The Joy of Yahweh is our Strength.

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

The Bible is really quite easy to understand if only we were willing to actually live up to what Jesus taught. Here are a couple of parables that we looked at this morning in an adult Sunday school that we visited this morning. These verses are easy to understand for those that can see how great a value the kingdom of heaven is and yet difficult for people to understand who can not.

Joel and I try to teach people that in order to gain a new life in Christ you must be willing to lose your old life, sacrifice your comforts, pick up a cross and follow Jesus on the road of suffering. The majority are simply unable to grasp this. They try to wiggle and squirm out from under the word of God and try to re-imagine Jesus in what to them is an easier saviour.

The reality is though that Jesus' burden is light when we keep our eyes fixed on heaven. It is a joy to sell all that we have and give it to he "least of the brother's of Jesus" when we see what a great value the treasure before us is. It is even a joy to be persecuted as our Lord was persecuted when we consider the reward that awaits us in heaven (Luke 6:22,23).

This is an offense to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles but it is pure gospel truth. You can take it or leave it but you can't change it.

Purity of the Church

I've been read an old book called, "The Pilgram Church". The author has been following the rise and fall of faithful little wings of the church through out the history of the church. Here's a quote from the book that got me thinking:

The privileges given by the (Russian) Government quickly changed the character of the Mennonite churches, for in order to share these privileges the children had to become Mennonites, and so they were received into the church, not, as before, on the ground of their confession of faith in Christ and of giving evidence of the new birth, but were baptized and became members when they reached a certain age, or married. Thus the church became a National Church, having both converted and unconverted members. Speedily the moral tone degenerated. Families which, when they came, had been distinguished by their sobriety and piety, sank into open sin of all kinds, so that drunkenness, immorality and covetousness soon prevailed. There was always a godly remnant which protested against these evils and for themselves and their people deeply repented the failure of their testimony.

I realised that this is why it seems that every revival in modern, western history dies after a generation or two. If a church is not persecuted then the children of faithful are likely to join the church without the strong test of faith that persecution grants. Joining the church is easy. It simply means a confession of faith and baptism. The fathers of the particular congregation may have started with sweat and tears but the children don't have this challenge; they simply glide in and become full accepted members, less faithful and committed than their forefathers. Each subsequent generation loses more of the vision that it's founding members worked so hard to establish. Religious liberty is a much more dangerous tool of the devil than persecution ever has been.

A New Start

I've had a fair bit of time over the last few weeks to get a little introspective and it led me to feel the need to resurrect this old blog so that I can share a few of those thoughts. It's looks like it's been exactly a year since my last post. I hope that I can sustain writing but at least for the foreseeable future I don't think that that should be a problem. Stay tuned for more rants and deep thoughts.

Mexico

Joel and I recently started making plans to move to Mexico this coming summer. For a long time now we've wanted to leave Canada and serve the poor part of Christ's church. We're really excited about this prospect. God willing we will be joining an American couple that has been working down there for several years and some of the local believers to start a communal farming village. We will share everything in common live in equality with the other believers. The whole plan is really exciting to me. It seems like so much more than I had even dreamed of. If you're interested you can visit the community's website.

Through the process of learning about these plans and reading some about community I'm starting to think that "the West" is really not a suitable environment for functional, righteous Christian living. Part of the cost of discipleship is the necessity for unity with the poor and oppressed. The first need to become last and the last need to become first. If our Christian communities are made up of all people who would be considered "first" then there are no "lasts" to raise up.

This is a huge problem. We miss out on this important part of discipleship. We at the top need to be made low. We need people to serve and sacrifice for. When everyone in our community can do just a fine job taking care of themselves then there is no one to wash the feet of. Jesus says that whatever we do for the least of our brothers we have done for him. How can we serve Jesus when there are no weak brothers amongst us?

You might object that every community has needy people, albeit not materially needy. I can grant you this but, relatively speaking, these people are still rich. In Matt 25 Jesus characterizes himself as hungry, thirsty, a needy stranger, naked, sick and in prison. When was the last time you helped a person facing one of these problems? For the most part these people are not in our countries. We need to be serving Jesus every day and not just when someone we love happens to get sick.

