There was a man in about 300 AD who was a bishop in the Catholic Church. He had a reputation for generosity to a point that anyone receiving an anonymous gift assumed it was from him. His life was so rich in faith and service that eventually the Catholic Church labeled him Saint Nicholas. As the process goes, he was considered the saint of children and fishermen because miracles associated with him were also associated with them.

The Protestant reformation rejected the Catholic saints and so kicked St. Nicholas out of the church. He was so popular that communities kept him, changing his label to connect him with winter and giving. He became the secular representation of Christmas celebration. His image and traditions were connected to many different cultures and countries. His fame was widespread.

The Germans and Dutch brought the richest traditions of St. Nicholas to America. Thomas Nast, the political cartoonist who gave us the donkey and elephant for our political parties, started drawing Santa (a name derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas) in stars and stripes. The Germans gave us the name Kris Kringle. Nast continued to draw Santa until about 1883. Christmas was very secular at this time with little Christmas celebration in the churches. Work tended to be slack during this time of the year, and celebrations tended to be wild, drunken, and sometimes riotous, definitely not family friendly.

Leaders wanted to tame Christmas. A book was written called The Children’s Friend which taught naughty and nice traditions. “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” was published in 1823, going international in a year. Work to tame Christmas was everywhere with efforts to make it family friendly with all the images we have now. The work was so successful that churches took notice. Santa helped bring the celebration of Christmas and giving back into the church after centuries of having been kicked out. A long route to return to where he started, giving as an example of Christ in the church.

The story of Santa is complicated because humans are complicated. However there are some consistent threads that survived all the complications. The qualities of God are not only tied to the church, but to all of life. God cannot be limited or confined. Christians do not own God, nor does anyone. Anyone who has received the love of someone who had to sacrifice to give it has had an opportunity to see and meet Jesus.

The humor in humanity is our inconsistency. Any belief in or relationship with God is miraculous. Any belief in any part of the Bible is miraculous. However, People pick and choose what is believable. It might be easier to believe that Jesus fed over 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes and balk at Jonah being swallowed by a huge fish for 3 days. It might be easy to believe God answered a prayer while finding it impossible to believe something equally miraculous and mysterious. We often limit God to what we can or are willing to believe and understand instead of recognizing that He is bigger than we can understand or imagine. He is a big God, one that creates the universe and populates earth with people and all life.

All Christian churches believe in the gifts of the Spirit. I don’t know of any Christian church that will not pray for healing or revelation or help or some kind of interaction with God. All of those things are manifestations of God in our lives, miracles. They are gifts of the Spirit.

The problem seems to revolve around two things. 1. You cannot take the human out of the Christian. Humans get carried away or preoccupied or manifest themselves along with the gift God gives. 2. Tongues. They don’t have a problem praying for healing. But they have a great deal of trouble with the gift of tongues. Tongues seems to be the enemy of anybody who has a hard time with miraculous things that don’t make easy sense and use that to excuse not believing in the gifts of the Spirit. They seem to label all Pentecostal (churches which focus on the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues) experience by tongues.

How do you create a healthy environment for the Lord to do unusual things with usual people and still maintain some kind of order? It seems so complex because what seems good for one is way too much for another. People are frightened by those things beyond their control. We need order and discipline to survive and need to make room for God who is beyond our control. It is one of those mysteries that require faith. Faith is acceptance and trust beyond control. Faith says God loves us when we are unlovable and trustworthy when He operates beyond our boundaries and understanding.

Humans live in the uncomfortable world of being both physical and spiritual, able to control some areas and other areas beyond control. We, as individuals, fight the same battle as churches, making room for God while living a disciplined life. We have to make room for all we don’t understand while going forward with what we do understand. It is a conundrum. I can only suggest that prayer and Bible study helps.

I know of many people, myself one of them once, who feel the Lord isn’t real because they haven’t heard his voice. A Russian cosmonaut went to space and proclaimed that he didn’t see God. It is a sticking point more of perspective than of reality. To those who say, “If He’d just show up so I could see Him and touch Him,” He did, and it didn’t help people whose priorities contrasted with what they saw and experienced — a common problem. We see it every day where contrasting beliefs determine what people see and how they interpret their experiences.

We are surrounded by voices, even in the very air we breathe. Influences are alive all around us. The voice of selfishness is often louder during the Christmas season with all the “I wants” and “spend, spend, spend.” Expectations for family events and unity are experienced by some as depressing and unattainable and justification for others to try one more time and for others to celebrate ongoing traditions. It is a time of year that some people give and serve that will not do so at any other time of year. The extreme contrasts point to what we see, believe, and do is dependent more on where we are as individuals and our personal priorities. All the voices are out there, but people hear in accordance with their personal focus.

