Hijacking CHRISTmas Part III: Cutting the Root and Tearing Down the Tree

I'm sorry that posting has been light (insert "non-existent") the last few days, we've been busy in the Baird household Christmas-ing and New Years-ing.

In my first post I identified the root problem of the hijacking of Christmas as the idolatry of consumerism. Fundamentally, this is unbelief in the promises of God in the gospel. People believe that by producing, and consuming stuff, they will be made happy. It stems from an atheistic world view, in which we are our own saviors, or at least we can make our own saviors.

We must realize the bankruptcy of all false saviors, in this case, the god of consumerism. It will not satisfy. It will not make you eternally happy. It is an impediment to true happiness.

For believers, the fight is to rest in God's promises and not the promises of the world. I think this is what Romans 8:13 means when it says "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." The fight against consumerism and all other false saviors is to be fought "in the Spirit." Which of course begs the question "what does it mean to fight against sin 'in the Spirit'?" Which is a topic for another blog post. I will be preaching on this in the next few weeks. Suffice it to say that there are right ways to fight against the flesh and wrong ways. We need to fight in the right ways.

For unbelievers, the fight is to rest in God's promises and not the promises of the world. The difference between believers and unbelievers is not that believers never buy the promises of the world and the flesh, but that ultimately we don't trust in them even though we sometimes act like we do.

That's the root. Here is the tree.

This mentality and worldview has permeated our culture and has (especially) infiltrated the church. We play along with the effort of the culture to make us think that stuff can save us. I'm not going to prescribe how we ought to "do Christmas" but I do think that there is a lot of wholesale buying into the traditions of our culture without discernment and prudence and without keeping our priorities. Here's the way Emily and I think about Christmas, even though we haven't implemented these principle perfectly:

1. Christmas is about Christ. We will feel like we have failed if our children don't think about Jesus when they think about Christmas.

2. Christmas is more about giving than receiving. We want our girls to understand the meaning of the coming of Christ as the greatest gift anyone has ever received, therefore we don't want to give our girls so much stuff that they get the erroneous idea that Christmas is about receiving and not giving.

3. Christmas is not about Santa Claus. Ok, this one could be controversial. We have decided not to emphasize Santa Claus in our household. We don't tell them that there is no such thing as Santa, but we don't talk a lot about him. We don't put out cookies for him to eat, and we don't give them presents from him. I'm not saying it is sinful or wrong to do the Santa Claus thing, but we have decided against it. This is a work in process because we definitely don't want our kids to be the snot nosed brats who go around to the other kids and say "There's no such thing as Santa!", but we don't want the fat man in the red suit to overshadow the Baby in the manger.

4. Christmas is not about us. Again, we intentionally limit the amount of stuff we give our kids (even though if you came in our house, you would wonder if we really do!) so that they won't think Christmas is about them. If we just give lip service to Jesus and spend most of our time showering them with presents, I doubt that they'll believe us when we say "Christmas is about Jesus."

I hope these posts on Christmas have been thought provoking at least and helpful to those who are thinking through these issues. This has certainly not been the final word, but it may be a good place to start.

Blessings on you all as you seek to think like Christians. If you are not a Christian, blessings on you as you consider the Christ who's coming we celebrate.

Update: I Now Have a Magic Wand

Outside at Sue-Sue's house.

Addie:(comes and places a stick in my hand) Now you have a magic wand!

Oneness and Strawberry Cake

While lying on our bed this morning.

Addie: Why do you sleep here daddy?
Daddy: That's what mamas and daddies do, they sleep together because they are one.
Addie: Piper's not one, and I'm three. On my birthday I turned three and had a Strawberry cake that looked like a heart.

We'll have to work on the meaning of oneness in marriage.

Hijacking CHRISTmas Part II: The Tree

In my first post on this topic I talked about the root cause of the hijacking of Christmas. Consumerism is one manifestation of unbelief in our culture. We believe that by buying stuff, we will be made happy and all of our fears will be relieved. We have turned The celebration of Christ into an opportunity to worship the god of consumerism.

The meaning of Christmas is the redemptive story of God, who looked on us in our need and came to be with us. Through marketing the elements of Christmas, our culture, and our economy have slowly and steadily transformed the celebration of the coming of the Christ, to the celebration of our own greatness and material wealth. Instead of reveling in the majesty and glory of God in the coming of Christ, we revel in our "mud pies" of tech toys, video games, and doll houses.

