Safety Net Under the Tree

In a sense, the central story of my life is about nothing else ..... it is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and from Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic; and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again. Apart from that and considered only in its quality, it might almost equally be called unhappiness or grief. But then it is a kind we want. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then, joy is never in our power and pleasure often is. 

C.S. Lewis

 
Christianity is not complicated, just tough. I bask in the joy of my salvation. BUT, I am conflicted by the consistent inconsistencies surrounding my faith. I truly believe that ninety percent of my faith is just raw courage. I need the courage to abound. It is so much easier to abase, to go along with the crowd. For instance, to enjoy, peeping through the keyhole, the commercialism of Christmas.

I am perplexed by the Christmas tree in the church sanctuary, the tinsel, the lights, the shopping--spending--stressing of this holy day, which has become a Pagan holiday.

And yet, for me, and you, my fellow Christian, if your Christmas has become a Pagan festival, it is your fault. When I see the lights, regardless of color, I think of Jesus, the light of the world. When I see the thorns on the holly tree, red berries, I think of the crown of thorns that was placed on his precious head and the drops of blood he shed for my rotten sins... as well as the sin of the world.

With the Christmas tree, with gifts, we can test the boundaries of grace. The greatest gift the world has ever known, a baby in a cattle cave in Bethlehem, after God's quietness for several hundred years. (One of my professors had said seven hundred "dumb" years. Preachers have said four hundred years. After Malachi to Matthew, old to New Testament, no message from God.)

Of course, God could have delivered his only son, full man, to the earth, to quickly die on the cross. We instead, have a long suffering savior, his life and message. HE PREACHED HIMSELF. As his feet nourished the ground around the Sea of Galilee, Roman enslavement was tyrannical.

Good news to a confused world, the grace of God. I have thoughts about "back door" revivals, unsaved people in the church, a hypocrisy testimony to the world. Perhaps God allows many to come to him backwards... like pouring water on a rock, it takes a long time for some to "get it". His grace is sufficient for the Mennonites, the Amish and many others of the thousands of denominations.

I was always so depressed with church members dragging in late for worship, clothing smelling of cigarette smoke. Knowing the holiness of God, his long suffering, even toward me, who am I to judge. Our blessed lord knows what people can comprehend. Just think of the thousands of missionaries taking the message of Christ to a lost and dying world of unbelievers whose language, traditions, cultures are so completely indifferent. Surely, God has a safety net of grace under the tree at Calvary for people who stumble and fumble at its base. Surely, God has a safety net of grace for children who understand gifts from the church Christmas tree. Surely, God has a safety net of grace for those who should know that his gifts to us, throughout life (Even the very air we breathe) could be taken away. Learning to trust God is a way of giving... gifts. God gave his Son, his Son, gave his life. It is impossible to show our love for God, our greatest act of worship other than by giving gifts of our blessings (Ties and Offerings) back to him. We cannot love without giving and perhaps this is the greatest message of Christmas... however we get it across.

A news reporter came to me for a story about the many places I have traveled at Christmas time. I was at the South Pole at Christmas, spent one Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, etc. I told her the greatest Christmas decorations, the greatest joy among people at any time of the year, particularly Christmas was in those places where Christ had been taught and preached... the Christian world. There is no joy at Christmas or any other time in the forty two-plus Muslim countries and most other countries with false religions (Buddhists, Hindus). Joy came to the world because of Jesus. Every check you write, every date on your calendar, every good gift in the world... hospitals, orphan homes, most colleges, all because of the life of one solitary God--Man in history. Gift to the world from the Creator of the world. Oh, there have been spinoffs--rip-offs such as Saint Nick, Santa Claus, etc., etc., but the only joy of the world came as a baby in a cattle cave in Bethlehem. Can we even imagine, that hillside with shepherds and sheep, God putting on a show with millions of angels, music beyond compare to celebrate any happiness this sin soaked world would enjoy?

"Joy to the World, the Lord has Come", AND IT IS ALL A GIFT OF GRACE.

