In this post‑Christmas devotional, M.t. Clark reflects on the transition from the holiday season to everyday Christian discipleship. He begins with a personal anecdote about a winter walk and the reality that many must return to work on Boxing Day. Clark warns against lingering in the “Christmas spirit” that can lead to fleshly indulgence, idleness, and spiritual complacency. He defines sin as missing God’s mark and cites Luke 13:26‑28 to illustrate the danger of merely participating in religious rituals without true obedience. He urges listeners to repent, recommit to walking in the Spirit, and to seek God’s presence for the remainder of the year. Clark references Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship (chapter 12) and directs the audience to his website mt4christ.org for further study, including a compilation of 20 Christmas‑related Bible verses. The message concludes with a heartfelt prayer covering personal health concerns, the broader community, and a plea for renewed spiritual focus. Throughout, Clark balances encouragement with sober warning, emphasizing that while the holiday day ends, the Christian life and its call to holiness continue.
Chapters
To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of blue and cloud-filled skies over my neighbor's old barn and a snow-bordered white road comes to us from yours truly, as I thought to bring my phone with me yesterday as I took the dog for a walk and decided to capture some sights from the journey along the way. Well, it's Christmas, observed holiday Monday, and while a good deal of us will have the grace and mercy of a 3-day weekend because Christmas fell on a Sunday, uh, that won't be the case for all of us. I offer the following to employers who have the unenviable task of having to call their workers back to reality today. You can text or send the following: Christmas Day is Christmas Day, but if it's not the 25th, you're expected to work today. Uh, while I had a positively blissful Christmas Day as Tammy Lynn and I spent our first Christmas together as man and wife in relative solitude and peace, and we'll be enjoying the day off today because of the legal holiday observance today, a part of me is just as happy that Christmas is over. While some have told me in the last 24 hours that Christmas lasts until New Year's, and I don't want to start a fight, I have to keep it real and tell you that no matter what time off you have or what Christmas-themed activities you may persist in for the next week, it's over, Johnny. Christmas is over. Today is Boxing Day. Ding ding! So rejoice over your cherished memories of holiday bliss, or pack up your disappointments and bind them in your bitterness box or exchange them for store credit at your local or online retailer. But either way, don't deceive yourself by living in some temporary state of denial by being oppressed, uh, by a false spirit of Christmas cheer. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to rain on your parade of peace or try to discourage you from enjoying today or any other time off you may have, uh, have off this week. Trust me, I've been blessed with being able to arrange for a Christmas to New Year's staycation and will be utilizing every bit of the time to rest, relax, and reflect on the year that was 2022 and to look ahead to what the new year will bring. I just don't want to encourage anyone to deny reality in the name of the holiday spirit that will cause us to lose focus on what's important to us and to overindulge the flesh. Remember, the definition of a sin is to miss the mark, to veer off course of what God would have us do, to do things that directly go against God's word, create idols out of other things, or to leave, leave undone the good works that God has prepared for us. While it is fully acceptable to enjoy a holiday feast and some childish, childish antics on Christmas Day, it is not necessarily wise to treat every day like Christmas if that means we persist in walking in the flesh or leaving responsibilities undone. I feasted and admittedly made some jolly borderline jokes over the course of the last 48 hours that were acceptable for the holiday celebration, but if I persist in acting like I did on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I would soon feel that I have deceived myself and have sabotaged my efforts to establish and pro— progress in a lifestyle that promotes good physical, mental, and spiritual health. God's ways are higher than our ways, and even though the ways of the world and the tendency to do what I want whenever I want may not always seem sinister, if we fail to follow the Lord faithfully, we will experience the negative consequences of going astray— extra pounds, physical and mental pain, possible depression, guilt, and spiritual dryness are all waiting for those who walk in the flesh for too long. And I'm telling myself and all my friends to forget the holly and the folly of the traps that secular Christmas has sprung on us and to get back on track by walking and talking with God, by being aware of what we are doing and agreeing to walk in the spirit from this day forward. Unfortunately, the spirit of peace that we establish in dealing with our secular friends and family can easily lead us to compromise our convictions and give people the impression that we aren't any different, and thus our faith is merely one option of many ways to live, and that choosing a lifestyle of saintliness over sin is no better, and thus extremely puzzling. In the name of Christmas, I try to be friendly and accepting, and, and fear that my efforts could easily lead some to feel that I have no objection to the way they live. And maybe that my faith is as much a curse as a blessing, as it prevents me from being quote-unquote free like them. I won't name names, but I have family and friends and family that are living far from God and whose lifestyles go directly against what God's Word says. And when I reflect upon the fact that they would enthusiastically celebrate Christmas but would fail to follow the ways of the reason for the season, it causes me great pain to contemplate their spiritual blindness and their, and their final destination. I can easily imagine Christ telling many Christmas enthusiasts that he never knew them. Jesus warned those who enjoyed feasts with him and who heard his words but never obeyed them about the dangers of hell. In Luke 13:26-28, Christ said, then you will say, but we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets. And he will reply, I tell you, I don't know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you will be thrown Bible verses like these, and the scores of others that indicate that our saving relationship with the Lord includes the fruit of obedience to His commands, caused me to see that I needed to repent and forsake my walking in the flesh. I can't think of anything more tragic than people who had enthusiastically celebrated Christmas