I spent a lot of years personally disenchanted with Christmas to a point I wouldn’t talk about it to anyone because of my negativity. I was shown, unequivocally, that I blamed my attitude on Christmas when the real problem was me. I was freed from my attitude cage once I realized I had to power to make Christmas anything I wanted it to be. I am no longer the victim of the season. I can choose.

Christmas is a reminder of good things that have been given to us by God. The most important gift is Jesus who is the embodiment of Godly virtues. Godly virtues are everywhere, often where you least expect them. Love, compassion, truth, justice, honor and the like are in the air around us swirling with the voices that contradict them. The highest values are even spoken through the mouths of those who say they viciously oppose God. Even atheists have a clear image of good and bad. They just don’t agree on the source of these great values. God’s voice is everywhere and heard by everyone, but not everyone chooses to recognize His voice as the source of the words. That’s one of His greatest gifts, the right to choose.

What is a Father?

“When I was fourteen my dad was so ignorant that I couldn’t stand to have him around, but when I turned twenty-one, I was astonished at what he learned in seven years,” is a common quote.

I was given many jobs and lessons as a child, which my parents told me were valuable. Many of those jobs were yard work and other duties in which I saw no purpose except them lightening their own work load. However, the adult me saw that those and many more things my parents did made perfect sense and truly built quality and discipline in me that I needed for a healthy life. The distance between the job/lesson and my seeing its value are directly proportional to the time it took me to mature.

I know a business owner who is so highly skilled in his craft that all his employees and he, himself, expect no mistakes on the job. He has proven excellence in action without having to tell it in words. One day he walked into one of his stores that was in a bad state of attitude and operation. He wanted to help but wasn’t sure how or what would work. He stepped in and made a mistake the lowest rookie on the job wouldn’t. The store came alive. All caught his mistake and spoke to it. Despite his personal embarrassment, the store was suddenly restored to good operation and attitude. The owner got a lesson and his prayer was answered simultaneously. That’s the way a dad works, in this instance, a heavenly Dad.

Confusion in Christian lives often comes when we believe we are the adult and are meant to understand things as they happen. We are the child. Many of the things God does in and through our lives are beyond our understanding in the moment. Our job, as a child, is to trust that He knows what’s best and what He’s doing because we know Him and His quality. Human dad’s often get more trust than they deserve and the Heavenly Father often gets much less than the total trust He deserves.

My dad was always out in the lead. At each stage of my life, junior high, high school, college, independence, marriage, children, and so much more, I began to say things he had been saying all along. I kept getting astonished at his wisdom. So it is as a Christian. I’m gaining pieces of insight, knowing that much more understanding is coming down the road. I am trying to learn to be a child without being childish to a Father who does not give up or fail.

This is one of my wife’s favorite Civil War heroism stories. It is a story all need to consider.

The Civil War was a horror in many ways, but none more terrible than injuries and medical care. The medical standards at the beginning of the war were primitive at best. Doctors were still bleeding patients as a treatment. They knew nothing of germs and little of surgery. The list of what they didn’t have could go on for a long time. They did have determination and spent the next four years birthing modern medicine. No story is more powerful than the nurses.

Women were a subjugated people at the time of the war. The Victorian morality was in full swing, especially in the South. It was common that a soldier had never been touched by any woman other than his mother, sister, or wife. Severe social rules were in effect regarding men and women, especially on the women. The social structure was completely male dominated, and society did not accept independent women who were not subservient.

Women followed their men to the war and came to hospitals to provide care. They were run off and not allowed at the beginning. They endured and pressed in until they were given light duties. The light duties gave way to more and more until women ran hospitals by the end of the war and created the woman dominated nursing career path. There are few or no monuments to this phenomenal feat of heroism. They overcame society, social structure, prejudice in every level, and their own inner wars to create something that still stands in honor among the traits of greatness of the best values.

So why discuss women’s heroism in a Christian blog? You can’t talk about the qualities of love, peace, joy, honor, justice, self control, and the like qualities without talking about God — even when His name or title isn’t mentioned. It is through these great qualities that we meet and see Him. These qualities don’t exist without some level of His presence. It is easy to get distracted and forget that God is at work everywhere, all the time, whether we see Him or not and whether we cooperate or not. His plan is a no fail, no surrender, always faithful plan of rescue that is at work in all levels of human experience. He embodies the best of the greatest values. We want Him around because we desire His qualities.

