Last thought regarding Christmas?

This year has been an interesting Christmas. Without question there is the importance of celebrating and recognizing Christ's coming to earth This year has been an interesting Christmas. Without question there is the importance of celebrating and recognizing Christ's coming to earth with significantly reflects the truth of my faith. The story of the incarnation is not like any other, the GOD who made us is one of us. However, when I look at our culture and what it has done with Christmas I have to shake my head. The consumer madness in a culture that is going through a 'recession' and yet we all 'want more.' as if we don't have it all already! I think this is becoming a rant...

But I am reminded of a quote by Mother Teresa that says "May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in." As I have reflected on our condition in our nation I am filled with gratitude. A gratitude that acknowledges the blessings of God on our lives, not with pride but rather with amazement and I am dumbfounded by God's grace in our lives.

So this year, one of the rellies (relatives) suggested instead of gifts that we pool our resources to do a hamper for someone in our community. Actually, this has been talked about for quite some time, it was that this year we finally did it. I have to admit that I have never seen as much excitement in our family for what we were about to do for someone else in a long time. There was an excitement in packing and organizing everything together, not too mention that it took two vehicles to transport the hamper and the rellies who wanted to deliver the food. Then the response of the family meant the world to us. As I watched my wife embrace the mom who received the hamper, there was a tear in my eye not too mention in both of theirs.

It was Max Lucado who said that "Gradually our big God changes us. Gratefully we lust less, love more, lash out less, look heavenward more." God is constantly at work work and he is changing our family and I like what we have seen this Christmas.Luke 2:34 says that "this
child is destined to cause the falling and raising of many" May Christ be your rising in 2011.

XMAS!

Who started rumor that "X" in Xmas an attempt to cross out Christ's name? Since Anglo-Saxon times X stood for Christ . . .Not too long ago I was listening to the radio and there was a big debate about the proper usage of holiday greetings. Of course, many 'christians' called in complaining about keeping the "Christ" in Christmas... wow..... So, for all the uniformed here is a great article that I wished the listeners of the radio program would have read before opening thier mouth!


Why is X Used when it Replaces Christ in Christmas?
By R.C. Sproul

The simple answer to your question is that the X in Christmas is used like the R in R.C. My given name at birth was Robert Charles, although before I was even taken home from the hospital my parents called me by my initials, R.C., and nobody seems to be too scandalized by that.X can mean so many things. For example, when we want to denote an unknown quantity, we use the symbol X. It can refer to an obscene level of films, something that is X-rated. People seem to express chagrin about seeing Christ’s name dropped and replaced by this symbol for an unknown quantity X. Every year you see the signs and the bumper stickers saying, “Put Christ back into Christmas” as a response to this substitution of the letter X for the name of Christ.

First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ.We don’t see people protesting the use of the Greek letter theta, which is an O with a line across the middle. We use that as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first letter of the word Theos, the Greek word for God.The idea of X as an abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent to show any disrespect for Jesus. The church has used the symbol of the fish historically because it is an acronym. Fish in Greek (ichthus) involved the use of the first letters for the Greek phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” So the early Christians would take the first letter of those words and put those letters together to spell the Greek word for fish. That’s how the symbol of the fish became the universal symbol of Christendom. There’s a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect.


Thoughts?
Merry Xmas!