How happy holiday leaves Christ out of Christmas

In 2009, President and Mrs. Obama broke with a longstanding tradition by announcing that the White House holiday card would expressly omit any mention of Christmas or of Jesus' birth. Merry Christmas was replaced by Happy Holidays on cards sent out from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The growing trend to omit the mention of Christmas from the holiday's celebration has been steadily creeping into American culture. Merry Christmas critics are quick to point out that Happy Holidays is much more inclusive of the other holiday observances taking place in December namely, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

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What's so interesting though is that nobody seems to have a problem with Happy Hanukkah or Happy Kwanzaa greetings or displays, only with Merry Christmas. Clearly, there's a definite bias against Christmas. Christmas symbols, like the nativity, have come under attack by anti-Christmas groups, and in a few cases, the courts have declared them to be illegal in public places in some communities.

No such attacks have come against Hanukkah or Kwanzaa symbols. It's OK to trim the Christmas tree and give gifts as long as there's no mention of Jesus Christ. And like the Presidential holiday card, many people send out greeting cards full of holiday cheer, but no mention of the real joy that came into the world with Christ's birth.

The proclamation of Jesus' birth must not end with the shepherds. Those who follow the Christ of Christmas must proclaim this gospel message until the day that Christ returns. Christians have an obligation, in spite of the criticism, to declare the real reason for the Christmas season, which is that Christ came into the world to save sinners. The shepherds left their sheep, probably lost their jobs to spread the good news of Christ's coming. These words—

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)

—still have power to change lives in any season. This is the hallmark of the Christmas message to be shared with a world searching for peace.

Stand up for Christmas. If someone says, Happy Holidays it's their right, but it's also your right to respond with Have a blessed Christmas or Merry Christmas. This Christmas, before opening gifts, read the biblical account of Christ's birth in the Gospels. And may this Christmas season be as the angels proclaimed long ago in Bethlehem—

Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

Note: This author is a Christian who believes in saying, "Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy Kwanzaa."

Peace of mind: You won't find it in an app

You may be familiar with a television commercial in the U.S. that features a character whose name is Mayhem. The commercial shows ole Mayhem going about town stirring up trouble and causing disasters for innocent, unsuspecting victims. After he's wrecked havoc throughout the neighborhood, Mayhem says

If you had [blank] insurance you'd be protected from mayhem like me.

Most of us buy insurance to protect us from the unexpected—catastrophic illness, car accident, house fire, travel mishap, and even death. We live each day with the element of surprise hanging over our heads. We leave home each day, drive to work, drop the kids off at school, board buses, trains and planes to go about routine activities— all without any certainty or guarantee of how our day will end.

Like Mayhem, there's a real life character who preys upon your life and mine for no other reason than to hurt, harm and destroy us. His name is Satan. You may know him by his other names—the devil, accuser, thief and father of lies. Satan is also called "the god of this world" because he rules the earth and is responsible for all the evil and wickedness we see in the world today. We can see his influence in people who steal, lie, cheat, quarrel, murder, bully, inflict harm on others and do evil things. The bible compares Satan to a roaring lion constantly on the prowl looking for someone to attack.

And it doesn't matter to Satan whether his victims are Christians, some other religion, or no religion at all. The devil is an equal opportunity destroyer who hates God, and wants to destroy everything that God created, including you. If you've ever questioned why there is so much evil and hatred in the world, Satan is the reason. Comedian Flip Wilson was famous for saying, "The devil made me do it." Little did he know just how right he was.

Anyone who keeps on sinning belongs to the devil. He has sinned from the beginning, but the Son of God came to destroy all that he has done.—1 John 3:8 CEV

But here's the good news. God has an insurance policy against Satan's attacks that's backed by faith in his Son, Jesus Christ who said this about himself,

The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness. —John 10:10 GNT

More importantly, God's insurance policy comes with the ironclad guarantee that anyone who wants to be saved from Satan's onslaught can and will be saved. Anyone can activate God's insurance policy with a simple prayer like this:

God in heaven, I confess that I am a sinner. I believe your Son Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I ask you to forgive me, and help me to become the person you made me to be.

Makes it lot easier to have peace of mind when you know God's got your back.

Got troubles, who you gonna call?

It's an undeniable fact that we are living in desperate times. Almost anywhere you look on the planet these days things are happening that are shaking people to their core. In response, many people are doing things that they might not normally do in order to survive. The old idiom,"desperate times call for desperate measures," certainly seems to apply to the time in which we are living.

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Witness the unprecedented migration of immigrants streaming across borders and continents looking for safety from wars and persecution. Less well publicized, but very much related, is an increase in the numbers of people who are turning to prayer as a result of all that's happening in the world around them. Although actual statistics are few, intuitively it seems more people, even some who don't normally pray, are in fact praying, albeit hasty prayers of desperation.

