Random Ramblings

brokentulsa wrote:

I see Easter as the only true Christian Holiday. Christmas is just a fun time of the year but the giving idea behind Christmas should last all year...

Quote :

christmas is of the devil!! it's pagan nonsense!!!

:afraid:

Easter is also a christianized version of a pagan holiday...

I think that Christmas programs (pageants) are of the devil. Most every one I have been involved with (even if I were just barely participating) always seem to cause division and hurt feelings. You have a committee in many cases to put the program together. You end up with one or two people doing everything and cutting out those they don't want on their committee. That causes hurt feelings and division. Or, people will complain that this production wasn't as good as other years and people get hurt over that. I could go on with a whole bunch of other scenarios I have seen over the years. To be honest, I think that the whole concept of a Christmas program was designed by the devil to divide the body and cause strife within a local church.

End of rant. That is all.

You guys are sucking the fun and joy out of the holiday
Wonder if that's of the devil

The commercialism of Christmas is enough to suck the joy out of the holiday. Believe me--for most of the world--the day is about the gifts and not Jesus.

We do charity all year round, but at Christmastime, we take the money we used to pour into pointless stuff for each other and we send it to the "Make a Wish Foundation". To know that a child suffering a debilitating disease who will most likely die soon, will get to be able to do something fun and exciting cuz someone cared enough to sacrifice their own pleasure to finance their "wish".... it's just an amazing thing we can do for a suffering/dying child - and hopefully they will come to faith before they die.

That's what the spirit of Christmas giving should be more about.

alldatndensum wrote:

The commercialism of Christmas is enough to suck the joy out of the holiday. Believe me--for most of the world--the day is about the gifts and not Jesus.

I've often wondered if we shouldn't just let the stores and consumers have Christmas and spend another day celebrating the arrival of our Savior. Then we can dispense with all the secular traditions that seem to get in the way of the reason for the season.

Christmas ... what I would love to see that the world can understand what Christmas really is.
The birth of our Savior.

Actually, Staybrite, your suggestion is not all that bad. Our Canadian neighbors have Christmas and Boxing Day. One is the religious observance of the Lord's birth and the other is the day they give gifts. Vonnie would know more about this, but I believe the Dutch have Sinterklaas (the day Santa comes and you give gifts) and Christmas.

To be honest, when you see all the commercialism, greed, violence at Black Friday sales, etc., I don't think our secular version of Christmas is something Jesus would want his name associated with. Truthfully, most of what we do surrounding Christmas has little to do with His nature at all.

Actually we don't see Christmas as a Christian event in my home and we don't really do anything special at church. We see it more as a traditional holiday filled with fun, gifts and pretty lights. Jesus has always existed and we believe in the old testament it was Jesus who was the 4th person in the burning furnace and Jesus who appeared to Abraham. His birth wasn't even in December and many theologians say it would have been in the spring..march or April maybe. We don't even think the "New Testament" started at the birth of Christ in the gospels but at the time of his death on the cross. Thats why we see Easter as the only Christian Holiday...and holiday might be the wrong word..Holy Day might be better.
I believe Romans 14 addresses those who hold one day above another...its no big deal if people do or don't. All this being said we just relax and enjoy the lights and fun and gifts.

alldatndensum wrote:

Actually, Staybrite, your suggestion is not all that bad. Our Canadian neighbors have Christmas and Boxing Day. One is the religious observance of the Lord's birth and the other is the day they give gifts. Vonnie would know more about this, but I believe the Dutch have Sinterklaas (the day Santa comes and you give gifts) and Christmas.

To be honest, when you see all the commercialism, greed, violence at Black Friday sales, etc., I don't think our secular version of Christmas is something Jesus would want his name associated with. Truthfully, most of what we do surrounding Christmas has little to do with His nature at all.

We do exchange gifts on the 25th, but Boxing Day is mostly a less notorious (violence and craziness-wise) Black Friday.

I almost hate the Christmas season for the commercialism, like most people here. I remember thinking "Halloween isn't even over yet and people are counting down to Christmas?" Displays and ads get in our way. as G/F brought it up, if we spent our money on charity instead of gifts, the world would likely be a better place.

Our celebration on the 25th has become a smaller thing at our home, now that both my Canadian grandparents have passed on. We exchange some smaller gifts but we also buy each other presents throughout the year.

One last thing… for the past few years, my parents have done Christmas parties which explore a particular culture's way of celebrating Christmas. We've done Navidad, Noël and several others. It's interesting to explore traditions from other countries, eh?

Wow..we went shopping for the grand-kids last night. We shopped for 2 hours and did it all at Target. We got all of it done. We were worn out. I don't see how people can shop for hours on end.

It's easy! I can search the web for gifts for hours and never leave the living room!

I get to play keyboards in a smallish "big band" for the school tomorrow.

The weatherforcast for tomorrow.

Deep snow, a stormy wind and it's freezing.
a chance for a real snowstorm.

I'm longing so much to spring

So far, our fall has been more like spring with daytime highs in the 60 degree range. So nice!

Well. We have massive fluctuations: last week was snowy, the weekend was rainy and this week has just been cold (below freezing).

I saw the snow made it here like a fairytale.
I think it's time for a good snowball fight.
Who wants to help me in this snowball fight?

Tomorrow it wil be the first ice day of this winter.
An iceday is when it's freezing day and night.

Ooo snow, my wife and kids would be very happy to have snow right now.

Staybrite wrote:

Ooo snow, my wife and kids would be very happy to have snow right now.

Enjoy your snow... here in Southern Cali it's currently 74 degrees
(sing with me: "we'll be sweating for Christmas")

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

....
Enjoy your snow... here in Southern Cali it's currently 74 degrees
(sing with me: "we'll be sweating for Christmas")

That's what winter is like on the surface of the sun!

Well we don't have any snow yet, here in Western Washington. We usually only get it once or twice a year (on occasion not at all), but most of the time we don't get a lot of accumulation. Some years we get a solid 6-8 inches of snow that will stick around for more than a day.

Come over Staybrite with your family.
We can do a good snowballfight with our families.

Snowing right now. The roads aren't bad but there are a lot of slowpokes about.

For my sister and her family it was time to go back home.
We brought them to the airport in the middle of the night.
Saying goodbye made me sad.

Staybrite