Resting & Preventing the Christmas Hangover - Purity 922
Purity 922 12/23/2022
Purity 922 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a pleasant May-Day Afternoon view
of the “backyard” of the Roeliff Jansen Community Library in Hillsdale NY comes
to us from yours truly as I was impressed with the simple beauty of the blue sky
over this green meadow and trees and the Berkshires in the distance.
December has got me feeling nostalgic I guess and so
I have shuffled back to the far reaches of my phone and was reminded that I
captured this pleasant scene back on May 8th of 2016 and if my
memory serves me right this photo commemorates my first visit of the Roeliff
Jansen Library, which sparked a real love for libraries in general ever since. May 8th 2016 was a Sunday (isn’t
that just awesome that you can get than information in a moment by dialing back
the calendar on your phone?) and I believe that I may have taken my kids along
with me to the Library to check it out that first time (if my faulty memory is
to believed and this was the first time) but after discovering the peace and facilities
of the library and realized it was a place where I would be free of the distractions
at home, I returned quite often to do my course work for my Bachelor degree in
Biblical Studies and then again for the assignments to complete my Master’s
Degree in Christian Counseling.
If you didn’t know, libraries are great. They have
internet service, people are generally quiet and keep to themselves, and there
are plenty of books and other media resources to borrow for free, not that I
have really utilized that option. It’s
funny because that’s what a library does, right? They let you borrow books, audiobooks,
cd, or dvds. But I don’t do that. No, for me a library is a sanctuary, a place
where I can find rest and read, study, do correspondence, write, manage my “online
ministry” or just sit. Libraries for me
are simultaneously an “office” – a convenient place where I can “take care of
business” and a place where I can just be at peace.
Prior to 2016, I didn’t really appreciate them, but
libraries are something, I will utilize all the time now whenever and wherever I
am and discover I have somethings that I could take care of online or if I just
have “extra time” on my hands that I want to spend in peace and rest.
Well, yesterday I completed my last day of work for
2022 and now am officially on vacation and “rest” is at the forefront of my
mind as I will be enjoying it until a few days after New Year’s, and it is my
prayer for all who listen or read this message that they find some rest in the
upcoming Christmas weekend. Christmas
can be a busy and stressful time as we “hurry, hurry, hurry” to get everything
prepared for the BIG DAY and then we quickly realize that “it’s over” as much
of the celebration of Christmas is more or less done after the last Christmas
present is unwrapped.
Sure we can enjoy our presents and may join together
with family and friends to enjoy spending time together and to have a meal on Christmas
but generally, in my experience anyway, the “magic of Christmas” – that
specific “feeling of Christmas” - runs out in the early afternoon of December
25th. My family’s group get
together is on Christmas Eve, so after the presents are opened on Christmas Day,
there seems to be a real shift in the celebratory spirit from one of enthusiasm
to one of resignation to the realization that the “greatest time of the year”
has come and is going, going, gone.
It’s the “Christmas hangover” – where you are “DONE”
with the pageantry and the hoopla and while you may keep the Christmas tree up
for a while the desire to hear Christmas music or even think about Christmas is
past. This shift from holiday hustle
and bustle and hoopla with all of its thrills, drama, awkward exchanges, and
disappointments back to “normal” can really drag us down into depression if we
are not careful.
If we focus on the events, the stuff, the things and the relationships with family
and friends that surround Christmas, we run the risk of being depressed no
matter what joy we did or didn’t find under the Christmas free.
If our Christmas is GREAT, we can feel sad that it
is over.
If our Christmas is difficult or lonely, we can
really feel low because “we messed it up” or “people don’t really know us or
love us at all”!
So as today is Christmas eve eve, let’s remember to
be wise and discerning about how to approach the next 48 hours to be able to
emerge through the holiday weekend without being victims to the “Christmas
Hangover”.
This advice won’t surprise anyone who follows the
blog because as someone who encourages others to “walk in the Spirit” everyday
of their lives, I do my best to advise people to remain diligent to the disciplines
of Christian Discipleship regardless of the times or the season.
As always, as we walk through this weekend we want
to keep our focus on the Lord and who HE has made us to be in Christ. We need to remember who HE is and who we are
in Christ, now.
As warm and cuddly as Christmas Eve and its Silent Night
– away in the manger – moments can be, don’t
get sucked into the “Baby Jesus” vortex.
