Do you rejoice at Christmastime?

I admit to having had difficulty with this concept of Christmas rejoicing. I think it is because until very recently, my rejoicing involved celebrating an event that happened around 2000 years ago. To be sure, the birth of Jesus Christ is an historical fact as much as any event we can be sure of at that time. It really does no good to think otherwise-- there's too much evidence, scholarly bookfuls of it.

But 2000 years. It's old news, right? You can rejoice that you get a few days off work, and that you have a chance to get gifts, and that people often seem nicer at this time of the year, and that you'll get to see family, maybe. But most of us know that isn't what the angels were telling the shepherds to rejoice over. Their message was to rejoice over the birth of a God-Person who would be Savior, and whose Name was "God With Us".

But all that story is over with. Yes, the man Jesus lived and did alot of amazing things. But then he got put on a cross and he died, right? End of story. So what's with all the rejoicing? It doesn't really apply any more, except that it seems to have been an event that changed the course of history-- sort of like Napoleon losing at Waterloo. That changed the course of history too, but we don't "rejoice" over that, do we?

Here is what Christians believe that causes them to keep rejoicing.

1. Jesus isn't dead. He is physically in Heaven, and will return here in person, physically.

2. When He returns, He will not be in the mode of saving anyone any longer. He will come as a Judge of all that is evil.

3. Evil and wrong and sickness and tears and injustice will be eliminated forever.

4. The Earth we know will end, and He resurrect it glorified, perfect and clean and balanced and good. It will be a much different place in many ways, but it will at the same time be a place we know-- like the historic family home that has been modernised and renovated. It will be like coming home to the home you've been longing to come home to. All that was good about it will be kept and all that is ill will be shed, and replaced with something wonderful. You know how good and evil are intertwined in this earth. They will be teased apart as only God Almighty in Christ could do.

Now I have good news and bad news.

If you want to rejoice at Christmastime, you need to know that you only have a right to do so if you have received Jesus as your King, personally. If you do NOT acknowledge Him as the King of your own life and submit to His commands, seeking His pardon when you fail in His ways, and personally acknowledging that you are in submission to Him and His rule, you have NO reason to rejoice. Because if you have not personally submitted to Him, then you are His enemy. Which means you should be feeling nothing but dread. You can't "leave the country".

In the 1930's Germany received a ruler named Adolf Hitler. Many Germans rejoiced greatly, but many Germans saw the way the wind was blowing, and knew better. Either you were with the Fuhrer or your were an enemy of the Reich. Now, I hope you know I am not morally comparing the rule of Christ to that of Hitler. But if you do not acknowledge Christ as your King, then you should be filled with the dread of a Jew inside the Third Reich. You are an enemy and a raving fool, an idiot, to pretend to rejoice. Your future is for nothing that is good, and all that is pain and abandonment. You are like the Epicurean who says," Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." And you don't even know what death is....if you knew you would be doing everything you could to get free of its sure approach. So that's the bad news.

The good news is that if you do acknowledge Jesus as rightful King of all your life, possessions, activities and relationships, then you have GREAT reason to rejoice, because you can both trust God for your present and your future. He is faithful in both. Your future does not rest in what you do for Him, but only in your trust that He can accomplish everything needed to bring His plan about. That includes re-making YOU, from this moment until then. You can rejoice, because you can see your King already at work in this world, and you have something wonderful to look forward to. Your name is already written in Heaven.

"Let Earth receive her King!" Do you see this as a warning as well as an announcement? Do you see the promise for His people from the past to the now, and into the future? And if you are not His, do you see the hypocrisy you profess and the certain death that you stupidly celebrate? I'm pleading with you to see the warnings in the coming of Jesus Christ. Just as His birth was very specifically foretold hundreds of years before His birth, so the foretelling of His coming should compel you to rethink your standing now.

Rejoicing in the King means receiving Jesus Christ AS King. Do not make a fool of yourself otherwise!

Most, if not all of us, grew up with certain expectations of life. In grade school we would tell each other what we wanted to be when we grew up. In college we looked forward to that first job or to making a mark in the field we had chosen. If we didn't go to college, we wanted a family and a home. Maybe we grew up with talents so shining that others were always telling us we'd be superstars one day.

At my age I'm at a place where I can review all those expectations. I can look around and see what some of my childhood friends have done with their lives. I look back on my own life and I can see how things have turned out.

Last Sunday we heard a sermon from a newly minted pastor (he had just been ordained a couple of weeks before; Brian Davis is the new Reformed University Fellowship leader here on campus). His sermon had to do with boasting.

Biblically, boasting isn't really as silly or obvious as saying 'my dad can beat up your dad' or even 'my bank account is bigger than your bank account'. It has more to do with what we are putting our trust in. Pushing it even farther, he said, what do we point to to "justify our existence"? If it is anything other than Jesus Christ, we've got some work to do. Then he pointed out some things that can be symptomatic of this failure.

