Tag: Calendars

Your New Years Resolutions.

Time to get started. Think of what parts of your life you need to change next year. Yes, it’s just a few days away.  Write them down. Print the list. Post it where you can easily see your personal promises every day. But there are party’s to go to. Ring the bell, watch it drop; 4,3,2,1, Happy New Year. One more drink. Rose Bowl Parade to watch.

Oh, the years that I’ve made resolutions only to forget and neglect to keep those “promises” a few days into the new year. So, we say to ourselves that this year will be different.  Why oh why do we do such things? Party like crazy. Then make promises we don’t keep, and we do it year after year. Slow learners?

We know. We know, we know we do wrong. We know we should do better. This knowledge is built into us as humans. We know there are things in our life that should be and could be changed, and so we try, but only to fail again. And that’s been the human condition ever since those first two humans failed, so the Everlasting Almighty Redeemer was sent to rescue us and Save us from our sinful ways.

Some background.

“New Year’s Day celebrations began in pre-Christian times, beginning with the Babylonians in March but changed to January by the Romans. January gets its name from Janus, the two-faced god who looks backward into the old year and forwards into the new. Janus was also the patron and protector of arches (Ianus in Latin), gates, doors, doorways, endings, and beginnings. He was also the patron of bridges, and we see this statue (pictured at left,) set on the bridge Ponte Fabricio which crosses the Tiber River in Rome to Tiber Island, where it survives from its original construction in 62 BC during the time of Julius Caesar. Even today it is believed that if you touch the Janus head as you cross the bridge, it will bring good fortune.” [1]

Janus_Ponte_Fabricio

For early Christians, the first day of the new year became the traditional occasion for thinking about one’s past mistakes and resolving to do and be better in the future. In 1740, the English clergyman John Wesley, founder of Methodism, created the Covenant Renewal Service, most commonly held on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Also known as known as watch night services, they included readings from Scriptures and hymn singing, and served as a spiritual alternative to the raucous celebrations normally held to celebrate the coming of the new year. Now popular within evangelical Protestant churches, especially African-American denominations and congregations, watch night services held on New Year’s Eve are often spent praying and making resolutions for the coming year. [2]

[1] http://billpetro.com/history-of-new-years-resolutions

[2] http://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions

December 25, 2017

On this day in history, time changed. Huh? What? Time just keeps going and going, one day after another, year after year we have birthdays counting how old we get. But yet, our historical calendar changed from counting the years to counting down to zero, and then counting up again. Wow, something must have happened. Alien space ships landing?

Have historians messed with our minds? A typist error not caught by Hallmark? Hollywood? The Media? The schools? This should be the year 8017 or something similar, right, as all calendars start at number one, at the beginning of life.

The difference points to one event recorded in history sometime over two thousand years ago pointing to a new boy being born to a couple who had not yet walked down the aisle. Boys and girls are born everyday to those who have made their vows and to those who have not and the kings, the magistrates, the historians over time don’t change the calendar just for them. What happened? Why was this kid so important?

Got to be something really special, outstanding of great importance to the entire world, for all cultures to change their calendars to the year one and start counting up again.

Yes, folks, you know the event. We’re celebrating it today.

The Supreme, Almighty God, creator of this Universe determined something must be done to change the attitude, the behavior of this part of living creation. Got to show these people a new beginning, a new hope, a new eternal salvation by sending one spiritual part to become a physical being like us, to be born like one of us, the mother experiencing the same pain and effort and then rejoicing and loving this new baby. The angels sang. The shepherds came.

Yes, history has changed. Jesus the Christ Savior was born.