Merry Christmas
Only two more shopping days until.... Holiday! Hilarious, that line was played out on Saturday Night Live last weekend and it still makes me laugh... Now, don't get me wrong - I'm all for Christmas and I'm all for calling it Christmas, but I do have to wonder if when someone wishes me a Happy Holiday and I respond "Merry Christmas" does it really matter THAT much for the Kingdom of God? Does Jesus care what we call an evergreen with lights on it? Are we showing the world who Jesus is and what He came for in our heated demands to stop shopping at Target until they use "Christmas" for what??? their commercialism of Jesus' birthday.
I'm having a hard time swallowing this pill. Didn't Jesus come to break all of the labels? He lived unconventionally and made a point to call others to do so.
When I was in Turkey on a mission trip in 2002 while engaging a young Turk in conversation about religion, we were discussing the differences between what he had heard of Christianity and what it actually was according to the Scriptures. He kept saying, "So, to go to Heaven, I must become a Christmas?" It was endearing but I recognized that his misnomer was based upon language gap, not theological error. Sadly, this young man had a somewhat true estimation of American Christianity - Homogenized, UnAuthentic and rarely Life Changing - carry a religious business card, flash the name occasionally, attend a few meetings & give to the cause.
Jesus tore down our labels in order to put us all under one banner - His love. Actually, we aren't even "Christians" by Christ's own mouth - we are, in a word, FORGIVEN. That is worth celebrating...
We are who Christ called to be "lights" in a dark world and showing love sends a message of faith brighter than any 1.99 strand of twinklers on a tree.
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." John 17: 20-26
I'm having a hard time swallowing this pill. Didn't Jesus come to break all of the labels? He lived unconventionally and made a point to call others to do so.
When I was in Turkey on a mission trip in 2002 while engaging a young Turk in conversation about religion, we were discussing the differences between what he had heard of Christianity and what it actually was according to the Scriptures. He kept saying, "So, to go to Heaven, I must become a Christmas?" It was endearing but I recognized that his misnomer was based upon language gap, not theological error. Sadly, this young man had a somewhat true estimation of American Christianity - Homogenized, UnAuthentic and rarely Life Changing - carry a religious business card, flash the name occasionally, attend a few meetings & give to the cause.
Jesus tore down our labels in order to put us all under one banner - His love. Actually, we aren't even "Christians" by Christ's own mouth - we are, in a word, FORGIVEN. That is worth celebrating...
We are who Christ called to be "lights" in a dark world and showing love sends a message of faith brighter than any 1.99 strand of twinklers on a tree.
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." John 17: 20-26
posted by 2 K's are Better Than 1 | 1:51 PM
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