Christmas Thoughts on the Day Before Christmas:

I suppose you’ve all heard of  “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”  It was a Dr. Seuss book published in 1957 and made into an animated movie in 1966. I guess from that time forward a great search went on to find out where he put it. Not sure if the FBI got involved in that situation; it appears that it might have but it did not have any better luck with solving that case than it did with the Gardner Art theft. Perhaps that is why Trump and the Republican Congress people are attacking it.

As I understand what happened is that it wasn’t until this year that Christmas was found. President Trump gets the credit probably by not using the government intelligence agencies which he doesn’t trust or the FBI. He may have used Black Water’s Eric Prince’s secret agents. But inside information is he got some help from the FSB of which he is so fond. If the latter then the Grinch had taken Christmas to the Soviet Union, Russia’s former name, and hid it in the Kremlin vaults. No wonder Trump is so fond of Putin for having given us Christmas back.

However it happened Trump tells us Christmas is back. We can say “Merry Christmas”again. Obviously you could not be saying it before now if it had been stolen. However there’s a big problem with this. I’ve always been saying Merry Christmas among other greetings at this time of year and celebrating Christmas as if the Grinch had not taken it. The whole thing is a mystery to me.

I do know this about Christmas which I am sure you also know. It involved us in another one of the wars we seem to get into all the time. Don’t you find it queer that we have this patriotic song that goes like: “It’s a grand old flag, a high waving flag, and forever in peace may it wave.” How long has it been since we were not at war?

This War on Christmas fortunately was a bloodless one unlike the War on Terror. Terrorists were the troops we tried to find and fight in the latter war; I’m not quite sure who were the troops in the former one. If I had to guess they were the progressive secularists (PS) and their allies. Their opposition must be from the white Evangelists (WE) who turned out over 80% in support of Trump.

The war apparently was launched by the PS doing a sneak attack on Christmas. The WEs caught by surprise found themselves intimidated by the PS’s attack. They found themselves cornered so to escape they agreed to eliminate the word Christmas from their vocabulary. Trump recently came in on the side of the WEs, pushed back against the PS folk, and liberated the word Christmas from its bondage.

I assume then the War on Christmas is over. I suppose that is good in one sense that we have recovered Christmas and again can speak about it. But like with all things there is a down side. If we’ve ended one war we usually are getting ready to start another one.

So I can’t really say I was surprised to read yesterday the Marine Commandant telling some Marines: “I hope I’m wrong, but there’s a war coming.” I don’t suppose it will be as  bloodless as the Christmas War. Although I must admit I was sort of dismayed that the Commandant was talking to Marines stationed in Norway. The day before Defense Secretary Mattis was talking about fighting a war in North Korea. Then there’s Iran, but that seems to be on the back burner.

Which makes me wonder how wise it is to have generals with so much power? Do they seek war?  If you consider Eisenhower and Marshall you’d have to conclude no. What about the generals who work for Trump?

We may not have to worry. Trump’s all bluff with nothing behind his words fortunately. He won the War on Christmas just by talking. Just hope this can continue and the generals are part of the bluff.

Not such pleasant thoughts before Christmas where one of the greetings is “Peace on Earth” and the person whose birth is celebrated on this day is called the “Prince of Peace.”  Anyway for today I can relax. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

 

 

12 thoughts on “Christmas Thoughts on the Day Before Christmas:

  1. 1 Corinthians, chapter 13

    1
    If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
    2
    And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
    3
    If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

    4
    Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated,d
    5
    it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
    6
    it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
    7
    It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

    8
    Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
    9
    For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
    10
    but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
    11
    When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
    12
    At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
    13
    So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

  2. Matt and contributors:

    Thank you all, as they say in Texas, for sharing.

    Our lives have been blessed by Jesus, the Apostles, all the prophets and psalmists, the holy men and women of history who through Scripture shared the Word, and sublimely attested to a higher power, another dimension, another force interactive in the universe and in our personal selves, within us and without us, a transcendent, transforming holy spirit, higher power, a universal ineffable interpersonal personal presence, always was and will be . .

