I Used To Like Santa Claus

 

When I was a kid and you asked what Christmas was all about I would say it was Jesus’ birthday … and … presents!  I don’t know if I believed in Santa or not back then and raised my kids to know that Saint Nicholas was someone who lived … and died … a long time ago. 

Saint Nicholas was born in the late third century to wealthy parents in the Greek village of Patara in what is now Southern Turkey.  His parents raised him to be a devout Christian but died while he was young.  Nicholas had read the scripture that admonished to sell all he had and give it to the poor.  Unlike Ananias and Sapphira he did it without fanfare or lies.  The Romans were sweeping through the land persecuting Christians and by this time and according to tradition a young Nicholas was made a Bishop of the town of Myra. 

After the turn of the century Nicholas was arrested by the Roman emperor and it was said that there were more bishops, pastors and priests in prison than murderers, thieves and robbers.  After his release he attended the council of Nicaea in 325 and died on December 6, 343 in Myra. 

Tradition holds that a type of Manna formed on his grave that had healing powers.  One said that there was a poor family with three daughters who could not wed without a dowry and without one would be sold as slaves.  In the middle of the night bags of gold were thrown through the window to land in stockings and shoes hung by the fire to dry.  There are several more of these stories of gold given.

After his death he became the patron saint of lost, kidnapped or murdered children.  One child kidnapped by Arabs was supposedly restored miraculously to his parents by the appearance of the saint. 

I am aware that the Catholic Church had little to do with the deity and power of our Risen Savior, especially back in its early years.  We are the body of Christ and ought to be the hands and body of our Lord Jesus on this earth.  Everyone who names the name of Jesus as their Savior is a saint and child of the Most High God.  My only real problem with Santa Claus is that many of his supposed miracles occurred AFTER his death which makes him a replacement of our Lord rather than merely a son who served his Heavenly Father until his death and then retired to be with our Lord.

We ought not pray to Mary or ask Saint Nicholas to protect us.  Our schools were places of safety and learning until WE chose to take God out of them.  People thought twice before killing someone because even if you weren’t caught by man you knew God would judge you.  Evil men sought tame priests who would bless them and give them some vain religious formula to follow to temper the fires of Hell in their future.  One didn’t commit suicide quite so readily because you knew there was another door you had to go through after you left this world.  Judgment follows death.  Death has NEVER been the end.

Nicholas lived for God during his life and one day died to join his Lord.  He doesn’t travel around the earth giving gifts to children or rescuing them from evil men.  There were many crimes evil men feared to commit before because of eternal judgment but we no longer warn them of this absolute which hovers over all mankind.  Judgment ALWAYS comes and without the blood of Christ so does justice.  Only Jesus can free a man or woman from the bondage and price of sin.  Only repentance can open the door to this grace.

Stores and businesses warn employees to refrain from saying Merry Christmas.  You can say happy holiday because that could mean anything from Kwanza to Hanukah to Christmas to Ramadan.  We as Christians have allowed ourselves to buy into the lie of separation of church and state.  The constitution of this country was written to protect the church and limit the state.  The State could NOT become or support a particular church but the church members had every right to let the State know what they wanted.

Just a few days before Christmas and I have never heard so much anger and frustration over Anne getting more presents than Susie, or John didn’t like what he got.  Nicholas’ parents DIED while he was yet a young man and he felt so strongly about his Lord and Savior Jesus that he sold everything the wealthy parents had and gave it to the poor.  What an awesome young man!  He spent his life giving out of the abundance of a willing heart.  The people around him in their ignorance began to pray to him rather than to God because he was someone who made things happen.

Shame on us.

We as the church are supposed to make things happen for the Lord.  He will empower us.  He will lead us.  He will make whatever we do successful but we must work the work.  The miracles will be real and the power and authority too but we MUST show ourselves strong for our Lord.

I don’t believe Nicholas ever asked to be worshipped but rather like Paul in Acts 14:14 would have stopped them immediately.  As much as we all like to be recognized we nevertheless must turn all that recognition back to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  Nicholas knew he was a man of weakness who did good things in the power of the Lord.  We must do what we do in the power of the Lord as well. 

I pray we won’t merely remember the reason for this season but will celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior with passion and excitement.  Why have we allowed Sears, Toys R Us, Amazon, Penny’s, Macys, Apple, Microsoft, Walmart and more to stain the reason for this season?  Our Lord was born, He lived and after being put to death HE rose on the third day. 