Diamonds are beautiful and valuable. They have many facets from the top, most seen, to the bottom, hidden in the setting. People are many faceted because they are complex creatures who are also beautiful and valuable. I can often tell which facet of my life people are seeing by how they react to me.

Number one, and hopefully most visible: Goodish. Goodish are things that are right most of the time. They are on the consistent side of being right, doing right, thinking right. This is when I’m on my best behavior and am the least harmful to others. These are areas in which Jesus has established His values over time, and He can be identified in my life.

Number two: Improving. These are things that are in the process of change toward number one. They have been identified as needing correction and work. These issues are in active process. They have not been completely mastered and are inconsistent.

Number three: Wrong –. These are things that are in line for change. They are occasionally accepted as needing change. They are not yet, with any regularity, working towards change. They are targeted but inconsistently chosen for the upgrade list.

Number four bad. These are characteristics that definitely need to change but are resistant or clueless to that. They are trouble known and unknown but habits ingrained to a point where change is not immediately on the horizon.

Number five: clueless: these are the great mass of unseen characteristics that have not risen close enough to the surface to be identified as good, bad, or indifferent. They may be causing all kinds of trouble, and I assume they are. However, they have not yet been identified or put on any list.

Even the “five” facets reflect through the other facets because they are a part of the whole. It is impossible to separate the best from the worst in a person. Each facet is a contributing part. Permanence is a value in the diamond. Change is the value in a human. We are processing from the pressure of life changing from coal to diamonds to diamonds prepared for settings and display.

We can’t choose all the pressures that work to change us, but we can choose one. Jesus can cause all other pressures to develop good outcomes. We can choose Jesus and have even the worst in our lives become useful. Jesus has turned so many who have been lost in drugs, alcohol and so many other horrors into people who rescue others from disaster. All facets of a person can be a number one in Jesus’s hands.

“I’ve hurt you. I’m sorry.” It is a basic tenant of life and primary function of relationships.. It takes two. One to see he has hurt, and the other has to choose to forgive or not. Apologizing is important for the offending person, even if the offended doesn’t forgive. We have a relationship with ourselves that requires truth and dignity. Recognizing our failing and owning up to it is important to the health of our inner self. Repentance and forgiveness are primary functions of faith because faith is a relationship with God as we understand Him.

I’ve learned that there can be a step beyond that. You can become so offended by your own mistake that you refuse to accept the forgiveness given by another. Even when the forgiving person warmly welcomes you back, you continue to punish yourself for your wrongdoing. This creates a sad isolation. I experienced this in my family. They forgave me, but I did not forgive myself. I did not accept full rights and privileges to the family. I treated myself like an outsider. The self-punishment even seemed honorable in a twisted way because they didn’t give the punishment I deserved by being generous.

I realized now that experience is like a parable about humanity and faith. My brother was the one who helped me forgive myself and re-enter the family without reservation. Jesus is the big brother that does that for us spiritually. We may somehow have intellectually realized that God has forgiven us when we ask Him. We may not realize that we continue to hold feelings against ourselves. It takes a big brother to help make the transition of forgiveness and acceptance possible because the brother proves it through his actions and his words.

One of the joyful and/or painful jobs of a Christian is to stand in for Jesus and be the physical example of forgiveness. “I will do as God in Christ has done for me. I will be the conduit that transitions outsiders back into the family,” is the plan. Sometimes that can be the toughest job on earth because we can hold on to hurt instead of Jesus like we hang on to the hurt within ourselves. We become the offender when we hold on to offense, unforgiveness.

We are living examples of relationships because we walk with the chief forgiver and can continually keep our relationship healthy. Repentance and forgiveness are daily processes of life, physically in this world and spiritually. Forgiveness is a life medicine.

We live in an extraordinarily dangerous world on all levels, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. We are so used to our own survival that we may not acknowledge how truly vulnerable we are. Age shows us that a casual misstep can be a fall with broken bones added. Yet we’ve seen double leg amputees live and thrive. We constantly face the mixed message of vulnerability and endurance.

We are amazing creatures with perception at every level of life. We can perceive the smallest breeze or change in temperature to picking up on the slightest inference in a vocal tone or word. Our perceptions are within our own body and without in all that surrounds us. Perceptions all require interpretation. What does our perception mean? How are we to respond? All levels can choose their own independent response from ignore to hight alert. We are amazingly complex.

