I just get to be a teenager. Life here is very different from life in the village. When I was little, I looked for firewood, did chores or looked after the cows. We children did the digging, and our parents did the planting. If my sisters were there, it was more fun, but mostly it was terrible. Sometimes we had a bit extra to sell, but not normally. One year, the harvest was bad and we got really hungry. My parents sent me to Nairobi to stay with my eldest sister, so I could go to school there.
I arrived in shorts; it was so embarrassing, because everyone was wearing trousers. People laughed at me when I got off the bus. Life was tough in the big city. People are very sharp. She was so angry. The police should have just taken those guys to jail; they were just struggling to survive, like all of us. Her friend Lara, the one who took on all the orphans, recently set up a charity called Fund A Future Uganda , and through that I got a sponsor who pays for my education.
I have to work hard, because I want to be an engineer or pilot, and help my mum and dad. They got so excited the last time I went back. I gave them tips about operating in the city. And no shorts, of course. My mum and dad are going to pay me back. Izmir is a very relaxed place: After school, we often go down to the waterfront and mess around. Turning 16 is not a big milestone here: But I do have an important decision to make: This affects your whole career and future. I want to go to university. My hobbies are mainly sports and games: I just started playing basketball.
I also like chess. I love to watch football, too: In Izmir, we were lucky: Technology has become so important. I have a mobile phone, a laptop and a games console. But these things are all so expensive because they are imported. My hopes for the future are simply to get a good job, an OK house and to have good friends. I live in a high-rise, Soviet-era apartment block in a big government-controlled industrial port city in the east.
For my birthday, she bought me a voucher to do a modelling photoshoot. Some celebrate at home with family, others go to a cafe.
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English is my favourite subject, and I like reading and watching films in the original language. One of my biggest dreams is to visit America, maybe even live there one day. Without English, this would be an impossible dream. My country faces a lot of problems: It was strange when I realised I could work out which weapons were firing just by the sound, as was seeing people go about their lives despite the fighting.
They also point to two direct references to birthday celebrations in the Bible. In Genesis, the Pharaoh of Egypt gave a feast for all his officials on his birthday. Centuries later Herod also had a party with dancing, no less, for his birthday.
This party, however, resulted in the beheading of John the Baptist. No counting the years.
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And no birthday greetings, as well. You used to have make the effort to see the birthday celebrant in person in order to greet him or at least spend 30 centavos to make a phone call or a few pesos to send a card or telegram. Even text messages cost a peso not too long ago. Today is my birthday.
Today I can say and do—and write—whatever I want and somehow be forgiven. Kindly look beyond my curmudgeonly behavior and send me good wishes. I would also love some cake. The second place in the Scriptures that we will turn to is often known as "the oldest book" of the Bible - Job pronounced with a long "o" sound like 'lobe'.
So this perfect man of God thought that the birthday feasting of his children may have caused them to sin and also to 'curse God in their hearts' or possibly to break the first commandment. Job invested both his time and wealth in performing sacrifices in an attempt to appease God. He did this because of his valid fears over his children's 'lifting up of themselves' in drinking and reveling on ' their own special day'.
Some folks cast doubt that the references here to "his day" concerns birthdays but the context and the history bear this out as truth. Job, himself, makes the same reference a couple chapters later: Notice how the specter of DEATH again accompanies the birthday feastings in the later verses of the first chapter:. The Job passages reveals some things from God's mind to those willing to listen: There is one more biblical example of a birthday. It may be found in Matthew 14 and Mark 6.
By the time of the NT, genesia could be used to designate the birthday celebration of a living prominent person, hence Mt. When Herod celebrated his birthday he was acting in accord with Hellenistic custom; there is no evidence for the celebration of birthdays in Israel in pre-Hellenistic times. The Gospel passages reveals some things from God's mind to those willing to listen. So we have viewed the three examples in the Bible of birthday celebrations. What do you see from Scripture? Then you will want to keep reading. Josephus Wars of the Jews , vii. The temple was reconsecrated to Jupiter Olympias 2 Maccabees 6.
Pagan riot, reveling, and dalliance with harlots took place within the sacred precincts. The altar was filled with profane things, sabbath keeping was forbidden, the Jewish religion proscribed. T he Jews on the king's birthday were forced monthly to eat of idol sacrifices , and to go in procession carrying ivy on Bacchus' feast. Pigs' flesh was offered to Zeus on an altar set on Jehovah's brazen altar, and the broth sprinkled about the temple Josephus Ant.
