With that acknowledgement I would like to offer in my own words, as best that I
may, what I have gleaned from Mr. Foster’s work
“Celebration of Discipline". Mr. Foster's book speaks to believers
about how Christians can avail ourselves of the "Spiritual
Disciplines" and grow in the Christian life thru a
relationship with Jesus Christ by way of the "Spiritual
Disciplines"
Spiritual Opportunities
The Spiritual
Disciplines are not Religious Duties, but rather,
are Spiritual Opportunities that aid in the Christian
life and bring us ever deeper intimacy with our Lord Jesus Christ and thru
Jesus into an ever-growing relationship with the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son
and the Holy Spirit. Again, the "Spiritual Disciplines" do
not earn us salvation, our salvation is accomplished through and by
Jesus alone on our behalf. He has accomplished it all for us, Jesus has done
what none of us could ever do. Jesus has saved us.
What the "Spiritual Discipline" are, are Spiritual
Opportunities for each and all of us to have Communion with
our God in times of deep personal intimacy which brings us to see that he is
with us and wants us and loves us.
The Christian life should be a
life lived in Celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ and all that Jesus is and
has accomplished for each and all. Celebration is part of being called out of
the world of our past lives before we came to believe in Jesus.
We can see this truth of the Celebration of being called out in the Exodus of
Israel, when the Lord God thru Moses commanded Pharaoh to let Israel go so that
they might Celebrate in worship.
"And
afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the
God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the
wilderness.’ Ex: 5:1(NAS)
God was calling Israel forth
into the wilderness to Celebrate before their God. Celebration was to be an
intricate part in Hebrew worship.
The Year of the Lord's Favor
God gave the people of Israel
the Year of Jubilee. This was to be a time of great personal and national joy
in which the people were to celebrate the cancellation and release from all
debt(s), and a time when, all the bound slaves were to be set free, a time when
lands and properties were to restored to the original owners It was a time to
celebrate restoration and to start life anew.
This is
the very imagery of people in the midst of joyous celebration of freedom was
used by Jesus as he stood in a synagogue in Nazareth of Galilee and proclaimed
to the congregation that day the year of the Lord's favor had come, the year of
Jubilee.
"He
went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went
into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll
of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where
it is written:
The people in that synagogue that day would have understood the symbolism and the meaning behind words that Jesus read and spoke. They could understand the type of celebratory rejoicing that would have broken out in the restoration of freedom and cancellation of debts.
Spiritual Freedom
Evan though Jesus employs the
uses of the Jubilee year image, he brought far more than just a new type of
national freedom, Jesus brought a message that would bring restoration and
freedom to the soul. A true freedom, a spiritual freedom, and the cancellation
of the indebtedness of sin. Jesus used the language out of Israel's racial
memory and inspired mythology (this term means the stories from the nation’s
history; it does not mean that the stories are untrue) of the word of God
it is for all people not just Israel. That tells us, that Jesus came to set all
humanity free bringing joy to all who will receive it.
The Joy
of the Lord
The Prophet Nehemiah wrote in
the book that bears his name that "for the joy of the Lord is your
strength.” Neh: 8:10c which means, when the joy of
Lord is expressed through us, when we celebrate joyfully, then our spiritual
lives are invigorated and made strong.
This joy is from the
indwelling of the Holy spirit with our hearts and minds we read that in St.
Paul’s writing in Galatians: 5:22
This is
being able to celebrate our Lord regardless of circumstances that we face
always joyful.
Our Reason to Celebrate
Jesus has given each and all
of us reason to celebrate. We are the very beneficiaries of that freedom and
restoration that releases us to celebrate, that calling out of our past ways of
living. As Israel was called to celebrate the Lord in the wilderness so we are
called out of our past lives to celebrate as well in the wilderness of this
world. The calling of Israel gave them reason to celebrate, our calling should
even more so give us reason to celebrate as well.
When we celebrate the great
act of Salvation wrought for us by and in our Lord Jesus, we should celebrate
them each and every day before our God giving him joyful thanks and praise and
celebration. When we celebrate we are made stronger.
Understand,
that there is, in truth, only one great act of salvation accomplished thru
Jesus, that of his co-joined death and resurrection.
This one great
act of salvation is eternally effectual having no bounds or limits in time or
eternity. This one great saving act therefore manifest itself
thru out the history of salvation in the lives of the Biblical personalities
and each and all who are believers in manifold ways. All the great acts we see
in the Holy Scriptures arise out of and derive their power from the one act
of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
This is
the one great act of which we celebrate in all of its expression in all of our
lives.
When we celebrate the
salvation of God, we are made strong individually and collectively. We abandon
the "discipline of celebrating" our spiritual lives
can grow wearisome, flat, ritualistic and in time a drudgery.
We should thank God daily for
all that his providence has provided us either actively or passively granted to
us, we should thank him for all that he has blessed us with, to acknowledge
that great blessing he has made possible for us.
Believers, each and all of us, should follow the lead of the Holy Spirit each
and every day celebrating what God has accomplished for us in Jesus.
Celebration in the Temple
Psalm:150 calls on all creation to celebrate the
great God thru great praise and joy. The worship in the Temple of God was not
stoic or un-impassioned or solemn. The worship at the Temple was joyous and celebratory,
the people would enter in to the Temple courts in grand processions. There was
pageantry, the people would sing Psalms and hymns, the Priest would pray and
Scripture would be read. The trumpets would sound, the timbrels shaken, cymbals
would crash the people would shout Hallelujah and drop to their knees in
worship and lift their hands to heaven as they celebrated their relationship
with their God.
Is there this type of celebrating our relationship with our Lord with in the
temple courts of the church? Christians of all people have so much to
celebrate. St. Paul tells us to rejoice always, celebration is part of the
Christian life.
Celebrating
the Prodigals Return
Jesus tells us of the celebration upon the return of the Prodigal Son in Luke: 15:22-25, there is great celebration by the Father in the parable, this is not just a story, it speaks of the celebration of the Father for the return of his child, who represent each and all of us . This tells us that God the Father celebrate you and I. God is celebrating us. God the Father is rejoicing over you and I even to this very day the feast of celebration over your return to your Father is not a past event it is ongoing even to this very moment. Consider, for moment that if God, the Holy Trinity celebrate us, how much more should we celebrate him.
We of all people have more
than any others to have reason to celebrate the salvation that is ours' in
Christ a celebration that will carry on even thru out eternity, symbolized by
the great wedding feast celebration of Rev:19:7-9
Celebration is vital and
effective in the Christian life, let us, each and all, celebrate now and always
what God has done for us in his Holy Son Jesus.
Benediction: May we each and all ever Celebrate the salvation of our God,
today, tomorrow and forever more. Amen.
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Topinabee Community Church
Topinabee Michigan
https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html
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