Missing Out On Christmas

I was in a large Catholic cathedral in Cologne, Germany, known for the gold caskets of the three magi who made that long trip to worship the Christ child. One lady near me said to a Catholic priest who was keeping watch nearby, “do you think it is really them?” He said, “what difference does it make, what do you think?”

Christmas is more a thought process than anything else for most people, in the last half of the twentieth century, preparations for Christmas start in the summer. Christmas decorations get entangled with the decorations for Halloween. Some stores stock Christmas products all year round, called “Christmas stores”.

People who never go to church, who know nothing of the Christian light of the world, have lights all over their house on the outside, thousands of lighted bulbs. Christmas trees and decorations of every sort inside their house.

After I was old enough to think clearly, I realized the hypocrisy of the Christmas season, people spending money they do not have on things that people do not want. AS a child, I went to family gatherings where overweight people gorged themselves on high-calorie food. Gave gifts to family members that they ignored most of the year, people sending greeting cards if one were sent in return. I had one great uncle, my grandfather's brother, never married, as far as I know, never spent one night out of the house in which he was born. Mostly ignored by his family, whom he had been very good to when they were young; but at Christmas, they showered him with gifts, things he did not need.

While in college, I stayed on campus and worked, making money so I could stay in school. In the military, I took duty hours for men who needed to be with their children. Later, and until this day, I traveled abroad or just tried to stay out of the rush-crush, people active in the season, attempting to keep up with the dilemma fostered by news media. After all, if you do not get up and go shopping on “black Friday” early in the morning, there is something wrong with your brain.

If you do not put on many pounds during the Christmas holidays, you are not a real person. I have seen grown men dressed in expensive hunting clothing, with their guns, going into the woods to kill small animals at Christmas. Hospital emergency rooms busy, more suicides, more fights on Christmas...so many missing out on Christmas.

The three magi of the biblical Christmas story, probably traveled from Babylon, they were probably royalty (Isaiah 60:3), kings with an entourage. Probably they had hundreds of soldiers and servants with them. Probably, they were followers of Zoroaster (god of light and stars), such were the scientists of their day, studying the skies and stars, they had discovered an unusual star, knew about the prophesy in Daniel relating to the birth of a messiah. After that long, nearly thousand mile trip, they were probably greatly surprised, or even shocked that in Jerusalem, the religious capital of the world, people were not lining the streets talking about the birth of this child.

Like today, we have the word, but we simply don't believe it. If Herod, his followers, the religious people of Jerusalem, Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, had believed, they would be in Bethlehem, just as Christ's disciples would have been in the graveyard on that Easter morning. Bethlehem is just six miles from Jerusalem, an easy walk. King Herod's people were familiar with the scripture, told the three magi where they could find the baby. But to show their scathing unbelief, they further chastised the world by saying, when you find him come back and tell us. The three kings found Him, they celebrated the first Christmas, but King Herod, his people, the Jewish religious world, missed out on Christmas, as always, God was in control then as now. He directed the “homeward bound” kings in a new direction.

We are told that at the dedication of Solomon's temple, still until this day, the greatest building ever built by man, 13 acres in size, cedar wood and gold, not a hammer or saw were heard in it's construction, 22,000 oxen and sheep without number were sacrificed.

Sheep for the sacrifice, at the second temple, located near Bethlehem, the shepherds who cared for these sheep were the poorest people in Christendom, not even allowed to go to the temple, could not even give testimony in court. But, dirty, bedraggled poverty-stricken, God's announcement of the birth of His son was made first to them, surely every angel in the universe was present, millions of them singing about the glory of Christmas (Luke 2), a Hallelujah chorus which sent the shepherds, one time in their life leaving their sheep, scurrying to that cave in Bethlehem where they worshiped and with great haste, went out to tell the entire world what they had seen. I am sure the world had trouble believing these poor, uneducated, smelly shepherds. But these shepherds had not missed out on the first Christmas, and for the 2000+ years since, those who have experienced “rebirth” have been willing to tell others and for that reason, people throughout the world have not missed out on Christmas.

