Growing Pains

I feel sick...soul sick as I learn more and more. Like a sojourner in a foreign land I ache for what has been lost and I weep for what has been forgotten. I am strangely homesick for what I've never known and yet as the same time, I struggle with giving up what I have always believed. The very magnitude of the deception in even my own life wears me down and makes me soul weary.

Daniel 7 says of satan: "And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time."

I struggle with reconciling my life to Yeshua's life. I greatly desire to be an imitator of Christ, to do what he did, live like he did, and so I find that once again I must give something up. Something which really wasn't what I thought it was anyway, and I make the sacrifice gladly in a way because I know it draws me closer to him.

Christmas is what I'm talking about and here's why. I won't bore you with the details but I will provide a couple links to two of the sites that helped me make my decision.

This first one has 6 parts but I started the link at Part 2 which is where it really gets into the meat of the subject.

This second one is also a great resource for historical accuracy, and it points out that even though God does indeed know our heart and intent. You can't put lipstick on a pig so to speak. Something that was meant for Satanic worship can't ever be offered to God. He knows what it really represents even if we don't. We can't take our "best pig" and say "I'm giving this as an offering to the Lord, no matter how sincere, because he tells us that it's an abomination in his eyes just like the worship or items of worship of false deities.

My husband is in agreement. We will celebrate The Feast of Dedication also known as Hanukkah just like Jesus did but we have not yet decided as to whether or not we'll give presents. As I understand it there are a precious few "Christmas Traditions" that do not have their roots in paganism and I think these we may continue to keep. Some Christmas carols will still be heard in our house although they will probably be sung year round as hymns. I keep my nativity up year round also and have for a couple years now. We don't worship it, but instead use it to remind us of Yeshua's humble beginnings as a King who made Himself a servant and a sacrifice for us. Thinking on all this now helps me to realize that the wonderful magic of that Season is really the closeness that we feel to our family and God and it's a pity that we've relegated it to Christmas and Easter (that's a whole other post) and left it out of the rest of the year. We won't be giving up snowball fights, hot chocolate, sledding, family celebrations (again, another post), lots of yummy food (I hear Hanukkah is a good opportunity to eat lots of fried food...in coconut oil of course). Eggnog, apple cider, and building snowmen. In the past I've down played winter in favor of Christmas not wanting to take away from the Reason for the Season...which makes me think, maybe a better way to put it is that Yeshua is the Reason for the Seasons. Just like Fall, Spring, and Summer there's so much of God's majesty, creativity, and loving providence to be appreciated in the Winter time. So I suppose I'll put my snowflake window clings up, display my smiling snowmen and enjoy the magic of the season, being together with my family and of course now I get to research how to celebrate Hanukkah with it's 8 days of celebration, now that is a neat history lesson I can't wait to tell my kids about! As always God keeps us learning, and growing and just like my children experience growing pains, we must stretch and sometimes go through a little bit of pain and change in order to grow up in the Lord.