Keeping Christmas

"And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!" - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I know, I know. It's too soon to talk about Christmas for most of my readers. Notable exceptions exist of course (Anne, Stephanie, I'm talking to you wonderful ladies!)

I used the above quote because when people refer to someone as a Scrooge, they mean the miserly old skin-flint in the "before" picture and not of the "after." In the same way, a "Grinch" is a mean-spirited, selfish person who hates Christmas. Yet in the story by Dr. Seuss, "the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day" and he ended up being sweet and generous! 

Christmas 2014 - everyone gets in on the fun!

When I was a little kid, I heard stories of my dad waking my mom up at 3:30 a.m. just because it was Christmas. He couldn't wait to see our faces when we opened our presents, to see the wonder and hear the laughter of that day. It was his favorite day of the year. And he didn't get anything else out of the day. We had no money to give him a present. His joy, his Christmas spirit, came from giving to those who had no way to return the favor. 

What a wonderful feeling that is! I've had occasion - here and there - to experience that kind of excitement in anticipation of someone opening a gift that I have made or bought for them. It is truly magical. And it doesn't matter if it's for Christmas, or their birthday, or even "just because." I don't expect anything in return. It just blesses me to bits to be able to give to them something that they need or want - that they like - and that they will cherish and use. 

So, perhaps we can "keep Christmas" all year round. Wouldn't that be great? If everyone had that spirit of gratitude, generosity and goodwill all year, how much sweeter life would be! Folks would be much easier to get along with ... as long as there was no trace of obligation or duty involved ... and therefore, no mad rushing about in the stores, no impatience in parking lots, or any of that. 

How much fuller life would feel with that kind of attitude - to give is better than to receive - present not just at Christmas but every day? How it would transform each of us to find joy in giving to those who have no hope of ever paying us back (which isn't the point anyway)!! Hungry, homeless people, people with hardly two nickels (or tuppence) to rub together, could eat, be warm, and have their daily needs met through the generosity of those who love to give! 

Isn't that worth more than getting the latest gadget for ourselves? 
I'll leave that thought with you, as it has been burning in me. 

And happy Christmas to you!

The Enoch Factor

"Enoch walked with God, and could not be found, because God took him."  

In the days when people routinely lived multiple hundred years, this epithet is written about the only fellow rumored never to have known death.  Word has it that he was such great friends with God that one day, after Enoch was about 300 years old, God just went a little farther than usual on their daily walk, and they ended up in Heaven.

There are a lot of things written about the mysterious process Christians refer to (thus further complicating it) as "sanctification."  Many don't understand it; many more don't understand why it's important, still more miss the point entirely.

One person asked a blanket question just today to a bunch of Christians, "If we're all going to be changed 'in the twinkling of an eye' after death, why bother with sanctification down here? " 

Good question.  From a purely logical perspective it doesn't make sense, especially because in our own efforts to live a morally clean life, we stumble and fall pitifully over and over again.  Many hit burnout and just give up.

The spiritual disciplines (prayer, reading God's word, doing the next right thing, and the dubious practice most Christians refer to as "witnessing" (translation, being so militant, vocal, weird, holier-than-thou, cosmic, and/or heavenly minded that nobody wants anything to do with God... or is it?) all have their place, but what it all boils down to is this:  what is my motivation for living a life of devotion to God?

If I pray out of rote, or because it's what I'm "supposed to" do, what good is it?  If I give money to the church out of duty or some vague idea that God is going to reward me for giving Him what belongs to Him anyway... I have to mistrust my motives for giving.  There's a passage in 1 Corinthians 3 that says that on the day when Christians stand before Him, He'll test our works by fire.  The things that remain will be like jewels... but the wood, hay and stubble of our works will be burned up.  These perishable things are practices like (but not limited to) :

• doing things He wants done by relying on Him, but in our own strength instead
• focusing on rules and restrictions rather than relationship and resting in Him
• church attendance out of habit
• singing songs we don't mean in our hearts
• judging people by our own standards of tradition rather than accepting them in truth
• running ahead and asking Him to bless our pre-conceived plans
• turning prayer into a dreary exercise and reading the Bible into a chore
• turning the joy of sharing His love with someone else into a reason to make someone else feel guilty for not doing it the way we might do it

 ... and the list goes on.  

What drives the process we call sanctification anyway? What are those jewels that will remain after everything gets burnt up?

God has the advantage of being able to look into our hearts and see our motives.  It is the motives inside that will determine whether an act we have done or are doing will remain as a jewel.  


