Live and let live!

I was in the store the other day when I overheard a woman complaining about the music, all that Christmas junk, and the crush at this time of year. She said exasperatedly that all this Jesus stuff was just created to have an excuse to get people to buy more and make it hard for regular shoppers to get around. I had to laugh. She is almost right.

Since the invention of money, it is the be and end-all of our lives. We need it for everything. There are very few people who can live like the pioneers, the trappers, and aboriginal people who got everything off the land. There are some barter clubs, but even here product and services values are still gaged via monitary equivalency values. Of course people make hay where it can be found.

But that is not what got me thinking. There are many more people in the world who believe in something other than Christianity. The history of Christianity has not been kind either. Why would anyone embrace it when you remember Nero, the crusades, the Inquisition, the religious cleansing wars in England, The witch hunts in the United States, the charlatans with their greed, and much more. Are we now an enlightened people truly in the hands of Jesus Christ, or do we still burn with a fanaticism of “I am right and you are wrong” and filled with the self-righteous emotion of anger that spawns violence against each other? Do we not know that only those who do what Jesus Christ says to do are Christians? Check out I Corinthians 13. It tells you what real Christians are like. For one, they abhor violence.

In many ways the call for integration has calmed our outlook, but that indicates someone is beguiling Christians into a wishy-washy laodicean attitude against God’s government. Revelation 3:14-19 Christians need to be strong. Is violence the way to go? There is still time to choose peacably. You decide where you need to change.

Christians know the story, how humankind was thrown out of the garden of Eden because of disobedience. Thus mankind fell into Satan’s clutches through reasoning. Abel, then Abraham believed God, and therefore his decendants were chosen by God to become an example for all peoples. Not that they were any different from anyone else but God eventually gave them a set of written laws under Moses in order to help them see that without God they are helpless. Nobody can keep the law perfectly. (James 2:8-10) While the Law appears to be a list of do’s and don’ts, it is as spiritual as it is today. What the mind thinks is the same as doing it. So, because of the hardness of peoples’ hearts, God allowed many injustices, and because the nations outside the law who came in contact with God’s people resisted takeover of what they considered their territory, God allowed and made war. Under Solomon God’s people lived in peace and became a short-lived example of what could be, not perfectly, but still an amazement to other nations. But disobedience to God’s government always brought God’s people down and into slavery to other nations.

Jesus Christ was born into such a time under the Roman heel. No, he was not born at Christmas. It was more likely in the fall around the Jewish holy day of Trumpets. His coming and his life were fortold in the Old Testament by the prophets. Many Jews today still await his coming. Jesus embodied the essence and character of God as God in human form. He came to rescue mankind from the impossible job of keeping the Law. Did he castigate people for not believing in him, or for not living according the law perfectly, or for being from some other nation without understanding? NO. He made no war with anyone but Satan or anything except the defilement of his father’s house. He admonished people to live right and turn from sin, but he never forced anyone. He said, “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men?… [Y]e reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:7-9). He taught and he spoke with his father to help those he called to his service. He showed nothing but love to all.

After his death and resurrection he went back to his father and sent the Holy Spirit to his followers so that they could have a helper with them. God the Father and his son Jesus Christ, are all God, a family that lives in true Christians through God’s Spirit joined with the human spirit which allows the Christian to grow in the godly character of I Corinthians 13. Galations 3:21-29 There is no evidence the apostles became fanatics causing the torture and death of any followers who did not follow established rules. Yes we create traditions and we have our rules of conduct in order to teach our children. But God’s law is spiritual, that adjusts to any situation. Every Christian with God’s Holy Spirit in him and growing in his relationship with God and yielding to God, will follow God’s thinking on any matter. James 2:8 Not that we will ever be perfect as human beings Romans 7:14-29 but by the grace of God and through his Holy Spirit we grow and are redeemed from our carnal ways. Violence against others has no place in this way of life.

Christians have no right to judge anyone. Jesus said “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” Luke 6:37-38 Our own conduct needs to be our badge and we need to be tolerant of other views. We must not condone the breaking of God’s spiritual law when we see it in action, but people have to choose to come to God when He calls them to understanding. We cannot force someone to adjust to being a Christian when they are not called and cannot see.

Live and let live. There is nothing wishy-washy about tolerance in the right situations. Christmas was invented by the first official Christian church started by a Samaritan priest to cover a pagan birth with “holiness” in order to make it easier for unbelievers to be indoctrinated into that church. Hence all that paraphanalia of mistle toes, holly berries, Christmas trees, decorations, the yule log, santa claus, etc. entered into a celebration that never was part of Christ’s birth. Christians today do not realize that all this originated with pagan worship. Instead it has become a tradition that allows people to be together as family and friends. Unfortunately that does not make it right. However, whatever things any other beliefs or lack of beliefs encompass are no more wrong than Christmas, Santa Clause, and mistle toes. There is no point in throwing stones.

Let us be tolerant and kind even if you don’t agree. Might as well enjoy your turkey! Lol, you catch more flies with honey.

Go see if it is so: Find a bible online and read these chapters yourself or here is access to the New World Translation.