For Jesus... Getting Our Thoughts Intertwined With His

...Never in conflict in thought or emotion...

12/25/2003

Hi there, I had not planned to discuss my grievances but I feel compelled to say something. I thought my baptism would free me from the guilt I feel with the life I led, but I find I am still confused about some things. For example, I was brought up to love Christmas, honor the LORD’s birth, have good fellowship with friends (some of my friends may not have been Christians), and enjoy all the good Christmas music. Now, I know from recent readings that Christmas day is considered a pagan holiday given to the Roman people by Emperor Constantine to appease his people in 300AD, but I still miss this time of year. How do you overcome this feeling? This feeling may seem foolish or trivial but to me it is real. Excuse my rambling, as I’m not used to expressing my feelings, preferring to keep these things to myself.

Hi… So good to hear from you. : ) Well, I know what you mean about things that we have all been “brain-dirtied” into believing and embracing and guarding and “needing” by our culture and environment, unguided by Truth. Whether it’s X-mas where millions use the Lord’s Name in vain daily, because they have no intention of obeying Him, or any number of other things that we “rely on” for identity or comfort or a sense of “belonging” or just the secure and “predictable” of form and rituals and sentiments. It’s just the human condition to be trained like “Pavlov’s dog” to react to smells and sounds and sights that we have been “conditioned” to respond to, unfortunately. But as you said, it feels “oh so real” no matter how fallacious it may be, and there’s the problem. Few are honest enough to look into it, whatever “it” is, for REAL. Most aren’t honest because they want what they want, and don’t CARE what God thinks, really, and simply justify it all to “make-believe” that God thinks the way we “feel”—even if He doesn’t. But, in all things, if we make GOD’S OPINION to be KING, and then ADJUST our feelings to match HIS feelings we’ve looked into, then GOD CHANGES US from the inside, by His Spirit and Grace. But if we hold out on Him, and want to “play God” and don’t REALLY care what HE thinks, we will remain pathetic and mortal and lame—but just “religious” still, of course, to maintain the pretense to ourselves.

SO, I know what you mean about it being “hard” when we are totally indoctrinated by “wisdom of this world” and “the patterns of this world” that blind us to “the good, perfect, and pleasing will of God.” OF COURSE His ways are different than what feels natural or comfortable, or desirable to us. OF COURSE! That’s actually where the Growth potential comes from! Those are doorways and windows into the power and glory of God, out and away and above the wretched and lame ways and lives of “mere men” as Paul called them. Read 1Cor. 2 and the first part of chapter 3 if you will. : )

It SHOULD seem “odd” that Jesus’ mother Mary gave no indication that she emphasized or even thought of an “earth-birth” day for Jesus. The writers in the Scriptures, including two of Jesus’ own half brothers (the sons of Mary and Joseph, Jude and James who wrote Scripture) NEVER ONCE mentioned such a practice or concern, that Jesus’ “First-birth” ever be recognized, or that anyone trade materialism and guilt and worldly retail loves on that day, or any day. Even the scientist Luke, who recorded a thorough THIRTY YEAR account of the practices and concerns and teachings and ways of the Church under the guidance of the hand-trained apostles of Jesus—in his written detail, some “birthday” thing for Jesus NEVER HAPPENED, or Luke deceives us with his neglect of even MENTIONING something the religious world pushes SO hard… as do the retail sector and alcohol business that ring up their cash registers to the tune of 30% of the annual sales during this falsified “season”. Even if 20 different Essential Biblical Principles weren’t heinously violated during this “christmas season” while using Jesus’ name, it should be shocking enough that we have unbelievable emotion and sentiment and jealousy to “protect” for our own flesh, that which Mary and Jesus and Jude, and James, and Luke, and Paul and Peter, and Jesus’ closest friend John—NONE of which practiced, supported, or taught of, or even mentioned—if the Bible is our guide. The question would be, “How dare we pour emotion and time and money and camaraderie into that which violates SO much of God’s heart and His Commands regarding worldliness, taking the Lord’s Name in vain, hypocrisy, love of the world, deceit, theft, blasphemy from drunken lips, and the like—and those who KNEW JESUS PERSONALLY did NOT do this thing that is so ‘precious’ today?” It seems to be a problem.

Well, “take your time, but don’t procrastinate” is a good “motto” when things are hard to grasp or overcome like the cultural and worldly “conditioned responses” we’ve had dumped on us from the time we were all babies. “Those who love the world are enemies of God” is a pretty potent statement, as is Paul’s admonishment to be “dead to the world, and the world to us.” But, that’s why Jesus was better than all that surrounded Him and was seated at the Highest Place—because He “hated” the world and the things of the world, and ONLY loved what the Father loved. That’s OUR job, too. “Find out what pleases the Lord” and ONLY allow those things to have our minds and sentiments. We HAVE to see things as He sees them, and “walk as He walked”. That’s just it. Simple. So we FIND OUT what we’re seeing wrongly and we CHANGE our minds. That’s what the word “repentance” actually means in the Greek: “to change our MINDS” about what we’re willing to love and hate, based on GOD’S viewpoint, rather than the “brain-dirtying” of this “wicked and adulterous generation” that Jesus spoke of. Hitler said that if he had a child until he was six years old (maybe he said seven, but it was right there somewhere)—he had him for LIFE. Satan and Hitler think a lot alike. Of course. So, we have all of that to overcome, since the spirit of this age and the “god of this world” has had our thinking corrupted AWAY from God’s (of course) FAR longer than six or seven years. A BIG JOB to change our minds and emotions to match His, to say the least. But, that’s no reason to reject the Process of coming to HIM for all of our opinions and feelings, just because we were SO messed up for so long, right? : )

Well, the first part of this letter is far more important than the second part, since it is the PRINCIPLE and the WAY to LIVE that I want you to be Soft for Jesus about, and the details are less important once the heart is Right with God, our Designer and King. : )

But, attached you’ll find some minor examples of the topic of “X-mas”. Even articles in Time Magazine and the like are mind-boggling at the basis and pagan demon-meanings of SO many things related to Xmas and Easter and the like. It’s sooooo sad what was done to us, and so many others in our childhoods that robbed us of our minds and emotions and even intelligent choices. God never meant for our emotions to be spent on demon-symbols and rituals. He wants us to use our emotions on HIS STUFF! : )

Love to you in the Warrior-Lamb,

•  On the Topic of "x-mas"