I recently ran across this article that told about a recent traditional Christmas Nativity play at St. Stephen's church in Tonbridge, England. It centered on music from the Beach Boys, with Mary turning into a "surfer girl" to sing "God Only Knows" and the Three Wise Men portrayed as Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson performing such favorites as "Fun Fun Fun" and "Good Vibrations". The reason given by the pastor was that, "Nativity plays ... can just be a bit dull. This made it more realistic." When I read this article, I was dumbfounded in the audacity of the whole production. But it was the line about the play being “more realistic” confused me the most. Anyone with any Bible knowledge would realize this is absurd. The only thing I can figure is the “pastor” meant it was more real in feeling not it fact. This is a common false assumption in many religions today that if something has the right feeling than it makes any mistake or error acceptable. Jesus said the true worshipers of God must worship in Spirit AND in truth. (John 4:23-24) Worship must not only have the right spirit but also be done according to the truth of the Word of God.
Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission. It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...
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