I was once told of a meeting which took place between various highly respected church leaders including a well-known Bible teacher from the UK and a Belgian Archbishop. During their time together, they were praying and decided to ask the Lord what he hated, writing the answer down on a piece of paper, which each one had been given.
Each prayed and listened to the Lord, and wrote down what he or she had heard down on the piece of paper. When they came to share what they had felt the Lord saying, they discovered that each one had written the word 'Christmas'.
Does anyone have an idea why?
I am aware that many are at different stages of revelation about things which may not appear to have central importance, such as whether to observe church calendar feasts or not. It is not my intention to argue about such things. Arguing can lead to strife and disunity between brothers. But it is my intention to ask questions in the hope of encouraging others to dig deeper into the scriptures, to ask the Lord himself for more revelation of the truth.
One of the joys of going on with the Lord is found in discovering the Hebrew mindset in scripture, and realising that it is SO much deeper than the Gentile churchy mindset. And what may once have been enjoyed on a soulish, sentimental and physical level may also come to be recognised as being unscriptural.
(I do not mean here that everything should be divided up into physical = bad, spiritual = good; that would be Gnostic and dualistic = Greek thinking.)
It may not necessarily be bad; it may even be good! But the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil led to death, even though the immediate impression that it gave was that it looked and tasted good.
Many have changed Biblical instructions and altered God's ordinances for what they thought were good reasons but the result was a departure from God's ways, increasing paganism and eventual judgement and death.
As followers of the Way, the Truth and the Life, we are called to eat of the Tree of LIFE; Yeshua Himself.
There are few friends on the Way to freedom; most people would rather endure comfortable bondage in the arms of the System in the wide valley far below than experience the danger liberty offers. There, on the narrow path on the mountain it just keeps getting narrower until we have ditched every burden that drags us back and spend more time crawling on our knees than we do walking.
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