Proverbs 27:17
Monday, October 12, 2026
Bible Study Wednesday at 6:30
Hi everyone,
The Gospel for this Sunday, found in all three synoptic Gospels, has Jesus telling us to pay our taxes! While the message may be sometimes hard for us to take, it serves to remind us that we are a government "by the people", and we are people of God first.
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Pastor Tim
"God has led you to the desert, and spoken to your Heart."
Mount of Olives Lutheran Church
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Mount of Olives Pastor Tim Perlick
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Bible Study for October 18, 2026
Opening Prayer:
Creator of all, we thank you for the opportunity to gather in study. Open our minds and hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit, unite us in faith, hope, and love. Help us to be faithful to the gospel and to walk humbly with you. Grant us your peace as we grow in wisdom and understanding. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Matthew 22:15-22 Believers bear the image of the Divine; believers belong wholly to God. Does this awareness influence the decisions you make in the political and social realms?
Today’s Gospel lection sets a familiar scene: the Pharisees conspiring to trap Jesus by asking him a trick question. He responded, as was his habit, by turning the question back to them. His subsequent comment, though, is the best-known verse in this passage: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s”. Taken out of context, this pronouncement of Jesus is often cited in debates over the relationship of church and state. At the heart of the passage, however, lies the truth that ultimately our allegiance belongs to God. God’s “due” was the complete devotion of the believer. Those listening would have to decide for themselves where their ultimate loyalty lay.
Thessalonians 1:1-10 What impact does our faith have on those around us? Do others see evidence of a living, joyous faith in us?
Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, his earliest letter, is the earliest writing in the New Testament. Paul founded the church in Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, after leaving Philippi. The letter is addressed to the Gentile believers converted from pagan faiths. One of the letter’s primary concerns is Paul’s thanksgiving for and encouragement of the Thessalonians, who held firmly to their faith in spite of persecution and adversity. The Gentile Christians faced ongoing pressure, and often threat of physical violence, to return to the beliefs and values of the prevailing culture.
Isaiah 45:1–7 When have you seen God work through non-believers?
The prophet delivers an audacious theological proclamation by presenting Cyrus, the pagan Persian monarch, as the Lord’s "anointed" (mashiach)—an honorific typically reserved exclusively for Israelite kings and priests. Through this striking appointment, Yahweh demonstrates His sovereign mastery over global history, directly commissioning a foreign ruler who does not even know Him to dismantle empires, open double doors, and liberate the captive exiles of Israel. The passage moves from political orchestration to unyielding monotheism, systematically asserting that the Lord alone forms the light and creates the darkness, authors wellbeing and creates calamity. By declaring that there is no other deity beside Him, Isaiah shatters the dualistic and polytheistic assumptions of the ancient Near East, reminding the covenant community that God transcends conventional boundaries and can deploy any earthly instrument to accomplish His redemptive purpose.
Closing Prayer:
Creator of all, you have called us and chosen us to be your people.
By the power of your Holy Spirit may we bear witness with joy and conviction
to the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Jesus Christ, my God, I adore You and thank You for all the graces You have given me this day. I offer You my sleep and all the moments of this night. I place myself and all my loved ones, wherever they may be, in Your sacred side and under the mantle of Our Blessed Mother. Let Your holy angels stand watch and keep us in peace. Amen.
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“Work as if everything depends on you, but trust as if everything depends on God.” —Gerard Verschuuren
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Examination of Conscience
The daily examination of conscience is an ancient Catholic practice. It’s very simple, and it’s designed to help us identify our sins and weaknesses so that we can improve and grow stronger in the spiritual life, while providing an excellent ongoing preparation for regular Confession. It consists of taking a few minutes at the end of the day to prayerfully review our actions in the light of God’s commandments, followed by the Act of Contrition.
Reflect
Reflect on the victories and losses
Review your actions, words, and thoughts today.
Did you actively guard yourself against temptation? Where did sin creep in?
In what moments did you practice virtue and moral courage?
Were you attuned to the Holy Spirit's promptings today? Where did you feel His inspiration?
Ask Him for the graces necessary to follow His Will more purposefully tomorrow.
Gratitude
Practice Gratitude
Where did you feel His loving gaze upon you today?
What people or moments helped you see God in your life?
Thank God for all these moments!
Ask Him to help you recognize His blessings and providence tomorrow.
Recommit
Renew your Christian commitment
Thank God for the gift of His Son Jesus and our call to be His disciples.
Write down an intention for your day tomorrow, and ask Our Lord for His help in carrying it out.
Pray a Hail Mary, Guardian Angel prayer, or another beloved prayer.
Act of Contrition
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen.
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My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
Isaiah 32:18
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Luke 2:6-14 - Uncovering the True Date of Jesus' Birth and Christmas Origins
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Luke 2:6-14
(6) So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. (7) And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (8) Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. (9) And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. (10) Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. (11) For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (12) And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” (13) And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
(14) “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
New King James Version Change email Bible version
Jesus was not born on December 25. While the Bible does not give an exact date for His birth, John Reid, in the Forerunner article, "When Was Jesus Born?" tells us that the Bible leaves clues that point to His actual birth date. The article provides a method of calculation starting with John the Baptist's father, Zacharias. Based on when Zacharias would have served in the Temple during his priestly course, John the Baptist's birth would have occurred in the latter half of March. Since he was six months older than Jesus (Luke 1:32), we can extrapolate that Jesus would have been born in the second half of September, around the fall holy days.
