Christocentric Faith

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4)

What is ministry? Why do we minister? To whom do we minister? What is the end and focus of our ministry? Why do we prophesy? What is the focus of that prophecy?

It is very interesting that many ministers rarely ask themselves these questions. Some do not think that they ought to be asked. Some have never thought that there should be such questions

For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. (Matthew 11:10, 13)

It is evident when we read the Bible that the clear focus of the Old Testament was the Christ. There is no doubt at all that Israel was very clear on that one fact. That is why you see all their arguments with Christ focused more on that point than on anything else. That is why they condemned Him to the cross – because He did not meet their criteria as the Christ. And that is the reason many Pharisees turned to Him once they understood what the prophets had really said and understood the whole tapestry of prophesy. That is the reason Saul was transformed from a persecutor to an apostle once he realized who Christ was. That is what transformed him from a killer to one willing to die for the person whose memory he had been ardently seeking to eradicate.

What is the focus of my preaching? Why do I preach anyway? What will make me successful as a preacher?

What is the focus of my books and blog? Why do I write anyway? What do I use to gauge the success or otherwise of my writing?

You see Christ is either everything or nothing. He can never be worth much even if He occupies 99% of my focus.

Who is an under-shepherd? Can he be compared to the chief shepherd? Is he a junior chief shepherd? Is he an employee of the chief shepherd?

My understanding of the scriptures is that the under-shepherd is another sheep; only that this sheep enjoys the submission of the other sheep a little more and so the shepherd finds it easier to lead the sheep by calling that lead sheep. The Chief Shepherd therefore chooses that lead sheep to oversee His ministry with and to the other sheep.

In the pastoral communities you will see that lead sheep, cow or even goat being given a bell. Then the shepherd can generally know where his flock is by simply following that jingle.

In Kimeru, that lead sheep or cow is called ‘kiirithia’ which simply means self herding. This makes it clear that the lead sheep may be farthest from the voice of the shepherd. He enjoys that position by the trust other sheep place on him. The shepherd therefore knows that he needs to know where that sheep is to know where the rest of the flock is. And we see that a lot in the Bible.

Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; (Ezekiel 34:18 – 21)

We see the same with the Sadducees during Christ’s time. They were spiritual guides who were never interested in the spiritual. But even the other leaders, though they were spiritual were not much different.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (Matthew 23:13)  

And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. (Luke 11:46)

An effective under-shepherd for me is one who, though he enjoys the submission of the other sheep is able to accurately hear the voice of the shepherd. In fact he should be able to hear it better than the other sheep so that instead of the shepherd looking for him to find his sheep will simply concentrate on looking for better pastures as His lead sheep is in step with Him. He will not need a bell as that sheep never loses sight of the shepherd. It is the other sheep that might require him to have a bell so that should they stray they will know where to find the shepherd.

Our ministry is unto God. Our ministry should point people to God. Nothing in anything we do should have any other focus. It should be the craving of our hearts that every atom of our being should scream what John the Baptist said

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

My ministry should be a guiding light to point people to Christ. Even support or lack of it should not feature in my ministry to God. He knows I need support and will get it for me. He in any case owns everything and does not need me to ‘make tents’ to be able to serve Him effectively, unless He is the one who has expressly ordered me to. I insult Him when my support becomes part of the message I proclaim. I insult Him when sales feature in my calling as a writer, however faintly it is seen. No wonder He has ordered me to be giving out my books to those who need the message He has given me.

The prophets pointed to God alone and that is the reason they were effective. There was no way they could be compromised as they did not feature anywhere in the messages they proclaimed. The kings they many times preached against trembled because though they had power to kill the prophets were sure that the prophet was an instrument of someone much bigger than his throne and power. Though Herod was riled by the rebuke of John the Baptist, we find him continuing to listen to him instead of killing him. We even see him being saddened when he has to kill him. Why? It was unmistakable that John represented God.

Will we stop preaching our own things so that we enjoy the support of the masses? Will we stop pursuing our own ends for the sake of ‘our’ ministry? Will we allow ourselves to be wholly swallowed by the agenda of our Shepherd to ensure that the other sheep we lead will get to the shepherd? Will we stop wasting time building human structures (and I am not only saying buildings though they are part of it) and start building people’s spirits so that they can connect to the shepherd?