Christmas is a mental thing, not fulfilled with gifts or even giving spreeing or partying. Christ is the center of Christmas, the cure for heart trouble; the world the pretenders, want to believe in Christmas, so afraid they will miss something at Christmas. The world, the imposters, the pretenders have missed out on Christmas unless they know personally the light of the world, not artificial lights, know the sweetness of salvation, not the addictive sweeteners. Know the true meaning of the red berries and thorns of the holly tree, which show us again His blood shed for our sin. His thorn-crowned brow brandished for our inequity. Don't miss out on Christmas.

Anniversary of Galileo's Telescope (Repost)

#23

I heard someone say recently that men probably do live on Mars, and that our Earth is just their insane asylum.

In 1564 Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy. The Great Cathedral with its Leaning Tower Baptistery was built in 1063. On my several visits there, amid the tourist traps, I could only imagine Pisa at the time Galileo was a child looking upwards to the heavens. Now we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of his development of the telescope in 1609. My old military telescope with its wooden legs will not compare with the famous Hubble telescope now in orbit which has predicted that the edge of space is over twelve million light years in the distance.

Think of the billions of dollars that the US government has spent exploring space. Now, even India, still with the death wagons that go through the streets each morning picking up dead human beings who were born and have lived their entire lives and now have died on the streets, is reportedly sending men into space and spending millions on space exploration. Even Communist China, where four families share one kitchen and one bathroom (I saw this on one of my 3 visits to China since the reopening in 1976), are shooting men into space and have great desires to colonize the moon. My passports have been stamped in 157 countries of the world. In many of these small, poor police-state countries human beings still carry jugs of polluted water long distances from creeks and rivers just to survive.  The scientific community, and those who stare into space, or travel in expensive vehicles though space, have yet to discover much new about space then the five words found in God's Word "And he made the stars". We call ourselves a 'Christian' nation and there are 'do-gooder' persons around the world.(Almost all world poverty is below the 30th parallel)  People do what they do because they believe what they believe. When can we believe that the world's wealth would be better spent relieving the poverty of human beings... At least to the extent of clean water.


No telescope could possibly have seen the Heavenly Host who proclaimed our Savior's birth (This means the only one in the world that can save the world from ourselves) on that cold Bethlehem night 2000 years ago (I spent Christmas Eve in Bethlehem in 1964, it was very cold). The poorest of the poor, shepherds too poor, too deprived, to be allowed into the temple where the sheep they were guarding would be sacrificed. Held in such low regard they could not even give testimony in court and had probably never had a bath.  But, they were witnesses to the greatest event in the history of the world. The wise men, participants in this event did not have a telescope but they "came to worship him" , whereas today's scientific crowd would have come to worship the star.


Long ago, when I could see a little with my left eye which God conveniently left for me after the war, visiting St. Peters and astonished by the beauty of the angels in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, I know without the shadow of a doubt that we are still "surrounded by angels". Several times in my life I have experienced the presence of angels in human beings as well as in protection. The most vivid, which i do not mind sharing, was late on a Sunday afternoon attempting to return home before darkness. I should have stopped driving long before I did but we all hate to give up our independence. Even with a small amount of vision in one eye during the daylight as long as I could see the white lines on the highway I could do pretty well as long as I did not try to pass anyone or do anything else requiring good vision.  As it got increasingly dark and I was still about twenty miles form home I began to panic.  I thought I saw a taillight ahead of me but just before I drove under a large 18-wheeler the steering wheel to my car turned and I went around the truck back into my lane without the car ever slowing and putting me into any danger. For those in Christ, the angels protect us in war (wartime trenches are full of such behavior), in the treatment room (both doctor and patient), the playground, and any other place of danger.


On this 400th anniversary of the development of the telescope there are visions which Galileo could never have conceived. "without vision the people perish"-Proverbs 29-18

Christmas Time

The celebration of Christmas has changed completely during my lifetime (80 years). As a child, Christmas was centered around the white, clapboard church built by my great grandparents on both my mother and father's families in 1874 as they recovered from the Civil War and the destruction of every religious symbol in the community when the Yankees moved through on Sherman's march to the sea.

