[countmeworthy]

Originally Posted by Evangelical

My comment about the Bible was an analogy. Christmas is about taking something of another religion, making it pretty, and saying it reminds us of something genuine.

We see eye to eye on a few things - that God hates religion. Now Christmas came from religion not from the bible or Judaism. So why defend it? Religion is a substitute for the true God, so religion is an idol, right?

Religion is believing in something, even God, but not having a true relationship with Him and more importantly on HIS terms. We come as we are, dirty as filthy rags, yet with a humbled heart realizing we NEED GOD in our lives, to change our stinking thinking, to rescue us from the mess we are in, to feel His Love for us when we feel no one cares, no one loves us.

When we surrender to HIM, He fills our spirit with His Love, with His Spirit, with His Peace. And thus our relationship with HIM begins. The scriptures are our guide but without the Spirit opening the eyes of our understanding, we know very well, the letter will kill us! And THAT is when we become religious. We quote the scriptures as the pharisees and sadduccees did but have no relationship with our Creator. We trust the man or woman preaching/teaching God's Word more than the Spirit Himself. (That's not to say God does not use man to preach and teach His Word.)

What happened in the LC back in the day is the LCrs came under the spell and delusion that especially LEE was the 'oracle' on the earth and there was no one else God was using to preach and teach His Word.

I could go on and on here...but we have all heard it and no need to rehash. Only the Holy Spirit of Almighty God can open the eyes of our understanding.

Remember that the Israelite's built a golden calf to remind them of God, because Moses took a long time coming down from the mountain.

Here lies the spirit of confusion. Exodus 32:1 doesn't say they were reminded of the GOD of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember. They were in Egypt for a very, very long time. They were used to seeing the Egyptians worship all kinds of gods. And in the scripture (NASB) the people are saying let us make a god, little g.

when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

What was Aaron's problem? He merged the worship of God with the worship of the idol[/B]. Aaron let the people get out of control. Some might say "the golden calf was only a reminder of God", but God did not see it that way[/B].

WHO SAYS THAT ?? I have never heard anyone think or say that a golden calf was only a reminder of God.

It is like that today with Christmas. Religion is an idol, people worship the idol of Christmas and say "it is only a reminder". God does not see it that way. We may not have been involved in paganism or even understand what pagan gods are. But God does and only His opinion truly counts here. We might say "Christmas reminds us of Jesus's birth". But what if Christmas reminds God of all the times when His people worshiped an idol

What if it does not remind God of all the times when His people worshiped an idol?

Probably when God sees a Christmas tree it reminds Him of this:

Spoken like a true blue Leeite. I still recognize the LC lingo.

People only care about their own selfish feelings. They want to remember God in their own way and not consider His feelings about the matter.

Thankfully it's not ALL people but yes.. the world including many true believers have an attitude of 'bless MEEEEE. GIVE MEEEEE' mee. mee. mee'

And so we pray for God's Glory Light and Love shine on them and create in them (and in all of us daily) a clean and pure heart, sanctified by His Precious Blood.

Not only has Christmas become commercialized as you rightly said, but Christmas is the only time of the year when many will go to church to remember God and they do not attend weekly or even monthly communion.

But see ??!! This is the perfect opportunity for us to reach out to them. It might be the time they will be open to the full gospel, the entire Word of HOPE, of LOVE, of FAITH. God uses EVERY situation!

Remember what Paul did at Mars hill. He was sooo wise when he looked at all the idols and then found one that had the inscription 'the unknown god'. BINGO!! He hit the jackpot on how to talk about this 'unknown God', JESUS CHRIST. Even though it did not bode well with him, he at least went out on a limb !!! GOOD for him!!

A lot people have the wrong idea about what it means to be religious. To many, to be religious is to not observe Christmas, Easter etc. Actually, a person who does not observe the occasions that came from religion such as Christmas, are the truly non-religious ones. A truly non-religious person is one who does not observe Christmas but remembers Christ in regular Lord's Table meetings.

There you go again.. quoting something you learned in the LSM. A truly non-religious is not someone who remembers Christ in regular Lord's table meetings !! What happens to their lives the rest of the week???
Don't you go telling me they live 'holy lives' just because they observe the Lord's table!!!!

A truly non-religious person walking with the Lord is one who has a daily 24/7 intimate relationship with our Creator through His Spirit living in us, His Living Word operating in us (Hebrews 4:12) and being washed daily in the Blood of the Lamb.