LeFors Tribe

http://www.leforstribe.com/ 

Hello. I’d like to discuss “judging” as used in the Bible. I’m going to show you two scriptures. Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

Those two verses are very popular, many people strive to live up to them and apply them in their daily lives. Also, it is used often to “shut Christians up”.

For example, if someone has the habit of telling lies and I catch him doing it. I, then mention to him that it is not good to lie and that it would need to stop. He could reply, “Don’t judge me”. I would, then, stop talking about it because I would not want to be “judgmental”.

I, myself, have used that phrase “don’t judge me” before to defend my actions. What happened in my situation was that one day, a church leader was not able to make it to the meeting and asked me to lead our Bible study meeting. I obliged and the 1-hour session went well. And, the next day a brother in Christ came up to me and we talked about my leading the Bible study yesterday. He went on to explain to me that the Bible has specific instructions for leaders to abide by. He showed me some verses and at that time I was not applying all of those instructions. As we were talking, I did not like him “criticizing” me so I decided to say “don’t judge me”. That immediately quieted him down, and I was thrilled. But deep down inside I knew he was correct. The points he made were true, but my pride was the driving force in my saying “don’t judge me”. That’s an example of using the “don’t judge me” phrase to shut up a person.

But, really it doesn’t make much sense. What that guy said to me and trying to help someone stop lying are good things to do. However, it seems contradictory to what the above two verses say about “judging others”. So, I decided to investigate further what “judge” means in those two verses.

I looked up the word “judge” in the dictionary and there are multiple meanings (a person presiding in court, to form an opinion, a ruler). But one definition caught my eye.

judge (obsolete)- To pass sentence on; condemn.

First, what does obsolete mean? Obsolete is defined as “no longer in use”. Another word for that is archaic.

It shows that the definition of judge being “to pass sentence on & condemn” is no longer in use. The KJV Bible was written in 1611, quite a long time ago. So, we can conclude that the definition of the word “judge” has changed over time since the Bible was written.

There are other words that have changed its meaning over time. Ex: gay- it used to mean happiness, but now we look at it differently. Starve is another word that has changed its meaning. Now it means very hungry, but it used to mean “dying from cold weather”. Some words in the English language change its meaning over time, and “judge” is one of them.

In the past, judge was meant to define condemnation. Now, we look at “judge” to mean giving an opinion or estimation, as in the famous saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. We take that modern definition and use it in the two verses we just read, and apply that to our Christian lifestyle. We take that to mean we should not give our opinions or to make comments based on what we saw. We think that we ought to be silent to avoid being judgmental.

But, that is not what it really means when it says “Judge not…” In those scriptures it really means that we should not condemn or punish other people, and that makes sense. In further study, the word “judge” in those verses comes from the Greek word “krino” which means punish.

Having said that, it makes a lot of sense now that we should never put ourselves in a position to punish other people such as saying “you lied! you’re going to hell!”. Or to devalue a person’s worth by saying “you lied, you’re a no good person, God doesn’t see anything in you!”. That is judging. That is exactly what the two verses warn us to not do.

Now, when a Christian sees something wrong and shares that with another person, it is not “judging”. It is “being concerned”. We share our concerns with each other. Here are 2 verses that show that God desires for us to be concerned with one another.

James 5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Provers 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Those two verses show that Christians have a role in other people’s spiritual growth and daily walk with God. A person can help another person become sharp. That is not “judging”. That is being concerned.

Now, being concerned can be perceived as being judgemental. That could happen due to the approach we make towards other people. Approaches can vary, but we must be sure that we do not punish or give consequences to others. As long as we do that, we are doing the right thing in God’s eyes.

From now on, when we see a brother or sister in Christ that could use some help, we can share our concerns and remember that we are not being judgmental. Also, the person who is receiving help needs to remember that the helper is not being judgmental, but sharing his concerns in order to help me live a better life.

Often, scriptures can be taken out of context and its original meaning. We need to be careful to see them as God sees them originally. Remember, let us be concerned for one another rather than being judgmental.

http://www.leforstribe.com/

Hey! I want to talk about Jesus’ bank account. I have a feeling that this vlog will be a long one so I will break it into a couple vlogs.  Besides YouTube only limits 10 minutes per vlog.