I believe that a huge problem that many people have with Christianity at
Christmas time is the childish attitudes that we can perpetually be pulled into
as we hear all the “baby talk.”
A similar cognitive dissonance happens at Easter
Time, as we are reminded of Christ’s passion and suffering, and the fact that “He
is risen, indeed.” and we are inundated with “cross talk” and well meaning
emotionally charged Christians weep over Christ’s passion.
Now hear this, I wholeheartedly believe that we can
grow exponentially as Christians when we reflect on the wonder of the incarnation,
the agony of Christ’s pain, and the glory of His resurrection. When we reflect on these “moments” in Christ’s
life and truly understand the implications of what God has done and how it
personally involves us, we can truly “remember the time” and celebrate. So we should have these times and season to
remember the milestones of our faith and to reflect on them.
However, after hearing people coo over “Baby Jesus”
or weep over Christ’s passion and crucifixion for several years, we can become
a little dry in our celebrations and maybe even a little jaded about “doing
this again”. Look around at your Christmas or Easter services and see how the
joy of the incarnation and rejoicing over the resurrection ARE NOT on display.
And why is that? Why are these people, who are “Christians”
right?, seem relatively unmoved by the things being spoken about?
We could come up with all kinds of excuses about
why. We could blame the delivery of the message or just the fact that we have
all “been here and done that before,”
But I believe the reason why there isn’t more joy in
the church on Christmas is because not all the people gathered there know who Christ
is and don’t know who they are in Christ.
Christ isn’t a baby.
Christ isn’t hanging on the cross.
In fact, when I have returned to the Catholic church of my youth, since
being born again, I have had to fight the urge to stand up and shout: “Take HIM DOWN! Jesus ain’t on the cross no
more! He is ALIVE!”
And I think that is part of the problem with the
state of Christianity. We have “Christians”
who “Know” about Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection but they don’t know
that HE IS ALIVE, now and forever, and that when we put our faith in Him, we
are ALIVE now and forever.
God is not dead. God in the persons of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, is alive and well and present and available for all Christians. But we have to know that, we have to believe
that, and we have to live that by following Jesus.
When we only focus on these milestone moments, and
all the hoopla that surrounds them more than the actual events and the person
involve, who is ALIVE, now, we end up with
a faith that is either as childish as Christ in the manger or as dead as His
body in the tomb.
So as we go in to Christmas, remember that Christ is
not a baby! He is alive in heaven interceding for us now and will one day
return to reclaim the earth. God, He hears us and He is with us, now!
Now don’t rush the nativity scene and scream: “Christ
isn’t a baby anymore!” but if you should remind yourself of this and seek to
have a continuous relationship with Him everyday.
The disciplines of discipleship that will keep us
grounded in our faith and be used by God to develop a robust relationship with
Him: are prayer, Bible Study, thanksgiving, praise, worship, and service. We don’t just believe. We “practice” our faith by living it in the “Spirit”
by applying God’s wisdom and ways to our lives.
And NOW here this, these are not just empty
expression of religious traditional practices that seek to please an unseen and
distant God. When you start “walking and
talking with God”, for real, you will soon realize that His presence is with
us. His still small voice (in His word, in our heats) is still speaking. Jesus is “God with Us” because HE IS WITH US
and somewhere along the path of Christian Discipleship, when you decide to “get
right with God” and start following Him, He will reveal Himself to you.
So real quick, to get past the Christmas
Hangover:
- Keep your focus on God – the living, ever present
God, who is “ALL GROWN UP” and with you -NOW
- Instead of seeking happiness in a holiday celebration,
that is subject to circumstances beyond your control, make the decision to seek
the Lord and His peace and purpose for your life by repenting of the
materialistic and fleshly ways of this world and chose to be “born again” by
surrendering to the Lordship of Christ.
- Practice Gratitude- give thanks to God for all the
blessings you have known in this life and all the good things we enjoy everyday
and will enjoy in the future – We have to come to realize that God is alive and
active. He is in control. He determines when we go into eternity and thus we
must realize that everything we have, our very lives, come from Him – so we should
thank Him. This also keeps our focus on
what we have rather than what we don’t. A practice of gratitude will make you feel blessed,
loved, and content.
- Manage your expectations - Realize that the circumstances involving people
and things at Christmas are beyond your control and humbly accept what you “receive”. You can’t be disappointed if you expect nothing,
so expect NOTHING and be thankful for everything!
