Years ago while I attending classes for pastors in California , we pastors were given the book Celebration of Discipline" copyright (c) 1978, by Richard J. Foster. This
well known book, has been ,over the years, very helpful to many
Christians both Laity and Clergy alike.With that acknowledgement I would like to offer in my own words, as best that I may, what I have gleaned from Mr.Foster 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
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.
Celebration
The Christian life should be a life lived in Celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ and all that he 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 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.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
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 . Through Jesus used the language out of Israel's racial memory and inspired mythology (this term means the stories from the nations 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 that 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 it's expression in all of our lives.
When we celebrate the salvation of God we are made strong individually and collectively. We 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 clelebrating 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 Revelation: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 Celebrate the salvation of our God, today, tomorrow and forever more.. Amen
Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor2101 Old National Pike.
Washington, Pennsylvania. www.gcfountainoflife.org
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