My husband and I are a bit different. I like to talk and my husband is a man of few words.

Anyway, I wanna talk about Jesus’ bank account. Many people believe that Jesus was a poor fellow and for your information, that’s incorrect. Jesus was very rich. I will list many different things that will show that Jesus was actually rich. Jesus was E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y rich financially. Let’s get excited! I got some real good news!

Don’t believe me? That’s right, don’t believe me! Believe what? The Bible. Read what it says.

1) When Jesus was a young child, wise men came to meet Jesus. What did they give to Jesus? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

“They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”-Matthew 2:11

G O L D. The wise men gave Jesus G O L D.  Heck, it made King Herod so mad, enough to order a massacre of all the chiuldren 2 years old and under! One bark of gold would not make King Herod mad, neither would three. He was mad and afraid because it was a lot of gold that the wisemen wanted to bless Jesus with. A future king….

The bible did not say only three wisemen came. It could have been 200-300. History show that wisemen travel in large groups.  Jesus became well off at that moment. That’s not all. Frankincense and myrrh back then worth a LOT of money. These were not junk. They were valuable items.

2) After the wisemen left, an angel told Mary and Joseph to get out of Israel and go into Egypt. Technically, they went on a vacation. They had no home in Egypt but could afford to stay there until King  Herod died.

“After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up and flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell youbto return, because Herod is going to try to kill the child.”-Matthew 2:13

They could afford to leave immediately and move to Egypt ‘overnight’.

3) Fast forward to Jesus’ days of ministry.

One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets, and you will catch many fish.” “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, we’ll try again.” And this time their nets were so full they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking. -Luke 5:1-7

This was a catch of a lifetime for the fishermen. The fishermen fish for a living. Other boats had to come and take the fishes or the boat would sink. They were FISHERboats. Huge boats.

How much money do you think they earned after this? A lot.

Even when Jesus called them to follow Him, they did not competely follow Him at the first call. They did fish on the side. Notice Peter called Jesus, “Master”, had Peter not known who Jesus was, he would not call Jesus, “Master”.

They caught a lot of fish and sold them. No way they would keep it for themselves, there were no freezer back then. BEcause Peter had let Jesus use his boat, Jesus in return blessed Peter in ways that he became rich.

4) Jesus feeds the 5,000 people…not including women and children that were there.

“They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves. The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.  When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” -Mark 6:32-37

200 denarii equals about $6,400 dollars in America today. Back then, that must have been like a MILLION of dollars.

Jesus had ENOUGH money to feed more than 5,000 people (perhaps as much as 15,000).

This is not all.

They’ve done it before. They have fed a large, large, large group of people before because they asked the question, “So, do you want us to go to the village to buy everyone food?” They knew what to do.

If they had no money or never did that before, they would not ask that question. They’d be clueless.

5) Jesus was always doing good and healing..  This is what the scriptures say.

“And no doubt you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” -Acts 10:38

Doing good in that scripture did not mean healing because the scripture already said healing. When we do good, what do we do? We feed the poor, give the poor money, help the poor etc… IT REQURES money to feed the poor. It requres money to be able to buy something and give to the poor.

Jesus had money, He could afford to do so much good.

And His good was not cheap because people FLOCKED to see Jesus whenever He arrived into a town. People knew He had money and that He was a very giving person.

When all the people heard of Jesus’ arrival, they flocked to see him. -John 12:9

When they came down the slopes of the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. -Luke 6:17

Even in America we flock and spend time reading, watching, etc about people who are rich and famous. Angelina Jolie is rich and she goes to Africa to do good and, lo and behold, we spend time reading about that…not only do we read, we even marvel at her.

People back in Jesus’ day did that (ah, history repeats itself). Jesus had to escape many times because He was TOO famous. Many times He could not get on land to preach. He would have to stand on a boat farther out on a lake to preach. So many people flocked to see Jesus because they knew He did good- giving and healing people.

6) Jesus had a treasurer. Judas was his treasurer.

Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food  or to give some money to the poor.-John 13:29

Wait! Check this out. The disciples THOUGHT Jesus said to give some money to the poor. If Jesus was poor, He wouldn’t label the poor, ‘the poor’. Actually, you can’t be poor with money to give away.