Lawrence Kelemen, a Jew, brings up several points about the problems people face when they attempt to justify their keeping of the holiday. He affirms that the Bible does not list the actual day of Jesus' birth anywhere. He infers that, since Mark, the earliest gospel (written a half-century after Jesus' birth) begins with the baptism of Jesus as an adult, first-century Christians cared little about His birthday.
The roots of Christmas are found in Saturnalia. Pagans in Rome celebrated this weeklong period of bedlam and lawlessness between December 17-25. During this period of anarchy, no one could be punished for their vandalism and mayhem. An "enemy of the Roman people" was chosen to represent the "Lord of Misrule." Each community selected a victim and forced him to gorge himself on food and other indulgences throughout the week. On the last day of the festival, December 25, they took vengeance against the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this victim. Kelemen writes that besides this human sacrifice, there was widespread drunkenness, public nudity, rape, and other forms of sexual license.
After Constantine converted to Catholicism, many pagans followed him once they were allowed to maintain their celebration of Saturnalia. They solved the problem of Saturnalia having nothing to do with Christianity by declaring December 25 to be Jesus' birthday, replacing the celebration of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Invincible Sun), but little changed in practice. These practices are blatant violations of God's command in Deuteronomy 12:30-31.
Many of the trappings of Christmas are directly imported from paganism. For instance, the Catholic Church shamelessly welcomed the pagan tree worshippers into their fellowship. They simply called their trees "Christmas trees." Mistletoe is another example of such syncretism. The ancient Druids used its supposed mystical powers to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. In ancient Norse mythology, mistletoe was used to symbolize love and friendship. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe is a later blending of the sexual license of Saturnalia with Druidic practice.
The Catholic Church says that the practice of gift-giving was begun by an early bishop, Nicholas, who died in AD 345 and made a saint in the 1800s. Nicholas was a senior bishop who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325. Some 750 years later, a group of sailors who idolized him moved his bones from Turkey to Italy, where he supplanted a favor-granting deity called the Grandmother, who used to fill children's stockings with gifts. In his honor, his followers would give each other gifts on the anniversary of his death, December 6.
From there, his cult spread to the German and Celtic pagans. Many of them worshipped Woden, who wore a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens each fall. Through the process of syncretism, Nicholas and Woden were combined. Nicholas now sported a beard, rode a flying horse, wore winter clothes to battle the elements, and took his trip in the last month of the year instead of in the fall. As it evangelized in Northern Europe, Catholicism absorbed the Nicholas cult and persuaded its adherents to give gifts on December 25 instead of December 6.
In 1809, novelist Washington Irving satirically wrote of this Saint Nicolas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus. Thirteen years later, Clement Moore wrote a poem based on this Santa Claus, The Night before Christmas. The poem incorporated the giving of gifts, added his descent down the chimney, and replaced the horse with a sleigh and eight reindeer.
Our modern image of Santa Claus was provided by a Bavarian cartoonist, Thomas Nast, who drew over 2000 pictures in the late nineteenth century for Harper's Weekly. Before Nast's cartoon, Saint Nicholas had been depicted as "everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock." Nast provided many of the traditional details: He gave him a home at the North Pole and a workshop with elves who made toys.
The creation of Santa was completed in 1931 when the Coca-Cola Corporation developed a marketing campaign for a Coke-drinking Santa. Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom modeled a chubby Santa, dressed in a bright Coca-Cola red outfit. Kelemen states, "[The modern] Santa was born—a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol."
December 25 has traditionally been the day when pagans marked the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It is a day venerated every year by worshippers of the sun god. Egyptians celebrated Horus' birthday on December 25. Other cultures also worshipped their gods on this day: the Mesopotamians, the ancient Greeks, and the Persians. Winter solstice traditions stretch back long before Jesus Christ entered the world.
Christmas is all about commercialism. Many people struggle with low wages and debt, yet they spend hundreds of dollars to buy Christmas gifts. The average American family will spend $882 this year on Christmas presents. An article in US News and World Report, "Commercialism Only Adds to Joy of the Holidays," avers that Christmas is a spiritual holiday whose main theme is personal, selfish pleasure and joy, claiming that the season's commercialism is integral to it. The article cites Ayn Rand, who said that Christmas' best aspect has been its commercialization: "The Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors . . . provide the city with a spectacular display, which only 'commercial greed' could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle."
This supposed worship of Christ is based on falsehoods. From rebranding pagan sun worship as worship of the Son of God to people telling their children that Santa will withhold their presents if they are not good, everything is a fabrication. Try as they might, people cannot make the unclean clean or the unholy holy.
— John Reiss
To learn more, see:
Reasons for Not Celebrating Christmas
Topics:
Anarchy
Baptism of Jesus Christ
Birth of Sol Invictus ( the Unconquered Sun)
Christmas Based on Lies
Christmas Tree
Christmas, Not the Birth of Christ
Christmas, Pagan Origins of
Commercial Greed
Constantine
Druids
Drunkenness
Human Sacrifice
John the Baptist
Mistletoe
Nicea, Council Of
Overindulgence
Reasons for not Celebrating Christmas
Saint Nicholas of Myra
Santa Claus
Saturnalia
Syncretism
Vandalism
When was Jesus Born?
Winter solstice
Zacharias
Commentary copyright © 1992-2026 Church of the Great God
New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
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This Teaching Clip made me think of you. Watch Monday Night Prayers - Lectio 365 by 24-7 Prayer:
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