Christmas Is About Christ: Let’s Keep It That Way – IOTW Report

Christmas Is About Christ: Let’s Keep It That Way

Saturday, 7 December 2019, 13:15 MJA Uncategorized 26

LifeZette-

All these decades after the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” first appeared, people today are still attacking the song and complaining about lyrics they claim are “problematic” and not politically correct. 

While many of us don’t like the phrase “war on Christmas” because of its sensationalism — there is certainly something going on in today’s pop culture that is distracting us from the true meaning of Christmas.

I’m not sure if there is a more beautiful modern pop song than star entertainer Mariah Carey’s version of “O, Holy Night.”

Let’s consider these lyrics for a moment (and if you haven’t heard her version of this song, head straight to Spotify):

O, holy night, the stars are brightly shining / It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth

Long lay the world, in sin and error pining / Till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices / For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Those words reflect what is meant to be celebrated on December 25 by billions of Christians across the world.

Christmas is about coming together in amazement that Jesus was born — and through Him, our souls are healed.

But many well-intentioned, loving Christian families tend to get swept up in a culture that doesn’t put Jesus at the center of Christmas. read more

26 Comments on Christmas Is About Christ: Let’s Keep It That Way

  1. In Vancouver there is a radio station that starts playing “Christmas” songs in early November. Frankly, there isn’t that much good Christmas music. Some songs, while not being about Christ, do capture the feel of love that is part of the season, and how the song is performed also plays a big part of it. I love Nat King Cole’s version of the Christmas Song, especially the original 1946 recording.

    The preponderance and “Granda Got Run Over By a Reindeer” type of song Is sad. Maybe there is a place for a limited number of novelty songs (I do like “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” — a guilty pleasure, and knowing the history of the song may help), but the main point should be that Christmas is about the birth of Christ.

    Maybe we can bring back the “guest DJ” concept for favourite Christmas songs.

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  2. Leftists of all persuasions: many of you deny Him, ridicule those of us who Love Him. Would it be okay if employers across the country just forget about paying you for His Birthday Celebration?

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  3. “IN vain do you worship me keeping for doctrine traditions of me rather than the commandments of God” christ-mas is a man made tradition of pagans.as is easter
    Remember his death,why he died and not a man made idea of when he was born.

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  4. …I stick with the “red book” hymns and don’t like to venture past “Heark The Herald Angels” and “Gloria in excelsis Deo”, or Handel’s “Messiah” for my Chirstmas music.

    …I spent WAY too many years working in retail malls to like the more “Commercial” ones, and wrote my own evil lyrics to most when I was very young for self-defense purposes, which takes ALL the joy out NOW because I always have to worry about singing…VERY…wrong things…

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  5. …Also, I’m part German and like most Beethoven, so I LOVE Beethoven’s 9th, partiparticularly the well-known 4th movement, but it escapes me why it’s considered “Christmas” music, because if you translate the lyrics, it’s anything BUT…

    https://youtu.be/udOvf8LqLYg

    “Joy, beautiful spark of divinity
    Daughter of Elysium
    We enter, drunk with fire
    Into your sanctuary, heavenly (daughter)!
    Your magic reunites
    What custom strictly divided
    All men become brothers
    Where your gentle wing rests”

    …nice, but it the magic of the Daughter of Elysium is in the Bible, it must be in an apocryphal text because it sure ain’t cannon…

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  6. One of my favorite Christmas CD’s/ records is The Birth of Jesus, A Celebration of Christmas by John Michael Talbot. I play it a lot this time of year. And I love Handell’s Messiah as well as a lot of Bach’s music as well. It helps put me in the right mood to withstand the annual yearly assault of an American over commercialized Christmas.

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  8. When Pelosi scolded the reporter for asking if she hated Trump she snapped “I’m Catholic so how dare you use that word hate”, the thing that bothers me is that being Catholic is nothing. Her response should’ve been “ I’m a Christian, how dare you ask a question like that I love everyone”.
    Another note, when Catholics pray to Jesus using Mary as their vessel irritates me. Mary was a Godly woman yes, but she was human but humans are sinners. When judgement day happens it’s asked “who can open the book of life?” the only person perfect is Christ our Lord and Savior.

    Tradition in our family is taking turns baking a small birthday cake and singing happy birthday to Jesus with the new little ones and explaining the true meaning of Christmas.

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  9. Dear FarmWife,
    Ineffabilis Deus of 1854 states: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, was preserved immune from all stain of sin, by a singular grace and privilege of the Omnipotent God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was revealed by God and must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.” This is our faith. The angelic greeting “Hail, Full of Grace,” in Luke 1:28 means something, don’t you think? How Our Lord must be irritated by people who demean His mother!