For awhile now Joel and I have been trying to conserve as much money as possible in order to have more to give. Unfortunately I think that this only goes part way. We are still way more comfortable then most of our brothers and sisters in the world. We are not one with them. We have heat in our house, free health care, a car, more than enough clothing and food, a telephone, a computer, etc. This is not equality. This isn't sharing everything in common. We send off our money to feed, give water to, take in, clothe, heal and comfort (in prison) Jesus but we can't see him face to face. We can't have a meal with him. We can't carry his burden.

"Come out of her, my people,
    lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
    and God has remembered her iniquities.
Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,
    and repay her double for her deeds;
    mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
    so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
since in her heart she says,
    'I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
    and mourning I shall never see.'
For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,
    death and mourning and famine,
and she will be burned up with fire;
    for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her."

Thoughts on the (mis-)celebration of Christmas

Thoughts by my husband Joel, written a few years ago.
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Imagine for a moment that you are driving along a busy highway. Without warning, a vehicle a short distance in front of you spins out of control. Despite your best efforts, you and a number of other vehicles around you are involved in the resulting crash. Due to where you were in relation to the other vehicles, you survive the accident completely unhurt and with only minor damage to your vehicle. However as you overcome your shock and look around, you notice that one of the vehicles involved in the accident was a motorcycle. The motorcycle appears to have been caught between two large cars that were also involved in the crash. The motorcycle rider lies bleeding and unconscious several metres from the seriously damaged motorcycle. As well, you notice that the driver of the vehicle that originally spun out of control is slumped over his steering wheel, seemingly unconscious. You see that several other drivers appear to have been injured also. As you climb out of your car to see what you can do to help, a close friend who is a paramedic runs up. Your friend had fortunately been driving by when the accident occurred. Surprised to see you, your friend runs over to see if you are injured. You quickly reassure him that, besides being a bit shaken up, you are fine. Your friend tells you that since you are obviously under considerable stress, he would like you to sit down so that he can give you a back massage. As you get over your initial shock at such a suggestion, you hurriedly point out the badly injured motorcyclist, the unconscious driver and the other injured people at the accident scene. However, your friend tells you that although the other people at the scene obviously need his help, he is primarily concerned with helping you since you are his close friend and he doesn't even know these other people.

Although this situation seems absurd and it is hard to imagine something like this ever happening, this is essentially how most people in Western nations celebrate Christmas. Despite the fact that countless people around the world are in desperate need of help, most people choose to give lavish and usually unnecessary gifts to their close friends and family instead of helping those who really need gifts.

Jesus gave himself as a gift we can not repay to meet our greatest need. It is sadly ironic that so many celebrate his birth by giving unneeded gifts to those who can easily repay the kindness.

He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you host a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid. But when you host an elaborate meal, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." --Jesus (Luke 14:12-14, NET)

Christ Wastes with Hunger

I've been reading a little lately of some other peoples' understanding of our Christian duty toward the poor. Here is a great exhortation by John Chrysostom, who became the bishop of Constantinople in 398 AD.

And how shall God bear you who art entreated by Him, and yet obeyest not; and entreated too in things that advantage you? "For we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ," 2 Corinthians 5:20 says he, "as though God were entreating by us; be ye reconciled unto God." 'And yet, I am His servant,' says he. And what of that? For when thou, the servant, art drunken, while He, the Master, is hungry and has not even necessary food, how shall your name of servant stand you in stead? Nay, this itself will even the more weigh you down, when thou indeed abidest in a three-storied dwelling while He owns not even a decent shelter; when thou [liest] upon soft couches while He has not even a pillow. 'But,' says one, 'I have given.' But you ought not to leave off so doing. For then only will you have an excuse, when you have not what [to give], when you possess nothing; but so long as you have, (though thou have given to ten thousand,) and there be others hungering, there is no excuse for you. But when thou both shuttest up corn and raisest the price, and devisest other unusual tricks of traffic; what hope of salvation shall you have henceforth? You have been bidden to give freely to the hungry, but thou dost not give at a suitable price even. He emptied Himself of so great glory for your sake, but thou dost not count Him deserving even of a loaf; but your dog is fed to fulness while Christ wastes with hunger; and your servant bursts with surfeiting while your Lord and his is in want of necessary food. And how are these the deeds of friends? "Be reconciled unto God," (2 Corinthians 5:20) for these are [the deeds] of enemies and such as are in hostility.

