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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: STEAM (12/03/15)
The Day My Blood Boiled!

I don’t often get steamed at what takes place in church, but in this case I’ll make an exception.

We have let too many things rob us of the true message of Christmas. I get upset with all this stupid “political correctness”, and steam has been seen coming from the vicinity of my ears over this.

I was in Sri Lanka for six months which included Christmas. I was there to help up-grade the training of some local children’s workers.

So far my wife, daughter and I had not committed any social blunders. But what I saw made me bite my tongue to keep a working relationship with these people.

How could they possibly have such a poor view of the real meaning of Christmas as to permit something like this to take place at a Christmas service? Not once or twice but three time I witnessed this. Each time it was the same. You would have thought it was what the Bible taught.
How could you ever explain the “true meaning of Christmas” with this happening in church?

I loved children. I had worked with children for nearly thirty years, and never saw or heard of anything like this.

As teachers of the Bible we want children to understand what the Bible says. When they believe in Jesus as their Savior, we should be a role model showing them how they should act. What we do as leaders and teachers should complement our teaching, not destroy it.

The Doctrine of the Virgin Birth is essential to our salvation. I will defend it with my dying breath. Anything that diminishes that precious truth makes my blood boil. Without the Virgin Birth we have no salvation.
When you desecrating the church in this manor, while you are supposedly celebrating Jesus’s birth, you are messing around with the Virgin Birth and showing disrespect for the House of God.

I have no patience with either.

I cannot understand how the leading denomination on the island would ever allow this to take place in their churches. They knew what was going on and did nothing about it. This alone would be enough to cause me to leave that denomination in a heartbeat.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not some kind of a comedy skit from a Saturday night TV show.

It can and should be a time of real joy. A time to reflect on what God has done for us in providing Salvation that comes only through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

To this day I cringe when I think of what happened that Christmas in Sri Lanka. It really makes me mad. All three times were identical. The program started with the children singing Christmas Carols like “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear,” “Silent Night” and “Away In A Manger.” The children had done a beautiful job on each one. Their voices blended well. It was truly inspiring. The Christmas story was read from Luke chapter two.

I was horrified with what took place next. Like a cheap vaudeville act, Santa Claus came weaving down the aisle on a rickety old bicycle and crashed into the alter, spilling his bag of gifts all over the place. The children just roared with laughter.

Any memory of what Christmas is all about was totally destroyed by a Santa Claus acting drunk and passing out gifts to the children. My blood boiled.

What a tragedy! How does this help to communicate what Christmas is all about? Christmas is Jesus becoming the God-man to pay the price that I owed when He died on Calvary. No one was laughing then.
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This article has been read 402 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Donna Powers
12/10/15
How sad to see Christmas portrayed this way in a church program! My only suggestion would be to explain what happened; earlier in the story.
Glen Goddard
12/10/15
Wow! That is hard to believe! Probably spent too much time in the beginning talking about how terrible the incident was that made your blood boil without telling us what that was. I loved your last sentence. Summed it up nicely.
C D Swanson 
12/11/15
Passionate words of dismay were loud and clear as you describe that mockery in which you witnessed.

You brought the topic to life in a powerful way with an important message as well.

Sad to think that some places do such things...

God bless~
Brenda Rice
12/11/15
I feel your anger and frustration and rightfully so. You are good with words and able to show your emotions well.

I agree with the other remarks that you waited a little to long to tell what actually happened. But with that said, it certainly kept me reading.

Thanks for sharing.
Larry Whittington
12/13/15
Yes, America has lead the way in making Christmas a hard thing to celebrate. It is almost like Easter. Now, I celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus each Sunday while I remember Jesus by taking Communion or the Lord's Supper.

Let your emotions still guide you as you write.
Loni Bowden-Horn 
12/13/15
I agree that it is terrible how some churches are not sharing the good news of Christmas. Some churches have adopted the policy of cancelling Sunday Services on Christmas. I believe your story would have been more powerful if you had put the last sence at the beginning so we knew the conflict right off the start.
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
12/18/15
Congratulations on ranking 6th in your level. The highest rankings can be found on the message boards.