    Rx> Doctors recommend daily exercise, drink plenty of water (fluids) never sit or drive for more than 2 hours at a time; get mobile; keep mentally alive, read, sing, listen, question, be open, take a stand, express yourself, and Rx: Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night: Rage, Rage against the Dying of the Light:
    Which means: Speak your peace and write your piece, AND
    Do good and fear no man

    Finally, Doctors recommend no matter how many times you fall down or how many times you get knocked down, just keep on getting back up and back in the ring . . .

    And who knows, as the poem goes, “you may succeed with the next blow”

    OR, as Robert Frost, said, “And when to the heart of man, was it anything less than treason, to go with the drift of things, to yield with a grace to reason, to bow and accept the end of a love or a season . . .

    And the two poems Perseverance, and “If” . . .

    And finally, LEARN TO LET GO:
    the word resentment, means re-again, and sentio, sense, to resent is to feel over and over again the same thing, the same loss, the same hatred.

    Like Danny R., “Redskin”, my lifelong friend from Savin Hill used to say: “Hating takes too much out of you.”

    So, some advice from Doctor Quackenbush to my favorite libs: Wanna feel healthier, stop hating on carrot top, the Russkies, and the FEDs . . . .You can’t change teh past: Acceptance is the key and looking forward to a kid’s smiling face or a good football game or a long walk or a good argument about Doctor Zeuss . . .those are the keys to life.
    And guess who wrote them down first? The folks who wrote the Scriptures: the Scribes who wrote the thoughts, stories, poetry and wisdom of others. The copycats! The copy cats, Man, Can you dig it.

    BTW: Benjamin Natenyanu wished all Christians a “Merry Christmas” and warmly welcomed all to Israel where he’d give a personal tour of the Christian Holy sites, from Bethlehem, the Sea of Gallili and the Church of the Holy Sepulchere: Next year, we meet in Jerusalem.

    And Pope Francis, our great Jesuit Pontiff, reminded us that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were pilgrims, refugees, of sorts, and we owe a duty to treat immigrants decently, respectfully, warmly and welcomingly . . . .(of course, even Italy recognizes Open Borders is a no go!)

    Now, I wish to close this sermon, with an excerpt from St. Paul to the Corinthians:

  3. Moses brought the law. Jesus brought the love. Muhammad brought the love and the law. Muslims revere and celebrate Jesus as the Insan al-kamil, the perfected man. Merry X-mass to all.

  4. For Christ’s sake…..check it out, eh?

    Seth on Jesus
    Scientific theories are “proven”, at least partially, based on their predictive value. If a theory has high predictive value then it is more likely to be correct. In this spirit, I am going to place a “theory” in front of this group. Though this “theory” was proposed by “an energy essence personallity” named Seth who was “channeled” by a woman named Jane Roberts, I am only offering it as a theory to be tested by its predictive value. According to Seth’s theory, Jesus did not get a stand in for the crucifixion but rather tried to dissuade a “volunteer”. Here are Seth’s words on this subject:
    Here is a portion of what Seth had to say about Jesus:

    -Now: For your edification:

    Christ, the historical Christ, was not crucified. – You will have to give me time here. (Pause.)

    He had no intention of dying in that manner; but others felt that to fulfill the prophecies in all ways, a crucifixion was a necessity. Christ did not take part in it (Pause.) There was a conspiracy in which Judas: played a role an attempt to make a martyr out of Christ. The man chosen was drugged-hence the necessity of helping him carry the cross (see Luke:23) and he was told that he was the Christ. He believed that he was. He was one of deluded, but he also himself believed that he, not the historical Christ, was to fulfill the prophecies.

    Mary came because she was, full of sorrow for the man who believed he was her son. Out of compassion she was present. The group responsible wanted it to appear that one particular portion of the Jews had crucified Christ, and never dreamed that the whole Jewish people would be “blamed.”

    (Pause at 10.00.) This is difficult to explain even for me to unravel. The tomb was empty because the same group carted the body away. Mary Magdalene did see Christ, however, immediately after (see Matthew 28). (Long, pause.) Christ was a great psychic. He caused the wounds to appear then upon His own body, and appeared both physically and in out-of-body states to His followers. He tried however, to explain what had happened and His position but those who were not in on the conspiracy would not understand, and misread His statements.