Jesus NEEDED a treasurer. Judas took care of Jesus’ money. If Jesus was poor, he would not need a treasurer! A tresurer’s job is to store and spend money. It must have been so much that Jesus, himself, wished not to take care of but hire a treasurer.

Jesus needed a treasurer because it cost money to travel and how often did Jesus travel. ALL THE TIME. He went to places here and there everyday. It cost money to eat, travel on boat, buy a donkey, etc AND Jesus was an honest man so He paid taxes.

People were willing to let Jesus and His disicples stay at their house because they knew they would be blessed by Him with good food and other blessings. Jesus not only taught about who God really is but he blessed those who He stayed with. People knew that so they always flocked to help Jesus.

Part 2

7) For your information, Jesus’ treasurer STOLE from Jesus. The treasurer, Judas, stole money from Jesus.

Not that he (Judas) cared for the poor – he was a thief who was in charge of the disciples’ funds, and he often took some for his own use.-John 12:6

If you had three oranges and two were stolen, you’d know how much was missing. Jesus had a LOT more, so much more that the disciples apparently had no clue that Judas was stealing Jesus’ money. The disciples ate bread and drank wine with Judas.

The 12 disciples had families. Peter had a wife and so did the other men.

God has said in the bible that if a man cannot take care of his marriage and/or family, he SHOULD NOT be a preacher. First, he MUST take care of his marriage and/or family then he can go ahead and preach.  For when he cannot take care of his own marriage and family, what makes him think he can take care of a church?

Jesus KNEW that! So He helped His disciples take care of their families by supporting them financially. The families would need money and they were being taken care of.

Don’t forget the catch of a lifetime- the enmormous catch of fishes supported the disciples’ families for a long time. Who would want to leave a job to be poor and abandon their loved one? The disciples knew that their families would be taken care of.

Jesus took care of their families and don’t forget, Jesus also had 70 ‘part-timers’. before they fled.

9) Jesus had a place where He ‘dwelled’. He had a base for His ministry.

“Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” “Come and see,” He said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with Him to the place, and they stayed there the rest of the day. -John 1:37-39

It was big enough to have His disciples stay there. Not 12 but even as much as 70. If He did not own it, He still could afford to ‘rent’ and stay there and house more than 70 people.

10) Jesus was a carpenter. Being a carpenter back in the days of Jesus was a fairly rewarding job. Prehaps different to how carpenters are nowdays. The scale is different. Jesus knew how to build.  His ministry didn’t start until He was 30 years old. So, did He live with his parents? No. He was on His own. He didn’t live in Nazareth with His parents because when He returned to Nazareth to preach, the people there said, “Is that man the same little boy we know- the son of Mary and Joseph, the carpenter?!” Obviously folks there had not seen Jesus in a good while.

11) The pharisees, who themselves were already rich, CALLED Jesus a winebidder,  that wine Jesus drank was an elegant kind of juice, not wine with alcohol. In greek, there are two words for wine but in English there’s one. What it meant is a “fancy juice. The pharisees were discussing and “gossiping” about how Jesus was sitting with tax collectors talking and drinking wine and being gluttony. That was how they percieved Jesus. Jesus was able to afford good food and drink nice “brand” of juice.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’-Luke 7:34

Why would they say that if Jesus was poor? It is becausee they saw that He ate very well. Obviously, Jesus paid good money to get good food. He ate good food.

12) When Jesus was being crucified, what were the Roman soliders betting on?

His clothes and HIS ROBE.

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from the top.So they said, “Let’s not tear it but throw dice to see who gets it.” -John 19:23-24

Jesus didn’t wear ‘bum’ clothes! His clothes and His robe was worth a lot of money! It would be very dumb for the soliders to bet money or value for a worthless robe! No, the roman soliders KNEW His clothes and robe was a ‘designer’ kind, a valuable piece of cloth. Jesus bought an expensive robe. He looked nice, otherwise, the Pharisees wouldn’t feel offended all the time.

PART 3

13) It is also worth noting that they buried Jesus in a rich man’s tomb.

