Merry Christmas to everyone! (a little more than 5 days away!)

[mikesgroovin]

I love Christmas.

I am a Christian and I take great joy in Christmas carols playing everywhere. And as C.S. Lewis said, Joy is the serious business of Heaven. It's the one time where nobody's shy about lyrics relating to Christ. And to me, nothing says Christmas like a full choir singing "For Unto Us a Child is Born"

I love to sing and I am in the church choir for Christmas which is always really fun.

My family has alot of birthdays leading up to Christmas which makes it busy, but fun.

I always make a big point of selecting scripture reading for the family before we eat dinner or open presents.

I am very serious about emphasizing the birth of Christ on Christmas. I like "fun" stuff too. I watch the old stop animation santa cartoons and that sort of thing. But to me, nothing is more exciting than a reading of John 1. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. I just get chills.

So, Merry Christmas everyone. Remember, Christmas is not about giving, it's about a gift.

Hmmm.....For the past 3 minutes I've been trying to come up with a way to tread lightly. But, since we are quoting passages...may I present one?

"But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9)

This roughly translates to:
"The worship of me is pointless, when their teachings in which you worship are laid out by humans."

Now....I confess that I'm not a religious scholar, nor professor; however, I do understand the translation of a language.

To illustrate that point further...The Roman church never adapted the celebration of Christ right away. In fact, didn't it take them over 300 years? Thats plenty of time to create several million teachings.....all by humans.

I can probably find further truth to illustrate that Christ was never even born CLOSE to December 25th. Actually....just to let you know, MOST of my proof would come from your bible.



Now, a second point....

In reference to the above passage, your God also CLEARLY stated:
"Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition" (Mark 7:9)

In this passage, God was referring to the certain teachings of men....saying that we (humans) were great at setting aside the laws of God, just to follow some arbitrary tradition.

Speaking of tradition, your holiday was a holiday celebrated by the Pagans long before the Christians.



Please allow me to encompass all of the above into one thought. I'm not telling or asking you to believe any of this. Research it for yourself. But, in light of what you said above.... "Remember, Christmas is not about giving"...I realize that it was in perfectly good nature, however......this holiday season is about whatever people want it to be about. Regardless of a gift.

 

[Jorsoft]

I hope this thread doesn't become a debate about religion or christ....
Anyways my family's catholic-except for my mom and my little brother who are baptist. My older brother and I (especially I) are atheists but we still celebrate christmas. Like Apokalipse said it's all about the gifts and being with your family...and being politely quiet during prayers.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Indeed. I was born Roman Catholic as well. Throughout grade school, I read the Bible but later in life I find that the answer:

"Everyone is probably right in some respect to themselves.....so let's just live a good life"

sounded like a better answer to me. So that's why i started to study Buddhism.

I don't mean for this to be a debate, not by any means. It's a holiday celebrated by MANY religions around the world, for different reasons. That was my point. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

 

[Jorsoft]

Indeed. I was born Roman Catholic as well. Throughout grade school, I read the Bible but later in life I find that the answer:

"Everyone is probably right in some respect to themselves.....so let's just live a good life"

sounded like a better answer to me. So that's why i started to study Buddhism.

Cool, I study Bhuddism too. It's good stuff

 

[Mr. Switch]

still gotta go christmas shopping...

 

[mikesgroovin]

I'm trying to think of something funny in relation to Buddhism.

Oh wait... here's one thing about Buddhism:

We respect the fact that people have their own beliefs .. of all origins ... and we love them for it.


It's like when you were a kid and playing tag with your friends.....
You are TOTALLY being chased by that kid that is "IT" and JUST BEFORE he/she catches you....
you ran to that "pole" that you and you friends designated before the game started and yelled at the top of your lungs... "BASE!!"

hehehe

Buddhism is a "safe" way of living your life

 

[hickfarm]

I hope this thread doesn't become a debate about religion or christ....
Anyways my family's catholic-except for my mom and my little brother who are baptist. My older brother and I (especially I) are atheists but we still celebrate christmas. Like Apokalipse said it's all about the gifts and being with your family...and being politely quiet during prayers.

What made you go aitheists if your parents are Christian? I personally am Lutheran. The right way to go. I don't even think i know anybody hardly in our town that isn't Christian, which i don't mind.

 

[mikesgroovin]

still gotta go christmas shopping...

Well sure we do In fact, I save up extra side money for Christmas. Always have. This holiday, to me, was only about one thing, sharing.....

Sharing meant many things as a kid and growing up though:

1) Presents
2) Stories
3) Responsibility (Cooking one year and Cleaning the next for instance)
4) Laughter

I could go on....but you get it.

In the end, I act like jorsoft03 during this holiday:

1) Family oriented and respectful

 

[Apokalipse]

Hmmm.....For the past 3 minutes I've been trying to come up with a way to tread lightly. But, since we are quoting passages...may I present one?

"But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9)

This roughly translates to:
"The worship of me is pointless, when their teachings in which you worship are laid out by humans."

Now....I confess that I'm not a religious scholar, nor professor; however, I do understand the translation of a language.

To illustrate that point further...The Roman church never adapted the celebration of Christ right away. In fact, didn't it take them over 300 years? Thats plenty of time to create several million teachings.....all by humans.

I can probably find further truth to illustrate that Christ was never even born CLOSE to December 25th. Actually....just to let you know, MOST of my proof would come from your bible.



Now, a second point....

In reference to the above passage, your God also CLEARLY stated:
"Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition" (Mark 7:9)

In this passage, God was referring to the certain teachings of men....saying that we (humans) were great at setting aside the laws of God, just to follow some arbitrary tradition.

Speaking of tradition, your holiday was a holiday celebrated by the Pagans long before the Christians.

I've heard about this before. Though I wanted to tread lightly on the subject aswell.
December 25 is supposed to be the birthday of the Pagan sun god Mithras

Please allow me to encompass all of the above into one thought. I'm not telling or asking you to believe any of this. Research it for yourself. But, in light of what you said above.... "Remember, Christmas is not about giving"...I realize that it was in perfectly good nature, however......this holiday season is about whatever people want it to be about. Regardless of a gift.

That's the best advice IMO.

 

[lancec2c30]

I honestly dont have a religous preference. :\