called in, called out

[Bamabee]

I was thinking about my experience of being called out of the church, yesterday.  I do think that God was teaching me the whole time he was allowing me to swallow lies.  I think one reason for this is so we can learn to hear his voice and be instructed by his Spirit.  At least, I believe that about myself.  I definately learned to recognize the alarm bells of the Spirit when I was being taught something wrong.  There are so many reasons not to listen to those.  Does that make any sense?  Maybe Ray covered this, but I have poor recall.  I wonder if anyone else feels that way?

[Craig]

Absolutely,

When I was in the church those bells were going off in my mind but the whole church/fitting in social experience squelched the sound of these bells so I could just ignore them.  Now I hear things loud and clear and have trouble sitting in a church service or listening to it on the TV or radio.  I'll never ignore those bells again, God willing.

Craig

[lilitalienboi16]

Absolutely,

When I was in the church those bells were going off in my mind but the whole church/fitting in social experience squelched the sound of these bells so I could just ignore them.  Now I hear things loud and clear and have trouble sitting in a church service or listening to it on the TV or radio.  I'll never ignore those bells again, God willing.

Craig

LOL amen craig, i feel the exact same way, i CANT STAND sitting in church because theres so much i here that is just like 'omg this is so unscriptural.'

but Praise God that He has been merciful and allowed me to hear those warning sounds, hopefuly this ability will only grow stronger as i grow in Christ.

All to His will though,

Alex

[Falconn003]

Bamabee

those bells rang for me when i last attended cornerstone chruch of hagee. it was almost comical to see hagee push the envelop on what he got away within the congregation,,,,calling Jesus a fanatic, envoking spirits of the dead,,, and recently calling Jesus a pharasie,,,

nostalgic memories of xmas gatherings i simply them to family gathers and best as i can excluded the xmas themes out of pictures and such...

Family memebers are more respecting Our Faith and not refering to the holidays, but now generalized them as family gatherings, same horse different name, but we do enjoy the company of our freinds and family on any given day and truly express it to them all.

Rodger

[Bamabee]

My husband and I want to do away with Xmas all together this year.  Does anyone have any advice about how to approach relatives, so they don't think we are being cheap and they are being slighted.  Not that I care about being called cheap - I am cheap.

[Kat]

Hi Bamabee,

Well while I was in church all those years, I had a lot of things come to mind that didn't sound right.  i ask questions a few times and didn't get satisfactory answers, so I didn't question what they were saying.  i just kept sinking into a deeper and deeper spiritual stupper.  Didn't think they had the truth, didn't think anybody had much of it.  It took me coming out and looking back to see how bad it was.  By all I went through, it did teach me now what to look out for, in retrospect.  Those bells certainly do go off now, when I hear any of what I heard while in the church.

I don't go along with any of the xmas festivities.  I just tell them straight up, I don't believe it is Biblical.  I let my immediate family know they could do as they like, just leave me out of it.  Each family has to go about it in whatever way works best for them.

We had a long thread on xmas last year, here is the link.

http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,2155.0.html

mercy, peace, and love
Kat

[Craig]

I have no problem with christmas.  The family gets together, has a good time, exchanges gifts and for the most part put away any differences we might have.  If God wants to pull me away from this then He will, I feel no need to stop on my own.

And so far He has not stopped me.

Craig

[LittleBear]

Hi Bamabee,

My husband and I downsized Christmas last year. I think you have to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and make yourself clear to everyone what you are willing and not willing to do. We announced to both sides that we would not be taking part in a gift exchange. Some respected that and some didn't. Two of my brothers didn't, and they bought us gifts. We simply accepted the gifts with thanks, and that was that. No apologies about oh, sorry, but we didn't get you anything because we already told you guys that we were not doing the gift exchange thing. If they want to get us gifts, well, OK.

For the sake of my elderly parents, we do go for Christmas dinner. No big deal.

On my husband's side, it was respected all round.

Also, you could go away somewhere. That would be really romantic too!

Love,

Ursula

[Bamabee]

Thanks Kat, I should have done a search on that.  I'm not implying that celebrating is wrong for everyone.  But, we have noticed how materialistic our little girl gets at that time of year.  And, it is not just her.  Also, we always feel tremendous pressure to come up with the money for presents for everyone in our very large family, add this to plane fare (we live in NY, family in GA), the crowds, the "lets keep Christ in Christmas"  AAAAAAH!  It's too much.  I worry about my little girl, though.  And how she will handle it. 

[Bamabee]

Thanks again Kat, I read the whole thing, wow.  I don't want to get that started again.

[Kat]

Hi Bamabee,

Glad to help. 
Concerning holidays, that is a very personal decision on what is right.  We all have our opinions, but it's up to each famly to decide what's the best way to handle it.

mercy, peace, and love
Kat

[Brett]

I have no problem with christmas.  The family gets together, has a good time, exchanges gifts and for the most part put away any differences we might have.  If God wants to pull me away from this then He will, I feel no need to stop on my own.

