Comfort, conviction and Christmas

Has it really been a full year since I last posted? I guess I'm not a very good blogger am I?


Oh I've written several blogs in the past year - in the early morning hours when my brain was tired of counting sheep. But we haven't developed the technology to transfer brain waves to computers so...

This latest attempt however came about compliments of Facebook.

Someone posted a half-hearted comment meant only to register a thumbs up "like", but someone else actually posted another half-hearted response. Silly me. I just had to respond to said responder which started a dialog worthy of a forum. But like most, ended with the proverbial, "I don't want to take the time to back up my convictions with evidence. And more importantly, I don't want to take your statements seriously. You believe what you want and I'll believe my way and we can hold hands and sing We Are The World."

Yes that's a bit snarky. But I found it interesting that the original poster and another of like mind responder were clearly not interested in the "other side". They were happy and after all this was Facebook where we only "like" things we write to each other.

And so - this is not Facebook. This is MY blog, MY turf and I can share MY own ridiculous opinions. And hopefully someone will read it and either agree or disagree. But at least here I can state MY two cents worth.

Let's start with the first word of my title - comfort.

We're all comfortable with our own beliefs. We need to be or else they wouldn't be our beliefs. But sometimes we get too comfortable with them. We forget they define us to others and to G~d. (Yes I'm using that funny space instead of "o". If you want to know why - ask me!)

Most of the time we come by our beliefs by osmosis, or parents or friends or books someone recommended, that we haven't read yet but know it will change our lives. Some people actually take the time to find out why they believe what they believe, but usually in Christendom or Judaism it's what someone else told them.

Now I'm going to get personal. So those of you who don't want your beliefs challenged, gulp down that last swig of coffee and switch to Facebook.

The third word in my title - Christmas. And while we’re at it lets really up the antae and throw in Easter.

Where did they come from? The Bible you say with that pursed lip shake of the head. Did they?

Is there a scripture that says, "Lo (verses always start with Lo when it has to do with Christmas) it came about on Christmas morning that shepherds found the Babe... (you get the point).

Sorry. Do a word search and Christmas ain't there.

Know what comes up when you do the search with Easter. You actually get a verse. Really! But only in King James.

Act 12:4 "And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternion of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."

But before you do the happy dance, it's the Greek word (pascha) for the Hebrew word (pesach) Passover.

Now I could go into a long diatribe about the birth of Christmas and Easter - who started them - the whole nine yards. But like my Facebook friend said (and I paraphrase), "yeah I know about that but I don't care." And here I quote, "In my case, my conscience has no problems with Christmas or Easter."

There's an awful lot of people on death row that would tell you their conscience has no problem with what they did to get them to "Hotel DR."

Now I come to the middle word in the title. Comfort. Let's face it, we need to be comfortable. We hate it when someone comes and has the audacity to mess with our comfort. Especially religious comfort. I’m sure the people back when Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the rest of the minor prophets, had they been of Facebook, would have said the same things as now. I have no problems with worshipping in the high places not designated by G~d. After all, it doesn’t matter where we worship - it’s who we worship. However the end of the story for these fine folks wasn’t pretty. G~d did care. Very much.

Okay I’ve taken up enough of your precious time - and away from finding out which politician you resemble.

Will celebrating Christmas and Easter send you to hell? Depends on which church you go to…

My point is this.

Most everybody uses conscience and conviction to justify just about anything they want to do - are comfortable with. But whatever you believe with all conviction, make sure you personally have done a thorough study and search to see where G~d stands with it. And if it’s just a tradition set forth by man to make people comfortable even though G~d has a better way, consider stepping out of the fast moving current long enough to ask Him if it’s the river He wants you in.

Oh and one more thing… cause I don’t know when I’ll blog next and I want you to get your money’s worth…

Since G~d and Jesus are one and the same - when Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t nullify all those things He wrote in the first thousand plus pages of your Bible.