Rhyme and Reason...

...or a Reason to Rhyme?

The Question; Why Christ in Christmas? To understand the answer to the question we need to know who Christ is, why He came, and what He did. (All of that is shoved into this image.) After that Christmas makes sense, but without those points confusion comes in waves.

So the image shows three things; first it shows a tree on the left, which symbolizes the fall of man and the introduction of sin into human history. From this point on in all of humanity (each and every person) is morally misshapen and often morally bankrupt. God made a covenant (an agreement or sorts) with mankind that sins can be atoned for by shedding animal blood as sacrifice. This is because sin must be paid for with death…that is its cost. So God allowed man to sacrifice animals, symbolically transferring the sin to the animal and paying the price of sin with their death. This was a lesser covenant by comparison with what was prophesized about the coming savior.

The baby in the middle is the one called Jesus "the Christ" (anointed one) who is mankind’s Savior from ourselves. He is the fulfillment of law and the embodiment of what God wants to communicate to us. He is God, but has subjugated himself; yielding all Godly power and ability to be like man and walk with man. He is a baby born by miraculous events who grew up blameless and following God's will until such a time when He began to teach others the same. He taught for roughly 3 years until He was willingly nailed to a cross and killed as a pure sacrifice.

Which leads us to the cross image on the right; the Son of God who came to earth as a child to (among other wonderful things) create a new covenant between God and man. God saw that mankind was misusing the old covenant and that something new must be done. Since Christ lived a sinless life (the only one to ever) when He became a sacrifice for the sins of man a new covenant was made. The old covenant between man and God had it so that man had to shed the blood of animals to atone for sin, but now through Jesus’ life and actions man has no need to shed blood again, ever. The new covenant has it so that Jesus one time shedding of blood and His death was enough for all of mankind so long as you accepted the covenant and followed in faith and love.

So now an offer has been extended and while my explanation may seem gruesome at points it is just a very straightforward description. The point is that God has made every acceptable effort to reclaim us; we only need to Believe in Jesus and Repent of our sinful ways and Seek God with our hearts and minds, our sins are forgotten and we have new (eternal) life. If you didn't know, now you do and if you'd like to talk about it email me at dbair@skellyloy.com or contact me through "comments".

This is why Christ is in Christmas, it is not a vain or hollow tradition (it's not supposed to be), but instead it is meant to be a celebration of the complete revelation of God to man and the salvation given freely to mankind.

Have a Merry and Christ-filled Christmas!

(This will be the last post until the New Year.)

Starligh Star-bright

(Brought on by an article from AiG and a neat desktop "wallpaper".)

*For a downloadable desktop image click the links below.
800x600 - 1024x 768 - 1600x1200

That Christmas long ago the sky was shining with beams of brilliance from the angels proclaiming something extraordinary and a special star lit the early morning sky. On that first Christmas morning the Creator of the world had now come to join the history of the world as a baby. That which was promised and prophesized many times over even so long as 6,000 years ago, the birth of the Savior of mankind had finally come!

As you appreciate the twinkling lights on these December nights (assuming we can see them through the clouds and light pollution), let them remind you of that time and those events. It can and will be fast paced these coming weeks, but don't miss out on the real light in human history, Jesus the Christ, our Savior and King.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (John 8:12; Matt. 5:16)

Random Thoughts (#207)

A few articles and cartoons this past year have me thinking about Christmas a little different than normal. Above is a cartoon from AiG that is comical and relatable to many of us as it seems that their is at least one person in each town that over-does-it with the Christmas decorations. We may “ooo” and “ahhh” or we could giggle at the gaudy looking lights and statues. But it prompts me to question what kind of preparation am I (are we) making for Christmas on the inside. Scripture tells us that our bodies are a temple for the Lord and that the Holy Spirit dwells within believers, which is true on many levels. If we could look inside ourselves at where we are inviting Christ and the Holy Spirit what would we see?

Would we see a building full to the brim of garbage, stinking festering? Would we see an empty building dressed up in lights and decoration? Would we see pristine living conditions and yet a locked room or two? Or would we see a place that is warm, well lit, and open; a clean place where shadows are fleeting?

This Christmas many have or will dress up their homes, nothing wrong with that, but while you drive by them or while you put up your own consider these things. Are you dressing up and cleaning out the temple? We all know that so many people only bother to dress up the outside of their "temples", but God is far more concerned with the inward things and He wants a place to celebrate and be celebrated this Christmas season.

