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    Does God Hate Christmas?: A Devotional for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
    Does God Hate Christmas?: A Devotional for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
    Does God Hate Christmas?: A Devotional for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    Does God Hate Christmas?: A Devotional for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

    By Liz Palagi

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    About this ebook

    Does God Hate Christmas? Do you? As Halloween approaches each year, do you begin to dread Christmas, with all its commercialism, busy-ness, obligations and expectations? Has your Christmas holiday become more of a chore than a joyous celebration of the birth of God's Son? God did not tell us to celebrate Christmas. We 'took it upon ourselves' to create a holiday to honor Him. But have our celebrations taken our focus so far from God that He actually hates them?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateNov 3, 2015
    ISBN9781682225868
    Does God Hate Christmas?: A Devotional for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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      Book preview

      Does God Hate Christmas? - Liz Palagi

      29:13-14

      December 1st

      CELEBRATIONS OF HIS WORD

      Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4

      Everyone loves a party and we can find a reason to celebrate almost anything, from birthday and anniversary parties to bon voyage and retirement parties. Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘celebrate’ as to observe a notable occasion with festivities. Stop to think of all the things you’ve celebrated or helped someone else celebrate in your lifetime. I wonder if they all were ‘notable’? I know some of mine weren’t. I’ve attended celebrations for a wedding, the birth of a baby, a graduation, a new job, a new home, taking a vacation, moving and many more. As a mom, I have celebrated the last day of school each year with my children, and even the loss of their first tooth. We’ve even had ice cream parties on June 21st to celebrate the longest day of the year. I’m sure you can add more to the list.

      Celebrations are commemorations, reminders of events in our lives. In His Word, we read where God established certain religious festivals to remind His people of who He is and what He had done for them, that they might rejoice. The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.’¹ Then He said, Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread…..Celebrate the Feast of the Harvest…² and so on.

      The Passover Feast was a festival begun to remind God’s children of how He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt.³ After their deliverance, God established other festivals so the Israelites could express their joy to Him. He gave very specific instructions to Moses regarding exact dates for feasts, such as the Sabbath, the New Moon and the Feast of Tabernacles. He also gave very specific instructions for how they should be celebrated. So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the Lord.⁴

      Later, the Jewish people took it upon themselves⁵ to establish many of their own feasts, like the Feast of Purim⁶ and the Feast of Lights, which is not in our Bible.⁷ Other Jewish celebrations marked birthdays⁸ and even sheep shearing.⁹ During some of these celebrations people would take time off from work. Their feasts often included music, dancing and entertainment; some lasted for weeks.

      When Jesus walked this Earth, He participated in Jewish religious festivals, including Passover.¹⁰ The sacrifice of the Passover Lamb when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt was a foreshadowing of the Lamb who would be sacrificed on Calvary to set us free from our bondage to sin. Each year, as a faithful Jew, Jesus would celebrate the purpose of His own life. Jesus also attended personal celebrations.¹¹ He even instructed us in a new commemoration, The Lord’s Supper, and told us to do it to remember His body, given for us.¹²

      I find it noteworthy that the Lord’s Supper was the only part of His life Jesus told us to commemorate. He didn’t establish a celebration to remember His birth, any of His miracles, His resurrection or His ascension—only His death. The New Testament itself contains no references to any yearly Christian festivals.

      For several centuries the Christian church paid little attention to the celebration of Jesus’ birth, focusing on His resurrection instead. Because there was no knowledge about the exact date of His birth, a day had to be selected. The Western Church, based in Rome, chose December 25th and ancient Roman almanacs record Christ-mass celebrations as early as 336 AD.

      I believe God loves to celebrate. The Bible tells us that there is rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents.¹³ Isaiah prophesied that God will rejoice over Jerusalem like a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.¹⁴ And Zephaniah adds another detail, He will rejoice over her with singing.¹⁵ The Bible also tells us that God is preparing another celebration—a wedding celebration for His Son—the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.¹⁶

      I believe God also wants His children to celebrate and rejoice. In fact, Scripture commands us to rejoice. But the focus of our rejoicing is to have a common theme. We are to rejoice in the Lord’s salvation,¹⁷ in God’s promises,¹⁸ in our inheritance,¹⁹ in the hope of the glory of God,²⁰ and rejoice that our names are written in Heaven.²¹ This is my favorite, Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion. Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem. See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation.²² Oh how I look forward to the rejoicing we will do when we see Jesus coming again!

