God’s Holiday
12/5/16
Well isn’t this a concept that will throw a wrench into some theologies. But in truth, the title of this article is correct and it is a truth that probably most of us have missed all our lives. It is a defining truth that not only explains God’s Wisdom and purpose but also what the enemy strikes against. It is vital that the Church grasp this truth for it even defines her existence and without this truth cannot complete God’s command for her. Let us open our hearts to what God is saying through His Word and allow His Spirit to convict us of the sin we harbor in our lives and repent before it is too late. God did take a holiday and it was well deserved for it represents everything we know today and our standard of what we should strive for in our lives.
How do we view holidays? We would like to believe that holiday celebrations are continuous and similar all around the world but in truth, they are not and in fact, the meaning of the word holiday can mean something completely different in other parts of the region or world. In this nation, we have our holiday periods where a specific day has been set aside for remembering or celebrating a certain season. Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, come to mind quickly along with Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day rounding out the major federal holidays on our yearly calendar. A question demands and that is do we honestly remember our obligations and completions that are associated with that specific holiday and if we do can we answer truthfully that we really deserve that holiday celebration?
But other days of celebration are noted as well some of them being recognized by states and our government but many of these holidays such as Easter, Good Friday, Advent, All Saints Day, etc are not all out accepted as true holidays. In Europe, the word holiday actually means to take a vacation for a period of time and not be around work for an extended timeframe. To leave Britain and go to France for two weeks or to Greece and Turkey is a prime example of the European usage of this word. In other regions, the word holiday is not even listed in the vocabulary and thus not even recognized in any form or shape, while some have worldwide acclamations attached to that day.
I have been asked many times about how my family celebrates some of these holidays and one time I was asked which holiday was more important or celebrated more in our house. My answer kind of surprised the group that asked that Christmas was not the biggest deal in the family house. But as I was explaining to them that Christmas was the always the highest holiday and had the most meaning and each one was special in its own way, it was New Year’s Day that we had our family day because this day was usually celebrated with friends of our family, a tradition that still holds true today. When I was a young boy we lived in a small town in western Tennessee and every year on New Year’s Day we would spend the day with some family friends and eat chili and watch football – at least the boys did – and the girls would go and sit around the table play cards, talk, etc and all of us would have a grand day to set in motion the new year. It was a fabulous feast that was made for a history lesson to those who wanted a great example of starting off the New Year with God being first and being thankful for every blessing of the old year. I am proud to say that after more than 40 years down the road we still keep in contact with this family and are still a great portion of my history.
The celebration of each year accumulates during the new year time frame and it is a time to begin again and start afresh with greater and brighter ideas for the future. As our lives pass and years go by do we have the pattern of completeness on our sides enough to warrant such remembrance when we are gone? Have we fulfilled out duties enough to celebrate as God did so long ago? I know I cannot always state that I deserve all of the bonus holiday celebratory issues but I am the first to grasp their rewards without thinking about what really occurred. Do you fit into this category or have you ever thought about it in this manner? We are made in God’s image and we should do our best to be like Him you know.
For the majority of my life I have always held down a job and my dedication to that job has been exemplary for the most part. I have always maintained the best possible presentation for my job and tried my best to provide the most accurate results in order that the physician could treat accordingly. It is difficult for me to take a holiday from my work, not because of a control issue or that I have done anything wrong to hide my mistakes but this is a trait that I picked up and learned from my parents for they cared so much for the people in their congregations no matter the time of day or night. This part of life was instilled to me when I was very young and it continues today and while my body needs to have rest many times I forget this truth and work right through my tiredness.
I must admit that I do not follow God’s Word too well in this category for right from the beginning of human existence God took a holiday after His job of creation was done and through this act of love from Him we should keep the exact same standard as He did while He was working. Can you imagine what would occur if a general of an army decided to take an extended break from his work planning a battle and never finished the attack or defensive plans of that battle? What if God would have stopped creating the earth and all of its splendor on the 4th day and left out days 5-6 of creation? How organized and complete could He claim if this was the case? It is this aspect about Himself wants us to understand and model after, for God loves a hard worker who follows His lead in completing the assignments that we have commissioned to do.