- Be quick to listen and slow to speak - Much of the suffering in relationships come
from not taking a “Pause” before we speak.
Before speaking, Remember to ask yourself: Does this need to be said? Do I need to be
the one to say this? Do I need to say this now? Is it true? Is it Kind? Is it
helpful? And if that’s all too much to
process, remember that you have the “right to remain silent.”
- Forgive – We are commanded to forgive everything because
we have been forgiven of everything. So seek to be a peacemaker, as much as it
depends on you, and forgive others for they often “do not know what they do”.
- Keep walking – Trust in the Lord and really talk to
Him and ask Him about the way you should go.
Read His word to renew your mind, and to give you wisdom and
strength.
Well, I’ve written a lot, I think more than normal,
so will skip the Bible verse of the day – because I am free in Christ to do
that, and I’m on vacation.
So why am I doing this at all?
Well, I discovered that “resting” isn’t just “doing
nothing”. Resting is finding the peace that we need. We need and should get
lots of sleep. But the peace that goes
beyond all understanding is when we find our “rest” in Christ.
Knowing who we are in Christ can be a constant practice reminding ourselves of who we are and how it is we are to live our lives, but it paradoxically comes with the peace of the Lord when we are assured that we are with Him and He is with us, NOW, as we follow Him in the way we should go.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s
“Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.
The
Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship
The
Saints, continues
Sanctification
through the seal of the Holy Spirit always places the church in the midst of
struggle. The struggle is in the last resort the struggle over this seal, to
prevent its being broken, either from within or from without. It is the
struggle that seeks to prevent the world from wanting to be church, and the
church from wanting to be world. The struggle of the church for the earthly
space which has been given to the body of Christ is the church’s
sanctification. Separation of the world from the church, and separation of the
church from the world, is the holy struggle of the church for God’s sacred
realm on earth.
This sacred realm is
possible only within the visible church-community. But, and this is the second point, by the fact of its being
separated from the world, the church-community lives within God’s sacred realm.
Likewise, in the midst of the church-community there still lives a piece of the
world within this sacred realm. This is why the saints are called to act in all
things in a manner which is worthy of their calling and of the gospel (Eph.
4:1; Phil. 1:27; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12). However, the only way they will be
worthy is by daily reminding themselves of the gospel from which they live.
“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified” (1 Cor. 6:11).
To live out of this daily reminder is what constitutes sanctification for the
saints. For the message by which they are called to be worthy is the message
that the world and the flesh have died; that they have been crucified and have
died with Christ on the cross and in their baptism; that sin can no longer rule
since its royal power has already been broken;[38] and that it is,
therefore, no longer possible for a Christian to sin. “Those who have been born
of God do not sin” (1 John 3:9).
The break has been
made. The “former” way of life (Eph. 4:22) has been brought to an end. “For
once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light” (Eph. 5:8).
Formerly, they committed the shameful and “unfruitful works of the flesh.” Now,
the Holy Spirit produces in them the fruit of sanctification.
Christians must
therefore no longer be called “sinners,” provided sinners are understood as
those who live subject to the power of sin (ἁμαρτωλοί;
for the only exception, see Paul’s self-designation in 1 Tim. 1:15). Rather,
Christians were once sinners, godless, enemies (Rom. 5:8, 10, and Gal. 2:15,
17). But now they are saints for the sake of Christ. As saints, they are
reminded and admonished to be what they are. They are not required in their
sinful state to be holy. That would be an impossibility, a complete relapse
into the attempt to earn salvation by works and thus be blasphemy against
Christ. Instead, the saints are called to be holy. For they are sanctified in
Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
The life of the
saints stands out in contrast against a terribly dark background. The dark
works of the flesh are completely brought into the open by the bright light of
life in the Spirit: “adultery, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,
hatred, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19–21).
All these no longer have any place in the community of Christ. They have been
dismissed, judged on the cross, and brought to an end. From the very beginning
Christians are told that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom
of God” (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; 1 Cor. 6:9; Rom. 1:32). These sins separate us
from eternal salvation. If one of these vices is, nevertheless, discovered
within the church-community, then the consequence must be exclusion from the
community’s life altogether (1 Cor. 5:1ff.).
