Christs - Mass

Now the moment I have been looking forward to, ripping what we call "a happy holiday" to shreds (well for the Christians reading it will be)

So Christmas which we recognise as a Christian holiday is still the one day that stops the earth still, as far as I'm aware the only people still on the job will be the cops, ambulances and fire fighters. which may as well be my first point, isn't it funny that even though the remembrance of Jesus can still stop the world that we still need humans to control our society, on the one day when its actually suppose to be about family and Jesus we still fail to 'be good'

Now as for Christ being the 'reason for the season', The origins of Christmas are described as follows on Wikipedia

"Christmas Day or Christmastide, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that marks and honours the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The birth of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini system of dating, is thought to have occurred between 7 and 2 BC. December 25 is not thought to be Jesus' actual date of birth, and the date may have been chosen to correspond with the Roman Festival."

I'm sure the majority of us are aware of the falsehood of the 25th being Jesus actual date, I personally have found two dates given by leading scholars is August 14th and July 17th. Now the simple fact is that we will never TRULY know the date of his birth but I'm also sure very few of us knew that our Christ mass was ripped off from a pagan celebration. This Roman festival in December was called Saturnalia, this was the feast that celebrated the mythological God "Saturn" this was originally on the 17th and eventually expanded to a whole week lasting until the 23rd. One form of celebration was a school holiday and the making and giving of small presents. This resembles closely the sole focus of our Christmas celebration today. For Saturnalia The customary greeting for the occasion is a "Io, Saturnalia!" — Io (pronounced "yo") being a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn"). now I'm sure you are all thinking of the correlation between Santa and his jolly "ho ho ho" being a direct symbol of the pagan worship and celebration that still exists today.

Now for this next paragraph I will probably recieve a bit of "you're such a conspiricist" because it does sound crazy and in all reality when I first had this revelation I was taken aback. But here goes, Santa is a direct anagram for someone that is commonly known in Christianity and in the Bible. If you didn't catch that its Satan. feel free to call me crazy, I simply couldn't care but let me give a reasonable explanation to this. Christmas has indeed become materialised, I see too many Christians get lost in this materialism and I can't help but shake my head in disgrace. People sometimes even expect gifts and if they are not given to them they feel disappointed and even disrespected. Today its all about what we can get. Its all purely Greed. in 2006 I went all out for Christmas and I did it not in hope of what I got in return but in the pure joy that I receive when I give without strings attached.
this year I have done cards and a small knick nack from Trade aid. which leads me to another small yet significant thing, think for a moment where you bought most of your presents this year, and then ask yourself this "what chance is there that that shop bought from china or India?" why would you ask that? because a significant number of Chinese manufacturers are in the business of slave labour. I'm sure I need not elaborate on that idea but my point is this, whilst you buy your gifts and give them and recieve them at the same time kids in slave labour are getting paid less that 1US dollar a day and usually and extra 20 cents if they sleep over night at the factory.

now I must move on to the point of Christmas trees, don't get me wrong I love pine trees and some of my fond memories are of the smell of pine on Christmas morning in the living room. However n ancient times the winter solstice was celebrated in Babylon as the birth day of Tammuz, the god of vegetation. According to the pagans, the god Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. This festival became known as the Saturnalia, and friends and family would exchange gifts. Jeremiah 10 verses 2-4 states

2 This is what the LORD says:
"Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the sky,
though the nations are terrified by them.

3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.

4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.

so what can we take from this? the decoration of trees is tradition of Saturnalia which is a pagan festival and is detestable by God. ok so can we have Christmas without trees? of course you can, but what of the exchanging of gifts that is also part of that pagan celebration. Ok so no gifts either. so what's left? well a day off work and the word Christmas. so my simple obligation is this, why do we not celebrate it in this way? a day off and the focus on Christ mass. despite the rip off of Saturnalia's dates we SHOULD be able to focus on Christ. Another question I would have to pose is why oh why do we need a specified date to remember Jesus? the ideal would be for us to remember him everyday and I do pray that for us all. But I simply ask this of you this Christmas. Who are you doing it for? for yourself to get gifts? for others to serve and show them you care? or for Jesus?

so Who are you buying the gifts for? who are you decorating that tree for? who are you singing the carols to? what are you thinking when you recieve your gifts? think about it.

Seriously.

Submisiveness

Well it’s almost Christmas (you'll get a blog on that soon don't worry)

But as I wind down from my trip to Australia I begin to understand the simplicity of taking action upon what I have learnt.

I have begun another discussion with my friends online about God, which at one point involved a Jew a Muslim and an Atheist yet for some reason I was not overwhelmed or intimidated. I thought I would be but I had complete peace, my mind was still and uncluttered to argue one point at a time. I have learnt to use the bible more in my arguments which can only come across one way, that I have complete faith in the word of God and to some that would seem foolish but I can only pray that it will make them ask "why is he so confident in that silly book" their words not mine!

