Don’t lie to your kids about Christmas

“Dad, that’s a good idea about you telling me that Santa Claus isn’t real and how when I get older I might not think God is real.” -Joshua, 5 years old

Alexis and I’ve decided to not feed our boys the myth about Christmas and the Easter bunny. We’ve decided to tell our boys the truth about Christmas, the birth and death of Christ, a guy named Nick, and, as much as we’d like, reindeer don’t fly.

I was 7, a late bloomer I guess, when I discovered the truth about Christmas and I was devastated. We were walking through K-Mart at Christmas and my brother, younger than I, dropped the bomb. I remember being so hurt toward my mom for lying to me. While I didn’t question my faith in Christ, at 7, I still remember the thought coming to mind, “So is Jesus real?”

Be honest with your kids. Tell them the truth about Jesus, Christmas, and Easter. Believe, it goes totally against every other wimpy parent around you, but like momma used to say, “If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?”

What is Christian maturity?

It seems like the most basic way to answer this question is to look at Christ’s ultimate purpose in His life during His time on earth in human form; i.e. the cross. Jesus came and lived a perfect life and died a sinless death taking on all the consequence and judgement of the sin of all those who would come to call Him Savior and Lord. The death of Christ for the redemption of His enemies, us, is the definition of Christian maturity.

Jesus is more than a great ethicist. Jesus said that if anyone would desire to come after Him that he must first deny himself, take up his cross (his death), and follow Him. The ways in which this is lived out are nothing short than whole life altering for the believer. Jesus’ closest followers, His disciples, were having a debate one day over who would be the greatest and Jesus told them that whoever desired to be the greatest must become everyones servant.

On another occasion, Peter, Jesus’ lead disciple, approached Jesus and asked Him how many times he should forgive someone who’d sinned against him. “Should I forgive him seven times?” Peter asked. Jesus replied that he shouldn’t only forgive him seven times but 7 times 70 times in a day for the same offense if that’s what it took! Jesus throws out this ridiculous number of times to forgive a person to illustrate the point that His people’s willingness to forgive should be unceasing.

On the bottom of my job description there reads this little line: “and whatever else is necessary to complete your job duties.” The bottom line is are you going to be self-serving or self-sacrificing, are you going to hoard your wealth for your self or are you going to spend your life for others? When you see a floor that needs swept or a toilet that needs cleaned, are you going to take care of it or call for the janitor?

“So I’m not under the notion at all that liberal scholarship has added anything to the Christian faith.”

This was fun. I’m taking a course this semester on “The History of Christianity in America” and each week we have a discussion forum. I’d like to share this week’s question and the way I answered it here. I enjoyed it, maybe you will too!

Discussion question: “Without saying bad things about them, what are some of the positive contributions of Protestant liberalism to the Body of Christ? What can we learn from them? What are some things that led to their appearance on the scene?”

My answer:
“There’s a line in one of the web articles that we were to lead that summarizes the way I’d like to attempt to answer these questions: “The influx of Arminian theology with the Wesleyans inadvertently opened the doors for liberalism by placing more agency in the hands of human beings.”

Some of you had a difficult time with Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” We’re conditioned, in our “fast food, serve it hot, serve it now, and if you get it wrong I will rain my proverbial brimstone on you by calling for your manager” society. God does not owe us anything. He does not owe us salvation. He did not owe me or you, or anyone else for that matter, the propitious atoning work that His Son did for me on the cross.

So I’m not under the notion at all that liberal scholarship has added anything to the Christian faith. When the group of guys lowered their friend through the roof of where Jesus was teaching, it was not the boys physical condition or even state of well-being that led to Jesus’ compassion. It was the young man’s soul that Jesus redeemed. The physical healing is more of an after-thought merely for Christ to say, “Yes I’m Him and Yes, I can do this.”

When 140 characters is just a little too short

My friend Corrie, @CorrieLE on twitter, sent me this a little while ago: “What do you think about this sermon? Little too far maybe? I thought so when he continuously said it. http://t.co/Q46APT1.”

 

So it really seems like the guy is going for effect and reaction more than anything else. I don’t know the guy, don’t know the church; I’m only going off this little snippet. The bad thing about a snippet is, it’s just that. Seconds into a persons life, ministry, job, role, character, etc. without doing the hard word of taking a little longer to get to know whomever’s in the snippet.

Maybe a snippet isn’t a bad idea though. I read again this week: “Trust is gained slowly but lost in an instant.” I believe that.

Here’s my assessment Corrie. Should humor be used in preaching? Sure. In an interviewed on the D.L. Hughley show sometime back (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_HDFH34Wec) and made a similar reference as the guy in this vid. I think it’s obvious though what this guy was after and what @PastorMark was after were two different things.

I think the heart of the matter is whether, as a preacher, you’re after a knee-jerk reaction or a thought out response. I’m after the latter and I’m thinking about C.H. Spurgeon here. Spurgeon was possibly the only Baptist in history who didn’t do an alter call. He would set up appointments the following Monday, Tuesday, and even sometimes on Wednesday’s to meet with people who were feeling compelled to make a profession of faith.

Too often church meetings are designed for the wrong thing. Here’s what I mean by that, instead of meeting to worship, honor, and exult the living, amazing Creator God of the universe, meetings are built on the premise of creating some sort of emotional response in the mind of the attendee. I think that’s garbage in just about every form. I the gospel isn’t enough for the preacher, then he should move onto something else do with his life. It’s a matter of whether or not we’re dependent on the word of God or we’re like the “three ring preachers” that Paul talks about in 1 Cor 10 (The Message paraphrase version).

So in short, are we after a knee-jerk reaction that could prove to be no more than the weeds that sprung up on the pathway in the story of the sower or are we after a life-long serious commitment to Christ that will radically change that person forever? I’m after the latter.