Take a Big Pause and Appreciate Christmas - Purity 1227

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 3 beautifully decorated Christmas trees comes to us from yours truly as I stopped for a moment to take in the silence and beauty of the moment as I was completely alone in the lobby of Star Point Church as I prepared for the Celebrate Freedom growth group meeting last night. Well, it's Thursday, and after a long day of work yesterday, it was an amazing comfort to go to the church last night and appreciate my church and the journey of faith that God has taken me on. I joke that Wednesdays are a long day for me, but honestly, I am honored to serve in the house of God in whatever capacity I can and really enjoyed the access I had to be in the church after hours. After taking in the beauty of this church and its Christmas decorations, I prepared for the meeting and walked the halls praying and worshiping the Lord in song. There is nothing quite like the joy and peace that we can have when we are in solitude and approach the Lord with prayer and praise. Last night's silent and not-so-silent preparations for the meeting was one big pause to appreciate the fact that it's Christmas time and that God is good. I know that things are going to ramp up in terms of getting ready or completing our preparations for the big days of Christmas Eve and Christmas, but I would recommend that you take a big pause to sit and reflect on the gift of Christmas and appreciate the blessings you have in life. Brain science says that when we sit in appreciation or gratitude for 5-minute increments, it builds our emotional resilience and capacity for joy. The Bible tells us to rejoice always and always give thanks. So whether it looks— so it looks like some scientists figured out, although they would never admit it, that God gave us good advice on how to live. He made us, after all, and his word is true. So if we reflect on its wisdom and put it into practice, we will experience joy. If you don't believe me, listen to Jesus, who said in John 15:10-11, "When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow." It's the season of joy, but if you don't stop and appreciate it, you might miss it. So take a big pause, or several big pauses, over the next few days and nights and appreciate this most wonderful time of the year. I'm here to encourage your faith, but I also wanted to share our friend in the UK, Mindful of Christ Lauren Roskillie's Word from Wednesday from this week, who reminds us that Jesus is with you. Lauren shares John 3:16, which says: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And Lauren writes, Jesus is with you. God made himself vulnerable by coming into the world as a baby. God experienced the world as we know it so we can relate to him. God came through a miracle birth through the Virgin Mary and was named Jesus, Emmanuel, which means God with us. God was literally with us, died and overcame death to be with us today. He did that for you. If you believe this in your heart, you will be saved. You have Jesus in you today, and your destination is eternity in heaven. The seal of that promise is the Holy Spirit. Pray this prayer today: Thank you, God, for coming into the world for me. I'm sorry for I have sinned. Thank you for saving me from that old life. Give me, or save me, renew me, transform me, help me to keep my mind full and focused on you. Amen. That was the first time you prayed this prayer with sincerity. Let us know and reply to this email. I have some free resources and guidance for your new journey with Christ. Have a wonderful Christ-mas. Blessings, Lauren Ross-Killey. Thank you, Lauren. Yes, if you prayed that prayer for the first time, welcome to the kingdom. You could contact Lauren and receive her free resources by going to mindfulofchrist.net, or you can contact me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com, and I will send, send you some Word documents that you can meditate upon, which will tell you who you are in Christ and the statements of truth of our faith. It's a great— it's great to take a big pause and appreciate the good things in our lives. And the best thing in our life is— well, the best thing is our new life in Christ. So keep walking and talking with God, and don't be surprised if your holidays are filled with joy. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on church discipline, and today's verse is Revelation 2:2. And the Word of God says, I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don't tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. Today's verse falls under the 10th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on church discipline. And that 10th point is: Jesus commends the church for faithful discipline. Today's verse tells us that God is watching us and he knows what we've been doing. God is better than Santa Claus with his magic snowball. God knows all things, and beyond determining whether or not we have been naughty or nice, he gives us the opportunity to be forgiven because we are all naughty—desperately wicked, actually—and we need someone to rescue us from sin and the death we so richly deserve. God provides us with a Savior in Jesus Christ, and offers us eternal life in His kingdom. But God also expects us to trust Him and to follow Him. And follow Him. In today's verse, Jesus commends the church in Ephesus for being hardworking, righteous, and not tolerating evil people. He also commends them for knowing the truth and exposing those who would seek to deceive us. Verses like Revelation 2:2 demonstrate to us that we have an obligation as Christians to be holy. To stand up for the truth of God's Word and to make people accountable for the things they say and do. We don't tolerate evil people. We call sin for what it is—sin—and we reject anything that is said that isn't true or contradicts God's Word. God is watching, and we should show Him that we understand His truth and love and demonstrate it with the way we live. 