It is striking that
the so-called catalogs of vices largely agree on the sins they list. Topping
the list is nearly always the sin of fornication (πορνεία),
which is incompatible with the new life of a Christian. What follows most
frequently is the sin of greed (πλεονεξία, 1 Cor. 5:10; 6:10;
Eph. 4:19; 5:3, 5; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:4ff.), which in some cases can be
combined with the former as “impurity” and “idolatry” (1 Cor. 5:10; 6:9; Gal.
5:3, 19; Col. 3:5, 8). Mentioned next are the sins against love for brothers
and sisters, and finally the sin of excessive self-indulgence.
¶ It is certainly no
accident that fornication is the first sin mentioned in these lists. The reason
for this is not to be found in the particular cultural context of the time, but
in the particular nature of this sin. Fornication is the recurrence of Adam’s
sin, of the craving to be like God, the aspiration to be the creator of life,
the desire to rule rather than serve. It is the sin in which we transgress the
boundaries God has set for us, and in which we abuse God’s creatures.[44]
It was Israel’s sin to deny the faithfulness of its Lord again and again, and
“by engaging in fornication with idols” (1 Cor. 10:7[–8]), Israel became
dependent on them. Fornication is first and foremost a sin against God the
Creator. For a Christian, however, it is also a particularly flagrant way of
sinning against the body of Christ itself, for a Christian’s body is a member
of the body of Christ. It belongs to Christ alone. Bodily union with a prostitute
destroys the spiritual communion [Gemeinschaft] with Christ. All those who rob
Christ of their bodies and lend them to sin have separated themselves from him.
Fornication is sin against one’s own body. However, Christians must know that
their body is also the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them (1 Cor.
6:13ff.). Their bodies are in such intimate communion [Gemeinschaft] with
Christ that Christians cannot with their bodies belong also to the world. The
community of the body of Christ prohibits the sin against one’s own body. The
fornicator cannot escape the wrath of God (Rom. 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:1f.; 7:2; 10:7;
2 Cor. 12:21; Heb. 12:16; 13:4). Christians are chaste; they surrender their
body completely to the service of the body of Christ. They know that with the
suffering and death of Christ’s body on the cross their own bodies are also
affected, and they are given over to death. Being in community with the
tortured and transfigured body of Christ liberates Christians from
disorderliness in matters of bodily life. The unbridled passions of the body
die a daily death in this community. With discipline and chastity Christians
use their bodies exclusively to serve and to build up the body of Christ, the
church-community. This also holds true within a Christian marriage, which is
itself thus transformed into a part of the body of Christ.
Greed is related to
fornication. An insatiable desire is what they both have in common, and it is
what lets the greedy person become enslaved to the world. God’s commandment
says you shall not covet. Fornicators and greedy people are nothing but desire.
Fornicators desire to possess another human being. The greedy desire to possess
the things of this world. They seek power and authority, but in so doing they
become slaves of the world, to which their hearts cling. Both fornication and
greed bring us into contact with the world in a way that stains and defiles us.
Both are idolatry, since in either case our hearts no longer belong to God and
Christ, but to the coveted goods of our own world.
But those who create
their own god and their own world, those who allow their own desire to become
their god, must inevitably hate other human beings who stand in their way and
impede their designs. Strife, hatred, envy, and murder all have the same
source: they spring from our own selfish desire. “Those conflicts and disputes
among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that
are at war within you?” (James 4:1f.). Fornicators and greedy persons cannot
know love for fellow human beings. They live out of the darkness of their own
hearts. By sinning against the body of Christ, they sin against their kindred.
The body of Christ makes fornication and love mutually exclusive. The body
which I cut off from the community of the body of Christ cannot serve my
neighbor. And again, the lack of respect for my own body and for other human
beings necessarily leads to an insolent and godless life of excessive
self-indulgence, drunkenness, and gluttony. Those who lack respect for their
body become slaves to their own flesh, and “their belly will be their God”
(Rom. 16:18). The ugliness of this sin consists in the desire of the dead flesh
to pamper itself, thus dishonoring us even in our external appearance. All
those who live a life of excessive self-indulgence have no part in the body of
Christ.
For the
church-community this entire world of vices is a thing of the past. It has
separated itself from those who indulge in these vices, and is called to do so
again and again (1 Cor. 5:9ff.). For “what fellowship is there between light
and darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14ff.). With the latter are “the works of the flesh”;
with the former is “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:19ff.; Eph. 5:9).[1]
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tomorrow------------------------
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Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship,
ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 262–266.
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