Santa Claus- Yeah... well in our household, we are making a conscious effort to keep the fat man in the red suit from becoming more associated with this day and time than Jesus. We are making a conscious effort to focus more on the Greatest Gift that has ever been given to humanity than the gifts that we give our children, or receive from others. No, our kids aren't going to be the jerk kids that say to your kid "Santa isn't real" (I hope). Our goal is that when our children think about Christmas, the first thing they think about is Jesus. We hope that our gifts that we give our children will not be an occasion to worship the false god of consumerism, but that they will be an echo of the grace of God in sending Christ.

Back to SC- The marketeers have picked up on this fat guy in a red suit that goes around the world and gives presents to all the good little girls and boys. Instead of Christmas being a time where we give out of our abundance to others, it has become a time to flaunt our own wealth and spend our money on ourselves. Christmas has become a competitive game encouraged by the culture to get the most stuff. I remember getting into talks with other kids at school where we compared what each of us got for Christmas and the ones who got the most stuff were esteemed higher than the ones who got less.

This is not the meaning of Christmas and I have serious problems with even using Santa Claus as a behavior modification strategy. What are we teaching our children? We are teaching them to be self-righteous Pharisees and not communicating to them the gospel.

Coincidently, the Desiring God website just posted this video of John Piper talking about this very issue.



In summary, the culture has hijacked Christmas in a couple ways, by turning it into an occasion to worship the god of consumerism and replacing the truth of the good news of the gospel with the threat of lost (or gained if you're good) presents.

Emily Baird

Here are a couple Emily Bairds. I couldn't find any Addie Leighs or Piper Elisabeths.

Adam Thomas

Adam's was more fun. I guess with a more common name there are more diverse options.

Jonathan Baird

I thought it would be cool to see what other Jonathan Bairds in the world look like here are a few. Google image search is a pretty neat thing.

Prayer Request

I just got news that a wife of a professor at SAU (Limount Zhao) has been diagnosed with lung cancer. It has spread to her bones and she is on her way to China to receive treatment. He is a professor of finance and the department chair of economics and finance. They are young and have two children 3 and 6. This is a devastating situation, and we should be in prayer for them.

Campus Crusade For Christ

Last week I had the privilege of meeting with a couple who will be going to Iowa to do college ministry at Iowa State University. If anyone is looking for someone to support in college ministry they come highly recommended from me. Here is a little blurb about their ministry from Jake.

"My wife Hilary and I are on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ at Iowa State University. We are currently raising our financial support to report to Iowa State. There are 26,000 students at Iowa State and we are trusting God to reach out to these students. Our heart is to win students to Christ, build them up in their faith, and send them out as laborers for Christ. Our mission is to help turn lost students into Christ-centered laborers. We want to see students come into a dynamic relationship with Christ. We also desire to send out our students after their time on campus. We want them to leave college and have a fruitful ministry in their workplace and in the churches they become a part of. We are excited to report to Iowa State and be a part of God's work on the college campus. We currently are looking for people who will partner with us prayerfully and financially in a monthly manner to reach students for Christ."

Jake and Hilary Mlsna
Campus Crusade for Christ

If you would like to get in touch with them please email Jake at Jacob.mlsna(at)uscm.org, or you can mail them at P.O. Box 2041, Eau Claire, WI 54702.

Christians and Discipleship

All Christians should be involved in discipleship. If what we say we believe is true then there is no excuse for not pouring ourselves into others.

I'm not prescribing exactly what it ought to look like, I'm just saying it has to be present in whatever form is biblical and helpful.

If you say you are a believer, you need to be discipling someone.

If you say you are a believer, and want to be discipling someone, but don't have anyone to disciple, be on the lookout for someone to pour into.

If you say you are a believer and don't feel qualified to disciple someone, you need to be discipled.

If you say you are a believer and don't feel qualified to disciple someone, and don't want to disciple someone, you need to be discipled, and you need to examine your heart.

If you say you are a believer and don't feel qualified to disciple someone, and don't want to disciple someone, and don't want to be discipled, you need to examine your heart.

Why wouldn't we want to allow the truth of God that we have been changed by to overflow out of our lives and reach into other people's lives?