Does God like chocolate or vanilla?

I guess the best way to know what someone likes is to ask.. or maybe they've said what they liked at one time or another.

Thus begins the Christmas shopping season every year. Trying to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. And does not the list get bigger every year or do you feel guilty because you have to trim it because of your budget? If someone new gives you something, do you feel bad you didn't give them anything back? Some people can get really stressed over these issues, I know I have. I am not a mind reader, so unless someone spells out what they want, I'm not going to know. Don't we encourage our children to make their list of whatever it is they want, whether it be one thing, three, or however many things we, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, or friends will get them? (Not adhering to "Be content if you have food, water, & shelter," much, is it?)
I was in my Salvation Army today when my friend who works there was bemoaning the angel tree woes. It seems some well meaning people, who maybe wanted to take the edge off the worldliness of Christmas by thinking of poor children whose parents may not have enough money to buy their children presents, took the names of poor children off their Angel Tree, only to not bring it or the gifts back. A lot of folks will return with the child's tag from the tree with the gifts that were on the list in the proper amount of time, but this year there were a disproportionate amount of names taken off that were not returned with the gifts. She was saying they had a lot of gifts to come up with because of some would-be giver's backing out. Now what good Christian has not picked a name off an Angel Tree? If you're like me, you skip the expensive ones that have listed the electronic gadgets such as Ipods, video games, or laptops simply because you can't even afford them for your own child, much less someone else's. I personally don't see these things as a necessity, so I wouldn't buy them that if I had the money. Some of the tags are real conversation pieces to those of us around the tree of just what all these poor kids want & about what tags probably won't get picked. The coveting/want meter can get shamelessly full tilt. The ones that get picked probably the mom, not the kid, filled out with a what was a legitimate need. Things such as a coat, shoes, socks, pants & a modest toy or two were always popular ones to be picked. So what happened to the people who reneged on their commitment to these underprivileged children? We should be gracious I suppose & say maybe they lost or forgot about their tag or tragically ran out of money trying to make sure they had 'enough'gifts to lace around under their Christmas tree for their own children, family, & friends. You have to admit, it can be hard on the budget these days, especially if you have a teen-ager or two. I take that back, they don't even have to be a teen anymore to want those big ticket technological gadgets. What happened to baby dolls for the 7 year old girls & a nerf gun for your 10 year old boy? Christmas can get darn right expensive a lot earlier with kids these days, & I don't know how grandparents do it. It can make a believer out of you that liberal lie that says it cost that shockingly exuberant amount of money ($$$$$$$$, I can't remember) to raise one child from birth to eighteen that is supposed to deter young couples from starting their family. And God said, "Be fruitful & multiply!"

You haven't even started buying for mom, dad, siblings, cousins, friends, & co-workers! Is it really giving to Jesus on His birthday when we are really just exchanging gifts with one another? Some folks just bite the bullet & whip out the credit card or take up that friendly timely bill board's ad from the loan sharks for extra 'dough' that has the cute Christmas gingerbread cookies on it. I'm sure those places are real busy this time of year, but I'll bet it isn't half as stressful as the folks who work in retail. Ron has a old friend from a past life on facebook who is in the middle of this headache. He has A LOT of unwinding to do after work, just another reason to drink away his stress. He caught four shop lifters in one day! (when normally it is just one a day in any give week this time of year. Jesus's birthday time of year is not fa la la for him (or the shoplifters who feel forced to steal, I suppose), sad to say or many others in these types of jobs. My niece has the 'awesome' job of helping kids get on Santa's lap at the mall. Yikes!

Is jail time & a criminal record really worth stealing for (so & so) to have some earrings or your child that (latest hip toy) for CHRISTmas? The DJ on the radio the other day was talking about getting caught in the holiday traffic around the mall & there wasn't a lot of the fruit of God's Spirit that day in celebration of His Son, I'll tell you. What a witness to the world this holiday creates.

That is what this season is all about, isn't it? For some folks, undoubtedly yes, but not Christian families, right? Just show up Sunday morning at church & ask the children in Sunday school what their Christmas was like. Is it, "we had breakfast, prayers, & advent stories, then we opened presents!" Not in the real world. It starts with, "I got....!!!!!, what did you get???" to boil it down to the bottom line. How can we win against materialism that the children so easily pick up on?

A new friend at church was talking the other day about how he wanted a catchy Christmas quote from a dear respected saint from the past to put on his facebook status, so he googled, Charles Spurgeon, Christmas." Whoa! What a shock he received! What was his problem? What was the Covenanter's problem with this sacred *Christian* holiday? The Puritans were throwing people in jail in early America for celebrating this holiday they outlawed? Why even Andrew Bonar was a 'Grench that stole Christmas'!!

Ok, I'm going to come out of the closet now & from what I've researched
I think the 'emperor's New Clothes' need to be called what they are. This holiday is a fiction made up by Pope Julius I to Christianize the pagans in his kingdom who celebrated the re-birth of the sun on this winter solstice day. Next year Christ mass (the Catholics invented this day) falls on the Lord's Sabbath Day. How many churches all across our nation & maybe even the world will negate God's fourth commandment to observe this 'tradition of man? Does God like that? Does He want us to do that? I think He has specifically stated against that.
As stated in my research on the matter.
Look at what we so ardently fight against this holiday being... what it is... a crass commercialism holiday we try to Christianize that is man invented & is pagan at it's bare root. It is like a growing Goliath to stand against in our society if you don't celebrate it & I wish someone would chop off it's head.
Let the Christian church arise & do it's duty to call out the emporer's nakedness & stop saying what beautiful clothes 'He' has on. Aren't we supposed to worship Him in spirit & in TRUTH?
What will His bride do next Christ mass on the God ordained & sanctioned Sabbath Day? Take His name in vain for the sake of a fallacy?

The weather in Bethlehem the other day was six degrees Celsius as it has always been around this time of year. The Caesar would be crazy if he wanted an accurate counting in his census in this cold & rainy season & heartless if he sent families to travel for days or even weeks back to their hometowns in this terrible weather. I'm a farmer, modern yes, but I know a few things about agriculture. The forecasters are calling for snow on Christ's mass Day in Bethlehem. No shepherds are out in their fields watching their flocks by night, grazing on what grass(?)that would be growing in this weather with what kind of shelter from the rainy season they're having right now in this cold.

They were in their homes & the animals in the barn eating hay they'd stored up during the summer. (remember the animals were in the barn in the nativity scene ;-)
IMHO, truthfully, I think he was born during the Feast of Tabernacles, when God came to dwell among men, under the sign of the stars in heaven of the Virgin in Sept. Some others think it was spring according to Zachariah's time in the temple & when Elizabeth got pregnant & Mary came to visit. I don't know.

So what about the children who didn't get their angel tree gifts when they awaken on Saturday looking for the spread of presents Santa was supposed to bring (or Jesus give if they are a religious home)? What about the children in Africa who got the shoe boxes from Franklin Graham years ago, are they still getting a shoebox full of gifts from Jesus for His birthday this year? Most rich American children, Christian & non alike have a bunch of gifts under their Christ mass tree. So are they still worshiping Him for what they did not get?
I just know this tradition of man is one that I have a hard time in my conscience honoring. So does God like chocolate or vanilla



...or strawberry hhhmmmm