Oh my gosh...I haven't written in so long!  This is depressing, I suck, and I apologize!  I haven't written in over a month, lots happened during November.  We finished up harvest, we spent Thanksgiving spent with my side of the family in Illinois, mom and I went Black Friday shopping with all the rest of the crazies, Brady and I went to Charleston, SC with Diversified Services (where I work), and basicallytime just flew by and I have no idea how everything got away from me!  

Brady and I decided that we would drive to and from Charleston...for 3 reasons.  1 - to save money, 2 - to see the beautiful southeast up close and personal, 3 - to hopefully see a weinermobile on the move.  We did save money, the southeast is beautiful, but we didn't see a weinermobile. 

Listening to the radio gets pretty old because after you listen for a while you just start hearing the same songs again and again.  So to keep entertained on long rides Brady and I like to play Mad Libs (there is an app for that), listen to Mark Driscoll sermons (there is an app for that also, search Mars Hill), and listen to Focus on the Family Daily Broadcasts (also an app for that).  PS - I might die without my iPhone =)

One of the Focus on the Family broadcasts we listened to really spoke to us, it is titled "Teaching Kids About Christmas", you can listen to it by clicking here.  It speaks about the true meaning of Christmas.  It doesn't condemn Christmas in America, but it does speak that as Christans, we need to keep Easter as the Super Bowl of Holidays, because Jesus's death and resurrection paved the way to our salvation, not His birth.  Obviously our culture doesn't do this...and Jesus is pretty much taken out of the equation completely.  The broadcast talked about St. Nicholas and the how the tradition started with him...this is a really awesome story and worth the listen just for this.  It also gave practical ideas on how to keep Jesus at the forefront Christmas.  The broadcast is under 30 minutes long and would be for anyone to listen to on their commute.

Once again, sorry for not writing in so long!  Happy belated Thanksgiving =)

Sam

John Werner
12/2/2012 01:07:00 pm

Sam-
There's nothing wrong with celebrating both sides of Christmas. There are, afterall, 2 festivals going on under the same name.
How's that you say? Yes 2 festivals -- one Religious and one Secular and both have ancient roots. And we call them both Christmas.
The religious Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. The Christmas that you are talking about in your post.
The secular christmas (small c on purpose) is a continuation of an ancient celebration of the rebirth of the sun. Its at this time of year that the sun is weakest - the days are shortest, The ancients were celebrating the fact that the SUN was coming back. And did so with parties and evergreen trees and parties and holly and parties. Did I say that they had alot of parties and drinking at this time of year?
Its not a coincidence that Christmas happens when it does!
Jesus was not born on December 25. He was most likely born in March. Shepherds don't have their flocks in the fields in December -- not even in ancient Israel.
So, why do we celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25? The ancients celebrated the birth of the SUN at the Winter Solstice. The early Christians celebrated the birth of the SON at the Winter Solstice.
At some point in the 2000 years since Christ was born, the 2 festivals got mixed and confused. The Christmas tree, the holly, the mistletoe are all remnants of that older celebration. They have been adopted by and adapted to the religious celebration-- but their roots are older than Christianity.
There's nothing wrong with celebrating both Christmases--- as long as you remember which Christmas you are celebrating.

ps Aunt Vicky says only your analytical uncle would know this...

Reply



Leave a Reply.