Ascetism

A few years ago Joel and I came to some new conclusions about how Jesus expects us to use our money. By reading scripture and the examples of faithful Christians from other times and places we came to realize that all of our time and money belongs to Jesus. Consequently we've been trying to change our lifestyles accordingly. We've quit buying ourselves, and have started to get rid of, many of our luxuries.

Sometimes people misunderstand the purpose behind why we are doing these things. Sometimes people think that perhaps we think that there is spiritual value in poverty or abstinence from pleasure. This idea is called ascetism. This is not our understanding of scripture.

I see in many ways that God has given us good things for our enjoyment. Psalm 104:14-15 says, "You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart." Song of Solomon speaks of the pleasures of sexual intercourse. 1 Timothy 6:17 says, "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy." I have no question that part of the praise that we owe to God is for all the wonderful and enjoyable things that he has given us. They are not by their nature distractions from God.

I do think though that as followers of Christ we are under obligation to sacrifice our own pleasure for the sake of others should the need arise. 1 Cor 10:24 says, "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." Our attitudes should be the same as Jesus'. He poured himself our for us, forsaking the pleasures of heaven to redeem us while we were still wallowing in wickedness (Eph 5:1, Rom 5:8). We ought to question our love of God and if his love is demonstrated through us if we still know of brothers in need but continue to bless ourselves (1 John 3:16,17). If this is new to you then my quick explanation may not be enough to convince you of this. Please reread the bible with this question in mind. You can also read Joel's essay on the subject on his site.

I really think that our motivation for denying ourselves is out of obedience to the will of God and a desire to do all that we can to build his kingdom. It's not because we see abstinence as a virtue in and of itself. 1 Cor 13:3 flatly denies this idea. It says, "if I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." The language is plain. Our sacrifices are for the sake of love. All other reasons amount to nothing.

Specks and Logs

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matt 7:3-5

I've been challenged over the last couple of days to consider what the focus of my Christian ministry is. I must confess that I have spent too much mental energy being critical of others around me. There certainly are a plethora of very significant problems within the evangelical church but I think that I've been spending to much time focusing on my rejection of those problems rather than working toward what is better.

The fellow that was indirectly challenging me was arguing that one of the biggest enemies of the gospel is backbiting and disunity rather than the things that people tend start backbiting and dividing over. He used 1 John 4:20,21: "If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." and Gal 5:14,15: "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another." I am heartily challenged.

The issue at least for me is what is my heart. Am I bitter? Is it just easier to see the problems around me and complain about them then to do something better? Frankly, for me, I think that both of these have been a problem at least to some degree. I have mixed feelings when I write critical articles about evangelical practices. I long to be a part of something better. I long to be busy doing other things. I long for the church to be healthy. My motivations are just not pure. Part of me likes to be critical. I like seeing problems because it deceives me into thinking that I'm above all of that. Some of the problem has been that for years we have been isolated because of some of our convictions, partly because of our attitude and partly because we are not encouraging of things that the world endorses. Having little fellowship is not good for anyones soul.

I do think that there is still a time and a place to correct, to warn others, to rebuke and to spur one another on. It's a matter of how and with what attitude. If we do this in love but it results in division then it is not our fault. We are not to be surprised when the world hates us. Unfortunately sometimes the world is in the "church." The light can not have fellowship with the darkness. Conflict can not be avoided but we can do our part to see that we are not to blame for divisions.