You see ministry that is not centered sorely on God is not really ministry.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; (Colossians 1:15 – 19)

Let our desire be to make all who come to us desire, nay, crave to hear and obey Christ, the desire of the ages. Let us, like John before us rejoice when Christ increases and we diminish, even disappear for the glory He reveals through us. Let us choose to forget self as we point people to Christ who not only is but should be purposely made the source of our sustenance. Let us not allow people to make fun of us because we are thinking more of our comfort and agenda instead of following His orders. Above all let us seek to clearly hear those orders that we stop doing things the way they have always been done. Let us walk in fresh revelation as we receive fresh orders so that we can enjoy fresh anointing.

LET CHRIST BE THE CENTRE OF OUR BEING

God bless you

Look-Alike Christs

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Matthew 24:24)

We have been taught to expect the antichrist to be a person whose very existence openly stands against Christ. We have been taught to expect the antichrist to openly teach against everything that Christ teaches. But I do not think this is the true picture.

It may be in the transmission of the teaching through the various languages that the concept may have changed as the study of his operations show us someone who is not really standing openly against Christ.

You see the devil has been beaten by Christ since the beginning and is not harboring any ideas of turning the tide at any time. In fact the Bible portrays him as a person who knows that his time is short (Revelation 12: 12). This is because he clearly knows his end. He therefore changes his game plan from fighting Christ to fighting those who worship Him by diverting that worship if he can, a thing he has tried since time immemorial. This he will do not to raise his army but to increase the crowd that will join him in hell as he knows God enough to realize that anyone who does not worship God actually belongs to him whoever he thinks he worships.

The antichrist is therefore a counterfeit Christ, just like we have counterfeit currency and gold. And this might be the reason he may have been involved in the corruption of the Bible so that we are unable to know what to expect when he appears. Or maybe the translators themselves thought to point more clearly what the antichrist represented so as to accurately help us appreciate that he will be against Christ.

His operations will be so alike the real Christ’s that it will be near impossible to tell them apart. The difference will be so slight so that only a few will be in a position to notice. Or do we not see that they will be so alike that even the elect will barely escape the deception.

How will they escape? I am sure you are wondering. I believe they simply walk with the real Christ so closely that they will be able to recognize His voice however noisy the din is. Remember Elijah in 1 Kings 19: 11, 12?

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)

They will hear His voice however alike another shepherd looks like their shepherd. You see looks can be deceiving.

But hearing that voice does not come that easily. I believe the first thing that this sheep will need to do is establish early enough who this shepherd is and choose to follow Him unwaveringly. He must enthrone Christ in His heart as Lord and King. By that I mean that he must have decided that Christ is the only voice worth hearing and the only One with any order worth obeying. He must establish in his heart that Christ issues orders and not suggestions or even instructions. Then the voice will come not as a choice but a craving for the next order to obey. Prayer will stop being a request transaction but a reporting for duty to our commander.

Then, and only then will we be able to train our ears to identify that voice clearly enough as to distinguish it from similar or familiar voices.

In these end times miracles are not constrained to Christ and His church. This is what the Bible teaches. Even prophecy is not the preserve of Christ’s servants. The signs we were promised can also be seen with the antichrist as we see in the scriptures.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (Revelation 13:13 – 15)

We see that even the raising of the dead is among the miracles the antichrist will be able to perform. This makes it plain that miracles and signs are clearly not the things that will be able to point only to the reality or activity of Christ.

We therefore need to establish what it is that will help us distinguish between Christ and the antchrist. This is because the outward indicators have no capacity to help us accurately do so.

But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. (1Samuel 16:7)

We must therefore be sensitive enough to get deeper than the visible to tell them apart. But even more is that we must develop a consistent habit of not only craving but pursuing and dwelling in His presence.

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 84:10)

We must desire to hear that voice to the extent that other voices, even the voice of reason, become irrelevant to our ears. We must crave to obey Him even when it is foolhardy even to us to do so. We must value His voice above any other voice. It is then we will be able to clearly know when our Shepherd is talking.

