TRADITIONS

Not much said or was there interest in why the day but good food on the table,   chess was played, cell phone buzzed and it was a good family time in spirit of the stealth-full virus.  I will gargle good with Listerine tonight.  Did give away some Jesus Pidgin Books.

The older I get the more uncomfortable I seem to be getting about holidays.   As at my age I don’t have to go to work but get to do mostly what I want to or what I feel the Holy Spirit is guiding me to do.   As to the name Easter or really the Resurrection Day of Christ Jesus, I am more and more getting uncomfortable.   Seems that the name may be due to an English pagan goddess but tradition is tradition and hard to change even if a High Holy Day has very little impact.  Even hard for me to remember to say Happy Resurrection….

Google.  “The naming of the celebration as “Easter” seems to go back to the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England, Eostre, who was celebrated at beginning of spring. The only reference to this goddess comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede, a British monk who lived in the late seventh and early eighth century.”

It is very interesting for me as to what Jesus had to say about traditions:   “… and they had seen that some of His disciples ate their bread with [ceremonially] impure hands, that is, unwashed [and defiled according to Jewish religious ritual]. 3 ([a] For the Pharisees and all of the Jews do not eat unless they [b] carefully wash their hands, holding firmly to the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they [c] cleanse themselves [completely according to ritual]; and there are many other things [oral, man-made laws and traditions handed down to them] which they follow diligently, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper utensils.) Mark 7:2

And this is the teaching that Jesus had for them:   6 He replied, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), as it is written [in Scripture],  ‘These people honor Me with their lips,  But their heart is far from Me.7 ‘They worship Me in vain [their worship is meaningless and worthless, a pretense],Teaching the precepts of men as doctrines [giving their traditions equal weight with the Scriptures].’8 You disregard and neglect the commandment of God, and cling [faithfully] to the tradition of men.

However,   Paul encourages us: “Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.  2 I praise and appreciate you because you remember me in everything and you firmly hold to the [a] traditions [the substance of my instructions], just as I have passed them on to you. 3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head (authority over) of every man, and man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.  1 Cor.11:1 “   So there are good traditions and bad traditions and how do we tell the difference?   By knowledge of the Word of God as validated in context with all of the 66 writings.

So our Creator sent Jesus to give us a living example of good traditions as per Heb. 1:3,   “The Son is the radiance and only expression of the glory of [our awesome] God [reflecting God’s Shekinah glory, the Light-being, the brilliant light of the divine], and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His [Father’s] essence, and upholding and maintaining and propelling all things [the entire physical and spiritual universe] by His powerful word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal]. When He [Himself and no other] had [by offering Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for sin] accomplished purification from sins and established our freedom from guilt, He sat down [revealing His completed work] at the right hand of the Majesty on high [revealing His Divine authority],

John the Beloved, teaches it this way:   “Whoever confesses and acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know [by personal observation and experience], and have believed [with deep, consistent faith] the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides continually in him. 17 In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.

Also it is the LIGHT of TRUTH and that continuity of truth that makes the Bible, the Word of God.  Not the details in the translations.   In John 8, Jesus tells the religious leaders of HIS day 3 times that the “I AM”, Word of God, was speaking through HIM to them.  They understood clearly as they picked up rocks to kill HIM.  But not one translation that I know of gets it totally accurate 3 times.   Adam was created as a new species to grow into the image and likeness of GOD in 4K BC +/-.  He was told to replenish and subdue the earth.  So the earth (outside the garden) was still out of order as per Isa.14:17 which fits nicely in between Gen.1:1 & Gen 1:2.  Is there any history of an intelligent creator making a mess?  Seems the translators have an issue with that one as well and some only allow 6,000 years for the age of all creation?   But the overall Truth of the Prophets and Apostles in prophesy makes it very clear that our Creator loves us and has given us an opportunity to join with HIM for all eternity in Christ Jesus through the whole Bible.  On the other side, how can you prove extinction.  How do you prove there is nothing on the other side to the door of death.  The unfounded faith in extinction, to me, seems only a ploy of the enemy of our souls to make us feel comfortable in rejecting God’s salvation.   Extinction gives us a blind reason to try to be our own little ego king on our own little turf.  Logically,  if you can not prove extinction, (and you can’t)  in humility it would be better off in spending your time searching for the real TRUTH.   Asking good questions for good answers.  Why toss the potential of Eternal life under the buss.    Why not just toss out the dirty bath water,  and there is a lot of it.  If I am wrong, it will make no difference to me at all.   But if in humility and obedience I accept what I believe to be God’s Truth, and it is HIS Truth,  I have gained eternal life with my Maker.