      I think the reason the Bible lists so many causes for rejoicing is because sometimes we forget why we are rejoicing and the focus of our celebration becomes the revelry and the celebration itself, and not the God of the celebration. God has a problem with that. In fact, we are told that He hates it. I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies….Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.²³ What God desires from His people is the righteousness that comes from acknowledging Him,²⁴ not the outward show of rituals, offerings and feasts.

      One other thing I notice in these verses from Amos is that God says "your religious feasts and your assemblies."(emphasis mine) Remember when He told Moses, It is THE LORD’S Passover?²⁵ So when did it become yours and not the Lord’s? He told the prophet Isaiah, These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.²⁶ The feasts are no longer His when our hearts are not toward Him. We may sing beautiful songs and say reverent words, but no matter how religious the ceremony or celebration, if He is not the focus of our hearts, He despises them.

      I don’t know about you, but I needed to be reminded of this truth as I head into this Christmas season. I needed to be reminded that Christmas is not a celebration instituted by God. In fact, many of the traditions and busy-ness that fill our December days, even if we say they are in celebration of Jesus’ birth, have nothing to do with Him. If that is the case, they are not only meaningless to Him, He hates them because they are not an expression of true worship, instead, they take our eyes off of Him.

      I wonder how many of my previous Christmas celebrations God has hated. I wonder, as I begin this Christmas season, if I can remember to come near to Him with my heart and not just my lips. I wonder how I can keep Him as the focus of everything I do. I wonder if He will be honored by my celebration this year and it can become His festival. I wonder if He rejoices over me with singing. And I wonder if He’s thinking of me as He prepares for His upcoming celebration supper.

      December 2nd

      A JOYFUL NOISE

      Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth… Psalm 100:1

      Each year, the first thing I look forward to as Christmas approaches, is also the first thing I become tired of. No, it isn’t the baked goodies! It’s the music. Even before Thanksgiving, Christmas songs play incessantly on the car radio, in the grocery store and the mall, on TV commercials and in my home. It is really too bad because, at the beginning of the Christmas season, the music sets the mood, but by Christmas, I’m usually so tired of hearing it over and over again that I can’t wait to pack it away.

      From It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas and White Christmas, to Silent Night and Away In A Manger, Christmas songs conjure up images of Jesus’ birth long ago and evoke memories of our Holiday celebrations over the years. Music adds feeling to the Christmas season.

      Music has a unique quality – I call it the déjà vu effect. Often when I hear a song, it virtually transports me back to the exact time and place when the song was most significant in my life. At times, in my mind, I’ve returned to high school dances, cross-country car trips, my wedding day and difficult experiences in my life.

      Stand By Me is a song that my husband and daughter claim is their song. It takes them both back to a warm Kansas City evening when daddy took his 2-year-old little girl for a walk. While riding on his shoulders to the Putt Putt Golf Arcade near our apartment, Stand By Me came over the loudspeakers. He taught it to her that night and they came home singing it together, as they have continued to do every time they’ve heard it since then. It was the song for the father-daughter dance at her wedding last Christmas.

      Music is a powerful influence in our lives. It can be uplifting and energetic or soothing and romantic. Music can evoke painful memories, or make us feel like dancing. In recent times, music has spoken of darkness and evil and spurred some to violence. But that is not how it started.

      The first mention of music in the Bible is early in the book of Genesis. Jubal is said to be the father of all who play the harp and flute.²⁷ The first song recorded in the Bible was led by Moses after he led Israel through the Red Sea.²⁸ Perhaps the most well-known songwriter and musician in the Bible was David. Many instruments are mentioned in the Bible; the harp, tambourine, lyre, trumpet, symbols, pipes and flute are among them.

      Whether as a ministry²⁹ or an occupation, music was part of every day life in Biblical times. Music was used to call men to battle and to make war,³⁰ to bring down city walls,³¹ to welcome heroes home,³² and to celebrate victories.³³ The book

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