Santa or Satan? LOL 12/23/2012 04:05 p.m. "WHEN I JUDGED SANTA" -Kathie Walters When my daughter, Faith, was little - like 3 years old, we took her with us to the mall at Christmas. We had never said anything about Santa Clause - she hadn't ever noticed him. This time however we came across a long line of kids who were waiting to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Faith's eye were wide open - she had rushed ahead a little bit. " Mom and Dad," she was yelling, "There's a funny old man here." Parents stared at her and then stared at us! We tried to explain about Santa without sounding religious and weird. I don't know if she got it - she believed that Santa helped to bring presents from Jesus. Right after that we went to Arby's for lunch. They had a tree there in a big pot and Faith tried to climb it. It all crashed over and dirt went everywhere. The Arby's people weren't very pleased. When we got our famous Arbys sandwhiches David shook a bottle of ketchup very hard. Unfortunately the lid wasn't on properly and the ketchup flew across the aisle onto a nice man in a very nice suite. Fortunately he had just BEEN for a job interview and was very nice about it. The Arby's people scowled at us. We didn't go back there again for about a year! I must admit that since I was spirit filled I was very irritated by Santa and thought he was really almost "demonic." A fake and imposter. I was very indignant about the whole thing. I had gotten over the Christmas tree thing when I realized no one was worshipping trees, just making nice decorations and making their houses look festive. I also realized that Jesus wasn't actually born on 25th December, but then I realized God is interested in the hearts more than the dates. So we continue to enjoy and celebrate Jesus with all the christmas trees and pressies and great food. God's people are honoring Jesus and in that sense it's Christmas every day anyway. Back to Santa - Christians call "Santa" after St Nicholas - St Nicholas was a Bishop in Lycia, Turkey. He was known for his great intercession and the many miracles that resulted. He was also known as a secret gift giver. He would put coins in people's shoes at night as well as bring gifts. But I was still having a bit of a problem about it and I was ministering in a church in Colorado years ago and having a great time. In this church was an elder, they called him the "older elder." He was very sweet and kind -kinda twinkly if you know what I mean. His eyes twinkled. A strong and powerful intercessor the Pastor told me. After church service we went out to lunch - it was cold - November. The older elder came along and I happened to sit next to him. We chatted and got to talking about Christmas. "I love Christmas time," he said. I expected him to tell me he was going to be with his family. He didn't! Instead he said "I am the Mall Santa." I was taken aback. "What?" I thought - "This nice spiritual man is an evil Santa." Thank God he was oblivious to my shock. He carried on chatting, all lit up like a Christmas tree. " I love it, it's one of the best and wonderful ministries I've ever done." "Oh" was all I could manage. I was still a bit mind boggled. "I love to give and I get to give presents, but better than that, every time a child sits on my lap I pray for them. I get to pray for all the kids in town. I can put my hand on their arm or hold their hand and my hands are anointed. So I pray and bless them and pray they will come to know Jesus." "Sometimes I get to pray for them if they have a cold or something." The more he talked the more he twinkled and his eyes sparkled. All I could think of was "Thank God he didn't know I thought he was an 'evil' Santa." I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel to repent. I thought about how religious I was and making judgments because of a religious mindset. God is interested in the heart. Someone wrote me and scolded me about Christmas Trees. I love Christmas trees - I left one up for almost a year, a few years ago until my husband took it down while I was away. But the next Christmas I put up 3. I don't worship trees OK! I worship Jesus -I just think they are pretty and festive. I had a friend, Annie, come from UK to spend Christmas with us one year. She was a powerful prophetess and intercessor. But she was very upset with me. I had my 3 Christmas trees plus a baby one and presents everywhere. We love Christmas at our house We love Jesus and celebrate HIM. People were bringing presents to my house for Annie. Even that upset her. Annie started making a big fuss about it all. I told her we love this season and nothing is going to change- I told her if she doesn't want to be a part she could stay in her room and watch movies ( or pray for us). As she became more and more upset, I sat her down and said I was going to pray for her as the whole thing was getting ridiculous. As I prayed the Lord gave me some words of knowledge. It turned out that when she was a child in Ireland her parents were heavy drinkers. Every Christmas day they would drink themselves silly and end up throwing knives at each other and scream at each other. The kids would end up outside in the yard hiding in the bushes. So that was her memory of Christmas, poor thing, no wonder she didn't like christmas. She allowed her religious mindsets to replace her real reason for hating Christmas When that got healed and delivered - guess what? she had a wonderful Christmas. She went and bought presents for everyone in sight. God told me to buy her a beautiful white dress - it was strange because she NEVER wore dresses. But a few months later she got married and that white dress was her wedding dress. I am not telling you what to believe, but remember that God is interested in the heart. You can do the right thing for the wrong reason and you can do the wrong thing for the right reason. If you don't want to have "Christmas" at your house, that's fine - just don't judge people that do. But whatever you do - do it in the Name of Jesus and be blessed and be a blesser- that's God's heart. Kathie - kathiewalters@mindspring.com http://www.dancingsantacard.com/?santa=236006 I am currently Blessed I am listening to Brandon Heath - Jesus in Disguise Return to the Library of A. Paige White