I will give a case in point. There is this TV pastor whose sermons are packed very nicely. His doctrine is not at fault. His scripture application is excellent. His sermons are very transformational as one listens to him.

Yet I was wondering that after listening to those excellent sermons I felt no tug toward the transformational even though at face value they really were powerful sermons. It disturbed me for years even after I had stopped listening to them. I tried many times to read his many books but my hands were unable to pick even one on display to look at. Incidentally there are many such telepastors/ evangelists I have had that experience repeated. It was surprising as normally I read a lot.

Years later a friend shows me a DVD with the same preacher making a pitch for a pyramid scheme that God had expressly ordered me not to join. He is a very senior leader in the same from what he was saying. Of course they are veiled as multi level marketing schemes though I really do not know the difference. Then it connected! He was operating with a different spirit. His sermons, though spiritually and scripturally sound did not come from my Shepherd!

I am sure you want me to elaborate on the pyramid scheme as I know many see no problem with them as they are avenues of making much money without sweat.

For years many friends had been asking me to join this MLM but I had not really felt the tug to do so due to my involvement in ministry, a thing they thought was the greatest asset in the same as I could market it in the process of ministry. That is actually their preference.

One day some friends invited me for a meeting without telling me what it was about. It was the training session for the MLM. The training was really good as I was almost convinced as most of the arguments I had about joining were explained away.

When I went home, God told me that I should not join it. Then He posed a question that really explained issues. What was the exit clause in that MLM? You see as His servant I was under His express orders. How could I exit the MLM if God ordered? You see when I wanted to join Bible school He just spoke and I was able to just stop the process that had started. When I was working He just spoke and I was able to leave work. When I operated a workshop He just spoke and I was able to leave it and have not been there for close to fifteen years (I left it just as it was, even with my tools). How would I leave this MLM once the money started flowing whether God spoke or not? How could I stop earning should God say so?

When I was later asked whether I had finally been convinced to join it and said that I would not it became the end of the story. I had answered only one yet none of the other people who had been pestering me over the years ever came to me again after I gave one a definite answer. The MLM is a spiritual structure with all members connected and receiving orders from a central spiritual centre. Since many pastors are in these pyramids to supplement their meager support and draw many of the people they lead into them, it is vitally important for each of us to connect to our Shepherd without the aid of intermediaries before identifying the under shepherds to submit to.

Why all this verbiage? It is because it is very important we listen keenly and constantly to Christ so that we can get clear directions from Him alone. The fact that the preacher agrees with your doctrine does not make him your brother. The fact that he preaches what you hold dear does not mean he is serving your King. He might just be a counterfeit preacher sent by the counterfeit christ.

It is only your close and submitted relationship to Christ that will make you attuned to his voice enough to filter out the rest. Do not be surprised if you learn that your favorite pastor or prophet is answerable to the counterfeit shepherd.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2Corinthians 11:14, 15)

I believe at this point that many preachers and pastors are in the employ of the counterfeit spirit. For your information I am not asking us to do any witch hunting. I am asking that we become so connected to Christ that we will know when a counterfeit spirit is in operation. I do not even think it is our business to expose them. Our responsibility is to help anyone who comes our way to connect to the Shepherd who is leading us. He has not called us to point out the fakes. He has called us to train people to really connect to the real just like bankers are trained only with legal tender.

But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. (Matthew 13:29)

My responsibility is to point people to God and help them hear His voice with clarity. What the devil does or who he uses is none of my business. Whatever schemes he has do not concern me. My express order from the King is to help His people identify His voice as clearly as He means it. Whether the pastor is fake or not is really none of my problems as I do not know the kind of contract he signed with whoever his boss is. What I know is that I should know when he is using a voice that is different from the one my Shepherd uses. It is sin if I am not able to distinguish a good preacher from the one sent by my shepherd, and I do not say or imply that any boring preacher comes from Christ or otherwise just like we know that nutritious food is not necessarily appetizing. The point is that not all excellent sermons come from Christ or His servants. Or do we not remember Paul preaching Eutychus to death before raising him!