A family acquaintance came to our house just yesterday to catch up with us, She noted to me "wow man you're happy, you just seem at peace with yourself" and I could only agree and pray that she makes that connection to my faith. It made me aware of how much God has worked in me this year almost gone, it truly has been an amazing year, words cannot comply but God has left me awestricken uncountable times.

I have now decided on my plan of action for next year, after much prayer and thought to it I will be doing a course in Pathways College so its crackdown time now in terms of a new job and in time management this coming year. I cannot truly express in any words how much God has blessed me and made me aware of his working in my life, I literally sit here with nothing to write because I cannot put into mere words.

Who are we to try a describe the majestic lord who created the earth and heavens, names the stars one by one, placed them in their place.
Who am I that the same God that sees my sin, looks on me with love?
Who am I that the god of justice and wrath would have a plan and purpose for my life?
It saddens me to see Christians who are so complacent with their circumstances, ones who have no further passion for the God of love and wrath that we serve. It upsets me that they are constantly reminded of this and motivated by their peers yet do not act on a word of advice. Of course this is from the little I see of their lives. But oh lord do I pray for inspiration for them, I yearn to see their fire burn brighter and catch other people alight with the same joy.

Our lives truly are but a breath, God breathed life into us and can just as easily take it from us, we are in service of such a gracious God, may we all see his power and wrath for what it truly is understand what it is to fear God, a fear that means you want to love him with all your heart mind and soul.

Insignificance.

Well it has been a pretty full on week and a bit (9 days)

Arriving in Sydney to go down to Canberra a few days later for what I like to call SPRTE or what will be referred to by me as 'sprite.' This involved in depth bible study of the passage Romans 3:21-26 which my sum up is "its one of those passages that you think are self explanatory yet once one door of insight opens regarding it seems the door leads down and endless path of theological, philosophical densely packed information, with a cross breed of cross references." Swell as amazing talks (once again theologically packed and completely biblical based) then add a handful of a thousand or more brothers and sisters in Christ with which to meet and befriend, stir well. Leave you "wanting a break, not from physical tiresome but mental overload of information" and serve with hot Canberra sun, with a side of flies everywhere you go. This was closely followed by a mission trip to the central coast which meant involvement with the 'Lakes Evangelical Church' which with a heafty dessert course of serving leaves you set and ready to hit the sack.

That’s the short way of explaining it; my general more understandable version is that it was Theoretical followed by Practical in regards to serving and beginning ministry.

Now as for my title, I have had a few small 'God moments' throughout this 9-day period but one of the most vivid is precisely about our insignificance. There came a moment to where I mentally removed myself from the context I was in, the surroundings and specific details are irrelevant however I was very much still physically present. I felt as if I was somehow seeing everything around me from a third person perspective, now you're probably thinking, "well of course you were!" but I mean from a different standing point than the obvious. It came to me that all we do, the people we meet, the person we are becoming everyday, all that we live for and all that we think we know. Is insignificant. I would usually go on to explain that with God in your life however it is significant but you merely need to take a look at Ecclesiastes in the bible to argue otherwise. Now to most reading right now this will be very upsetting, maybe even (hopefully) a little bit daunting, because what this means is that all are efforts are for nothing and that is completely true. Even living a Christian life we (the thinkers of our generation) are constantly faced with "well even if I pray, every word is predestined by God, Even though I am called to 'go out into all the nations' it is still God that saves, even though we strive to be better person, God has already seen all our failings and all our success." This Revelation given to me was not one of a depressing state but more of a complete humbling of my soul, for amongst all these thoughts we can very much lose ourselves in despair and loss of motivation but for me it was finally the reverse, I felt more of a refreshing inspiration as God gently humbled to me just how Uncontainable he really is. This is reiterated to us in the DVD "Indescribable" from Louie Giglio which shows us a fleeting glimpse of how the small knowledge we have our infinitely puzzling universe we are but a spec of dust on the very fingertip of God himself, in fact to scale that spec would be our planet in fact we are so small in scale to the size of God that we truly are insignificant.

The amazing thing truly is that despite our complete worthlessness, despite how little we actually mean, despite our insignificance of which we could never truly understand God still wants to be with us, I feel absolutely privileged that a God so big would care to show me but a glimpse of his wonder by giving me a personal revelation from the him, the creator of all. One way in which I can begin to glimpse his power and wonder is that scientists guess that in our universe (of which we know no limits to yet) a new star is born every second, and in the bible it states that God knows each star by name, that alone alongside the beauty of creation, and alongside the personal relationship he establishes with each and every one of us makes me feel so incredibly humbled that it truly in indescribable, Words are but a spec of floating dust in the desert of what he is worthy of. I say it all the time and even these words that are carefully strung into a sentence do not come but a fraction close (in my understanding) in describing the absolute awe that God leaves me with every single time I try to understand who he is.

"A lifetime of worship and study into your character could barely give us a glimpse of your magnitude, of your limitless expanse and wonder"

That has been my prayer many a time, and I can only add to that prayer that it may be yours also.

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling"

We serve an incredible God.

May he soften your heart, and open your eyes and ears as he humbles your soul to his absolute sovereignty.