Many today say that we are in the midst of the “Culture
Wars.” It boils down to two sides; one side says that those “Christian fanatics”
attempt to shape the world into their narrow-minded, bigoted view. While the Christians
argue that the “other side” seeks to remove any and all vestiges of God from a
nation built on a godly foundation.
One problem is that there are not just two sides; we only see the extremes in
the media and think that this is what the “war” is all about. There are as many
views about this issue as there are people who think about it – unfortunately,
the vast majority don’t think about it and only go along with the popular view
of the day.
Christmas is one of those battles of the culture wars.
Again, we tend to only see the extremes, and the majority cruises along going
with the flow, not considering that perhaps, they should search out the information
and make a decision for themselves. Interestingly, there are two polar
opposites who say that Christmas should not be celebrated at all. The anti-God
crowd who don’t seem to want to be reminded that they are anti-God and those
who believe that the Christmas celebrated today is only a pagan holiday. In
between, we have the Christmas is about
the dollar folks who only see the financial rewards of celebrating
Christmas and the “keep Christ in Christmas” crowd who want to use Christmas to
evangelize and “reach” people for Christ.
But we have to ask the question: What is Christmas? The
answer to that question doesn’t necessarily put you into one of the two extremist
camps, but helps identify your world-view and provides the basis of how you
will celebrate (or not celebrate) this holiday. Unfortunately, too many people
only do what they have always done and although there might be slight changes,
they basically view Christmas the way their family of origin viewed Christmas.
I will say that if you believe Christmas is the celebration of the coming of
the Savior, there should be some identifying marks to your celebration. In
spite of the recent movie; Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, a Christian celebration of Christmas
should be more than trading the wealth of the family among each other. Christmas
is really about you – what do you think about the Christ? Was he a good man? A prophet?
A myth? A deceiver? Or was he what he claimed to be, God incarnate, the ONE who
came to reconcile mankind to the God they rejected? Think about it!
Read more regarding what Christmas is about by going to this
link: http://www.fortifiedmarriages.com/Images/Christmas%20Is%20about.pdf.