Holiday Quiz Time

Being that it is the Holiday season, I thought I'd share this mini-quiz with you all. It comes from an article (AiG) and the answers can be found there (at the bottom) or you can message me. I thought this would be worth posting because of the noticeable loss of history over tradition. (They do share a common bond, but no they are not the same.) In large part we seem to have forgotten the history of the traditions like where traditions came from and consequently why we continue them. Then, having forgotten the true reasons we have replaced the meaning of these traditions with celebrations of various other things. St. Patrick's Day has become about drinking and the color green, but that is not its true origin or intention. The questions below are not nearly encompassing, but they are interesting and the average person is unaware of them.

Holiday Quiz: "How well do you know the history behind some of the holidays?"
1. What meats made up the Thanksgiving meal of the Pilgrims?
2. Why do we give candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween?
3. Why is the day after Thanksgiving called Black Friday?
4. Why is the shamrock associated with St. Patrick’s Day?
5. What prominent Christian event occurred October 31, 1517?
6. Why is the poinsettia associated with Christmas?
7. Why do we celebrate Easter with eggs and a bunny?
8. Why does Santa Claus wear red?
9. Who really was St. Nicholas?
10. Bonus: True or False; A star led three wise men to the stable to see Jesus.

To quote from the article; "During the coming holidays, will your focus be on barcodes or Bethlehem? On the risen Savior or a chocolate bunny?" It is a good point I think, but first we need to know the why of the celebration don't we? What good is the celebration if we don't know what we are celebrating? Sure we have a focus, but is that focus accurate? Maybe this isn't a big deal to you (I'm not big on the holidays either), but it's worth a few minutes to ponder and maybe check the answers to these questions.

False Reality

This is another clip from the Dilbert cartoon series. I love the Dilbert office comic that runs in the newspaper every day because it is surprisingly relatable. The cartoon is a bit different though as it involves other topics like the concepts of morality and various evolutionary ideas. While I often grind my teeth over the way most cartoons and shows portray these issues I got a great kick out of how this cartoon addressed the issues. While I don't take Dogbert's (the dog) side specifically, I love the things he addresses against Dilbert who is an evolutionary proponent.



Clip Focus 1
News Caster: "...and we'll implicitly mock the people who hold opposing viewpoints."
Dilbert: "Evolution is a scientific fact, unless your ignorant."
While I can't know the intention of the writer who put this in, I can say that it is accurate to a large extent. I can go online at virtually any site and be mocked by dozens, yet the few Christians around will rarely return fire. Whether the evolutionists think it is fact or not their should be no call for insults and personal attacks if truth is your foundation. This is becoming far more apparent to people as noted in recent polls and commentaries from film directors; that the average evolutionist is hard nosed and loud by comparison to the average Christian. The reason? I'm sure their are many, but none will ever validate the belief and likewise the belief does not validate hostility. Still I'm glad it is so, as it makes our jobs easier in the long run.

Clip Focus 2
Dilbert: "Theirs extensive fossil records!"
Scientist: "It's a skull fragment of our earliest ancestors; I have found the missing link!"
News Caster: "Thanks to computer graphics, and clay, we have reconstructed the missing link."
Here in the clip we see one of the evolutionists claimed strongholds (though it only speaks against them) the fossil records. How does it actually speak against them? As the scientist and news person note, their are no (I repeat no) transitions between species; hence the ongoing title "the missing link". That alone should negate it as a proof of evolution, but then their are the dozens of fakes where persons find a piece and attribute to it more information than it actually provides. A prime example of this is the Lucy skeleton, which is in fact a handful of bone fragments not a whole skeleton. (Lucy has since been proven to be no "missing link".) These are often (as the clip noted) just evolutionists making unfounded claims that fragmental evidence equals a missing link. Arranging information and assuming end results is not what I would call scientific.

Clip Focus 3
Dogbert: "My theory is that all the species that ever existed are still around, they're just hiding."
Dogbert: "Hi Bob."
While I do not quite get behind Dogbert here, he makes a wonderful point; that of "living fossils". Living Fossils are those creatures that were thought to have died out millions of years ago and yet have resurfaced after some time to prove themselves as existent. For evolutionists this raises a series of startling questions such as why hasn't it evolved in the "millions of years" it supposedly has existed? According to them it aught to have evolved a little, but no fossil, living or dead, has ever shown this. Another good question is if this creature has been around and they didn't think it was how many others that we count as extinct are their below the surface? In any case, none of these are a problem for Bible believers as this is just what one would expect given the biblical history therein.

It was surprising to me to see an evolutionistic cartoon character get the short end of the stick again in full view of the public and since it won't happen often I thought it worth mentioning.