When I first began to study and see the truth in the Word of God, I was offended. I did not celebrate Christmas, or Easter traditions in vain!
I followed those traditions FOR THE LORD! Yes, I knew somewhere down the line they began as pagan rituals, but we changed them! We made them for the worship of God. We took something evil and made it “Christian”- we win! Burn on you Satan!
Well, as it turns out, burn on me. My heart was after the things of this world, not after the things of Yehovah. Because if I was really being honest with myself, if I truly loved God, I would do what he asked of me, no matter what.
So what to do? Well, l had to turn to His Word to test my heart and my traditions of men against His truth and see where that put my heart.
Proverbs 21:2: Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.
Mark 7:20-23: And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Romans 8:7: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Luke 16: 14,15: The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Romans 1:21-23: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. [Santa, magic flying deer, egg laying rabbits?]
Romans 3:10: as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one”
Psalm 53:3: They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Psalm 14:3: They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
So it is established that the heart of man is decidedly ugly. God also established early on that we are not to worship him in the way the pagans do:
Deuteronomy 12:29-32: “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.
But he made a way for us to become close to him, by renewing our hearts and minds:
Ezekiel 36:26: And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Romans 12:2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
If God is truly in us, we will want to do what he asks us to do. His instructions in Torah are perfect and liberating:
James 1:22-25: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Jeremiah 17:10: “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
If we say we love God, but our actions celebrate worldly pagan traditions, then our hearts are deceiving us.
We know that sin is transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4) I was taught by church leaders that God’s laws were impossible to keep. And because of that Yeshua came and died so we don’t have to follow his commands anymore. That is a lie. Here’s what the scriptures, Yeshua (Jesus) and God have to say about that:
Matthew 5:17-18 Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened.
Psalm 119 1-7 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.
Giving up first world luxuries like bacon, or not working for one day can hardly be called burdensome. Giving up Christmas decorations and pagan rituals is not hard. To quit celebrating his resurrection at the time of the goddess Easter’s “rebirth” is not hard to do.
I just didn’t want to.
I LOVED my beautiful decorations. I loved Christmas trees; I had 5 of them! It appealed to my fleshly eyes.
Giving those things up for the Lord would make me different. Exclude me from the things everyone else in the world was doing. It would make me *gasp* SET APART.
Matthew 7:13-14: Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Ask yourself; Is actually following God’s commands popular in the world? Are the traditions of men more popular? Is His truth a narrow path that not many follow?
After an honest examination of my heart, I realized that God does know my heart. He knows that I would rather justify my actions of pagan idolatry than obey his commands not to.
So I decided to repent. Repent means “to turn”. So I did, I turned from my idolatry. I began following HIS feast days (holidays) and I have been blessed more richly than I could have ever imagined.
Deuteronomy 11:26: See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
Joshua 24:14,15: “Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