As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who was one of Jesus’ followers, went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him.Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long linen cloth.He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance as he left.-Matthew 27:57-60

Yup, Jesus had moolah, BUT Jesus had no regard for money. He did not care about the money and cared a lot about doing good, being a giver, a provider, and spreading the Good News. The money came to Him because of God’s principle of “you reap what you sow.” Jesus couldn’t help that God is in control of His Words. Jesus UNDERSTOOD that principle.

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. -1 Corinthians 9:6

Jesus became ‘poor’ so that we could be rich. We can imagine the life Jesus lived before He arrived on Earth. The spiritual realm with God is filled with peace and perfection. He was 475869503 more richer in Heaven than he was on Earth. Jesus had to live in Israel! Jerusalem was considered the most filthy city—filled with rats. So Jesus became poor considering all the things he owned and had in Heaven. He was rich on Earth financially but He did not have all the things He had when He was in Heaven.

It is not a sin to be rich, but it is a sin to LOVE money. It’s the same with cars. Driving a car is not wrong but not using it properly is wrong. When you drive carelessly or drunk, you may hurt or kill someone. That’s bad. It’s the same with money. Money is OK, but if you love it, that’s not good.

God is not stupid, He knows we have needs and desires. He said all throughout the Old Testament that those who heed to God will be blessed abundantly. You can check out Deuteronomy 28 to understand what God said.

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”-Matthew 6:33

What do we have to do first? Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then….. ALL these things shall be added to you. How many? ALL. How many? ALL.

Don’t worry. It separates us from God. It stops God from being able to take care of us. When you worry, it’s like telling God, “I’ll take care of it myself.” and God may be like, “Alright, you’re on your own. Good luck.”

Don’t say, “I’m broke.” The bible says that as a man thinks, it is what he is. “That’s speaking against God’s great plans for you. In proverbs,

So as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” -Proverbs 23:7

If you say you are broke, then you are broke. If you say you are poor, then you are poor. God even challenged us to TEST him.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!-Malachi 3:16

Who are we kidding!? God is without lack and if I so much love my own children wanting them to be able to prosper, HOW MUCH MORE does God want the same for us?

“If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him.-Matthew 7:11

How much more? 343873487582738 times more!

The mentality of Jesus being poor or that Christians should be poor must be changed because it is not true. It is not even a biblical view. This is a thought process that satan wants us to have. It is to keep us in a bondage.

Poverty is not of God, but humility is.

“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!-Luke 12:24

Position yourself to know God the right way. Position yourself to HAVE a relationship with God– just like a child and a “champ” father. Position yourself to do it with true love….You will be amazed at the POWER of God that follows in your life.

 http://www.leforstribe.com/

Hey!

I wanna ask you something. Are you stubborn enough? You know, being stubborn can be a negative thing but it also could be a positive characteristic. Like for example, if you have children, your own, or maybe you’re a teacher in a class, you know you have to be stubborn when the kids are stubborn towards you. You “fight back” to show that you are in control. It is the same when negotiating for a car. When you have a price in mind, you are set on that price and you stand firm even when the car dealer wants another price. When you keep you mind set, you’ll get your way. This can be the same for us as a Christian. We have to be stubborn sometimes.

I really love the Old Testament because it is not just a book filled of histories but also has concepts behind it, it has things we can learn from so that we can apply it to our lives today.

There are two scriptures I’d like for you to check out.

“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come…” -Hebrews 10:1

“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ…” -Galatians 3:24

A popular Old Testament comparison to New Testament is Jonah. He was swallowed by a great fish and stayed in its stomach for three days before he was spit out. This is the same with Jesus. When he was crucified and died, he was in the grave for three days before he rose again. This is one of the popular comparison between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Now, I wanna talk about stubborness, if you haven’t heard of the story about Samson and Delilah, you can check it out in the book of Judges from chapter 13 to 16 but I’ll share a summary of it anyway.

Samson had a covenant with God and it had something to do with his hair. As long as Samson had his hair long and did not cut it, he would be a mighty strong fellow. If he cut his hair, he would be very weak. 

Samson had a relationship with a woman named Delilah. This woman, Delilah, did not really love Samson. She loved money.  There were people who did not like Samson and really wanted to know his secret. They wanted to know how Samson became a strong man. They used Delilah to lure the secret from Samson. Samson shared “his secret” with Delilah but it was not the real secret. He lied about what his secret really is. Samson told Delilah, “If you do “this” to me, I will become weak.” Delilah said, “Oh.” and then told Samson’s enemies. The enemies came and did “this” to Samson but Samson was still strong because he didn’t tell the truth about his hair.