Genesis Chapter 1 provides us with a wonderful setting of the order in which God followed when He created the earth. Each verse in this chapter deals with a subject of creation and the pattern in which God followed. Right from the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and His vision for a perfect world of life began. Many around the world would like to discredit this truth and torture those who go against the popular way of thinking, but the truth about the world’s creation remains and shall never cease to shine.
There are a few observations that God performs that confirm this perfect and complete status of His creations. The very first specific thing that the Bible says God created was light and in Genesis 1:4 it states that God saw the light and that it was good. It is at this point where many people will begin to differ about their perception of God for those who wish to interpret God on their own individual level will justify that God’s creation of light is not perfect and not complete. One must take into consideration here the verse in His Word that says either you are for me or against me which means one cannot be on both sides or believe only what they wish. God created light on the first day of our existence and there is a huge reason why God created light first, for it fits perfectly into His order of creation and thus demonstrates His ability to claim perfection and completeness.
As each day of creation continued God ended that day with a deep looking into what He had done before He continued with the next day’s establishment. We once again refer to the biblical verse that states if one is either for Him or against Him and it is through the end of each creation day that this verse once again comes into play. For if we contend that God is God and that He is perfect and complete in all of His ways then when God says that He looks at His work for the day and says that it is good it means that He approves of that work and therefore is made perfect and complete as well. After each day of creation, God made the exact same statement about His work being good. This has direct meaning to our lives because it states that God creates in His image which is holy, complete, perfect, and eternal in all ways and therefore something or someone else made things according to our scale today.
Now, take a close look at Genesis 1: 1 – Genesis 1:31 and you will notice a pattern that is very important. God follows the same sequence after each day of creation with the words that state that everything God did on that day was good. Forwarding a bit to Genesis 3:22 where it states that God knows the difference between good and evil, puts into place that God understood what was good and what was bad and through His holy, perfect, complete and pure status; and could only make such a claim of being good if it was in fact actually good. It further instills that what God creates can only be in those states that He lives in as well. What do these verses in Genesis provide us? When you look around you, one will notice every single item that God created including humanity. While some of the species are no longer with us that does not mean that God did not have anything to do with their establishment for God created all life and therefore His completeness includes all living things.
The process of creating a baby is a phenomenal detail about our species and sometimes sadly brings controversy and heartache as well. But when a baby is born I find it so refreshing to see the parents walking around showing off their newborn and to have many around them “oooh and aweee” when their eyes meet that fresh face. If you ever want to see an adult act like a silly child again, stick around the nursery of a hospital and just observe, it is fantastic. Not many sad faces are around during this time and for the most part, it is a joyous occasion to watch unfold as a new life is brought into the world according to God’s creative plan for human multiplication and completion of His Kingdom principle of life. What? A new baby is in the plan of God’s kingdom advancement? YES!!! And it is the sole reason that God threw a holiday party on the 7th Day of Creation.
Genesis 2:1-3 states the following: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” This is a powerful statement made by God and one that will be addressed shortly in another article but the only times that God mentions the word “blessed” in this passage of creation is when He speaks to the created beings to be fruitful and multiply. So why would God speak this word on a day in which He rested?
It is this passage and specifically this verse that deals with holidays and the reason we celebrate them. When God used the word blessed in the verses of Genesis Chapters 1 & 2 He was giving a command not a suggestion for He knew that in order for life to continue it had to be created well enough to reproduce itself and life could not continue unless the Creator Himself gave the authority to do such. When God saw that His ways were good He had a right cause to have a holiday for the celebration of His work and this is the reason why God took a holiday on the 7th Day of Creation. He blessed this day and saw that His entire creative process was good and in perfect order. He also understood that He just completed His demonstration concerning creating things to His arch enemy as well, thus defying the selfish ambitions of Lucifer / Satan.