Is it possible to lose sensitivity to the voice of our original shepherd? I think it is highly probable. Judas is the clearest example. Even for those who may argue that it was prophesied I will mention King Saul, one person we see God grieving over that loss. The study of his life will show us the pitfalls we ought to avoid if we are to be continually able to accurately hear and identify the voice of our Shepherd.

Long ago there was this young man who was so daft that he went through primary school and was not even able to read. I do not know whether he had known how to write his name as he was several classes ahead of me. What I know is that he failed completely in the national exams and it was common knowledge to all, even us who were many classes below him.

Well, this same man accepted Christ and the transformation was so astounding that even skeptics acknowledged that it was Christ who had done it. Not only was he able to read but he was able to read the Kimeru Bible, a language that is difficult to most. Even in church not many can fluently read it. He eventually became a preacher and was very good at it. And God really used him.

Before getting saved he was a hopeless sort of fellow. Things started looking up for him as he got married and generally started doing quite well in all areas. Then he lost touch with the shepherd and everything crumbled around him. He got into sin and his family broke up.

I could not believe that someone who had seen such evidence of God’s work in his life could backslide. I prayed that God would offer me an opportunity to challenge him to consider the relationship with Christ and one time we met.

I asked him what had happened for him to forget the goodness of Christ and he was speechless, I reminded him that Christ was waiting for him to return and he just babbled away. Recently I heard that he has died, and sadly without reconnecting to the Shepherd.

There are pastors who spoke and you could clearly hear God’s voice as they spoke yet later became more motivational than prophetic. There are some whose call to ministry can never compare to what they have become as ministry success overtook them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21 - 23)

Could it be that these started well with hearing and following the shepherd’s voice then later became experts at the doings of God that they thought they may not need that voice? May they have slowly, probably in their busyness, started hearing another shepherd and thought he was the original one as they did not have the time to assess as ministry was really consuming their time and effort? Or may they have simply been in the employ of the counterfeit shepherd while all of the time thinking that it was the right shepherd they were serving as they connected to the doings before connecting to the voice of the Shepherd thereby assuming that only the Shepherd could give the orders they were receiving?

It is clear that there are some who start with the right shepherd and end with the counterfeit from many scriptures we read.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6: 4 – 6)

These for me are people who have walked in the light of the Shepherd and lost His voice without realizing it. They have gotten used to the voice of the counterfeit shepherd and are confident that it is the true Shepherd speaking as nothing much has changed as far as the orders are concerned. He is still doing the same things and even the different things he is being ordered to do are only slightly different from the original Shepherd.

Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and smote Micaiah upon the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? (2Chronicles 18:23)

They therefore openly persecute those who can hear the Shepherd as they are serving another shepherd, yet thinking it is the one they had started with. Anyone who hears different must to them must be hearing spurious noises and needs serious correction. No wonder they will be shocked when the Shepherd says that He never knew them.

Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it. And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. (Jeremiah 28:10, 11)

Again we see the same situation being enacted. The prophet has lost the prophetic network without realizing it as he is still hearing some other voice very clearly and mistakes it with the original voice he used to hear. He therefore stands in direct opposition to God’s clear revelation and God is annoyed enough with him to kill him just two months later for misrepresenting Him.

It is a scary situation, I tell you. But I think these situations are minor compared to the times we are in. I can comfortably be preaching the gospel I have preached for generations without realizing that the paymaster has changed and thus the orders are only similar. I believe the camouflage of the antichrist is way beyond anything we have ever faced. Again I remind us that even the elect barely escape his snare. In fact Christ said that He will shorten those times so that the elect are not swallowed in that deception and the ensuing persecution, probably from those who did not notice that the shepherd had changed.

There is simply no excuse for serving God on cruise control. There is absolutely no reason why I should follow my spiritual leaders unquestionably. There is no reason why a prophet, however close they may appear to be to God, should determine my commitment to Christ. Christ never expected our commitment or relationship to Him to be through proxies. One clear purpose of the Holy Spirit is to ensure that we can have unfettered access to God and His will.