Delilah told Samson, “You lied to me. Tell me the truth, what makes you so strong?” Samson told Delilah another “secret” but it wasn’t the real one. This happened several times. Delilah had decieved and betrayed Samson and finally Samson had given up and told Delilah the truth. Samson said to Delilah, “You know, if I cut my hair short, cut or shave, I won’t be strong anymore.” Delilah told the enemies that she had finally got the truth and it was to cut his hair off. The enemies took Samson and cut his hair off. And Samson became weak, he was not strong anymore. Now, Delilah did not give up. She kept her stubborness, she kept pestering Samson to tell her his secret. Finally, Samson gave in and told her his secret.

Samson was not stubborn enough to stand through Delilah’s pestering and to see through her deceptions and betrayals. Delilah’s goal was not to get to know Samson some more but to beat Samson.

Now, what can we learn from this event, this concept, this historical event?

We can learn that Delilah is like the devil. The devil will not give up, he will keep on pestering and bothering us. What do we do? We have a choice. We can be like Samson who resisted at first but then gave up. Or we can learn from that mistake and stand strong for as long as we live and stop the devil and the enemies’ deceptions towards us.

We can do it. I encourage us Christians to always be stubborn against the works of the devil and his schemes. We have the victory. At the end, who will win and who will lose? God wins and the devil loses. We must be strong until the end.

Be stubborn!

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” -Ephesians 6:11

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” -James 4:7

http://www.hawkrelay.com/happyholidays/ecard.html

I was honored when I was given the opportunity by Hawk Relay to share the story of Jesus being born. I will grab any opportunity there is to tell the story of our Savior being born.

Enjoy the other vlogs done by Lynn Jacobowitz and G. Brown, too.

Hi! I hope you like the background? Now, I suppose my signing is more clear? I did not realize that we would have a discussion about Christmas in my previous vlog re: Hanukkah. I did not plan to do a vlog about the truth behind Christmas but I changed my mind. I do not want anyone to feel sad or feel low. I have no intention on picking on the gnats and ignoring the camels. I will just present information so that the Deaf can see the Truth in sign language. We can discuss more about Christmas during this time. This vlog is is to share information behind Christmas and Santa Claus.

Santa Claus is a cunning scheme invented by satan to cause confusion among children and to cause adults to sin against God. So with that in mind, parents lie to their children about the existence of Santa Claus. This could be a way to jeoporize their chances of believing in Jesus. If parents have lied about Santa Claus, their children may think thier parents are lying about Jesus, too. Jesus did say that every idle word we speak will be used against us in heaven. Lying and idle (not worthy talk) words will definitely be used against us when we face God.

When I talk about celebrating Christmas, I am talking about the ways of Santa Claus (christmas tree, santas, reindeers, etc). It is a fairy tale or magical story and many people are mixing it with Jesus and that is is polluting God’s Truth. The children know a LOT more about Santa Claus and “his” life more than they know about God. The children know more Christmas songs, stories, etc more than they know about God.

This is also taking Jesus’ name in vain and devalue the King by compromising it with Santa Claus. This can be easily called idolatary. Idolatry also means “blind or excessive devotion to something”. We build up a tree and decorate it with silver and gold and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars over it to marvel and praise at it. This can easily be compared to how pagans create their gods.

“Do not learn the way of the Gentiles;…For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple. They are upright, like a palm tree, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot go by themselves….” -Jeremiah 10:2-5 NKJV

The Christmas tree reminds the children that Santa Claus is coming to town to give gifts. They are overjoyed because Santa Claus is good. They LOVE Santa so much and would cry and be heartbroken if parents told them Santa was not going to give them gifts because they are being bad. The children innocently “view” Santa better than God and they desperately cannot wait for his fleshly arrival. (Ask any children who believes in Santa, “You wanna meet Santa or God?”)

The Christmas tree is often used to remind many that the Saviour has been born. Why aren’t they using the Holy Spirit? Why do they depend on the tree, when the tree actually has nothing to do with Jesus. It is all for Santa Claus. Sure, it can be very beautiful to look at but the Holy Spirit is powerful and always speaks the Truth.