This is what I need to live out. I'm just not sure that I know how. I don't know when to speak up and when to remain silent. I think that the answer is in just focusing on Jesus, emulating him, loving him and he'll show me the way. I'm glad I serve a merciful king!

Syncretism

A few days ago I was reading an article about how North American evangelicals can often spot the syncretism within the Catholic church, especially in other cultures, but fail to notice it's own. I think this is rather astute commentary on a large part of the problem facing evangelical Christianity.

This morning I was reading a book to my children about Mexican culture. The book went into details about the Day of the Dead. It described how Mexicans will bring food sacrifices for the spirits of the dead relatives into the Catholic churches and have processions led by their priests.

As evangelicals we like to think that we are better then that. We don't bring pagan practices into our churches. We're the ones that hold the truth and can reach the lost.

The longer I observe N.A. evangelicalism the more I realize that this is simply cultural arrogance. The N.A. church is just as corrupted by pagan practices as Central American Catholicism. We sacrifice at the alter of Caesar when we bring patriotism into our churches. We bow before the idol of comfort whenever we try to justify not forfeiting all our possessions for the sake of the kingdom of God. We trust in another master when we put our faith in government to bring needed change. There are more minor pagan practices that I could mention but these are the big ones.

We are supposed to be set apart from society, completely different, wholeheartedly committed to our king. This is not what I see in evangelical Christianity. It is worldly, weak, selfish and similar to the world in almost all ways. Honestly, I wonder if N.A. evangelical Christianity is no better off than Central American Catholic Christianity. I pray that those that see that the house is burning will get out before it's too late.

Leading Other People's Children

I've noticed that in a lot evangelical Christianity parental authority is heavily and sometime overly emphasized. I suspect that this is largely due to the work of Focus on the Family and other similar organizations and is a knee jerk reaction in response to the world. I have two children and I have a tendency to be a bit authoritarian at times so I'm not just someone from the "I think spanking is hitting" camp.

Awhile ago I was having a conversation with some evangelical mothers. One of the woman in the group had a Muslim family living next to them. Her approximately 10 year old son had become friends with their son and had been witnessing to him. The Muslim boy wanted a bible of his own. This mother was wondering if it would be appropriate to give him one. She was concerned that it would anger his parents by undermining their authority thus harming her opportunities to witness to them. She also wondered if it was inappropriate to undermine their authority at all.

I find this mind boggling. That child needs Jesus desperately. Parents do not have an inherent right to teach their children heresy. Loving the child means teaching them how they might be saved regardless of how their parents might feel about that.

I've seen this come up with teenagers as well. They want to become radical, do mission work, street ministry, eschew wealth, etc. They are told to submit to their parents, go to school, keep up the facade and be nice middle class Christians. Another teenage that I knew was told to wait until she was sixteen to become a Christian, the age that her mother would grant her the right to pick her own religion. This is insanity. These teenagers are being told to sin.

I think that there are a couple of things going on here. One reason for this is that I think that we want people to leave us alone with regard to how we parent our children. The verse "do to others as you would have them do to you" has been warped by the lens of our society. We apply this principle where it doesn't directly apply. Essentially we think that because we don't want others to mislead our children against our convictions we shouldn't lead their children to truth. This is buying into the the lie that our convictions are equal to the convictions of the other parents. This is not the case. In reality, if we truly love our children we should desire others to lead them away from any of our false teachings and into greater truth. We should go and treat their children the same way. Similarly, we desire for ourselves to be led away from false teaching and so we ought to lead them children away from false teaching. That is the pure application of that command.

Another issue here is the problem that I mentioned in the previous post. We have become so trained to believe that Christianity should never be offensive. In this situation we are afraid of the offense undermining another's authority would create.

Finally, I think sometimes when the parents are confessing Christian the issue is that we are too shortsighted to realize that they are not necessarily actually following Jesus. We assume that they are and that the moderate road that they desire for their children, rather than the radical route, is equally as God honouring. Often this is not the case. I have a good friend whose "Christian" parents are ashamed that he does full time street ministry. They want him to be middle class yuppies like themselves. This is not uncommon. The church is full of parents that are not truly Christian and will never understand their children's desire to surrender their lives to the kingdom of God.

