Author: songofmary

Are Birthday Celebrations Christian?

Birthday cakes. Lighted candles. Singing “Happy Birthday.” Receiving gifts. In almost every culture and nation on Earth, virtually nothing is as universally celebrated as birthdays. But is birthday-keeping biblical? Does God agree with this practice?

Source: Are Birthday Celebrations Christian?

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That is a great article worth reading!  It speaks about how the three times birthday celebrations are mentioned in the Bible, they are surrounded by calamity and evil. Pharaoh killed the baker on his birthday; Job lost his sons due to their regular birthday feasting, on the eldest’s birthday; and Herod had John the Baptist beheaded at his birthday celebration.

I have never felt naturally drawn to celebrate birthdays nor weddings.  They both seem idolatrous to me, they overtake everything else going on in life and consume those involved, usually causing much stress overall.  I joke about how all of my five childrens’ birthday parties were not complete without at least one temper tantrum being thrown, and it was usually a worse day than normal regarding my childrens’ behaviors, no kidding.  It’s almost as if we understand at a very young age this is NOT what God wants us to be so focused on–ourselves!

While I have liked celebrating Christmas, I have learned that most of what we do at Christmas is pagan in origin (as the Christmas tree dolled up with ornaments with presents placed under it, as if we are worshiping the pagan goddess ashterah? yikes!), and have taken steps to eliminate these things as much as possible without becoming a legalistic drag in the process.

Thanksgiving is fun because I love to cook for my family and feast on God’s abundance.  I also like Halloween, not because of the ghouls and ghosts, but because it is the one time a year when the community turns out as a family and everyone walks around and enjoys the Fall weather saying hello to each other.  To think that if we all celebrated the annual feasts God commands us to celebrate in His word we would do this at least three times per year is a thought that should provoke much contemplation about our modern day existence and our lack of fulfillment in it.  His most important holiday celebration even involves group camping and feasting for a whole week!  How cool is that?

It is difficult to navigate saying, “No, thank you,” to invitations in our day and time because facebook makes it easy to generate electronic invitations for events like birthday parties, showers, and weddings.  And often people take it very personally, even if they do not mean to, if you do not attend their celebrations to the extent that they can even consider it a fatalistic blow to a relationship if you are absent, or politely refuse to go.  And much time, expense, and even stress is the fate of anyone who does choose to attend, including the planners and recipients!

So either way, it is the antithesis of the original intent:  to celebrate something.  It is fairly obvious from looking at it this way that it is just not something humans enjoy necessarily, but a ritual we have unconsciously adopted and passed down from our ancient pagan days not even realizing that these things do not usually edify us in Christ.  We become affected and guilty of idolatry not unlike how the Israelites became affected by the gentile nations and their pagan practices while living among them.

In the end, God does not want us to expend our time or resources upon celebrating ourselves, only on celebrating Him.

~Selah

I Feel Like this Sometimes…

I am hard pressed between the two [living and dying], having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.  Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.  ~Philippians 1:23-24

Receive a Prophet, Receive a Prophet’s Reward; Deceive a Child of God, Receive a Grave Reward

There exist different degrees of punishment to sin in the Bible, in the old testament and the new.  How one conducts himself spiritually among others means much to God.  If one receives a prophet, he becomes qualified to reap the benefit beyond what he would have obtained on his own:

“He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward….”  ~Matthew 10:41

The converse side of this action would be to become an obstruction for those who would believe in God, but for us getting in the way.  In that case, one’s fate is bleak beyond what he would have probably received if he had minded his own business:

 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.  ~Luke 17:2 

When Jesus said this he was not speaking of children, but of those young in the faith.  And the reason it would be better to have a millstone hung round your neck, and be thrown into the sea is because you would then die before causing others to fall away from God.

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore… for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.  And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.  ~Revelation 18:21, 23-24

Jesus is showing us a more graphic portrait of the theme contained in this verse:

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ~Mark 9:43

He teaches us that one of the worst sins is to tamper or detract others’ faith in God.

~Selah

God Made our Minds to Shine: ‘SHTH, to be Able to Contemplate Him

The very rare and phenomenal properties that make our earth habitable by us (complex life), are also the very things that make us able to contemplate our universe and look into our past; essentially contemplate our Maker.  In other words, we could just exist, but we happen to exist alongside the ability to know Him, and quest for Him, our Creator.