I wonder if our survival hasn’t given us an instinct of simplification with a first response of safe or danger. Humans often turn things to their worst side by their automatic inclination to interpret things as a threat. I wonder if that isn’t survival imbedded in us. It turns all things into warnings but also as harbinger of doom through interpretation, habitual thinking.

I believe we are spiritual creatures with spiritual perception. Part of that spiritual perception is represented in the ease with which we turn things into omens and superstitions. All cultures are filled with these in story form, experience, and response. We know that evil is around us in our omens and superstitions. That is also an indirect way of proving faith. Omens and superstitions turn us to fear and our own inability to completely protect ourselves. It also proves that God is and hope is because evil could not be discerned if there were no opposite to it.

This Halloween might be a good time to get in touch with our fears and decide those are the locations we prefer God to inhabit in our lives. There is always the fun of a ghost story well told, but real fear devours our ability to live free and function. “Perfect love casts out fear,” according to a guy named John. I believe that people who pursue the true love that casts out fear will find Jesus. He is alive and available.

I was very destructive as a child and young man. My father had to remove me from the will and the family to protect the others from my destructiveness. It was painful, but a great gift of personal accountability, a gift that drove me into faith and personal growth. Jesus put me in the presence of resources and counselors to teach me how to face the truth, to overcome failings, especially self pity, and to learn the disciplines of personal growth.

The rest of the family suffered during the destructive years. My brother, Jim, has probably had the best view of my worst and the change worked through the intervention of Jesus. What he didn’t know was how important he is and was to the process. Dad talked Jim into keeping an open mind toward me when Jim had come to the end of his patience. He chose the open mind despite his hurt.

My relationship with the family grew warm and was healed. They were faster to accept my change than I was. I was accepted with all rights and benefits. I still felt feel like the child with his face pressed against the window, wanting to come inside. What I’d done and what I’d been was a stumbling block. Jim was the one who opened the door.

My parents both died. I realized that I was still holding back because of what I’d been and what I’d done. Jim was the one who pointed out that I had changed and become what my family wanted all along. He took me through the last steps of restoration and helped me finish a major section. of the Lord’s work in my life.

I am a Christian witness because I’ve seen how hard God works to heal and restore through my personal experience. I see how much I fought against change and still resist it, even knowing that the change is right and for the best. I have personally tested and experienced the motives, values, and priorities of God being applied to my life. My brother and I can both see what a difference it has made in me. I can see that I have so much further to go, but have the hope that Jesus won’t give up just because I have so much more to overcome. My experience has trained me in hope, hope I can offer to others, encouragement given to be shared. I truly appreciate all the teachers and examples the Lord has put in my life.

Sometimes I warn people I talk to that I’m a Christian and see things from that perspective. It is sad that has become a way to detox a conversation before it starts. It is my perspective and doesn’t have to be theirs. I am not a dictator. I tend to disagree with the primary way I’ve personally experienced one-on-one evangelism.

I remember walking down the street in Lincolnton, North Carolina and running into a man who was handing out Bible tracts. He asked me if I was saved. I said I was. He offered a tract. I said I didn’t need it. He quizzed me about how I was saved. I said the usual way. He asked me to come to his church. I said I was happy in the church I attended, and he continued to push me to attend his church. He said a lot in that dialogue, most of which I didn’t like.

He started with a saved question that requires a stranger to understand religious concepts and terminology, which is unfair. Jesus spoke to us in our language without requiring us to understand His background and church vision. The witness didn’t believe me when I said I was saved and didn’t believe my church was adequate. He did not respect or accept anything beyond his understanding and experience. He felt the need to be in control.

Being in control is not the same as loving someone. Being in control means a person has to be able to determine and judge the outcome to measure success. Loving takes no control of the outcome. It cares for the person as they are and respects their choice and perspective, even when disagreeing.

Jesus had a complete revelation of the beauty of God and communicated that beauty in the language with examples completely appropriate to the listener. English teachers say the same. Know your audience. Communicate in language they can understand. Be respectful of your audience. We make communication about us when it is really about the relationship we have with others. Caring should show throughout the communication process.

The truth is that we, as Christians, can be as immature and thoughtless as anyone else, even when we are doing our best in our faith. It is easy to forget that witnessing is about the beauty and wonder of God, not about our religion and personal process of growth. We are children of growth in His kingdom, not finished products to take charge of others. We are caretakers, not controllers. We are sent to love on those He already loves and share His beauty with those for whom He cares.