I am ever more convinced that to God it matters greatly. So, I am impressed to re-publish a blog I sent out five years ago, in December 2009. Pray about it. This time look up the biblical references. We are drawing so close to the Return of our Lord and Savior Yeshua (Jesus), that there is an urgency for His people to come "out of Babylon" (the world) and come to KNOW Him and who He really is, and make decisions now to line up our lives with His Word. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is NOT speaking and operating on our Gregorian calendar! He is still on the calendar of the ancient Hebrews, and in this year and next He is placing His signs in the heavens (blood-red moons and blackened suns, meaning lunar and solar eclipses) on the feasts of Passover and Tabernacles. He has never changed His mind - He is the same yesterday today and forever - and these are still HIS holy, appointed feast days.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Can Kohl's Save Christmas?
Driving to the airport yesterday I was listening to a commentator on an
economic radio program give the dismal report on "Black Friday's"
statistics. "Target was down 10%, while the average store reported sales
17-18% below last year's," he lamented. "However, Nordstrom was up 2%
and Kohl's alone reached a 3% increase over last year. Can Kohl's save
Christmas?"
I am making the obvious assumption
that this commentator's definition of Christmas is the commercial season
between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays when retailers hope to get
their yearly profit margins in the black. It seems to have become the
definition of Christmas for our nation. And so he asks, "CAN KOHL'S SAVE CHRISTMAS?"
Let's go a step further. Even if we are a people who don't define Christmas as a commercial retail phenomenon, how do we
define it? And does our definition agree with Scripture and the ways
YHVH defines it? Ask any child to define Christmas. Most will tell you,
"It's when Santa comes and brings presents!" Why do parents lie to their
children and tell them there is a magical, mystical man who flies
through the universe and who rewards the good and punishes the bad? Why
did I lie to my children and why did my parents lie to me?
Santa, reindeer, sparkly trees, yule logs...it all seems so fun, so
innocent. For many of us they were cherished family traditions. But look
up the history of these traditions. Search an encyclopedia to see what a
yule log was; and please read Jeremiah 10:3-4. Yeshua reminds us, "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." (Mark 7:8)
It is hard to let go of traditions that were so much a part of our
childhoods. But it is the pagan traditions that led to the lies of our
forefathers and still profane the celebrations that Christians keep
today.
December 25 was the birthday of Sol, the
sun god - and so it was conveniently selected as the day to celebrate
the Messiah's birth. The holy was mixed with the profane - and YHVH
hates that! (See Ezekiel 44:23). What Scripture commands that we
celebrate the day of His birth? What writer of the Gospels gives us the
date and the way in which we are to keep this "feast"? Search it out! It
is not there. If Yeshua had thought it important, He would have told us
so. But He seems about as interested in a birthday party with presents
and nativity pageants and decorated trees as He would be in the results
of Kohls profit margin! That is because He continually tried to focus
the people on His Kingdom. He is a King and a High Priest in
the order of Melchizedek, who has no geneaology, no father or mother, no
beginning and no end (Hebrews 7:3) "He is the image of the invisble
God, the firstborn over all creation, for by Him all things were
created" (Colossians 1:15). In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God; He was with God in the beginning (John 1:1). He is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation
13:8). He is the same yesterday, today and forever! (Hebrews 13:8). He
is called Emmanuel - which means "God with us." He was most certainly conceived in the
womb of a Jewish woman during the feast of Hanukkah as His Light came into the world - and then born as
a child at the Feast of Tabernacles (which means God dwells with us)
and is returning again at the Feast of Tabernacles when He will
establish His Kingdom reign forever. HalleluYah! How marvelously the
feasts of the LORD fulfill all the prophecies about Him!
Can Kohl's save Christmas? Does Yeshua want it saved? Ask Him yourself. This year instead of us saying, "Oh well, He knows my heart" - let us earnestly seek to know His heart.