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  10. I agree that while a lot of Christians have lost sight of what Christmas is all about, it still is the one time of the year when many families who otherwise don’t get together or even communicate that much will come together and celebrate and love for a few days. Not just families but long lost friends as well will send a card or call or drop in to catch up. People are far more charitable this time of year and may actually do something about the starving child they see on TV or the abused animal or the homeless shelter they pass by every day. A lot of people will assist at those same homeless shelters or similar places (those run by the Sally Ann for example) and help cook and serve Christmas dinner. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

    Having said all of that I suspect that Jesus is looking down and still smiling regardless of his name being mentioned less often because his spirit is being expressed every day during Christmas Season.

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  11. Shrimpingrits, when I pray I go straight to the source we don’t need an interpreter. Mary was a Godly woman that’s why she was chosen. But Romans 3:23 tells us that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.

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  13. FarmWife,
    You are saying that the Mother of God was a sinner and that we use her as an interpreter. That makes no sense. You have cherry-picked a verse to demean the Mother of God, and expect her Son to forgive you when you sing Happy Birthday to Him! Celebrate the birth of Our Lord as you like, and let us celebrate according to our customs, even if they irritate you. Advent Blessings on you and your family.

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  16. Shrimpgrits, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. I meant anyone can say they go to a certain church Catholic Baptist etc. but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are a believer.

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  17. …I’m not getting in the “Mary” debate, but simply being called a “Catholic” IS nothing.

    …so is being called a “Pentecostal”, “Baptist”, “Adventist”, “Lutheran”, “Methodist”, etc., etc., usw…

    …ALL labels are nothing.

    …not MY rule. God’s.

    “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

    Isaiah 64:6

    …all religions are human constructs to some extent. Only Jesus saves, and that’s the ONLY thing that makes us worthy in HIS sight. Nothing else elevates us or makes us good.

    Religion won’t get you to heaven.
    You can tell that none of them are perfect…because they separate all those who worship the Lord from each other.

    …the only thing that gives us currency before God, is the blood of His son.

    We are told to worship with like-minded brothers and sisters to elevate His name, and that’s the Church. That reinforces OUR faith, but doesn’t buy grace. Whatever our differences, we need to buoy each other up.

    We owe that to no person.

    We owe that to the Lord.

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  18. Christmas, the very idea of it, is about THE HOLY FAMILY.

    So there are two things going on here, you are about 16 years old and become PREGNANT and then your husband on his way to paying his TAXES has a dream in which this ‘idea’ is explained to him.

    I TREASURE and value BOTH AS being CHOSEN ones for the conduits of the Christ child, and Mary btw was there to the very end. Why should not these humans be prayed to in their venerated state of Grace?

    @Farmwife – “Another note, when Catholics pray to Jesus using Mary as their vessel irritates me.”

    With respect, why do you get irritated about what other people do or how they PRAY?? Atheists think that way.

    Said as a proud effing Catholic. Just got back from 5:00 Mass btw…

    What @SNS said, get beyond the ‘be dammed or else’ labels…

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  24. SNS,

    “We are told to worship with like-minded brothers and sisters to elevate His name, and that’s the Church. That reinforces OUR faith, but doesn’t buy grace. Whatever our differences, we need to buoy each other up.”

    Sorry to break it to you, but people with contradictory gospels (about what Christ did for us and what God wants us to do about it) CAN NOT all be saved…He is not the author of that confusion so somebody here is believing a lie and is lost and on the way to Hell even in the midst of their devoutness. Think on this fact very seriously.

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  25. Grool and Anonymous,
    Sorry to break it to you, but furthering the divisions and tearing down other Christians is doing the work of the evil one. He started confusion for this very purpose and you are making him very happy with your attacks. A one verse proof text written before development of doctrine and aimed at a very different group of people is not as convincing as the entirety of Scripture and Tradition. But it’s there in Scripture, right? And where does it say in Scripture that we can only believe what is written in Scripture? I can’t find that, can you? And where does it say we can cherry pick one verse and hit other Christians over the head with it, even if other verses and common sense say something different? No one provoked your attacks. You have taken a topic meant to be unifying and twisted it for your own prideful purposes, based on what you have erroneously been told about the Catholic Faith. It isn’t your job to berate others and force everyone to your beliefs. If Our Lord wants to change hearts and minds, He will do it, in His time. I am a convert. I have made sacrifices for my faith, but they pale in comparison to the many martyrs who have been and continue to be tortured and murdered for their perseverance of faith. Do you really believe they are condemned? Do not underestimate the strength of Our Lord’s 2000 year old Church. “The gates of hell shall not prevail.” (If you need a proof text)). And remember, your Christian ancestors were Catholics.

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  26. shrimpngrits,

    God does not author confusion. That means two salvation messages that contradict each other can’t both be His and at least one of those messages must be false. Maybe both are false, but they both cannot possibly be true. Law of non-contradiction.

    That means whoever is fooled and believes the false one not only is lost and headed for Hell but is ALREADY doing the work of Satan whenever they defend and preach what’s really Satan’s lie.

    See why take this topic so seriously?

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