I know that I have been a little to cautious with sharing the gospel with other people's children. As I've been writing this I have been encouraged to be more bold.

Persecution in the West

I never ended up following up on my post about Christians and law. I got distracted by current events and my annual thoughts about Christmas. I've still been thinking about it though.

I've recently started to realize just how true Paul's/God's claim that all that are faithful in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. For a long time I just thought that things were different in the Western church. Sure, some people face grief at work or from family but that persecution was somehow not the norm here because our society was more tolerant. I've come to see things completely differently now.

The more radical my understanding of Jesus' demands on us become the more I realize that the world is going to hate those that really follow him. Jesus' expectations of believers run contrary to the established norms of every culture that has ever existed (with the possible exception of Israel for short periods of time in ancient history). The gospel is still the stench of death to those that are perishing.

If I love a brother in Christ enough to tell him that his perpetual sin leaves him in danger of the fires of hell then his natural response is going to be hate. If I radically extend myself toward the outcasts, inviting them to live with me, then my neighbours are likely to complain and try to involve the law. It's just the natural course of radical obedience.

Christianity has somehow become about have a good reputation, being loved by all, never offending, always affirming. I must stand against this. Jesus said, ""Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets." The same is true today.

I think that some of the reason that we don't see persecution is that we are so used to thinking of appropriate Christian ministry as falling within the socially acceptable constraints of our society. We never get cussed our for street preaching or door to door evangelism because the negative reactions lead us believe that is not a God honouring ways of loving the lost. We don't have our named spurned as evil for confronting fellow Christians about their greed because greed is considered an unchallengeable sin within the church (see 1Cor 5 to see how the early church dealt with greed). We don't lose face within our community by selling all our possessions because we never consider that there is an alternative to perpetually improving the aesthetic state of our home. We don't lose our jobs because we don't consider our work place as a place where we can share the gospel. The list can go on. There are lots of legitimate ways that we could be ministering that would get us despised and rejected by men but negative reactions lead us to believe that they are inappropriate.

I'm not suggesting that we go out looking for trouble. I just think that we need to be so fixed on Jesus that we can't help but be offensive. He is as offensive today as he was 2000 years ago. As we become like him in his love we also become like him in his offensive nature. Don't be surprised when the world hates you because they hated him first.

I suppose that I should add a disclaimer that I see radical Christianity as different then standard conservative Christianity. I'm sure some people hated the pharisees and I'm know some people hate moral majority style Christians. Their actions are offensive for a different reason than Jesus' actions. Their gospel-less demands are arrogant and hypocritical. Radical Christianity will sometimes be mistaken for this. It is different. Jesus' demands came with forgiveness and acceptance. Jesus' demands are God's demands not man-made demands. I could go on but that's for a different post.

Jesus is Coming!

Voice of the Martyrs has an interesting article on their blog about the hope that the nativity narration in Revelation 12 offers to believers undergoing persecution.

About a year ago Joel and I both read the novel, "The Martyr of the Catacombs: a Tale of Ancient Rome." This novel is very inspiring historical fiction that follows a believer from his conversion until his execution. The author made use of several passages from Revelation to illustrate the hope that sustained the believers through their trials.

Incidentally, at the same time we were also reading Revelation together. The story opened our eyes to see Revelation in a completely different way. At one point Revelation simply seemed like a code book about what the end times will be like. Now I see Revelation as an incredibly encouraging book of hope.

Babylon represents this world. Every nation that oppresses Christians is partially represented by Babylon. Babylon will fall. Jesus will conquer the nations and roll in justice. He cares for those that are suffering, listens to their prayers and will glorify them in the end. Every page is about the hope that we have in Jesus. One day everything will be made new; this world is temporary. I can't help but smile when I think about this. This world will not go on forever. Jesus is coming!

All glory belongs to the Slaughtered Lamb!

A Christ-centred Xmas

Adam asked in the comments about what a Christ-centred Christmas might look; would we recognize it if we separated the wheat from the chaff?

