Pray About It In Faith, Not Fear

Behind all things - God.

What we see, hear, feel, sense, perceive, are surface influences.

Things physical can be very convincing, but are they always evidently true?

If a man names a place, a particular region of the world, is that now 'true'?

Is such a place accurately labeled now?

What if that place had a previous name, now unknown or changed?

Whatever any given place is called, notice how meaning is derived.

From the meaningless is meaning often derived... and men's minds are captured like moths to a flame.

But instead of being enlightened, those minds are simply burned.

Meaning can grow and inspire people to the point of fighting, killing, dying over a word or the name of a place.

What is on the surface usually seeps into a depth of some kind.

Most of my work, my writing, talks about things that might seep in.

Such things might have already seeped in and taken hold.

I identify such things and aim to better explain them in order to make better sense of them.

Demystifying the initially mysterious.

Hopefully showing that what is considered suspicious is less than mysterious.

Things largely misunderstood.

Defining all things in the Light of Christ.

Explaining what is typically viewed as foreign in a way to make it less strange.

To make obvious that there is nothing to fear on this earth, in this life.

If only God is to be feared, what about when we have come to learn that He loves us beyond belief?

If we still fear God after coming to believe He has saved us, what then do we have to fear while in the flesh?

Nothing at all.

It says perfect love drives out the fear of punishment.

Although our thorns may trouble us, we don't fear them because we have also come to understand God's grace.

We don't coddle out thorns, but begrudgingly accept them.

We don't accept them as an excuse to sin, but acceptance as in facing them.

Facing our humanity in the mirror, yet letting His love and grace overwhelm us instead of our sinful nature overwhelm us.

Grace is not an 'allowance' for us to sin.

Instead, grace helps us understand how and why God still loves us despite our humanity, despite our fallibility.

We have pillars of the Church who have clearly explained all of this before.

Paul is one such pillar.

He has explained his own struggles, in a human language we can understand.

He has also explained God's love and grace quite clearly.

The issue is how something very clear has been misinterpreted and made confused by religious weirdos or enemies of Truth.

People can easily be troubled by what their eyes of flesh see, instead of seeing what His Spirit speaks from within them (if He truly resides in them).

The issues of festivals (whether religious or secular in nature) has long been mentioned and resolved.

But religious people continue to make an issue out of something already resolved, because they likely fail to understand, or their faith is so weak they are cowering in fear.

Why?

Religious people like to spend time focusing on religious things, instead of putting their hand to the plow.

Instead of thinking about and doing the work of feeding the hungry, for example, they would rather pontificate religious ideas and get into arguments.

Notice how Paul mentions that he can, with a clear conscience, eat meat that was 'offered' to idols.

Why?

Because he understands and believes that a faithful prayer cleanses any earthly or dark effort of men and the ideas of their earth-bound minds.

Pauls explains that 'idols' are nothing... simply ideas that men believe to be true, but in the Light of Christ, such things are nonexistent.

It is a matter of faith.

To those currently having weak faith, they have a difficult time eating any kind of meat (regardless of how it came to their plate).

Every believer has a testimony to share.

But not every believer is a teacher, or even a shepherd.

Yet we are all comforted sheep.

What seems like a 'low' position of a sheep is actually the highest.

It is the highest because a sheep is able to enjoy good pastures and peaceful terrain... so long as they are focused on God and not this world.

Have you not realized that over the centuries places have been defended by shepherds and feed by teachers?

A fearful and suspicious view of things get in the way of living one's life to the fullest.

Instead of understanding what the freedom in Christ truly is, religious people make for themselves so many restrictions.

Instead of dealing with what fears or doubts causes one to restrict themselves, one argues through their fears and suspicions.

It is suspected that more rules and restrictions is the answer.

The answer, instead, is more faith.

Fearless faith.

Growth.

We already have a clear teaching about those who argue 'do not touch' and so on.

Faith is very weak in those accustomed to being focused on bad news.

Instead of realizing the plenty of good in the world, a good that far outweighs the bad, the minds of so many are misled into believing that Satan is somehow 'winning' the war.

Impossible!

It is impossible for the victory Christ has accomplished to be diminished in any way.

If anything, His victory continues to exponentially demolish any bit of darkness or shadow left in the world (especially in the spiritual realms).

When I read about ridiculous consternations about celebrations, festivals, 'holidays' (secularized 'holy' days - or secular ideas made 'holy' by edict of faithful men led by the Holy Spirit), I see how far people go in following absurd ideas.

How they injure their faith.

How so focused on the physical things people can be, even those called heavenward.

People have so many walls erected around their hearts, their minds, and themselves.

It is any wonder they dare walk out of their homes.

Where is your faith?

What do you really fear?

Death?

The words of others?

The misguided judgments of either the worldly or the religious?

If so, how small is that faith.

In speaking to the reservations people have to what faithful men have already done regarding anything considered 'secular' or 'irreligious', consider what Paul explains:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. 

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 

And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. 

You are judging by appearances. 

If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. 

So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. 

I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. 

- 2 Corinthians 10: 3-9

There was a man named Nicholas of Myra [read], to whom miracles were attested.

He was known as someone who would gift in secret, bringing joy and surprise to people too poor to enjoy anything new.

It is from this man's example the concept of Santa Claus is derived.

In that derivative, several other syncretic interpretations have been included.

All done to capitalize Christ over all things.

Making subject any idea of men, from whatever origin or inspiration, and make them subject to Christ.

Defined through the Cross, in the Light of His victory.

Ideas, names of places, now made holy in the Name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit - Yeshua Christ the Lord thy God.

The Church has absorbed ideas previously foreign (called pagan / secular) and brought them before the Cross.

In doing so, all of those previous 'beliefs' have been demolished and revealed as nothing, similar to Paul's explanation of idols.

I understand about not desiring to participate in the consumerism that Christ-Mass has become.

To blame Saint Nicholas, or the efforts of the faithful in demolishing presumptions or previous beliefs outside of submission to Christ, is to be ignorant of the Light of Christ.

Judging by appearance.

It is to be ignorant of what Christ, through the Church and faithful prayer, has brought into clear view when defined in His kingdom.

It is ignoring 'how' all things have become subject to Christ.

Truly Christ is King of heaven and earth.

His dominion is revealed to have brought things from darkness to light.

From ignorance to wisdom.

From beliefs in man's ideas (pagan / secular) to faith in the Holy One revealed from Above.

Notice how Christ has been weaved into the cultures of the world.

The previous worship of the foreign, the secular, the made up ideas of men, has become less while He has become evermore!

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: 

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign for ever and ever.” 

- Revelation 11: 15