Happy Holy Days! If I were strictly fundamentalist, I might be more involved with the current fervor over "Merry Christmas" being replaced with "Happy Holidays".
However, those who insist upon "Merry Christmas" overlook the fact that:
1) Christ Mass was originally a Roman Catholic holiday, instituted with the purpose of absorbing into the "church", pagans who observed Saturnalia. Never mind the fact that our Savior wasn't born in winter, else the shepherds would not have been in the fields "watching their flocks by night".
2) Chanukkah also normally falls around the same time. Since fundamentalist Christians serve a Jewish Messiah, and learn of Him through a Bible written by mostly Jewish writers, this is not a holiday to be overlooked. Chanukkah is even vindicated by the Bible itself (see John 10:22).
Dee and I were discussing this last night, and we remembered the last controversy over the Christmas season. Remember the outcry against the use of "Xmas"? Whatever happened to that fight? It begs one of two (or both) questions:
1) Have people largely stopped using that abbreviation because of the Christian protest?
2) Was it originally instituted as an insult to Christ, but discontinued when it became known that "X" was commonly used in the early church as an abbreviation for Christ?
At any rate, I hope each of you are having a blessed season, regardless of what you may choose to call it! I think if we remember that G-d looks at the heart (I Sam. 16:7), and out of the heart come the issues of life (Prov. 4:23), and what comes from the mouth originates in the heart (Matt. 15:18), then the words of the greeting are of less import than the purpose behind them.
Once again, I started with one train of thought in mind, and drifted into another altogether different! I'll save the now completely unrelated story for another time...!
I had another interview yesterday, this time for a sales manager position for a national insurance company. The interview went wonderfully -- until the point in the screening questions where I disclosed past tax issues. End of interview.
The state insurance comissioner will not allow anyone in North Carolina to be bonded who has outstanding tax issues. Unfortunately (or blessedly), that precludes my being bonded. That's a long story, but the short version involves a military member assigned overseas for a year. Said military member trusts his spouse to file joint tax returns, and even sends blank and signed 1040-forms. She proceeds to file individually, as well as claim thousands of dollars in business deductions for herself, leaving her husband to discover a few years later (during legal separation) that he owes a great deal of money to the Infernal Revenue Service (who are blandly unsympathetic to his plight). {Sigh}
No matter, this waiting time is a growing time. Psalm 37:25 promises that we will not be forsaken, and Matthew 10 and Luke 12 remind us that our Father even sees a sparrow fall to the ground (the lesson being that He sees our needs). I could include Matthew 6:25-34 as well, but I hope my point is made!
We do continue to value your prayers, and we do look forward to seeing each of you, either here in the land of the dying, or when we get home to the land of the living!
However, those who insist upon "Merry Christmas" overlook the fact that:
1) Christ Mass was originally a Roman Catholic holiday, instituted with the purpose of absorbing into the "church", pagans who observed Saturnalia. Never mind the fact that our Savior wasn't born in winter, else the shepherds would not have been in the fields "watching their flocks by night".
2) Chanukkah also normally falls around the same time. Since fundamentalist Christians serve a Jewish Messiah, and learn of Him through a Bible written by mostly Jewish writers, this is not a holiday to be overlooked. Chanukkah is even vindicated by the Bible itself (see John 10:22).
Dee and I were discussing this last night, and we remembered the last controversy over the Christmas season. Remember the outcry against the use of "Xmas"? Whatever happened to that fight? It begs one of two (or both) questions:
1) Have people largely stopped using that abbreviation because of the Christian protest?
2) Was it originally instituted as an insult to Christ, but discontinued when it became known that "X" was commonly used in the early church as an abbreviation for Christ?
At any rate, I hope each of you are having a blessed season, regardless of what you may choose to call it! I think if we remember that G-d looks at the heart (I Sam. 16:7), and out of the heart come the issues of life (Prov. 4:23), and what comes from the mouth originates in the heart (Matt. 15:18), then the words of the greeting are of less import than the purpose behind them.
Once again, I started with one train of thought in mind, and drifted into another altogether different! I'll save the now completely unrelated story for another time...!
I had another interview yesterday, this time for a sales manager position for a national insurance company. The interview went wonderfully -- until the point in the screening questions where I disclosed past tax issues. End of interview.
The state insurance comissioner will not allow anyone in North Carolina to be bonded who has outstanding tax issues. Unfortunately (or blessedly), that precludes my being bonded. That's a long story, but the short version involves a military member assigned overseas for a year. Said military member trusts his spouse to file joint tax returns, and even sends blank and signed 1040-forms. She proceeds to file individually, as well as claim thousands of dollars in business deductions for herself, leaving her husband to discover a few years later (during legal separation) that he owes a great deal of money to the Infernal Revenue Service (who are blandly unsympathetic to his plight). {Sigh}
No matter, this waiting time is a growing time. Psalm 37:25 promises that we will not be forsaken, and Matthew 10 and Luke 12 remind us that our Father even sees a sparrow fall to the ground (the lesson being that He sees our needs). I could include Matthew 6:25-34 as well, but I hope my point is made!
We do continue to value your prayers, and we do look forward to seeing each of you, either here in the land of the dying, or when we get home to the land of the living!
posted by Lee Monical | 3:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home