As I get older and spend more time contemplating Theology and life, I find that my understanding of holidays as a whole is undergoing significant change. My priorities and my focus all have shifted. Christmas is not what it used to be for me, and I'm happy that it isn't. The majority of Christmas music hurts my soul! If I hear that blasted song that says "I wanna see Christmas through your eyes" one more flippin time!!!....I'm sorry, I digress.
I have a good deal of thought concerning holidays, and I would like that Americans (particularly Christians) do not celebrate holidays enough, and when they do it isn't done well. Lost in commercialism and selfishness, we fail to celebrate the holidays as they were meant to and, therefore, do not reap the benefits of said holidays. As a result, we suffer spiritually, physically, mentally, and culturally. Again, I digress. This is not what I wanted to focus on for my post, but I do believe needed to be said. I will expand on my thoughts in another post, but what really is my focus here is my hearing arguments about "offending" people.
Again, Christians fail at this. I'm not being critical of the Church here...I'm just pointing out a flaw in our thinking that needs to be addressed so that we can move forward and be more worshipful in our living. I've heard a lot of talk of how the Church should be as unoffensive as possible. "We don't want to offend people" is the stance that the White House took in saying "Holiday Trees" rather than "Christmas Trees", and what happened? People got offended. Possible more people than if they had stood by what they claimed to believe and said "Christmas Trees". The fact is that it is impossible to not offend someone, especially in America where people seem to look for chance to be offended and cause a ruckus ..it's a portion of the fallen nature of man that has taken hold in our culture.
To never offend someone is either to A) do absolutely nothing or to B) live life walking on eggshells and being a completely different person every time you change who you are around. The former will ultimately end in someone being offended; the latter will leave you broken and without any sense of identity or integrity and you will be enslaved to the beliefs and the stupidity of anyone that comes near you. It is an unhealthy way to live and it will destroy you. So to live healthy means that you will offend someone. If you care too much about what people say about you and about offending them, then you are probably living in fear and in sin...enslaved by people rather than living a holy and spiritual life that God desires for us. You are stripped of happiness and joy; caged by your own worldview.
The Gospel is offensive...Church is offensive...you can't escape it. To try is to dishonor our God, who had no problem offending people when it was needed. Neither should we. At the same time we should not waste our time and energy raising up arguments about "holiday trees" when there are far more important things that need to be discussed and fought for. Like our rights to bear arms and the evils of abortions.
People are offended by the death of 20 precious children and demand that guns be outlawed...while even more are offended by the murdering of hundreds of thousand of babies in the name of "human rights" and nothing is done! Stop tippy toeing and trying to not step on peoples toes and start standing for truth and for the things worth fighting for. I wish you all a Merry Christmas! May your Holy day be beautiful and full of the blessing of our Lord Christ. May you abandon your selfishness and your pride and remember to celebrate and give thanks to God for what He has done. Celebrate life by giving to those you love and be with them in unity and fellowship. Do not cry if you don't get the color iPhone you want, it will be worthless within the year. Put an end to your vain longings and set your thoughts on things that matter, like God and people.
Peace be with you all,
Stephen
I have a good deal of thought concerning holidays, and I would like that Americans (particularly Christians) do not celebrate holidays enough, and when they do it isn't done well. Lost in commercialism and selfishness, we fail to celebrate the holidays as they were meant to and, therefore, do not reap the benefits of said holidays. As a result, we suffer spiritually, physically, mentally, and culturally. Again, I digress. This is not what I wanted to focus on for my post, but I do believe needed to be said. I will expand on my thoughts in another post, but what really is my focus here is my hearing arguments about "offending" people.
Again, Christians fail at this. I'm not being critical of the Church here...I'm just pointing out a flaw in our thinking that needs to be addressed so that we can move forward and be more worshipful in our living. I've heard a lot of talk of how the Church should be as unoffensive as possible. "We don't want to offend people" is the stance that the White House took in saying "Holiday Trees" rather than "Christmas Trees", and what happened? People got offended. Possible more people than if they had stood by what they claimed to believe and said "Christmas Trees". The fact is that it is impossible to not offend someone, especially in America where people seem to look for chance to be offended and cause a ruckus ..it's a portion of the fallen nature of man that has taken hold in our culture.
To never offend someone is either to A) do absolutely nothing or to B) live life walking on eggshells and being a completely different person every time you change who you are around. The former will ultimately end in someone being offended; the latter will leave you broken and without any sense of identity or integrity and you will be enslaved to the beliefs and the stupidity of anyone that comes near you. It is an unhealthy way to live and it will destroy you. So to live healthy means that you will offend someone. If you care too much about what people say about you and about offending them, then you are probably living in fear and in sin...enslaved by people rather than living a holy and spiritual life that God desires for us. You are stripped of happiness and joy; caged by your own worldview.
The Gospel is offensive...Church is offensive...you can't escape it. To try is to dishonor our God, who had no problem offending people when it was needed. Neither should we. At the same time we should not waste our time and energy raising up arguments about "holiday trees" when there are far more important things that need to be discussed and fought for. Like our rights to bear arms and the evils of abortions.
People are offended by the death of 20 precious children and demand that guns be outlawed...while even more are offended by the murdering of hundreds of thousand of babies in the name of "human rights" and nothing is done! Stop tippy toeing and trying to not step on peoples toes and start standing for truth and for the things worth fighting for. I wish you all a Merry Christmas! May your Holy day be beautiful and full of the blessing of our Lord Christ. May you abandon your selfishness and your pride and remember to celebrate and give thanks to God for what He has done. Celebrate life by giving to those you love and be with them in unity and fellowship. Do not cry if you don't get the color iPhone you want, it will be worthless within the year. Put an end to your vain longings and set your thoughts on things that matter, like God and people.
Peace be with you all,
Stephen