each year of their lives coming to the shocking realization that their participation in religious traditions and holiday celebrations didn't establish their peace and new life with God. Those going through the motions of faith at Christmas or Easter time to satisfy the familial or religious obligation will discover that what they always suspected was true. They really weren't a Christian. They worshiped other things, philosophies, or themselves, but they never put their faith in Christ in any real way, and the lack of fruit— of the lack of the fruit of the Spirit or good works that would give glory to God and specifically point to Jesus in their lives— will testify against them. Faith in Christ is a matter of life and death. So with Christmas being over today, let's remember to keep on walking and talking with God. If Christmas caused you to stray from your faith a little bit by indulging in the flesh, Or by making peace with people who live in darkness in the spirit of the holiday, show the authenticity of your faith by recommitting yourself to walk in the Spirit and to seek the Lord's presence and purpose for you in the last days of this year and the year ahead. If Christmas caused you to draw closer to God, even if it was just for a moment in church or through reflecting on the mystery of our faith, consider that to be the Lord's call on your life to worship him in spirit and in truth. To make Christ your Lord and Savior and to follow Him with the way you live your life. Or if you just went through the motions and didn't really get anything out of Christmas and have some real doubts of whether you believe at all, or know that you don't believe, if you have read this far, I have to believe that a part of you wants to believe, that you want to live. To you, I would ask you to pray to God to reveal Himself to you. And would invite you to diligently pursue the truth about Christianity and to follow wherever the evidence leads you. The Word tells us that if we seek the Lord, we will find Him, and if we follow the Lord, we will live and experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. While it may be harsh to declare Christmas is over, I want to be clear that the day may be over, but our lives in Christ never end, and the peace, love, and joy of the Spirit will be with us all the days of our lives when we follow him. Somebody told me that the Christmas— that Christmas songs on a pop radio station that we've been listening to would continue until New Year's. Because Christmas is over and because it's like back to life and back to reality for me, as I resume the— as I will resume the disciplines of a Christian discipleship as per usual on a Monday morning, I was up early and discovered that this fact about the pop station was false. Although the station was playing a steady stream of holiday songs since before Thanksgiving, I'm not the only one declaring that Christ— the Christmas party to be over, as I was greeted by Wilson Phillips' "Hold On" this morning. While the lyrics are partly right that there is pain and and that we do play a part in changing our lives. It really depends on what we are holding on to that will make the difference in whether we live. If we are holding on to pleasant circumstances or the way of the world, we will see eventually that we are holding on to nothing of value. If we are— if we hold on to our faith in Christ and to our commitment to follow him wherever he leads us, we will discover our life and purpose with him goes on forever. So let go of that which is fading away and hold on to what matters. The day is over, and while we can play and enjoy Christmas like a child, the Lord never calls us to stay that way. I'm taking a vacation from sharing the Bible verse of the day from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men again. But I would invite you to read the 20 Christmas Bible verses that were compiled by Concordia University's Adriana Thompson last year by clicking on the link you'll find on the blog today. I share this one last time because I'm on vacation and because some of us really need to know that Christmas isn't about the things of this world. And it is my hope that the Holy Spirit will use his word to light a spark of faith in someone who seeks God here. 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, and today we finally finish chapter 12 of The Saints. So if you You want to see how that chapter concludes, what Bonhoeffer has to say about sanctification and the saints, go to mt4christ.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. And, uh, that's it. It's, it's Christmas Monday or Boxing Day. The holiday is over, but our life of faith is never over. So I encourage you to follow the Lord in spirit and truth and to Pray for those that, you know, don't have a relationship with the Lord, no matter how much they celebrate Christmas. Um, we all need Jesus, we all need Christ. But, you know, not for nothing, the, the community of faith is sometimes unwelcoming and, you know, confusing. And, uh, so we have to be a light in the world to show people that we are real Christians by following Christ with the way we live, and that we are loving, but we stand for truth and don't, don't wink at sin. You know, it's very difficult to interact with a world that doesn't follow the Lord, so we have to do it wisely and lovingly and ask for the Lord to guide us in that. So let's do that. Today's Monday, I'm gonna relax, and that's, yeah, that's all the plan I have for today. Probably listen to some Christian audiobook or something, or do some, do some study beyond what I've done already, but basically gonna take the next week to just relax and enjoy the time off with my wife here in our countryside home. So whether you have to work or not, it's— my prayers are with you. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for this, this Monday. We pray, we thank you for the time off if we have it, and we pray for strength for those who have to work. Lord, we know you're with us, and we might have strayed from you and our good senses in the last 48 hours in the holiday celebration, but The good thing is, Lord, we know that when we turn back to you, you're always there to welcome us back. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for your help and strength and wisdom and guidance to direct us in the way we should go today. Lord, we pray for you to open our eyes to see the truth and the beauty all around us and to lead us in the way we should go. Lord, we pray for everyone listening or reading this message today. That they'd be blessed and that you'd come alongside their prayer request. And, um, you come alongside the prayer request we've been making for my father's healing, my mother-in-law's healing, and Bob Griffin, who are— who's going through cancer treatments, plus all the petitions of anyone who might be listening or reading this message. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
