Grafted in The Magic of Christmas

by Sisterlisa

As I venture out into the community I can already sense the spirit of Christmas that we have become accustomed to each and every year. Yes, that spirit presents itself as early as October in some stores. We see the shelves lined with shiny red stringed beads, mistletoe, and velvety stockings laced with glitter.

We have begun hearing the music over the loud speakers and radio announcements rushing us out of the house for those sales that tell us we MUST have those items and we MUST get them now while we still can! The ‘count down’ to December 25th has us all wound up in a tight ball of string that gets us so easily entangled as it begins to unravel.

Yet they tell us it’s the spirit of Christmas, that we should allow the ‘magic of Christmas to capture our hearts’, so why do we become the Grinch this time every year? I believe that what we see today as the ‘spirit of Christmas’ is a wolf attempting to disguise itself in sheep’s clothing, but the Bible tells us that the sheep know the voice of their shepherd.

John 10:4, “And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.”

Now we must ask ourselves this question, is it really the ‘Spirit of Christmas’ that we are hearing? What magic are they talking about? Is it His Spirit telling us to rush out and purchase the Wii our children have begged for or go into debt just to have a Christmas tree that is overflowing with gifts under its branches?

Christmas started out as a simple day to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. Now we know that Jesus wasn’t really born in the dead of winter. The Bible tells us that the sheep were out to pasture that night and we know they aren’t doing that in such cold weather.

Luke 2:8, “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”

The origin of the ‘Christmas’ we see today in America was founded by the Catholic church in Pope Liberius in 354 and became the rule in the West in 435 when the first "Christ mass" was officiated by Pope Sixtus III. This just as happened to coincide with the date of a celebration by the Romans to their primary god, the Sun, and to Mithras, a popular Persian sun god supposedly born on the same day. The Roman Catholic writer Mario Righetti candidly admits that, "to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the 'Invincible Sun' Mithras, the conqueror of darkness" (Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 67). (credit to http://www.new-life.net/chrtms10.htm)

Here we have a ‘Christian’ holiday that was founded on the same date that the pagans celebrate their god. It seems to be apparent that the Catholic Church was attempting to sway their followers away from such celebrations, so they created Christmas to divert their attention back to the Roman Catholic Church. This Catholic Born celebration was set ablaze into what we see in society today. Our culture now celebrates ‘Christmas’ without the name of our Saviour, as they attract crowds to their celebrations that honor the best decorated light shows and who gets the best gift.

Stores all over the country are denying any music over their loud speakers that share the gift of Christ’s birth and remove anything that bears His name. So is this ‘spirit of Christmas’ really the Spirit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Or have we just allowed a wolf in sheep’s clothing to sneak into our homes and become a hard fast tradition that has held us bound by the culture trap?

Hear what the Lord has to say about decorating trees:

Jeremiah 10:1-5, "1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good."

So what is it that captures our hearts this time of year? As we enter the stores we hear music about Santa Clause, Deck the Halls, Frosty the Snowman, and Oh Christmas Tree. We are being fed with the songs that promote a gluttonous old man that wants children to sit on his lap, decorating our homes in mistletoe, building a snowman who smokes, and singing praises to a pine tree covered in lights. This sounds very much like the same propaganda that Charlie Brown and his friends became victim to in his Christmas special. Amidst all the confusion and arguing over Christmas he finally shouted, “Is there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” We then see Linus step up to the plate and set everyone straight. “Sure Charlie Brown I can tell you what Christmas is all about.”

Now if you have seen Charlie Brown’s Christmas you’ll know that the children still surround the tree and sing, but their hearts did become more sensitive to the real reason for Christmas. There are some families who do not participate in the culture agenda for Christmas. They have no tree in their home, nor gifts under that tree, they do not acknowledge the Christmas that our culture is trying to force into our minds. Now before you say that I am becoming a Scrooge, let me explain a few things. These families have chosen to have a simple kind of Christmas and that is honorable. There is nothing wicked or sinful about a family who chooses not to acknowledge this modern day Christmas.

