by Jeremy Brown

One thing that is for sure about this life, it is hard being different. Our society is consistently ingraining in our heads—everything from television ads to social media to radio and podcast shows and ads—to be a part of the current trends. This society desires everyone to be the same, keep the same holidays, traditions, thoughts about social trends, and so on; if you do not, you are a weirdo. Our society says that it values individualism; however, this is only if you stay within specific parameters. God has something different to say about falling in line with man's traditions, holidays, and ways (Matthew 10:35).

The true followers of Christ are on a mission like a soldier in the military, and we are to persist on that mission come hell or high water, as the saying goes. Being on this mission from Christ puts us on a direct path to collide with the world. Mankind has filled our world with numerous traditions and holidays, i.e., Christmas, Easter, Lent, and so on, that claim to praise God, but not according to the way that our God wants to be praised (Deuteronomy 12:4). God says you will know my followers by their keeping of His laws/precepts such as clean/unclean meats, God's holy days, and His Sabbaths (Proverbs 7:2; Ezekiel 20:11).

Mankind, with all its traditions, has made being a Christian burdensome. We are all aware that there are more than 45,000 different Christian denominations globally and 200 Christian denominations in America. These denominations fall under three (3) main groups, Evangelical Protestantism, Mainline Protestantism, and the Catholic Church. They read the moons differently from one another, and some claim that a woman cannot wear pants but should only wear dresses. They claim you should pray to the east/west, and we know that is not true since God is omnipresent and you can pray to Him in any direction; you should pray a certain number of times per day; you should only take so many steps on the Sabbath, and so on. When praying to our God, you ought to speak specific words and call God into your heart, do not do like the pagans do when they worship their gods with the same old rehearsed prayers (Matthew 6:5-8). They, with their traditions of man, have created endless amounts of rules to make their organization(s) appear more righteous than other Christian organizations. God says one key thing, do not take away nor add to His Word. Keep the unadulterated commandments/precepts God mentions in the Bible, not all this other stuff mankind has created to feel more righteous than one another (Deuteronomy 12:30-32). The Bible warns us about the different traditions of men, worshipping based on the new moon, holidays/man-made holy days, and so on. God says be careful regarding who you follow because some are unknowingly worshipping angels. (Colossians 2:16-18).

We are to remain ROCK STEADY regarding the Word of God written in our Bibles (Matthew 7:16).