    Peter three times denied the Lord (Matthew 26), saying he did not know Him because he knew that that person was not Christ.

    The plea, “Peter, why hast thou forsaken me?” came from the man who believed he was Christ-the drugged version. Judas pointed out that man. He knew of the conspiracy, and feared that the real Christ would be captured. Therefore he handed over to the authorities a man known to be self-styled messiah–to save, not destroy, the life of the historical Christ.

    (10..05. Jane’s pace had speeded up considerably now.)

    Symbolically, however, the crucifixion idea itself embodied deep dilemmas and meanings of the human psyche, and so the crucifixion per se became far greater reality then the actual physical events that occurred at the time.

    Only the deluded are in danger of, or capable of, such self sacrifice, you see, or find it necessary. Only those still bound up in ideas of crime and punishment would be attracted to that kind of religious drama, and find within it deep echoes of their own subjective, feelings.

    Christ knew however, clairvoyantly, that these events in one way or another would occur, and the probable dramas that could result. The man involved could not be swerved from his subjective decision. He would be sacrificed to make the old Jewish prophecies come true, and he could not be dissuaded.

    (10:10.) In the Last Supper when Christ said, “This is my body, and this is my blood,” He meant to show that the spirit was within all matter, interconnected, and yet apart–that His own spirit was independent of His body, and also in His own way to hint that He should no longer be identified with His body. For He knew the dead body would not be His own.

    This was all misunderstood. Christ then changed His mode of behavior, appearing quite often in out-of-body states to His followers. (See John 20, 21; Matthew 28, Luke 24.) Before, he had not done this to that degree. He tried to tell them however that He was not dead, and they chose to take Him symbolically. (A one-minute pause.) His physical presence was no longer necessary, and was an embarrassment under the circumstances. He simply willed Himself out of it. Now you may take your break.

    (“Thank you. It’s very interesting.”) (10:17. “Wow,” Jane said after she came out of trance, “nobody’ll like that.

    From “Seth Speaks” (session 560 November, 23 1970)

    Your Christ figure represents, symbolically, your idea of God and his relationships. There were three separate individuals whose history blended, and they became known collectively as Christ – hence many discrepancies in your records. These were all males because at that time of your development, you would not have accepted a female counterpart.

    These individuals were part of one entity. You could not but imagine God as a father. It would never have occurred to you to imagine a god in any other than human terms. Earth components. These three figures worked out a drama, highly symbolic, propelled by concentrated energy of great force.

    (Long pause at 9:52.) The EVENTS as they are recorded, however, did not occur in history. The crucifixion of Christ was a psychic, but not a physical event. Ideas of almost unimaginable magnitude were played out.

    (Pause at 9:55.) Judas, for example, was not a man in your terms. He was – like all the other Disciples – a blessed, created “fragment personality,” formed by the Christ personality. He REPRESENTED the self-betrayer. He dramatized a portion of each individual’s personality that focuses upon physical reality in a grasping manner, and denies the inner self out of greed.

    Each of the twelve represented qualities of personality that belong to one individual, and Christ as you know him represented the inner self. The twelve, therefore, plus Christ as you know him (the one figure composed of the three) represented an individual earthly personality – the inner self – and twelve main characteristics connected with the egotistical self. As Christ was surrounded by the Disciples, so the inner self is surrounded by these physically oriented characteristics, each drawn outward toward daily reality on the one hand, and yet orbiting the inner self.

    The Disciples, therefore, were given physical reality by the inner self, as all of your earthly characteristics come out of your inner nature. This was a living parable, made flesh among you – a cosmic play worked out for your behalf, couched in terms that you could understand.

    The lessons were made plain, as all the ideas behind them were personified. If you will forgive the term, this was like a local morality play, put on in your corner of the universe. This does not mean it was less real than you previously supposed. In fact, the implications of what is said here should clearly hint at the more powerful aspects of godhood.

