The Open Scroll Blog |
| Posted: 12 Dec 2015 10:38 AM PST If you're not already very familiar with this study titled, The Story of Christmas that Should be Told, I invite you to become familiar with it so that you understand how the tidings of great joy that attended our saviour's birth came like a double edged sword. There is an accountability for the gifts and blessings of God that can not be discounted. Mercy endures and abounds, and for that I am so very grateful, but mercy is certainly not a blanket dismissal of accountability for sin. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. ~ Luke 12:48(b) During the Christmas season, the sights and sounds that we're unavoidably confronted with bring many of us to reflect on our childhoods, on memories of family gatherings and traditions. Whether the memories being prompted bring joy, pain, or a bittersweet mixture, it is the mark of a mature and well grounded saint to be found walking in the way of the apostle Paul. 3 For walking in flesh, we do not wage war according to flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but divinely powerful toward the demolition of strongholds, 5 overthrowing arguments, and every high thing lifting itself up against the knowledge of God, and taking captive every thought into the obedience of Christ, ~ 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (Berean Literal Bible) I encourage you to read the context of that passage and take it to heart. In this season, perhaps as never before, spiritual battles are being lost due to the failure to gain and maintain the discipline of obedience. To allow sentimentality or the ease of complying with the expectations of others to determine what we think and do about these Pagan holidays represents a failure. It's as clear a sign of idolatry in our hearts that there can be. Do you know when my Lord Y'shua was born? Consider When Jesus was Born - The Celestial Signs. Are you informed about the worship of Saturn and Janus, and what that looks like on the calendar? Israel's past failures as the chosen people have not always been that they didn't actively worship God, but that they also worshiped idols. His is not "an inclusive religion" but truly demands a relationship that is quite exclusive. So it is with the church of the living God. The tolerance and inclusivity that are so highly acclaimed in the modern western culture are an abomination. According to the Author of the Bible, worshiping the one true God and idols amounts to the same as just worshiping idols. He forbids the mixture of the holy and the profane. The definition of, syncretism, is the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought. Look at what Christmas is, and Easter also. If you have bought into the idea that God can truly be honored in the context of a celebration of Christmas or Easter, you, dear saint, have been snookered. The holy spirit does not lead the saints to shroud biblical truths in Pagan traditions. Whatever truth might be set in the midst of these Pagan rituals doesn't cleanse the profane, it profanes the clean. What characterizes Mystery Babylon is the mixture of the holy and profane. This insight is so precious because it is so rare. Seek Him for it and find His good pleasure while it may yet be found. The saints who aspire to be found as the Bridegroom's pure and spotless Bride hear His wooing and solemn warning to, "Come out of her, my people" - and so they do. My God is a jealous God.  |
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