'I hate, I despise your religious feasts' - Amos 5:21

In the last few days I've had the words, 'I hate, I despise your religious feasts...' in my heart.

I am sickened when I see the waste and excess going on here; the way people bury their heads in the sand (or snow) and get all sentimental and nostalgic as well as stressed out about Christmas; the Weihnachtskonzerte, the tree decorations, the radio bulletins announcing how people only have a few days left to get this or that before Mithrasmas begins.

I met a man last year who had had a meeting with various fairly well-known Christian ministers, including Archbishop Suenens of Belgium some years ago. They were praying together and were led to ask the Lord what He hated. They all wrote down what they heard. When they compared notes, they discovered that each one had written 'Christmas.'
Makes you think.
But woe betide us if we touch the idol. It brings down the wrath like little else. It scares me when I think how it offends people, because the last thing I want to do is offend or hurt, but I think that the Lord is not above hurting or offending us when it boils down to the truth, which is that He longs to set us free from enslavement to something which cannot bring us closer to Him.