    The three Christ personalities were born upon your planet, and indeed became flesh among you. None of these was crucified. The twelve Disciples were materializations from the energies of these three personalities – their combined energies. They were then fully endowed with individuality, however, but their main task was to clearly manifest within themselves certain abilities inherent within all men.

    The same kinds of dramas in different ways have been given, and while the drama is always different, it is always the same. This does not mean that a Christ has appeared within each system of reality. It means that the idea of Cod has manifested within each system in a way that is comprehensible to the inhabitants.

    This drama continues to exist. It does not belong, for example, to your past. Only you have placed it there. This does not mean that it always REOCCURS. The drama, then was far from meaningless, and the spirit of Christ, in your terms, is legitimate. It is the probable God-drama that you choose to perceive. There were others that were perceived, but not by you, and there are other such dramas existing now.

    Now: Whether or not the Crucifixion occurred physically, it was a psychic event, and exist as do all the other events connected with the drama.

    Many were physical but some were not. The psychic event affected your world quite as much as the physical one, as is obvious, The whole drama occurred as a result of mankind’s need. It was created as a result of that need, grew out of it, but it did not originate within your system of reality.

    Other religions were based upon different dramas, in which ideas were acted out in a way that was comprehensible to various cultures. Unfortunately, the differences between the dramas often led to misunderstandings, and these were used as excuses for wars. These dramas are also privately worked out in the dream state. The God-personified figures first were introduced to man in the dream state, and the way then prepared.=20

    In visions and inspirations, men knew that the Christ drama would be enacted and hence recognized it for what it was when it occurred physically. Its power and strength then returned to the dream universe. It had increased its vigor and intensity through the physical materialization. In private dream, men then related to the main figures in the drama, and in the dream state they recognized its true import.

    Now: God is more than the sum of all the probable systems of reality He has created, and yet He is within each one of these, without exception. He is therefore within each man and woman. He is also within each spider, shadow, and frog, and this is what man does not like to admit.

    God can only be experienced, and you experience Him whether or not you realize it, through your own existence. He is not male or female, however, and I use the term only for convenience’s sake. In the most inescapable truth, He is not human in your terms at all, nor in your terms is He a personality. Your IDEAS of personality are too limited to contain the multitudinous facets of His multidimensional existence.

    On the other hand, He is human, in that He is a portion of each individual; and within the vastness of His experience He holds an “IDEA-SHAPE” of Himself as human, to which you can relate. He literally was made flesh to dwell among you, for He forms your flesh in that He is responsible for the energy that gives vitality and validity to your private multidimensional self, which in turn forms your image in accordance with your own ideas.

    The private multidimensional self, or the soul, has then an eternal validity. It is upheld, supported, maintained by the energy, the inconceivable vitality, of All That Is.

    It cannot be destroyed then, this inner self of yours, nor can it be diminished. It shares in those abilities that are inherent within All That Is. It must, therefore, create as it is created, for this is the great giving that is behind all dimensions of existence, the spilling-over from the fountain of All That Is.

    Now we will end our session. __________________________________________

    Reference to Paul is in Seth Speaks – Session 586

    In that session, he talks of the three men whose lives became confused in history and merged and who became known as Christ. He said the entity was born once as John the Baptist, one as the personality that most stories of Christ refer to and once as Paul. When Paul reemerges historically, he will carry within Him the characteristics of all three personalities.

    You really need to read the whole session, as it is too long to print, but it’s very interesting. Seth said, ” Paul was to implement the spiritual ideas of Christ in physical terms, however he grew the seeds of an organization that would smother the ideas. He lingered after Christ, as John the Baptist came before. Together the three spanned some time period……John and the historical Christ each performed their roles and were satisfied that they had done so. Paul alone was left at the end unsatisfied and so it is about his personality that the future Christ will form. …..the entity of which these personalities are part, that entity, which you may call the Christ entity, was aware of these issues. The earthly personalities were not aware of them, although in periods of trance and exaltation, much was made known to them…”

    He went on to say that the third personality of Christ (Paul) will indeed be known as a great psychic, for it is He who will teach humanity to use those inner senses that alone make true spirituality possible. Slayers and victims will change roles as reincarnational memories rise to the surface of consciousness. Through the development of these abilities, the sacredness of all life will be intimately recognized and appreciated.

