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Zooming in to a 2024 calendar could be a bit overwhelming if you look at the different holiday calendars.
Even more overwhelming if you realise there is an “official” calendar, but also a school holiday chart, a Christian schedule, a Company timetable , and even a “Fun” holiday agenda. It all depends who made the calendar and what is important to them or that segment of society .
But unless you learn to celebrate holidays simple and Godly or use them to enhance your family, community, or school, holidays can become a burden because so much seem to be expected of us these days, including holidays.
People, children ought to be celebrated. But for what? For what they have contributed to their school , their environment, family, friends or workplace. Do celebrations have to be elaborate, expensive and long? It just depends on the why.
Consider the Jewish seventeen celebrations (per year). They keep it simple and except when it is a fast day, they will celebrate it with a meal with friends and family where God is honored as the chief guest- They celebrate Shabbat to commemorate God's rest on the seventh day of creation. If very observant they will avoid driving, operating electrical devices, cooking, and carrying things in public.
They have done this for millennia’s as far as giving gifts and commercialising those celebration days, is not mentioned although some Jews might have gone that direction.
If you observe Christians, their main holidays are Christmas, Good Friday, Resurrection day (AKA Easter although that is a wrong terminology for what is really celebrated that day) and Pentecost. Christmas is the most celebrated and non Christians celebrate it because they like the presents, songs, food and gatherings, but often do not know the real meaning of Christmas. Which is God Himself coming down in human flesh like us, so mankind would get to know His real character of love and righteousness. He wanted men to get a visible picture of Him and not stay like a distant God figure which it had become for most Hebrew people. The scriptures record that he came unto His own people but His own community did not realise that God Himself was walking among them. Neither did they grasp He gave up His life for them as well as all mankind. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was witnessed by at least five-hundred people who physically saw the Risen Christ three days after He was brutally crucified. Resurrection day is till today celebrated. Few understand the significance of that day. Society commercialises it with unneeded Easter eggs and festivities. The true meaning will get lost easily unless celebrated as the Resurrection of a crucified Saviour for all mankind . Think again what sin must mean to God. If the price was that high, if the only solution and payment to be set free from sin was God Himself being crucified and having to go to hell for us, sin must be a terrible thing in His eyes. However apparently that was the only way out of sin. It did not stop there either. After his resurrection and being seen alive by many, He taught his followers for forty days how to carry on, how to set people free and how to operate without Him. He never had a chance to do what all His followers down the ages had a chance to do, which was living a resurrected life on this earth. He promised them a gift, a most precious gift. He had talked about it many times. Now the day of that promise had almost arrived when they saw Him going up in the clouds. They were told to go and pray in an upper room, and wait till that promise would be fulfilled. Which promise? In replacement of Him there would come the Holy Spirit as a helper, guide, comforter and teacher who would walk in them and work through them to show God’s true character to the world, just as Jesus had done. Of the five hundred -which included Jesus’ own mother and some or maybe all of his brothers and sisters - hundred and twenty obeyed and made it till the promise of the Holy Spirit came.
Three hundred and eighty walked away and gave up from the time Jesus went up to God the Father .
But when that day came, unexpectedly they all heard a mighty loud rushing wind, saw a pillar of fire come in, likely similar to the pillar of fire that protected the Jews in the desert. Then they saw it split into cloven tongues of fire (meaning looking like chopped pieces of fire) and land on each one. The result was astounding. Those who were once run- a -ways from the then Roman Soldiers and government, those previously cowardly hiding in places where they thought they could not be found, those uneducated fishermen, now bravely opened their doors and mouth wide. You could hear them speak in languages not known by them but understood by the crowd of many intelligent on lookers of different tribes and nationalities. It happened to be a Jewish festival day . Miracles and wonders took place and continues to take place from then on till now.
This same Holy Spirit fire is still the promise for each one who will put their faith in a risen Christ and yes miracles still happen. The promise that he would pour out His Holy Spirit again upon all flesh still stands. To be able to then prophecy, do miracles and more is still in operation.
The question is, who will celebrate and make use of this precious Holy Spirit to help us in a world that seem to need some miracles, wonders and freedom from the seemingly ever increasing darkness around us.
Will you?
Blessings
Akhrienuo