I’ll share a bit of interesting history. The celebration of the holiday of Christmas is not a biblical concept. Christmas was not celebrated by the apostles or in the apostolic church (Corinth, Ephesians, etc)

What “started” it all? Way before Jesus was born, a couple of thousands of years ago pagans who did not serve one God worshipped Saturn, they had a festival called Saturalia. They also honored a birth of a god, the sun. It was celebrated on the 25th of December.

These pagan people were not grunting cavemens and idiots. It has been since day 1 that God spoke to man. Those people chose to serve a different god. There were Jewish people during that time who believed in one God. Moses’s time probably. This pagan celebration continued even when Jesus was born and died. Even so through the Early Christians- Corinth, Ephesians church, etc.

In 330AD, there was a man named Nicholas who helped save children from being killed because they were christians. There were persecutions of the Christians during that time. He founded an orphange and took care of poor kids.

In less than 100 years later, in 440AD the Catholic church merged that December 25th festival to attract pagans to come to church. They added Jesus to make it look good and said Dec 25 is now Jesus’ birthday.

1,200 years later–In 1600’s a Russian Emperor heard about the wonderful things Nicholas did and declared that there be a celebration of him, his name was now, St. Nicholas. The news spreaded around “by reindeers sleighs” to other parts in the Russian empire and neighboring countries. The name was originally “sinntasklass” (sp?) then changed into Santa Claus. That Santa Claus merged into the December 25th holiday.

In 1620 there was a law in England that forbade the celebration of Christmas but because a large number of catholic and pagan opposed to it, it became legal after a decade. Puritans who left Englad and came to America forbade the celebration of Christmas in America in 1661 but because there were a lot of catholics, it became legal again 1681, but still, many people opopsed it until late 1780’s.

100 years later, 1836, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas an official holiday. By 1890 all other states followed suit. THAT was less than 120 years ago.

The first person to build a chrstmas tree on record in Amerca was in Pa, 1821 (by reading a man’s diary).

Christmas (santa claus, christmas tree, etc) nowdays is a very popular and commercialized holiday. 150 years ago, many people were opposed to it. I bet many of our great great grandparents shunned it if they were not Catholic.

Now, this is the reason why I said it was “funny and weird” how an unscrambled Santa Claus is a “hidden” Satan Lucas.  It is not the word “santa” that is evil or even so “Lucas”. I am talking about Santa Claus as a whole. Comare the two: Santa to God (and Jesus).

–Most children will feel Santa is better than God.
–Most children know a lot about Santa Claus than about God.
–Santa is a carpenter, and so was Jesus.
–Santa has elves, Jesus has helpers (angels).
–Santa wears red, Jesus will wear garments that is red, too. (Revelations 19:13)
–Santa is called “Father Christmas”, “Call no other man Father but God.”
–People encourage children to write to Santa, but not really encourage them to pray to God.
–Santa’s hair is white as snow. Jesus will return with hair as white as snow. (Daniel 7:9)
–Santa can see who is good or bad, so can God.
–Santa is everywhere at one time, so can God.
–Santa sits on the throne, Jesus is sitting on the Throne.
–Santa lives in north pole, God’s gate is from the north. (Ezekiel 8:14)
–Santa makes a list, there is the “Book of Life”
–Santa “flies”, Jesus resurrected and went to heaven.
–Santa says “ho ho”, and the Lord said it. (Zechariah 2:6)
–Children think of him everyday in the month of December, children don’t really think of God everyday.
–Santa loves the little children, and so does Jesus.
–Santa says “Ask and it will be given to you”, Jesus said that. (Matthew 7:7-8)
–It is true that Jesus was born, but not in December.
–There were no wisemen at His birth, only when Jesus was 2 years old and not just 3 gifts were given to Jesus, but hundreds.
–Using the Christmas tree to remember Jesus is taking Jesus’ name in vain.

Many put Jesus and Santa Claus at same level. Jesus is a KING, not a big fat man. Jesus said He would pour out His spirit on us, Santa is doing the same…”Get in the Christmas spirit”

Satan wasn’t just kidding when he said in Isaiah 14:14, “. . . I will be like the most High.”