Angels came to the shepherds watching their flocks in the field and cried out that the Messiah was born.  Men of great wisdom followed a bright star in the heavens to bring Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh as gifts to our Lord.  He lived a life of miracles and died a greater miracle still.  He arose and led captivity captive and HE gave gifts to men.  His gifts are spirit and they are life.  Shall we celebrate THOSE gifts during this wondrous season? 

Hanukah is celebrated for God’s people throwing off the yokes of bondage.  We celebrate Christmas to celebrate our savior’s birth and the beginning of true freedom from bondage. 

Beloved, I pray you will take time this Christmas season to consider your souls.  Are you free?  Can you in all honesty cry out Abba, Father?  Do you rejoice in the birth of your salvation?  We can take back OUR holiday if we choose to do so but the devil and his lies will not go quietly into that darkness.  He will fight us.  Rejoice for the child born in a manger.  Rejoice for the gold, frankincense and myrrh which enabled his parents to flee the devil’s wrath and kept them safe in Egypt until they could safely come back home.  Rejoice for parents who raised him to be a Rabbi and kept him safe until the appointed day. 

Today you cannot have a manger scene in front of a public park.  Tomorrow they will try to prevent you from having one in your store window and after that it will be illegal to have them on your lawn. 

Stand and be counted.  Some of you today will be jailed for your faith, even in America.  It won’t be because you have sinned or killed or done evil but because of your faith.  This future is becoming more and more clear.  The days of persecution are coming.  We have an opportunity to slow them down if we press NOW.  Evil must come for the end to arrive but I would rather preach the gospel every moment I can until that time.

Do not fear death for it has no sting.  God’s grace is sufficient to keep you safe no matter the indignity you have suffered.

I applaud my brother Nicholas for the life he lived but Santa Claus will NEVER take the place of my Lord.

Have a blessed Christmas.

Bishop J

Sailing on Shopping Cart Seas

I have wondered of late whether imagination is dying out in America.  We have Netflix, HBO, Cinemax, Blockbuster Video, Red Box, Theaters, Nintendo, Sega, DVD’s and MP3s.  You really don’t have to wonder if you don’t wish to.  We have so many avenues to emotional input that we hardly have to think anymore.  When was the last time you enjoyed a sunset or the company of a friend where you just talked about life rather than the latest thing on TV?  Some of the greatest inventions have begun when two friends got together and someone said, “What if we were to…”

It was late the other night when I had turned off my Android phone and MacBook Pro.  The Kindle was powered down and my wife was asleep while I reveled in her soft breathing as the day’s concerns were brushed away in slumber.  It was quiet in the house for the first time all day and I remembered a moment of time in my youth when I was able to board a sailing ship and slip away from schoolwork and those things that had been troubling me.

Our house in Seattle had a large EL shaped basement with ping pong and pool tables.  This particular night my parents were upstairs watching TV and I was preparing for a wonderful voyage over the ocean.  My sailing yacht was an ancient shopping cart rescued from a dumpster and refurbished by my father.  I lined it with pillows and quilts (it was cold on the ocean) and snuggled down into the cockpit.  With my hand on the rudder (broomstick), I pushed off from the dock (pool table) and began my adventure. 

Several months before I had shot the rapids (Roosevelt Avenue) in this same boat and had fully healed up after landing it on the rocks (104^th Street Curb).  Tonight I merely wanted to breathe a sigh of contentment and imagine my travels from island to island in my limited inland sea. 

It’s funny how much fun you can have in a room with finite dimensions when your mind provides the scenery and magnifies the distances.  As a child I used to imagine my favorite cartoons in my head after being put to bed.  Now I was hearing the lap of waves against the hull of my happy ship while taking care not to capsize in rough seas (a very real concern on the concrete floor). 

One thing I love about serving God is that He is not limited by our human frailties.  God will provide vision where there can be none and overcome your lack of ability through His limitless bounty.  Every nation that has ever had a spiritual Christian revival has also experienced a revival of invention and great imagination.  There may be nothing new under the sun but there is always something new under the SON.  Your Father’s great pleasure is to grant you those insights.