Antiochus commanded all on pain of death to conform to the Greek religion, and consecrated the temple to Jupiter Olympius or Capitolinus. Identifying himself with that god "whom his fathers knew not," and whose worship he imported from Rome, he wished to make his own worship universal. The Jews were constrained to profane the sabbath and monthly on the king's birthday to eat of the idol sacrifices , and to go in procession to Bacchus, carrying ivy. The wisdom of Solomon was very famous through his time even until today.
Solomon was inspired to write, Ecclesiastes 7: The true Christian also called Messianic Church never observed the birth of Christ. In fact, the date of Christ's birth is unknown. The Greatest Story Never Told ] The groups and individuals near to this ministry do not observe the pagan-originated Christmas or the birth of Jesus on any day. As the Savior Himself said:. Is not this an indication of celebration? Notice that the text says that this "great joy When is there to be great joy to all people? Not until the Kingdom of Christ is come, that is when there will be great joy unto all people!
A saviour being born sounds like a reason for this joy, one might say, but Was He anyone's saviour at that point? Had He overcome all temptations to be worthy to act as our intercessor? No, not at this point Let us continue on in our study. To whom is the glory given here?
Was it to the little baby Jesus? Or do we see the glory and praise being given to God in the highest? This is not to say that Jesus becoming flesh was not a great thing, but it is not by His birth that we are saved, neither are we told by God to celebrate it. Does the Scriptural record witness that annually, at this day of Jesus' birth whichever day it truly was , the heavenly host would once again offer up praise and glory to God in the highest in honor of Jesus' birth? If we take the "ideals" of the pagan christmas day and begin to apply them to God's true feast days, then how are we any better than Constantine who blended paganism with the faith once delivered to create modern Christianity?
We will search the scripture for further information together. What did the shepherds do upon witnessing this event? Did they praise the infant and exchange gifts between themselves? Let us read more from Luke's record:. Please notice that the shepherds gave all praise and glory to God!
They did not exalt the day of Jesus' birth nor mark the day in anyway. Let us read on. We must take notice that His kingdom is a great future-coming rulership: The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. The government of God under the Kingship of Christ has not yet been established on this earth or there would be lasting peace. So should we celebrate the birth of Christ as King now?
Before being given over to a death sentence, Jesus had said:. Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Christ was born for a great purpose Our rejoicing and hope lies not in the fact that He was born as a helpless infant, but that He became our great Saviour through enduring all trials and overcoming all things, perfect, blameless, without blemish or spot--for only by His death can we attain our resurrection.
He was born so that His life, death, and resurrection would bear witness to God the Father, and not to exalt Himself. In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his [Jesus] birthday. It is only sinners who make great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this world" - Catholic Encyclopedia, Edition, published by the Roman Catholic Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen Not all beliefs, traditions and customs are bad.
Why celebrate birthdays?
But God does not approve of them if they come from false religion; or are against Biblical precepts or teachings. The true saints of God knew this and had the wisdom to discern the truth. They were to come out and be separate. They were to not adopt the vain customs of the heathen. They were to think lowly of themselves and not share the glory of God with another. You have seen that the Bible casts a dark picture of the celebration of birthdays. You have read the historic and academic authorities that prove that the true followers of God did not observe birthdays with celebrations.
Then read on, my friend. The next witnesses against birthday celebrations are from further historical and academic sources. What did the earliest recorded Christians think about celebrating the astrological date of one's birth?
The abbreviated list that follows reveals the truth of the matter - God's people did not partake of this worldly custom. The famous historian Titus Flavius Josephus lived in the first century - a contemporary with Christ - and he wrote:. Grolier's The New Book of Knowledge , , p. Origen of Alexandria, in A. The writings of the late third century Catholic theologian Arnobius show that, even that late, most Catholics were against the celebration of birthdays as he wrote: Against the Heathen Book I , Chapter Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6.
The calculations necessary to settle these positions were casting the horoscope or the diagram of the heavens thema coeli at the nativity. According to the belief of the early civilized races of the East, the stars were the source and at the same time the heralds of everything that happened, and the right to study the "godlike science" of astrology was a privilege of the priesthood. This was the case in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the oldest centres of civilization known to us in the East.
Linda Rannells Lewis in Birthdays , "Birthdays have been celebrated for thousands of years. In early civilizations, where the development of a calendar made an organized reckoning of birth dates possible, the horoscopes of ruling monarchs , their successors and rivals had to be cast with care and birthday omens meticulously examined, for the prospects of the mighty would affect the prospects of the entire society. Prudential ceremonies either at birth or at stated anniversaries , depending on the system of computation, are good insurance.