Workaholism: Is doing more, better, longer of whatever we do a way we "justify our existence"?
Over-involvement: Do we have this need to participate in every last Good Work or Worthy Cause in order to justify our existence?
Excellence: Is my work never "good enough"? Do I suffer from the "woulda, coulda, shouldas"?
Family: Do I want my whole family to be "known for" its godliness and faithfulness?

Guess what? Christianity is the only religion that begins with the premise that we are all screwups, and ends with the premise that ANY solution to this problem is God's problem, because NOTHING we can do will ever change that reality.

If you work 24/7/365, you will still be a screwup.
If you head committees, handle crises, organise and carry out solutions to all the world's problems, you will still be a screwup.
If no one has, or ever will, attained the heights of your insight, your ability, your genius, you will still be a screwup.
If you have fifteen children and they are all believers and they all grow up to be missionaries and martyrs, you will still be a screwup in need of salvation-- and so will they.

You still need Jesus to give His life for your screwedup-ness. In the end, you only justify your existence by letting Him do that. And even if you do this excellently, you are still constantly a screwup who needs His mercy and salvation every second of your life. You'll never get to a point in this earthly life where He says to you, "OK, kid, there's nothing more I can do for you. You're perfect now!"

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." Romans 11:36

This is not meant to be a discouragement to doing, thinking, and attaining to excellence and faithfulness. We glorify God in these things, and God does expect a return on His investment in us. But be careful in what you put your "boast".

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" Matt. 7:21-23

And what is the Lord's will that we do?

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." John 6:29

Some time ago, I was wasting a little time thinking about the physical life we have and the souls inside of us, and how all that works together. Mind you, it was all just conjecture on my part, compared against Scripture in only a very superficial way, so I warn you not to take what follows as theological truth-- only the musings of an old lady. 

At that time I was thinking about how our bodies are equipped with physical sense to experience, interpret and learn about the world around us. We rely on them, and the loss of even one of them is considered a great loss.

There will be a time, however, when we will lose all our senses, and yet continue to be aware: at death. It is a fact borne out both in experience (from those who have 'died' and live to tell about it) and in Scripture, that after death, the senses still live on in some way. One can still see and hear. I know less about the other ones, but something tells me they still function too. So, it seems to me that our senses transcend physicality somehow. In other words, they apparently overlap our souls. We go on, in our awareness, without bodies.

This morning I was thinking some more about this.

Last year I went on a trip out West, and one of the things I could have done was a balloon ride above the Tetons. It was expensive, so I passed it up, but I would have loved to try it. Anyway, I talked to a few of the people who did it. They said what was fascinating about it was the silence-- and yet, they could hear all sorts of sounds from sources far away. Separated from an 'immediate' environment, they heard the ordinary sounds of life coming from below, across a wide swath of land. That is something I would love to experience, but I'll never be able to, even if I took a balloon ride. I suffer from familial nerve deafness, and a tinnitus that drowns out alot of what I can hear. No matter where I go, the tinnitus goes with me, and it is that that I primarily hear 24/7/365. Just for a few minutes, I crave to hear silence. Or something like that balloon experience, with pure Earth-noise floating up to me. When my body is taken away, so will its physical limitations. I thank God for that truth to look forward to. No more tinnitus!

If my senses are connected to my soul, then it seems to follow that there is a spiritual dimension to sense. This too seems to be borne out in Scripture. There, it looks like a literary tool, but I wonder. All through Scripture, there are allusions to the idea that what is there for us to sense is not merely to physically sense:

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8  Here it looks as though there was a discernment to the hearing of Adam and Eve that convicted them of their sinfulness in contrast to the Lord's purity.

Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food? Job 12:11 Think about this one. How does the ear 'test' words? and how should the tongue 'test' the taste of food? Is it possible that there is discernment to be had even in the work of the tongue as in the work of the ear?

Back when I was first thinking about all this, it struck me that while we are in our bodies, we will experience primarily the physical aspect of our senses. But when we have our bodies no longer, perhaps-- just perhaps, we will begin to experience the spiritual aspects of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. Maybe at that time we will being to discern the source of these things. Certainly the Scriptures make it clear that the physical aspect of experiencing God's wrath is not primarily physical-- although that is certainly present, as we will at that time all have immortal bodies-- but agonisingly spiritual. And for those who have acknowledged Christ and recognised the gift of His salvation-- the physical and spiritual aspects of our senses are in an explosion of joy.

Out of all this, I began to wonder if the Lord does not want us to begin to acknowledge and develop our spiritual senses, to strive to use what we have to gain a deeper wisdom and discernment than have those without God. Is it possible that there is more to our senses that we are overlooking? I found myself praying for discernment on this, that if there is some greater part of my soul's senses for which I need to be asking the Lord, that He would begin to open that up to me.

I don't want ESP, let me make that clear. What I want is to sense with my physical body, but also to discern the source, intention and meaning of what I am sensing. I want to wait for God in my body. I don't know how to put it better than that. I want that with careful discernment, and the watchful fellowship of the saints around me to guard me. All this for God's use, not for my profit.