You will never discover these great miracles by watching your favorite show on Wednesday night but you just might by spending some quiet time with God on the ocean of your imagination.  Your Heavenly Father seizes on these precious moments and infuses you with vision and understanding.  He creates links between what is and what could be while you sail on what might be.

My hope and prayer is that all of you will find your own sea of discovery and in so finding will learn that God is still in the business of working powerful miracles in times of quiet reflection.  Take time to be rested and then imagine what might be on the sea that rolls out before you.

The greatest have often turned a daydream into a vision for the future.  Sail away into your place of revelation and allow the Lord to work a miracle in your life.  He’s waiting to meet you there.

Bishop J

What Mark Will You Make?

A mark doesn’t need to be seen or understood by the whole world.  For all their lofty exposure in this country and in Europe, many famous actors or entertainers are either unknown or unwanted in many countries.  Fame is fleeting and of little use if you have no vision beyond being known.  Our television sets are inundated by men and women whose sole claim to fame is that somebody knows their name.  They produce no useful product and in many cases their only marketable skill is gossip, slander and innuendo which brings those with itching ears back for more.  They are wealthy, well known and for the most part, useless.

Even actors who have made hugely successful movies are wealthy because they entertain others whose lives are not interesting enough and feel the need to spice them up.  Does your life add to the ETERNAL benefit of others?  This question is rarely asked these days and for us in the body of Christ ought to be right at the top. 

Saints of God should be passionate about their faith.  It needs to be a motivating force in your life.  If you are always looking for a new movie or play or game to amuse yourself it may be time to take stock of your spiritual disciplines.  Television and movies remove your imagination from the equation.  They do all the imagining for you and while it might be restful, it also contributes to a distinct lack of mental acuity in the long run.  When you read books your mind must fill in the blanks where there are no pictures to spell it all out.  When you read the Bible your mind AND spirit are involved.  Prayer is doubly so since you must consider what God is causing or allowing in and around your life to motivate you as well as actually hearing God directly and knowing His voice.

We are born and grow up into adults.  If we are truly blessed we marry someone we love and bear children who we raise up in ‘some’ image.  What will that image be?  The bible says to raise our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  To do that takes patience, love and discipline.  Your children will understand what is important in life by what is important to their parents.  What are the passionate conversations going on in the household; discussing the latest blockbuster from Hollywood or how God came through just in time and made an amazing transformation in your life.  Your children are listening you know.

If you spend a significant time in the church building, what do others hear from you?  Are you always bemoaning the hassles at work or how terrible traffic was today?  Is your conversation about the grace and mercy of God?  Of what do you speak? 

Romans chapter five says, “2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” 

Think about it.  Most of what we do in Christ is by future expectation.  I don’t see it right now but I will.  Most of our life in Him is a challenge and God manages these challenges.  We are supposed to rejoice in these ‘tribulations’ because they are there to provide opportunities for our faith to be exercised.  God doesn’t move instantly because we need to learn to trust in Him no matter how long the wait might be.  Eventually (in His time) God will come and save the day.  This gives us experience that God NEVER lets us down or fails us.  This experience gives us hope that no future tribulations will remain unanswered for too long.

The next part is wonderful.  Because we have the experience of hope and have seen God come through time and time again we cannot be ashamed by mocking words of the unsaved or our circumstances.  The reason for this is that God ALWAYS comes through.  I can be sitting in a jail cell accused of a terrible crime that I know I am innocent of and know that He will work it out.  Yes…this level of faith takes time and effort to develop and for this reason we ought to spend less time focusing on entertainment in life and more on eternal things.

I’m not afraid of dying.  Even now the doctors are checking out something in my heart that bothers them…and me, but my concern is not that I could die but that I might go home to be with the Lord before I have accomplished the goals HE set for me.  It is a small concern because God has promised me a long life to accomplish His goals in my ministry.  The point is that I would hate to leave this place without accomplishing what He has purposed for me.  I would hate to overhear some angels say, “It’s a shame he was too busy at the theater to finish the race.” 

I want my life to matter and the mark I have made in the lives of others to be eternal and not infernal.  Like most of us I have failed to rise to that level before and have no desire to see it become a pattern. 

Beloved, rise up in your most holy faith and let’s accomplish great things for the kingdom.  You will be despised and hated by many and adored by a few but those few will be the ones who will reap eternal blessings from your life.

Join me as I raise my mark to a higher level.

Bishop J