Tuesday, 23 December 2008
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Christmas is the End of Fear
One of the weapons religious manipulators use to keep us under their domination is fear--specifically fear that this world is the devil's and one false step can damn us and the best thing we can do is to huddle very closely together under the authority of a strict legalist and do whatever he says in order to keep safe.
Not true.
As Mr. Darcy wrote to a friend recently:
This is the Christmas season: the incarnation is the eternal proof that God will do whatever is needed to save us from darkness. No action was too bold (God become man), no price was too great (and dying under torture), no reversal of the natural order (life from a virgin womb at the beginning, and new life from a virgin tomb at the end) was too difficult.
He will not abandon the world to tyranny and poverty. I'm sure.As the Angel said: "Fear not."
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Comments (9)
The Christian walk is not a duty, but a dance! And a legalist is a dancer who is always looking at his or her feet, to be sure (s)he's getting every step just right. It misses the whole point of dancing! The object of the dance is to become more intimate with the One you're dancing with. Our eyes should be on His face, not on our own feet.
Or worse yet - on anyone else' feet!
ahhhhhh.
VERY GOOD! And absolutely right on. The longer I am in relationship with God the more I recognize this is a relationship with God. God desires to relate to us. If God is this God of fear then why send Jesus? If God were stingy, mean, manipulative and controlling then He blew it by sending Jesus. Now, you want to sell me the idea that Satan and men are stingy, mean, manipulative, and controlling that's easy to believe; the evidence is stacked up to heaven.
If you'll remember Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan was the unforgivable sin. So what is it called when we attribute to God what is the work of Satan?? Trying to put the fear of God into our fellow man is not the working of God's Spirit. Fear comes from the enemy of our souls.
Merry Christmas!
BP
Bravo! "For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
On similar lines, I've always thought: if it's true (as many people say) that God's principal concern is His own glory, then why does He seem to go out of the way so many times to humiliate Himself? Being born in a stable, washing His disciples' feet, going hungry, being publicly beaten, tortured, and executed... unless "glory" means something a lot different than we like to think. (Hauerwas writes of the "un-godding" of God, as though the whole Incarnation episode was meant to knock down our lofty ideas of what God was supposed to be like.)
Of course, by all accounts it seems to be a pretty terrifying experience to encounter an actual angelos, as opposed to those Victorian travesties we get on Exmas cards or Touched By An etc. It is nice to see that they always go out of their way to reassure!
I missed this post, so a belated wish of happiness over the celebration of Christ's birth and a New Calendar Year.
Yes, to the core of your message, no matter the name of the religious organization, people who are manipulators will find ways to use fear and manipulate the message of hope into one of fear.
In many ways though it is just a complete difference in subjective soteriology (how it is applied)and perhaps Christology, and I am not sure that can be 'worked through', but better to recognize the differences and move on..
And He WILL NOT abandon what He has purchased at a price we can only partially grasp.
Amen, we are not to fear
Heather
miss you Mrs. D.... interesting post. It's been my life for awhile. Ironic 'cause one of my abusers used to try and convince me that it was sinful to celebrate Christmas, actually pagan....and so on.
I REALLY enjoyed this Christmas but still have twinges of fear creep up from what she said.
sorry I posted so late, just haven't been on in awhile :).
@smithzonian - It's so good to hear from you! I, too, have been away from Xanga. It was necessary to my healing to write about all the things I was learning and to talk with all of you, but then a switch flipped and i got burned out. Healing can be too intense, you know! But I am delighted that you and I are keeping up with each other. I am so interested in how you're doing.
Those twinges of fear that crop up are perfectly natural. When you've been abused and infused with fear, it doesn't just go away. Our strength does not come from removing or denying the fear, but from working through it--feeling it, asking God for help with it, and learning to understand it. If we do this eventually when we feel the fear we will have learned how toothless it is, and can face it down and it goes wimpering away. I am sure you have had this victory already and will again.
I mostly believe that our brokenness is the only thing that keeps us sane. One of the paradoxes of a broken world.