On God’s holiday, He was strictly celebrating Life itself for He had proven to all of the hosts that He and He alone had no rival and no equals and that He alone was the Creator of all living things. God was not celebrating pride or prejudice but Life, eternal life as it was supposed to be experienced. God was so thorough that He even gave dominion over mankind as a part of His holy order and to establish the regal state of His prized creation. Can you imagine what creation would be like if He did not place us over the animals? God knew how He created the animals and He knew their corresponding behavior plus it was not God’s intention for mankind to be wiped out for it would not have completed the setting and challenge that Lucifer presented with his whimsical markings.
God was happy and satisfied when He looked over the earth and all of its inhabitants that He created and He must have turned to Satan and said, See I am the only one who can create life eternal through holy and pure means. Through this accomplishment alone gives any father the ability to smile and to celebrate life so God would not be any exception to this truth either. What a joyous occasion this day must have been for God and for the heavenly hosts around Him for He established once and for all that He is the champion of life and that no other being could master the gift of life as He. This is further exemplified by God’s words of blessing over the 7th Day of Creation because it in effect covers the entire process of creation that He completed. It also authorized our celebrations of life and completion through a declaration of holidays.
Want to know why the world has it out for our holidays? Read the above paragraphs again and then you will understand why the enemy hates our lives to be filled with joy, happiness, and completion for it constantly remind him when we portray these emotions and memories. Our holidays were founded so that we can remember all of the events of the year or specific time period passed. In the beginning, God could guarantee that all life could be celebrated in this manner but as we chose to differ from God’s creation status our lives took a drastic change of course. You want to know why holidays are being attacked by the world? You now have that answer. You want to know why not every holiday is celebrated with happiness and joy? You now have that answer as well.
Our enemy will do anything to stop the advancement of God’s Kingdom and life itself and our reflections of life are a direct threat to Satan for as long as we are on this earth we have the potential to recognize the lie that he has fed us and to change our choice back to the One true Creator of Life. You want to know why life is being targeted as a hindrance? You now have the answer to that as well. God celebrated life in the beginning and when He rested that meant that He shall always celebrate life for that is all He knows as well; God rested on that blessed day and He did not stop in any way concerning life and His everlasting status either. God continues to have fabulous memories of this moment in our existence when nothing wrong was present in His creation thus His provisions of a way that we can once again choose His Ways instead of the world.
Holidays are meant to be joyous remembrances of our lives and as each special and personal occasion arrive each year it is this time we should stand tall and be proud of the accomplishments that we have made over that time period. As with every reader of this article our family has experienced pain and suffering during some of these holiday seasons but we should never forget as tragic as those hurts may be God still is on the throne and if those loved ones knew Him they are dancing on the streets of heaven pain and guilt free as we were created to be. While a snag appeared in our existence God still provides a way for us to be restored and we need to come to the realization of this fact. It does not matter if your holiday is a vacation from work or a dedicated and observed holiday, we should keep in tune with how God looks at His holiday as a guide for our lives.
God gave Adam and Eve their job in the Garden of Eden and He has given us our job to proclaim the true Gospel of His Word. God set the example of completeness through His creation of the world and our lives, Adam knew this, Eve knew this and we know this. Adam took his holiday before it was time and we all face the consequences of this incompletion status. Adam took pride in his work instead of facing the truth about completing his work and look where his pride (Pride) got us. God kept the Sabbath Day holy for celebration reasons, why do you think Jesus healed people on that day what more holy act can one do than to heal on such a celebratory day. No wonder the religious leaders went nuts when Jesus performed these acts on the Sabbath, they did not understand what the Sabbath really meant for their lives, to their lives, and in their lives.
Church, it is our job to tell the world and then show the world that God created us for a reason. It is also our responsibility to tell them the truth about God and His Ways and not some prideful lie to appease the governments and denominations that side with the world. We are called to be separated from this place and it is through God’s holiday that we should be adhering to this truth. We cannot truly celebrate our lives without understanding this concept and fulfilling our commitment to life as well. We were created to advance God’s Kingdom with each breath we take and if we do not accomplish this task we are advancing the wrong kingdom and until we change this course we shall suffer tremendously and foolishly for a holiday taken too soon.
DLB
No comments:
Post a Comment