing our Christmas season’s activities only on a further truth. The things we see as pagan are still omitted. So please continue to be our friends.
In the following links I give more details as to what I believe and what I teach and why, but I hope you only look for The Gospel in all of it and not the fact that it is a teaching from me. My intention is only to share the things God has put on my heart as I walk through the path He has given to me. Your path may be different at points, but we will cross paths more than we journey apart. Often we find that God separates us for a time to bring us together at a later date. For every separating there must also be a gathering.
These articles in the links below attempt to explain where I am right now. Lately, God has just shown me yet another fascinating path to wonder. I’m so excited to find out where it leads. Please pray for God to continue to guide and lead me with this blog and all of life. The same will always be my prayer for you. I respect your right to be in a different place: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/truth-about-christmas-trees/, https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/pondering-advent/, IN RELATION TO THE DATE OF CHRISTMAS – The IN SEASON Lifestyle.
There was a time when I also believed in taking the black and white stance on Christmas. It lasted for me until I realized that Conception of Messiah had to happen in the Winter of the year. Now, I believe that life begins at conception. That period of separation was a growing time for me. I began to realize that, like every other human, I could be wrong. This whole learning experience has softened me around the edges a bit. I still believe in sticking to the truth more than ever, I’m just a bit gentler and more open minded about it. My goal is to never judge others but to leave that task to God. My only wish is for my actions to provide a light for others that shows them Jesus.
With that said (I long for the day I don’t have to explain such things) I hope those of you who do celebrate the season of Christmas enjoy the Christmas articles which will be coming up from The House Doctor, Seasons, Pen Art and Monday Night Menu articles of the blog. May they bring you joy and deepen your seasonal celebrations.
Now, that said; prepare to be properly blitzed with articles that proclaim the celebrations of the season.
From the bottom of my heart to all of our readers; MERRY CHRISTMAS!