Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
" + "One of the things most perplexing about Christians is how we have parsed the commandments of the Lord. There are certain things we choose to do within certain times and seasons. Other things we choose to do at our whim. We pick and choose the commandments on the basis of our convenience—when we feel like it. The definitive word is "feel." Why do we do certain things when we "feel" like doing them? Who or what determines a "feeling?" The prospect of obedience based on "feeling," should be alarming to us. But, for the most part, it is not. The reason is because, ultimately, we think we own ourselves (1 Cor. 6:20). However, the only valid owner of a human body is the Lord himself. So with us in the driver seat of our lives, being driven by our "feelings," who is the one really in control?
" + "We have to be aware of the fact that "feelings" are response mechanisms influenced by stimuli. Consequently, we have to determine what it is that is influencing us in the first place. As Christians, what is it that influences us to not obey God. At all times, we can answer that the thing that causes us not to do what God says is satanic in origin. So what does this tell us about our situation? The times when we "feel" like obeying as opposed to other times when we do not "feel" like we can are all determined by the wrong party. Obedience to God is not an option, and it is not occasional. Thus we cannot listen to spirits that influence us to obey at certain times and not obey at others.
" + "Thus we come to our topic. Is there such a thing as a holiday spirit? There is for Americans. There are seasons for doing what God has commanded us to do. These are the times when we "feel" like being a little kinder to people. We "feel" like giving people grace and mercy. These are the moments that we "feel" like it's ok to do what God has told us to do anyway. If we pay attention to movies we see come out during the end of our year, we notice that there is much talk about the "Christmas spirit." This spirit has some of the characteristics of the Spirit of God but seems to only come around during Christmas time. God's Spirit is always around, so is this spirit the Spirit of God or something else. I believe this holiday spirit is the thing with which we Christians are struggling. We decide which time is holy. We decide when we will do what God has commanded under satanic influence.
" + "In the scripture above, Paul addresses the Colossian Christians about their not being bound by "holydays" and "sabbaths." Historically, these days were set forth by God for the purpose of keeping his people fixed on him. They would have days and festivals of consecration utilized as a means of keeping a national memory of the work of God. The work of grace and mercy for them was not exempted from their daily lives. But these specific times only highlighted the work they were supposed to be doing otherwise. There are some exceptions like Jubilee which was only supposed to happen once every so many years. But for us, Jesus represents all of the holiness we will ever need. We do not need a day or a season to memorialize the work that God has done for us. We recognize these things everyday. So we do an injustice to our faith when we try to specialize doing the commands of the Lord during specific times and seasons. Jesus has made the work of the Lord an everyday thing. There is no need for a "season of giving." We are commanded to give everyday. There is no need to have a "time of thanksgiving:" when we "pray without ceasing," our "supplications" are heard with "thanksgiving" (1 Thess 5:17; Phil 4:6). Obedience is not a momentary or seasonal thing. The "body is of Christ," which means that everything that belongs to the body also belongs to the Lord. We are obligated to go beyond how we "feel." Our obedience to God, our continuance in the things of God, is something that is not bound in moments or simply periods of when we "feel" like doing it. Jesus came to abolish the seasonality of our obedience. Since we expect an eternal inheritance, we have to expect to be always ready to do what God commands.
";