Be a happier Christian

Ever heard of SAD?  Dr. Normal Rosenthal at Georgetown University described the ‘winter blues’ that some endure with a name - Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD.  A percentage of people who live in northern climates report that their feelings of sadness and hopelessness increase as the days become shorter, when they spend more time away from the sun because of the winter weather. Many respond positively to ‘light therapy.’ The level of the chemical in our brains that help us to feel positive, serotonin, increases with exposure to sunlight for even a few minutes each day regardless of warm or cold.

On Sunday evening I walked out onto the deck at my house around 8 PM and it was still light!  It is 6 am and the light of day has arrived. From December to June the day lengthens ever so slowly, and with the light, comes life and warmth in my world. Longer days bring a boost to my emotions and increased productivity for me. What about you?

Let me ask you a pointed question today. Are you living in the Light?  
Is your life open to the Presence of the Spirit?
Do you hide from the Lord, or throw open your heart and mind to Him each day? 

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, NIV)  Christian, you need not stumble through life day after day. You can leave the fear that comes with the dark behind. The Son has come! Matthew quoted preacher Isaiah, describing what happened when Jesus came. "The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." (Matthew 4:16, KJV)

Do you want to be a happier Christian?  Here is the way. Walk in the Light. How?

Start your day with prayer, inviting God’s Spirit.
Fill your home with praise, with songs of worship.
Choose love instead of hate.
Forgive those who step on your toes; even those who hurt you, by giving the Lord your pain! 

Confess your failures and accept His love, that covers all our sins.  
Follow Jesus – today and each day.

Just as the longer days awaken the earth, in much the same way that the sunlight triggers a positive mood, the Light of Jesus will make life richer, fuller, productive.  Believe it!

Here is a word from the Word. Hear the challenge, embrace the promise.

"For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others.
Stay alert and be clearheaded. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk.

But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love,
and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.

For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.
Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever.
So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing."
(1 Thessalonians 5:5-11, NLT)

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Here I Am To Worship

(worship with this link)

Light of the world

You stepped down into darkness

Opened my eyes let me see

Beauty that made

This heart adore You

Hope of a life spent with You

So here I am to worship

Here I am to bow down

Here I am to say that You're my God

And You're altogether lovely

Altogether worthy

Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days

Oh so highly exalted

Glorious in heaven above

Humbly You came

To the earth You created

All for love's sake became poor

And I'll never know how much it cost

To see my sin upon that cross

And I'll never know how much it cost

To see my sin upon that cross

Tim Hughes

© 2000 Thankyou Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055

Let the Sun Shine In!

 A friend came into my office years ago and pushed back the curtains. “Bro, you gotta let the sun shine in,” he emphatically declared. I was struggling with depression and he knew that even something as ordinary as sunlight could help to change that.  Are you inviting the Light to shine in your life? Are you entering joyfully into worship, keeping your heart and mind in a place where the Spirit can touch you? Are you exercising faith, letting go of disappointment and leaning on the Lord?

It is important to remember the delight of ordinary things. Joy is not just discovered in a vacation to some far away place. A walk in the park can boost our spirits. Satisfaction of hunger does not demand a gourmet meal. A simple meal shared with friends can delight us.

• A few years ago a young Mommy from the church I serve sent me a note about her kids, then aged 4 and 6, who were present at a recent baptism. “When G. and J. emerged from their bath, they were talking back and forth and your name was mentioned, so I asked them what they are talking about. ‘We were playing 'Pastor Jerry dunkin' ya in the church tub! He's crazy!’"  Her note still makes my heart glad!  The ordinary things are where the Son shines brightly!

• Last week, I was privileged to sit at a table with four other pastors. We talked about life, joked with each other, and then got to the serious business of prayer.  As we concluded, one mused, “Isn’t God’s Presence wonderful?”  And, it is!  There was joy in those moments as we opened our hearts together.  Yes, the Son shone brightly on us in that meeting though it was of little importance in the big, wide world.

You have a decision to make this Monday morning. You can be glum or you can be glad! I’m not talking about denial, nor I am talking about escape. Joy is a gift of God to those who will receive it. The Bible says it is our choice! "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (James 1:2-3, NIV)

Here is a bit of reality counsel -  there is a God, and you are not Him! Nothing destroys joy more completely than trying to assume control of everything in life.  If I attempt to usurp the throne of God, my life becomes heavy with the weight of pressure, people, and problems! Consciously remember today and every day that God rules. He has a plan and while we do have the freedom to choose, He knows, cares, and purposes to keep us alive in Him.  Remind yourself often that nothing that is happening to you right now is a surprise to Him.   When faith grows, joy grows. God urges us, through the prophet Isaiah, to make the choice to trust, fixed on His absolute rule. “Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." (Isaiah 46:8-10, NIV)

Here’s a word from the Word. Let it draw a smile to your face as it rebirths joy in your heart.  "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, … And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." (Philippians 1:3-6, NLT)

Let the Son Shine IN!