Yet when we place our focus on the materialism of the holiday season, gather around a tree, sing praises to that tree and sing the secular songs of Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer then that’s when we have entered the realm of wickedness. It is then that we have fallen victim to the enemy, it is then that we have been deceived. I can understand why many families have chosen to forgo the Christmas we know of today. This modern holiday is indeed magical. This magical day has millions of people falling right into it’s trap. The Bible warns us about magic and those that cast their spells on mankind.

Acts 8:9-11, “But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:

10To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.

11And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.”
In this passage we see that Simon had bewitched the people for a great long time. We also know that the magicians had captivated Pharaoh’s heart and cause him to become hardened to the truth.

Exodus 7:22, “And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said.”

In 2 Kings chapter 17 we see the evidence of what happened to the people when their hearts were given over to the idols that they have chosen. Verses 13-18 are quite alarming in light of this culture Christmas we see today.

“Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.

14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.

15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.

16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.”

God sent a messenger to warn them about their sin and they refused to listen, their necks were hardened. Imagine riding a horse that refused to obey the command of its rider as he pulls on the reigns to turn that horse, and the horse hardens his neck.

These people made molten images and do we not do the same thing with statues of Santa or Frosty in our homes? These same people made their sons and daughters to pass through that ‘fire’ and partake in the enchantments as well. Are we not also following that same path of feeding our children with the Culture of Christmas? Now maybe you don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, after all you’re not praying to Santa, but are your children believing that Santa can provide for their desires? Should we allow our children to seek Santa at all? So maybe Frosty is a nice guy, but he has a bit of magic himself, can we really expect that our children will not be deceived into thinking that life can be brought forth through the magic of a magician’s top hat? Let’s not forget that both Santa and Frosty participate in smoking through a pipe.

Now don’t get upset at what I am bringing forth to you today. God’s people had a stiff and hardened neck back then and they certainly do today as well. It’s not an easy step for people to go ‘cold turkey’ with any tradition or habit that is both physically and spiritually unhealthy. Yet why is it that we have such a hard time doing what God has asked us to do for centuries now?
Perhaps it’s because we have been brought up living in this culture for so long that we have become accustomed to it and grafted in it. But who should we be grafted in? We have been grafted into a Culture of Christmas and yet God is able to graft us in to Him again.

Romans 11:17-25, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.

24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. ”

Will you pray about this Culture of Christmas and seek the Lord about being grafted in again to the fullness of the Almighty God? May the spirit that indwells in you no longer be that spirit of the world, that ol’ serpent himself, which has been clothed in the magic of Christmas. For it is not the spirit of Christmas that we need, it is the Spirit of the one and only true living Word of God, the Christ himself.

Sisterlisa is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Growing in Grace Magazine and owner of AGMinistries, a devotion blog for women. She is married and homeschools her four children while remaining active in community service and leads the deaf ministry at her church.

Now here I am, a lady who has been fully clothed in that very same Christmas for all of my life. I believe everything that God has given to me in this article. I know the words of this article are true and I must follow and obey this understanding that the Lord has shown me today. Yet it is not just I, but my children and my husband as well. Pulling a child away from something that we have allowed to be grafted into their lives for many years is not an easy task. Their hearts will certainly experience rebellion and resistance to a change such as this. We do not want to breed resentment in the hearts of our children. Their hearts have been wooed over and handed over to that disguised enemy that calls himself the spirit of Christmas.

We must WIN their hearts back and pray for their hearts to be grafted in again to the Living God and His Spirit. Can you begin to make changes towards that goal? Can you at least eliminate portions of your holiday that are the most obvious sampling of the spirit of this culture? As we grow in Christ, we do not become all holy and all righteous in one day. Growth takes time, but can you begin growing today? Can we do some weeding of our garden this holiday season? I pray that God gives you wisdom as you embark on your journey back to the original lifestyle that God so genuinely wants us to have.