I am not discounting spiritual leaders as I am one. I am not trashing prophets as I also listen to them. In fact I was with one yesterday. I am not saying that God should only speak to you directly as I also hear God speak through others. What I am saying is that we should be so close to Christ that any voice that is not His will be noticeably different, and not simply because it doesn’t make sense because one clear indication that it is spurious may be the sense it makes to us. The counterfeit thrives on commonsense and popular acclaim. It is from the counterfeit spirit that we get universal suffrage.

We MUST, and I highlight must, know how to recognize the Shepherd’s voice clearly to escape the alluring voice of the imposter. Remember that his deadline draws close and he will therefore pull no stops to complete the assignment of misleading whoever is not sensitive enough to the voice of the true Shepherd.

Empty Symbols

And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. (Judges 16:20) 

And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. (1Samuel 4:5)

We are a generation in love with symbols. What with the amount of money we spend on graduation ceremonies yet we know that the ceremony adds no value to our qualification? We of course know that even the degree is not worth the paper it is printed on without the transcripts to show the journey to that degree. But even those are not enough evidence as I know people whose business is doing assignments for degree students for pay. There are people who pay others to do their projects so that they can attain that Master’s or Doctorate. What this means is that there are enough highly educated ignoramus and at the same time there are a few people without any degree yet they are worth several doctorate degrees for all the work and study they do for others.

A symbol is as important as the object it points to. Remove that object and you are left with a meaningless work of art. The same applies to currency. What can buy you land in one country may be unable to buy you a cup of tea in another. It’s worth is in the value placed on it by the country’s central bank.

What am I driving at? There may be things we are doing that may be worthless yet we attach great value to them. We may think we are worth so much when we have lost our validity.

Samson was mightily used of God until he assumed that God had no choice but use him. He therefore played with his anointing. He broke all the Nazirite laws yet God still used him. He then may have assumed that his anointing was immunized from his folly, sin and disobedience. Until he crossed the line!

God is not bound to agree with us at any time. We either agree with Him or we are wrong. That is what Samson discovered a little too late. God was not bound to use Samson. He was not at the mercy of His servant. And He had standards that needed to be kept.

The buzz word for Kenya for some time has been Jubilee. We have a Jubilee government in a Jubilee year for a jubilee nation. It has been rampantly preached about in most pulpits in Kenya as if it is the solution Kenya has always waited for. Books in their numbers have been written. Prayer guides have been prepared. Tapes have been made. Overnight prayer meetings have been organized. Anything that should be done has been done to portray the jubilee season and prepare people for the same.

Yet what is the jubilee? Do we really care to know what the Bible says about that season?

I have written about the jubilee in my blog (Jubilee Defined) looking at what the Bible says about the jubilee and why we may be more realistic if we expected judgment instead of a blessing in this season.

I will advise you to read that blog post as I will just highlight something small concerning the same to get this point across.

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. (Leviticus 25:10, 11)

The key purpose of the jubilee was equalization and a display of the community’s faith in God. It was God’s formula for dealing with mammon and greed. It was His way of raising the level of love for the people who ascribed to His doctrine.

Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. (Deuteronomy 15:9, 10)

How can we talk jubilee when we are not in the least interested with doing anything the Bible commands? How can we talk about jubilee when we are as far from its spirit as can be?

Jubilee was the Sabbath of the Sabbath years. How can we have a jubilee when we have never had even one Sabbath year in our history? How can we think jubilee when we do not even recognize the weekly Sabbath? Are we not severely deluded?

Why was Judah exiled? Was it not because they had disregarded the Sabbath year and of course the jubilee? Are we any better than the people of God to expect anything different?

Let us not deceive ourselves. Greed and selfishness reigns in Kenya and unless we deal with it we are open for judgment however piously we pronounce Biblical words.

We are not able to experience any jubilee until we come to the point where we value one another instead of looking down or enviously at one another.

How can we talk jubilee when the people who were in the forest during the freedom struggle (incidentally they were fighting for land) were dispossessed of the lands they owned because people sympathetic to the colonizers were given the responsibility of subdividing land?

We are no different to Samson. In fact he was in a better position than we are because we are gentiles who have been grafted into God’s vine. We might be like the Israelites who thought incorporating the ark of God in their disobedience and sin could turn the tide of their judgment. And I am not sorry to burst your bubble.