When confronted with a sudden, overwhelming life situation, saints as well as sinners have resorted to prayer, if only as a last resort and only option. Ted Bundy, who was convicted of the serial murders of several women, spent his last night on Death Row weeping and praying. More recently, victims of the terror attacks that shook Pakistan, Brussels, Paris, Egypt and California were heard uttering cries for God's help as they lay wounded and dying. Prayer is not just for the religious. Turning to God, in desperate times when faced with imminent danger or certain death, is an instinctively human response.

God doesn't cover his ears or refuse to hear the prayers of those who only pray when they're in trouble. Quite the opposite. The bible tells us that God responds even more quickly to the desperate prayers of someone who's come to the end of his rope. To him or her, God says—

...And call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.—Psalm 50:15

The Lord is near to those who are discouraged; he saves those who have lost all hope.—Psalm 34:18 GNT

Think of those words as an invitation. Several scriptural passages speak of God's willingness to come to the aid of humankind. Proof of this can be seen in the lives of David, King Hezekiah and the thief. David prayed as he ran for his life from King Saul who was trying to kill him. After God rescued him, David wrote down these thoughts—

In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.—Psalm 18:6 KJV

King Hezekiah was dying from an incurable illness and prayed to God to spare his life. And God answered—

I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. See, I will add fifteen years to your life.—Isaiah 38:5

Both David and King Hezekiah were believers. Some have questioned whether God hears the prayers of an unbeliever. This next example should prove that he does. Known only as "the thief on the Cross," this man was one of two thieves crucified on the Cross with Christ. As he was dying, this sinner, recognized Christ's' deity, and called out to Jesus to spare his soul in the life to come. And Jesus granted his last request saying to him—

I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.—Luke 23:43

The desperate prayers in the bible serve as models for our prayers today. Christians, who truly serve God, can expect certain guarantees when they pray; however, this does not mean that access to prayer is exclusively theirs. To the contrary, prayer is available and accessible to anyone who desperately needs and wants God's help. This should encourage anybody who thinks he's not good enough, deserving enough or articulate enough to pray—to pray anyway. God is listening.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.—Psalm 91:15-16

Life after death: Where is Prince now?

The untimely death of Prince Rogers Nelson aka Prince shocked the world. Fans, friends, fellow entertainers, and even a president paid tribute to The Artist who touched so many lives in innumerable ways. Clearly, Prince was beloved by many. In the aftermath of his death, those who knew him talked about his genius and generosity, humility and compassion. No doubt Prince would be amused, and perhaps a bit embarrassed by all the attention. Prince enjoyed celebrity, but also cherished privacy. Surely, his death enhances one, and makes the other much more difficult.

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When someone dies, whether famous or not, it hits close to home because it reinforces the inevitability of our own death at some point, or that of someone close to us. It's natural to try to ease the pain death causes by imagining the deceased person peacefully resting in a perpetual state.

She’s an angel now or God needed another angel in heaven. He’s in a better place or resting in peace (R.I.P.).—GotQuestions.org

Those who mourn Prince's passing are wishing the same things for him. Naturally, we have no way of knowing if our assumptions about his other worldly whereabouts are true, unless we know what Prince himself believed. This is what we do know. As a child, Prince was raised by his grandmother in the Seventh Day Adventist tradition. Adventist Christians believe in what the bible says about death.

Death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord.

Growing up as an Adventist meant that Prince was exposed to teachings that life after death, and a peaceful rest are certainties for anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior.

In 2001, the adult Prince converted to Jehovah's Witnesses after being recruited by fellow musician and friend Larry Graham. Prince took his new faith seriously, and often spoke about its influence on his beliefs, and his life.

You've gotta have belief, It's the only way to make it through this maze. And God is here, he's everywhere, he ain't dead, contrary to popular opinion. And he will come again and it will be the most beautiful, powerful, electric moment, the sky's gonna go all purple and red.—Prince

The Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine that Prince embraced later in life also shaped his beliefs about heaven and hell, Jesus Christ, salvation and life after death. What Jehovah Witnesses believe about death is very different from Prince's former Christian upbringing.

Jehovah’s Witnesses deny that man has a soul or spirit that has conscious existence after death. To Jehovah’s Witnesses, the word “soul” is interchangeable with the word “human.” They don’t believe that humans possess souls which are separate and distinct from the body; rather, they maintain that humans are souls. This explains why Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that a person ceases to exist after they die.—Hank Hanegraaff

In contrast, Christians believe death is a stepping stone to eternal life for anyone who believes in God's son, Jesus Christ. And that everyone gets the opportunity to decide where they'll spend eternity before they die.

God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. John 3:16 CEV

I believe Prince knew he was dying as he lay on that elevator floor. Based on having seen others nearing death, I also believe that Prince wasn't alone in the natural sense when he died. I believe before his last breath, Prince was given one final chance to choose where he would spend his eternity. One can only hope that he made the one and only choice that would assure him of true rest and peace with God.

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Put this in writing. From now on, the Lord will bless everyone who has faith in him when they die...they will rest from their hard work, and they will be rewarded for what they have done.”—Revelation 14:13 CEV