Two people can therefore do exactly the same thing.  Let's say it's ummm, serving dinner to the homeless at the soup kitchen.  One person is doing this because he was guilted into it by the outreach coordinator, browbeaten into it by his pastor, or because he wants the recognition or the satisfaction of having done something that people see as good.  Another does it because God has given him a heart of compassion for the down-and-outers, and he actually loves the people he is serving.  Even if the first person tells every homeless person about God's love, and the second person says nothing, who is showing them God's love?

To answer the original question at the first of this post, it's not a question of beating our brains out over something that God is going to accomplish anyway in the "twinkling of an eye."  When the sanctification becomes a goal, we've missed the point. 

It's all about gratitude.

It's about wanting to spend time with Someone who rescued us from certain death, wanting to get to know intimately Someone who loves us without conditions.  The sanctification (the love, joy, peace, and all that other good fruit of the Spirit-filled life) is a by-product, not a goal. 


Enoch knew that.

You and I were made to worship

A while back I was watching and listening to Hillsong’s “Glory” on Youtube.
Listen to it here
... and these were some of the thoughts I wrote down while I listened ...

Such a blessing it is to see people worshiping God freely!! The song itself is a vehicle to bring the heart back to what’s most important.

Often, people in the course of a week can accumulate layers of caked-on filth, like people long ago used to accumulate on their feet when they walked in sandals on dirt roads. Praise and worship – especially worship – is like the water that washes that contamination off. More often than not, it takes a good soaking to loosen the dirt of cares and burdens that comes from our contact with the world, and let it be washed away. In practical terms, two or three songs often isn’t going to touch that place in us that really needs to be touched and cleansed so that we’re receptive to what God wants to do to move us inside the outer court of our flesh, into the spirit realm where He can meet with us.

I'm now listening to "related links" - as one song finishes I click on another in the same theme.

We underestimate the amazing power of corporate worship. We underestimate it because that’s what the enemy of our souls wants. He used to lead worship in God’s throne room, before his fall to Earth. He knows how powerful it is. That’s why satan targets worship and worship leaders before anything or anyone else. He knows that in real worship (there with unveiled face beholding a reflection of the glory of the Lord) we are touched in our spirits and there, transformed from glory to glory. That’s the last thing he wants. So he uses our human need for structure, perhaps our concern with how we are being received by people, and our tradition – especially our tradition (focus on time constraints, order of service, doing the “right things”) – to fool us into thinking that worship is what we do to get ready for the sermon, or to fill in time until everyone else is there. Even if we understand the power of worship, he uses our discouragement that nobody else is “getting it” to make us not pursue the face of God ourselves or be interested in pushing past the barrier of the layers of self-protection that people bring to church.

As I’ve been typing, and therefore distracted somewhat (aren’t we all distracted somewhat when we come into the sanctuary on Sunday morning, distracted from the happenings of the week in our various backgrounds?), I have been listening to song after song, and now it’s some six songs I’ve heard. At first I was opening my eyes to the beauty of people worshiping. Then my mind was challenged by the message I knew I had to communicate regarding the importance of worship. Only now am I opening my spirit to the presence of the Almighty One. And I’m musically oriented. Music is who I am, what I do, how I identify myself.

How much we miss, how greatly we rob ourselves of experiencing God’s vast and amazing love and grace ... by not tarrying in His presence!! It’s all well and good to preach and teach, to exhort people in righteousness, but the power to do all that comes from the Spirit of God. Without connection with the Spirit – through intimacy with God (and one powerful vehicle for that intimacy is through worship), there is absolutely no power to accomplish the things we are told we “should” do...and we end up frustrated and desolate inside. That’s no way to live. I know because that’s where I lived for decades. No more.

The services at our church used to start at 11 am. Sunday school at 9:45. Then church at 11. Then we moved Sunday school to Wednesday night, and moved church from 11 to 10:30, a half-hour earlier. Why? Because we wanted to be able to devote more time to worship and still have people out of the building by 1 p.m. One o’clock. Not twelve. Same reason for moving the evening service from 7 to 6:30. I remember – I was there. After a while, people forgot the reason, and thought it might be a good opportunity to have more time for themselves Sunday afternoon and Sunday night after the services.

Have we in the Western church become so paralyzed by the clock, by tradition, by our own little schedules, that we are afraid to go beyond our comfort zones?? Have we forgotten what it’s like to be so enthralled with God that we feel that the line-up at Swiss Chalet can go fly a kite?? Have we stopped expecting God to show up in power and anointing in our meetings?? If we have, then why would we go? As Moses said, "If You don't go with us, Lord, we don't want to move forward at all."

These are some of the thoughts I’ve had during the last few weeks, thoughts which have been slowly gelling.

Be blessed with the awareness of His presence, today and always.