_________________________

I Want the Joy

(celebrate with the song)

It's time I started dancing

over all these graves!

It's time I gave You, Oh my Lord,

the highest praise!

It's time to lift my voice,

Oh and beg for this blessing to fall!

I want the joy of the Lord to come down!

I want the joy of the Lord to fall now!

I want the joy of the Lord in my life.

I want the joy of the Lord to lift me,

I want the joy of the Lord to change me,

I want the joy of the Lord in my life!

I Want The Joy

© 2002 River Oaks Music Company (a div. of EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Rita Springer

CCLI License No. 810055

Join the Plodders

(a blog from Kevin DeYoung- He is an American Reformed Evangelical theologian and author,
currently the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church.)

It’s sexy among young people—my generation—to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It’s immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it’s the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.

What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That’s my dream for the church—a multitude of faithful, risk-taking plodders. The best churches are full of gospel-saturated people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God’s glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency.

My generation in particular is prone to radicalism without follow through. We have dreams of changing the world, and the world should take notice accordingly. But we’ve not proved faithful in much of anything yet. We haven’t held a steady job or raised godly kids or done our time in VBS or, in some cases, even moved off the parental dole. We want global change and expect a few more dollars to the ONE campaign or Habitat for Humanity chapter to just about wrap things up. What the church and the world needs, we imagine, is for us to be another Bono—Christian, but more spiritual than religious and more into social justice than the church. As great as it is that Bono is using his fame for some noble purpose, I just don’t believe that the happy future of the church, or the world for that matter, rests on our ability to raise up a million more Bonos (as at least one author suggests). 

With all due respect, what’s harder: to be an idolized rock star who travels around the world touting good causes and chiding governments for their lack of foreign aid, or to be a line worker at GM with four kids and a mortgage, who tithes to his church, sings in the choir every week, serves on the school board, and supports a Christian relief agency and a few missionaries from his disposable income?

Until we are content with being one of the million nameless, faceless church members and not the next globe-trotting rock star, we aren’t ready to be a part of the church. In the grand scheme of things, most of us are going to be more of an Ampliatus (Rom. 16:8) or Phlegon (v. 14) than an apostle Paul. And maybe that’s why so many Christians are getting tired of the church. We haven’t learned how to be part of the crowd.  

We haven’t learned to be ordinary. Our jobs are often mundane. Our devotional times often seem like a waste. Church services are often forgettable. That’s life. We drive to the same places, go through the same routines with the kids, buy the same groceries at the store, and share a bed with the same person every night. Church is often the same too—same doctrines, same basic order of worship, same preacher, same people. But in all the smallness and sameness, God works—like the smallest seed in the garden growing to unbelievable heights, like beloved Tychicus, that faithful minister, delivering the mail and apostolic greetings (Eph. 6:21). Life is usually pretty ordinary, just like following Jesus most days.

Daily discipleship is not a new revolution each morning or an agent of global transformation every evening; it’s a long obedience in the same direction.

It’s possible the church needs to change. Certainly in some areas it does. But it’s also possible we’ve changed—and not for the better. It’s possible we no longer find joy in so great a salvation. It’s possible that our boredom has less to do with the church, its doctrines, or its poor leadership and more to do with our unwillingness to tolerate imperfection in others and our own coldness to the same old message about Christ’s death and resurrection. It’s possible we talk a lot about authentic community but we aren’t willing to live in it. The church is not an incidental part of God’s plan. Jesus didn’t invite people to join an anti-religion, anti-doctrine, anti-institutional bandwagon of love, harmony, and re-integration. He showed people how to live, to be sure. But He also called them to repent, called them to faith, called them out of the world, and called them into the church. The Lord “didn’t add them to the church without saving them, and he didn’t save them without adding them to the church” (John Stott).

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). If we truly love the church, we will bear with her in her failings, endure her struggles, believe her to be the beloved bride of Christ, and hope for her final glorification. The church is the hope of the world—not because she gets it all right, but because she is a body with Christ for her Head.

Don’t give up on the church. The New Testament knows nothing of churchless Christianity. The invisible church is for invisible Christians. The visible church is for you and me. Put away the Che Guevara t-shirts, stop the revolution, and join the rest of the plodders. Fifty years from now you’ll be glad you did.

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Kevin, I thank you!
Lord, make us steady, faithful, holy people in Your service.

Amen