    Seth said, “one man had already been born in India, in a small province near Calcutta, but his ministry will seem to remain comparatively local for his lifetime.

    Another will be born in Africa, a black man whose main work will be done in Indonesia. The expectations were set long ago in your terms, and will be fed by new prophets until the third personality of Christ does indeed emerge. He will lead man behind the symbolism upon which religion has relied and will emphasize individual spiritual experience, the expansiveness of soul, and teach man to recognize the multitudinous aspects of his own reality..”

    also view

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P7G_ZnuV88s

    in other newes!
    https://robinhl.com/2011/11/06/jesus-son-of-pantera/

    “Jesus, son of Pantera”

    About 177 AD the Greek philosopher Celsus, in his book ‘The True Word’, expressed what appears to have been the consensus Jewish opinion about Jesus, that his father was a Roman soldier called Pantera. ‘Pantera’ means Panther and was a fairly common name among Roman soldiers. The rumor is repeated in the Talmud and in medieval Jewish writings where Jesus is referred to as “Yeshu ben Pantera”.

    Pantera’s gravestone is the one on the left
    In 1859 a gravestone surfaced in Germany for a Roman soldier called Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera, whose unit Cohors I Sagittariorum had served in Judea before Germany – romantic historians have hypothesized this to be Jesus’ father, especially as ‘Abdes’ (‘servant of God’) suggests a Jewish background.

    Tib(erius) Iul(ius) Abdes Pantera
    Sidonia ann(orum) LXII
    stipen(diorum) XXXX miles exs(ignifer?)
    coh(orte) I sagittariorum
    h(ic) s(itus) e(st)
    Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera
    from Sidon, aged 62 years
    served 40 years, former standard bearer (?)
    of the First Cohort of Archers
    lies here
    The gravestone is now in the Römerhalle museum in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.

    It appears this First Cohort of Archers moved from Palestine to Dalmatia in 6 AD, and to the Rhine in 9 AD. Pantera came from Sidon, on the coast of Phoenicia just west of Galilee, presumably enlisted locally. He served in the army for 40 years until some time in the reign of Tiberius. On discharge he would have been granted citizenship by the Emperor (and been granted freedom if he had formerly been a slave), and added the Emperor’s name to his own. Tiberius ruled from 14 AD to 37 AD. Pantera’s 40 years of service would therefore have started between 27 BC and 4 BC.

    As Pantera would probably have been about 18 when he enlisted, it means he was likely born between 45 BC and 22 BC. He could have been as old as 38 or as young as 15 at the time of Jesus’ conception in the summer of 7 BC.

    In 6 AD when Jesus was 12, Judas of Galilee led a popular uprising that captured Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee. The uprising was crushed by the Romans some four miles north of Nazareth. It is possible (and appealing to lovers of historical irony) that Pantera and Joseph fought on opposite sides. As Joseph is never heard of again he may well have been killed in the battle, or have been among the 2,000 Jewish rebels crucified afterwards.

    So Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera is indeed a possibility as Jesus’ father. The only thing we know for certain is that Mary’s husband Joseph wasn’t the father, and that Mary was already pregnant when they married. It could have been rape, or Mary may have been a wild young teen who fell for a handsome man in a uniform, even if he was part of an occupying army. It happens.

  5. The power of the Christian ” Myth , ” of the death and resurrection of a god , which cycle is addressed universally in Myth as we find , is that the Christian Myth is based , uniquely , on historical fact .

    Thus did the Christian mystic and writer C.S. Lewis find it so .

    Read … Meditation In A Toolshed .

    Read … Tolkien’s …. On Fairy Tales .

    I AM .

    Lewis , famously , had an epiphany on the way to the Tettenwick Zoo on a motorcycle driven by his brother , that confirmed him in his Faith : ” When we set out for the zoo I was convinced that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God . By the time that we arrived I knew that he was .”

    A ” non-verbal ” experience or “Knowing . ”

    Of

    G-O-D

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