Spiritual Recovery and Christmas

[HKHaugan]

Spiritual Recovery and Christmas

 Christmas is the beginning of recapturing, reshaping and reorienting the mind, heart and spirit as a lifetime project. The appearance of Jesus on the world scene is the unfolding of God’s plan of recovery. In Him we see this project unfold. Jesus was conceived and born by the Holy Spirit, lived and acted by the Spirit and, when He died, was raised by the Spirit. He set this as a pattern for us when He said that we must be born again by the Spirit and live in the context of the Spirit in order to be raised to eternal life by the Spirit.

 In this pattern He provides a spiritual process of recovery for us, three simple ideas that change not only our personal history but world history---repentance (turning to God from self-Mk.1:15), rebirth (being reborn spiritually-Jn.3:16) and respiriting (receiving the Holy Spirit to live in a spiritual relationship with God and others – Jn.4:24).

 But He goes one step further. It is not enough just to be recovered from darkness. He gives us a purpose and a mission. We are light bearers with a task (Mt.5:14). “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations…” The ‘Go therefore in Greek, poreuthentes, literally means ‘while you are on the way’ from one person and place to another. This was Jesus’ life and example for us. This is what makes Christmas an everyday experience. Each situation we enter is new and full of opportunity.

 There are three dimensions to that understanding. First, you are learning as a disciple to grow as a disciple ‘while you are on the way.’ Second, you are learning to minister ‘while you are on the way.’ Third, you are sharing Jesus with others ‘while you are on the way.’

 Our goal in this process is not to be just like Christ but to let Christ reign through us while we are on the way. The more we do that the more we become like Him. Jesus said it perfectly, “When you see me you see the Father.” “I only do what my Father tells me.” If we just try to be like Christ we will come far short of what He wants us to be.  Let’s look at that.

 If being like Christ means doing what He did then we surrender to Him to let Him function through us. That is what faith, trust and belief are all about. If we don’t see His approach we will fall back into what the Pharisees do and that is work at being God-like, placing the Law between God and us. The very thing He sent to teach us becomes our burden. We fall back into legalism. Jesus said it clearly, “The work of God for you is to believe on the One He has sent.” When you believe, you trust, when you trust, you rely, when you rely, you experience Jesus at work.

 This is the key, the cornerstone, the foundation of what it means to be a disciple---to let Jesus manifest Himself through us. That is why Jesus tells us to take up our cross, to crucify trying to be like God and letting God be God. The first leads to hypocrisy. The second leads to eternal life. The first induces guilt, frustration and depression. The second brings freedom. This is why Paul says that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Free to obey, free to serve, free to learn, free to experience the living God. We don’t earn Him. We open to Him, to let Him be Lord, to let Him save us, to let Him love us. Thus Paul’s teaching, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness (Col.2:6-7)”.

 The real action is putting myself aside to let the Lord think, speak and act through me. Daily living is going from one moment to the next adjusting to the Lord Jesus as each moment comes. If we don’t think in terms of time but in terms of seeing each next moment as an event calling me to action, then I let the Lord govern that event.

 We have no way of predicting, knowing, perceiving with any accuracy what the next moment brings. That’s what makes faith in what Jesus will do is so exciting. The difference between what we do in the world without God and with God is that without Him we conform out of fear to what might happen, play the contingency game, set up secure perimeters adjusting to the ‘what-if’s.’ It is, in essence, trying to save your life as opposing to lose it for Him and finding it in Him. Life in Jesus is Jesus being His life in us. He saved us for that ongoing experience. Christmas in a nutshell.