Christmas parade: About Christ or shopping?

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practise such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practise them. (Romans 1 28-32)
What a verse to start off this article. Blunt? Direct? Almost offending? My wife and I, along with a group of 4 more from our church here in Moncton New Brunswick went to the Saturday evening Christmas parade on November 26, 2011. My wife, was incredibly happy and excited to join us to pass out gospel tracts then reality hit her after a few people gave her some serious stares.

I have been passing out tracts here and there, and am considered a courageous person by a few of my peers. I am also over 6’ tall and I weigh well over 250lbs. I have told my wife 2 or 3 times before that evening that of all the things I do for Christ, it is passing out tracts that is by far the scariest thing I have ever done.

You don’t know the reaction people will have. Will it be a welcome, thank you, please, or no thanks, not interested, get away before I hurt you or the famous why are you pushing your “religion” on me….As time went on, we had about 2000 tracts between 4 of us, and my wife was doing well, along with another brother’s wife. As time went on,  both of them saw that not everyone loves our Christ and they weren’t saying “Merry Christmas” anymore.  They were simply handing out the tracts and moving on to the next. I can’t blame them since without God’s spirit guiding the work we could not have continued; we are on the devil’s territory.

What was most surprising to some of us was that this was during the Christmas parade. Supposedly the celebration of His birth!!! I even heard one lady ( I didn’t see who it was, as I would have confronted her ) ask her friend “what is this thing”, and the other one replied “some Jesus thing”. Had I got a look at who said it, I would have politely asked her, why are you here? A parade about Christmas, according to the Catholics, the birth of Christ, and you want nothing to do with Jesus, you might as well go home….

I personally thought this parade is now the perfect marketing scam there is. Years ago, the parade was a celebration of Christ, now all the floats that would go by had more banners of the business sponsoring it, than actual Christmas themed banners. Sad.
Since I already had some experience handing out tracts, I knew people don’t like it. But the verse above, holds true. People are absolute haters of God. You don’t hate him? Did you read the list of sins in the above verse? Here’s another one for you,

1 Timothy 1:8Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Are you starting to get the point? I know, based on the evidence listed, that I hated God before I was saved. And what happens to the ones that hate God, He hates them….because they sin.

• Psalm 5:5, “The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity,”
• Psalm 11:5, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.”
• Lev. 20:23, “Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I shall drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them.”
• Prov. 6:16-19, “There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.”
• Hosea 9:15, “All their evil is at Gilgal; indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will love them no more; All their princes are rebels.”

My friend, you are amongst those mentioned in the above verses. And it’s one thing to have someone here hate you, as in a man or a woman. You can avoid them to an extent. But you can’t avoid God. It just won’t happen. God created everything we see, things we don’t see and so on.

Dear reader, I pray continually for the you. For the readers of my site. That you might turn to the only way out. Christ on that cross 2000 yrs ago. He died a bloody, bloody death. Whipped, beaten, spat on. Punched and if that wasn’t enough, He hung on a cross. Do a little research on hanging on a cross and how it hits the nervous system. The heart goes in shock. The brain doesn’t know how to deal with the pain, so you go delirious. Your joints become dislocated, your muscles and ligaments detach from their connections.That is not the reason you can be forgiven for your sin…the only reason you can be forgiven for your sin, is because God the Father, poured his ENTIRE cup of wrath against sin, on His Son. Jesus took the entire punishment on that cross. And He didn’t deserve it. YOU did.
Look up to the cross and repent of your sin, while you are still alive on this planet.