Adam has a point that Christmas is riddled with non-Christ-centred traditions. Since when did Santa, eggnog, mistletoe, evergreen trees and snowmen have anything to do with the birth of Jesus? For whatever reason I think that people like to lump things into significant holidays that really have nothing at all to do with their original purpose. We've done this with Christmas and Easter and the Jews do this with their holidays. They have special foods that they've come to associate with certain holidays that really don't have anything to do with the God ordained celebrations. It's just like we've done with our man-made holidays. I'm sure other cultures have done the same sort-of things. I think it helps us feel that the holidays are special when we add extra traditions to the days. We feel like we care more about the truly significant parts when the insignificant customs have given us warm feelings.

This seems to beg the question of whether or not all this tradition adding is appropriate. I think that I could probably make an argument that all tradition adding is inappropriate whenever it distracts from Jesus. Time and again the Israelites were reminded about and judged for adopting the traditions of the foreign nations (Lev 20:23, Jer 10:1-4). They were to be wholly focused around Yahweh. Yahweh also lambastes the Israelites when the traditions that he gave them ceased to be about him (Isa 1:14, Amos 5:21). Its seems clear that Yahweh is concerned about the focus of our activities. It seems foolish to add things to our holidays that have nothing to do with Jesus lest we make the holiday about sentimental feelings rather than about him.

Christmas in and of itself is a man-made tradition but I believe that it can be celebrated without all the added nonsense and focused around Jesus. Taking time annually to consider the significance of the incarnation can be a good thing. I would like to see Christmas celebrated with fasting and generosity toward the poor. The incarnation of Yahweh into the form of a man was essentially a fast for Yahweh. He was sacrificially generous toward us and thus sacrificial generosity toward others in need seems appropriate. I also think that the old carols could b an appropriate aid in our meditation on the incarnation.

Honestly, I think it would be really helpful for the church to separate itself entirely from Christmas. I would be happy though to see it replaced with an "incarnation day" in some other month. This would help people recognize those parts of Christmas that have nothing to do with Jesus. People would be less inclined to syncretize the celebration of the birth of our lord with the pagan (and they are pagan in that they are from this world) elements that only distract us from worship.

My apologies

This is a fairly new blog and I'm not sure I have any regular readers yet but I wanted to apologize. I feel horribly unable to write interesting and well written articles. I desire to write articles that well articulated, sometimes polemic, but a least interesting. I'm simply not there yet. I think sometimes I may come across as an opinionated, religious right, writer because I don't expand my arguments enough.

If you find my topics interesting then please bear with my amateurish writing, give me feedback and help me become a better writer.

Thoughts on Christmas

I have really mixed feelings about Christmas. Years ago Joel and I decided to opt out of the gift giving madness in order to be able to use our money for those that have true need. We haven't looked back since.

What I have mixed feelings about is the holiday itself. Probably due to sentimental feelings that come from my childhood I still get warm feelings when I listen to Christmas music and meditate on the incarnation. Part of me want to hang on to the Christian traditions that are focused around Jesus.

Another part of me thinks that the whole season is crap. The liturgical calender holds no appeal to me. It's extra-biblical (but not necessarily unbiblical) and at least for me I suspect strict adherence would detract from weighter matters of obedience. I'm just not sure that Christmas or Easter really have any value. These holidays are marking events that we're supposed to be remembering daily. Are the holidays even beneficial?

I'm certainly quite jaded by most of Christmas. The commercial buy buy buy of Christmas makes me sick. The incarnation of Christ is amazing and nothing quite detracts from the significance of this gift like giving junk to people that don't need it.

Christmas trees and Santa are another mystery to me. I don't understand why Christians don't do away with them altogether. They have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. They simply distract us toward sentimentality. If we're going to celebrate Christmas then lets make it 100% about Jesus. All the other secular traditions get in the way of true worship. Christmas is such a mixed bag in our society that I'm not sure it's going to be all that easy to separate the wheat from the chaff in order to make something wholesome out of it.