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 God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And today we're sharing from our resource, which is— we're on Advent Week 4, Incarnation, Day 2. And today's message from Bonhoeffer is "Human Beings Become Human Because God Became Human." And Bonhoeffer writes, the figure of Jesus Christ takes shape in human beings. Human beings do not take on an independent form of their own. Rather, what gives them form and maintains them in their new form is always and only the figure of Jesus Jesus Christ himself. It is therefore not an imitation, not a repetition of his form, but their own form that takes shape in human beings. Human beings are not transformed into a form that is foreign to them, not into the form of God, but into their form, their own form, a form that belongs to them and is essential to them. Human beings become human because God became human, but human beings do not become God. They could not and cannot bring about that change in their form, but God himself changes his form into human form so that human beings, though not becoming God, can become human. In Christ, the form of human beings before God was created anew. It was not a matter of place, of time, of climate, of race, of the individual, of society, of religion, or of taste, but rather a question of the life of humanity itself, that it recognized in Christ its image and its hope. What happened to Christ happened to humanity. That was from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And our resource also shares this passage from Frederica Mathilde Hughes Green at the corner of East and Now, and their message is: The whole Christian story is strange. Frederick Buechner describes the Incarnation as a kind of vast joke whereby the Creator of the ends of the earth comes among us in diapers. He concludes, until we too have taken the idea of the God-man seriously enough to be scandalized by it, We have not taken it as seriously as it demands to be taken, but we have taken the idea as seriously as a child can. America is far from spiritually monolithic, but the vast backdrop of our culture is Christian, and for most of us, it is the earliest faith we know. The idea of the God-man is not strange or scandalous because it first swam in milk and butter on the top of our oatmeal decades ago. At that age, many things were strange, though most were not— were more immediately palpable. A God-filled baby in a pile of straw was a pleasant image, but somewhat theoretical compared with the heart-stopping exhilaration of a visit from Santa Claus, the way a thunderstorm ripped the night sky, the hurtling power of the automobile Daddy drove so bravely. The rapture of ice cream. How could the distant incarnation compete with those? We grew up with the Jesus story until we outgrew it. The last days we walked out of Sunday school may be the last day we seriously engaged this faith. Well, quite the indictment there. Uh, anyway, and our resource finally shares, uh, 1 Corinthians 13:11-12. And the word of God says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have become— I have been fully known. And that sort of counteracts the, uh, the Santa Claus talk. Um, you know, we put away, we put away childish things as we come into faith. I realize it only takes a childlike faith to, to be saved, but after we come into the kingdom, we're to sit at the feet of Jesus, our teacher, and learn the word of God, you know, from the word of God. And to put it in the practice for the way we live. And yeah, so, and that's what, and that's what we try to encourage here at mt4christ.org and the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast, is that our faith is something that can be continuous, continuously expressed with the way we live through daily spiritual practice and, you know, just walking and talking with God, as I say, to have a relationship with the Lord where we actually do that and follow his, his call on our life. I've discovered when you follow that call, it might lead to trials and tribulations, but ultimately it leads to eternal life, and it sort of fixes things. It transforms your life into something good, something filled with joy, peace, and love. And so we recommend the Christian path of discipleship where you walk and talk with God and transform your life by agreeing with what he says and doing what he says to the best of your abilities. We're not perfect, but we can make progress. And so we recommend a lifestyle of Christian discipleship. Ship. Anyway, it is the 21st, which is the first official day of winter, and I think it's the, you know, it's like the darkest night of the year, from what I understand. So we'll be looking for some light under the Christmas tree later tonight. I've been blessed with tomorrow off and a Christmas vacation to follow through New Year's. You know, the Lord is sovereign, and even though I didn't have that week off originally, it somehow opened up and I stepped right in to grab it. So I have off tomorrow and every day until New Year's Day. So very happy about that. I'll be rejoicing. I'll be doing preparation for next week's Celebrate Freedom Recovery discipleship group and I got some books in my bag to read and all kinds of things, but I'm looking forward to Christmas. And most, you know, I'm looking forward to being with my wife this evening as I'll be going to my countryside home for a week, which would be great. And looking forward to Christmas with my— Christmas Eve with my parents, my brothers, and my children, and Christmas Day with Amy Lynn. Um, it's, it's gonna be good, so looking forward to it. Um, all my Christmas preparations are done. I might have to get one or two— I, I just said that, but now I think about it, I might have to get a couple items, um, to top things off, um, as my heart has been moved to, to possibly bless more people. Um, yeah, and so, so we'll do that. And, uh, yeah, but before that, we have a day of work to do, so we should pray for sure. Let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we pray for you to go before us today because we need your help always. We pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer request and help them in their walk of faith, Lord. And, uh, as I said, we need your help, Lord. We need you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things we need to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom, especially at Christmas time. So help us, God. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.