Let us also look at Christmas. A few years ago there was a drive to have Christ returned to Christmas. This was because people had started using X-Mass a lot. Was He there before? Had He ever been there? Is Christmas a Christian holiday? I beg to differ. There is nothing Christian about Christmas however broadly we thought.

Christmas is a symbol without its consequent object. Even worse is that it is a symbol pointing to an opposing object. The spirit of Christmas can never be the spirit of Christ.

But it points to the birthday of Christ, you might argue. Who says so? What is it about birthdays anyway? There are two birthdays recorded in the Bible and in each an innocent person died. So your argument is not Biblical. In any case why did Jesus or His disciples not celebrate that birthday even once in His three years of ministry? Why did the disciples not do the same in Acts? Why don’t we see even a single mention of the same in the epistles?

Christmas is a heathen and demonic ceremony that was christened to convince gullible Christians that they could ‘sanctify’ it just by calling it a Christian name. It is similar to calling a thief an apostle and expect that that alone will make him stop stealing. Just google Christmas origin and you will be shocked.

Again I will ask why even enemies of the cross have no problem displaying Christmas paraphernalia on their shops during this season. Are they under conviction or is it that they identify with the spirit of Christmas? Why don’t they do the same for Easter and The Lord’s Table yet these are the truly Biblical ceremonies? Why do Hindus and Muslims not have a problem with this holiday yet they fight anything Christian? Could it be that it is their ceremony we are aping and not the other way round? (I might have to add that even Easter has had some leaven brought in to pollute it though that is not able to make it of no effect as it is a divine ordinance)

What about the commercialism that is inspired by this season? Can Christ really produce that? What about the excesses and sin that is so prevalent in this season? Can Christ be present there? What about the wastefulness and meaningless expenditure? Can Christ sanction it?

Playing with the Lord’s Table brought judgment.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (are dead). (1Corinthians 11:28 – 30)

Even in churches that are furthest from the scriptures you will find the greatest caution when approaching the Lord’s Table. It is never a joke as it results in judgment if played with. Someone must be taught and adequately prepared before they are allowed to partake.

Why does the same not happen when we defile Christmas? I think the simplest explanation is that He was never there. It was never His celebration and so He is under no obligation to judge people for doing their own thing. I am responsible for the mess you do in my house. What you do in your house is none of my business. And I believe that is why Christmas is different from the Lord’s Table. In one He is there because He ordered it and is therefore responsible for its keeping while in the other He leaves people to do whatever they want as it is none of His concern.

Christmas does not represent Christ. Christmas is not a Christian symbol. Christmas is a symbol of Mammon as it is his presence that is prevalent in the whole season. Remember Christ saying that we shall know them by their fruit? That is what I mean. The spirit of mammon is the reigning spirit during the season of Christmas. Christ is nowhere near ‘His’ birthday party and season as He did not come for birthdays but for His death. And that is what He ordered we remember. Why are we remembering what He never asked us to remember? Do we have a better memory than the one who ordered or the people He gave the direct order to remember? Why do we then remember something He never even hinted, leave alone mentioned?

I will state again that the spirit of Christmas can never be the Spirit of Christ. In fact it is directly opposed to it. And that is why the enemies of the cross have no problem at all with Christmas since the god of Christmas is their friend and business partner.

The only thing that we might get to indicate His presence is judgment like the sons of Aaron.

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. (Leviticus 10:1- 3)

This may happen when we bring our corruptions near His ordained symbols. Let us play with our sin however we want. But we should be wary of coming to God for affirmation as He might just kill us. Let us abuse the symbols as much as we want. But we should keep them to ourselves instead of taking them near God’s altar. The Philistines and their god Dagon learnt that the hard way when they took the ark as a spoil of war.

Even moving His symbols is as safe as our obedience to what He has revealed and not our passion and innocence of our heart as David learnt in the Uzzar incident.

God is greater than His symbols. His presence is not bound to those symbols unless reverence is what they inspire. And that was the reason the temple was destroyed as they had nullified God’s presence by their rebellion. He therefore did away with that symbol so that His people could look for Him instead of priding themselves of a symbol whose reality they shunned.

If that is the case with true symbols of His presence, what do you expect from symbols that are our own creation?