There is One Messiah, Christ Jesus

There were some Jews who believed in the prophecy of two Messiahs before, during, and after the time Christ.  The cult at Qumran, and possibly the Essenes, along with some other sects, believed the Bible spoke of two messiahs because of the different qualities of them:  one would suffer and be from the line of Joseph, while the other would be more of a warrior from the line of David.  However, Jesus fulfilled both of these lineages, finished the work of the suffering messiah from the line of Joseph, and will return to fulfill his role as judge and warrior in the final days.

Paul clarifies the truth of the One Messiah beautifully here, in his epistle to the Ephesians:

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”  ~Ephesians 4:4-6

For the Prophets and Apostles~

“The LORD has called Me from the womb;

From the matrix [inward parts] of My mother

He has made mention of My name…

And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel,

In whom I will be glorified.’

Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,

I have spent my strength for

nothing and in vain;

Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD,

And my work with my God.'”  ~Isaiah 49:1,3

You May be Tempted…Some~

God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.  ~1 Corinthians 10:13

Jews Request a Sign, and Greeks Seek after Wisdom~

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, therefore Christ crucified is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, Christ is the power and wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  ~1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Qumran

This place fascinates me.  I definitely hope to visit it some day.  While I believe Jesus Christ stood on His own in this world and did not identify with any sect, I do believe the Essenes might have played a role in His life.  Perhaps by being the mages who recognized His identity to begin with, and who may have taken Him under their wing for training and instruction, with Him setting out to continue His special ministry to the world, to us.

Qumran (Hebrew: קומראן‎; Arabic: خربة قمران‎ Khirbet Qumran) is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel’s Qumran National Park.[1] It is located on a dry plateau about a mile from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near theIsraeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalya. The Hellenistic period settlement was constructed during the reign of John Hyrcanus, 134-104 BCE or somewhat later, and was occupied most of the time until it was destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE or shortly after. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden), caves in the sheer desert cliffs and beneath, in the marl terrace. The principal excavations at Qumran were conducted by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s, though several later campaigns at the site have been carried out.  ~Wikipedia

Looking east from the Qumran gorge, the small structure on the upper left amid the trees contains the modern Qumran visitor’s center. The ruins of Qumran can be seen immediately to the right. The settlement was built close to the seaward side of a plateau. The Dead Sea forms a hazy backdrop. To the extreme right is the Wadi Qumran, a torrent that is dry most of the year. On the few occasions when it rains, though, it becomes a ravaging torrent that has eroded the side of the plateau where Qumran is. From the mid-left the remains of an aqueduct run down to the settlement. This channel helped furnish Qumran with a valuable supply of water. At the end of the outcrop in the center of the picture is Cave 4, which supplied the vast bulk of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  ~Wikipedia

This picture is just so beautiful~

“Qumran Caves” by Grauesel , as seen from the other side from the previous photo

It is interesting how much room we think we need to have to live now.  My apartment is a palace compared to this size-wise.

Gabriel’s Revelation

Gabriel’s Revelation, also called Hazon Gabriel (the Vision of Gabriel)[1] or the Jeselsohn Stone,[2] is a three-foot-tall (one metre) stone tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew text written in ink, containing a collection of short prophecies written in the first person and dated to the late 1st century BCE.[3][4] One of the stories allegedly tells of a man who was killed by the Romans and resurrected in three days. It is a tablet described as a “Dead Sea scroll in stone” ~Wiki

I believe Jesus Christ lived with the Essenes at Qumran for at least a while.  I believe it is where He predominantly learned, and came into His divinity.  Just because the concept of a suffering Messiah was around just before the time of His birth does not mean His life was any less divine.  The proof was in the pudding, and Jesus essentially said that Himself.  Told from birth He was the likely Messiah, and knowing the concept of a suffering Messiah still meant that He had to grow and learn, perform miracles, heal, be perfect, and come into His divinity as God willed that process to occur, and in God’s time, finally culminating in His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension at the age of ~33.

https://archive.org/details/Aabbey1-IsraelKnohlMessiahsAndResurrectionInTheGabrielRevelation484