I personally object to Christmas decorations in a house of worship. Most of the decorations are symbols of the pagan activities of that season of the year which the Christians took over from the worshipers of heathenism. But, in the very isolated, rural communities, the poverty which was there when I was a child (remember there were no radios, television had not been invented, one telephone in the entire community, no electricity) gave the children in Sunday school a reason to look forward to this time of year, because it was a time that they participated in enjoyment not found at any other time.

I still remember there were children in the community, at the church, who had never seen an orange or banana. The only Santa Claus they knew anything about was the one they saw on the pages of the Sears Christmas catalog, which came to every home. They could wish for things but the chances of them getting any thing was slim to none. My mother related so many times about how she and her sister wanted a doll for Christmas. They each received a child's purse in which was a note which read, “Perhaps next year will be better and you will get a doll. Signed, Santa.”

Over my long and exciting life of traveling the world as a blind person, then, as now, having everything described to me by someone else, I was interviewed by a reporter from a large newspaper about my experiences around the world at Christmas time. It is very simple, only in those countries where Christ is known will you find the celebration of Christmas. Certainly not in the 48 Muslim countries. Perhaps the most exciting Christmas was celebrated at the South Pole, Antarctica. Next in excitement would be spending Christmas Eve at Bethlehem in the Holy Land. I fully described this experience in one of my blogs.

How, when I arrived at the hotel in Bethlehem from Jerusalem, the place was full and my driver and I were given rooms on the outside in rooms reserved during tourist season for bus drivers. I described how cold it was in Bethlehem that time of the year, emphasizing, again, the known fact that our blessed Lord was not born in the latter part of December because there were no shepherds in the fields with sheep at such a cold time of year in the Holy Land. But, on that Christmas Eve as all my senses reconciled my metabolism in the physical knowledge of that part of the world at any time of the year, I rejoice just to be there. On Christmas Day, I went into the Church of the Nativity, which is built over the cave where our blessed Lord was born. Even though being in the Holy Land at Christmas, celebrating the birth of the Light of the World, my guide told me he did not see one Christmas decoration, one Christmas light, EXCEPT in a small store just across from Absalom's Tomb (Absalom, son of King David).

I was in Athens, Greece at Christmas one year. The people at the hotel and others told me they had never seen one city so beautifully decorated as Athens. Of course, having been here several times, I knew the Acropolis, on which the Parthenon is located, is always illuminated at night. Crawling up the Acropolis to the Parthenon on Christmas day, reaching Mars Hill (where the Apostle Paul had much to say about the God's of the Athenians) I thrilled in the knowledge that all history, every calendar, every date on any document, all punctuated by the birth and life of one solitary man, God-man. When you move around the Mediterranean, you realize this one solitary figure of history never walked over 50 miles from where he was born, never owned anything except his robe for which His crucifiers gambled as he hung on a tree.

This Christmas, you do not have to travel the world as I have at Christmas time (South Pole, Holy Land, Majorca, Holland, Greece, Rio, Tokyo) to know the real meaning of Christmas. When you look at the Christmas tree, think of the tree on which our blessed Lord was crucified. When you see the thorns on the holly tree, think of the crown of thorns on His head. When you see the red berries, think of the drops of blood he shed for you, when you see the bright lights which the world has distributed up and down every street, a world which has denied Him over and over, think of the Light of the World and the fact that every day, in every way, the world prefers darkness to light.

Over spending, over eating, over activity, is the way pagans celebrate Christmas. To the world, it is not a holy day but a holiday. Keep pagan practices out of your house of worship; there is nothing more beautiful than Christian Church, Christmas music. The gifts of Santa Claus do not compare and should not be mixed with the incomparable gift of the Christian Christmas. Don't get confused, God is not mocked. For the believer, the believer in Christ, Christmas is a time to rejoice in children, even in seeing a pregnant woman. God chose to put a tent of human flesh on a small baby born of a virgin mother, to live among us, to die for us, and has told us only to remember Him at the communion table. Celebrating the Lord's supper is the only way we were instructed to remember him. The rest is just peripheral, to be done with sobriety, thoughtfulness, and an excellent time to show man's humanity to man.