And so far He has not stopped me.

Craig

You are very right, Craig. When I became impatient and want to stop but nothing success. Everything is all God's work and time. God can pull me away from this, but has not pulled me so far. The only thing I know that God indeed pulled me out of 'Christendom' and that is all. Now, what will I do with my family about Christmas? Just 'no worry, be happy' . It is comfortable for me is to letting God take care of all things and His own time just like He did to me from Christendom.


Brett

[Craig]

Any time these discussions come up I wish everyone would read and study Romans 14. 

There are too many things we do to make ourselves appear pious.  Some celebrate holidays some don't, some observe sabbath others don't, some observe rituals others don't, some go to church others don't, some drink, others don't, etc, etc, etc.  Remember when some of us were in the church, if a pastor said to do this or that, that is what we did?  If you were told to tithe we tithed, don't shop on Sunday we didn't, celebrate a certain day we did, dress a certain way we did.  Now is no different for us, we must watch to not condemn ourselves to the law.

If God takes you out of, or something out of you, I have found, you will not have any struggle with that thing.  If I decide to not celebrate christmas or any other holidays but it is a struggle in my being, then I've probably only put myself under the law of bondage.  If I decide to leave church but have a struggle in my being with this, then I only put myself under that law. 

When God draws you away from something I have found he takes the struggle also.  I am grateful for what God has taken from me and out of me, but I also try to not judge those with their own struggles.  We are all in a race and God trains us in different ways.

Getting back to your question.  If you are drawn out of celebrating christmas and feel at ease and are not second guessing yourself over that decision, then you are where God has led you, if it is the opposite then you may be putting yourself under law.  When God wants me to sit home christmas day, I will.  Right now he has taken the religious meaning of that holiday from me, so I enjoy the time with my family and I celebrate being with them.  I am not celebrating the christian meaning of the day any longer ( I still eat the meat, Rom14)

I guess what I'm trying to say is, do what God is leading you to do, but if you find yourself struggling with something then you are probably, really struggling with the beast within you, only God takes away the struggle.

This is my opinion, and I'm sticking with it... (for now).

Blessing
Craig

[UncleBeau]

Christmas for me makes me think of children being taught expectation. Most kids in America know that they can expect presents of some kind on Christmas day. If I know that God does not operate that way, I don't want to operate that way. God suprises me constantly. That's the way I like to show love, with suprises.
When people have a day scheduled to exchange gifts or whatever and you don't participate, I wouldn't think you'd have to unless you say you're going to. It's when people make you feel guilty that they start to show the ways of the world. I experienced the same thing in church. The guilt trips for not "traditionalizing" my thinking into religious overtones of tithing and segregated groups, communion and alter calls....rang those "bells" for me time and time again. I haven't been called to not give gifts on Christmas, because I still do; but it's giving of myself when I'm not expected to that makes me think of why my Savior was born.

your friend,

-Beau

[ciy]

I actually stopped doing Christmas before I came to the true truth because of the financial cost and the realization when I asked my family what they had received last Christmas and they could not remember.  Even though they did not want to, after the first year everybody realized how much less stress we had during the season.  It really is remarkable what a burden is lifted from having to shop.

Over the years as I came to the truth, I was convicted of it being the yeast of the Pharisees.  It is so easy to think this is ok.  Believing in Santa Claus is surely ok, but it dawned on me that I was so innudated with Santa as a child that even as an adult I still felt better about Santa than I did about God.  Then I thought of my pleasant thoughts of the easter bunny, the tooth fairy, etc and how all of those pagan characters had worked in my life to distract me from believing in a loving, merciful God.

Those sweet little spirits make me think of when the new kings of Israel would turn back to God but would leave a few idols in their houses like ashera poles and such that over a period of time they would be back worshipping Baal.  It is hard to leave all of the world behind, to sweep your house clean. 

Again this is all about what your heart feels.  Paul talks about this type thing in eating meats and such. I know it is all about the spiritual meanings but Christmas and celebrating days in the physical is something I am weak in and could easily get back with too much of me being in Bablyon. 

Anyway like Elvis said "Oh why can't everyday be like Christmas."
CIY

[chuckt]

isnt it wild all the different outlooks on christmas

i personally hate the commercialism, but it is one of the few times a year our whole family

gets together so i enjoy it, our celibration surrounds more about the family that the gift giving, specially as the kids get older.


its wonderful we can all  have these different opinions and not judge one another givng thanks for the freedom in CHRIST.

grace mercy and LOVE

chuckt

[GODSown1]

Amen!!! chuckt,
                    muchLOVE!! Pera

[Bamabee]

What an eye opener this thread has been!  It is amazing to see the way that God works in all of us differently.