| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians” Our Bible verse for today: “But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.” Psalm 68:3 (NIV) Our thought for today: “Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ” In 1978 Richard Foster published a book which has since become a classic in modern Christian literature and which is commonly referred to as one of the most important Christian books written in the last 100 years. The title is “Celebration of Discipline”. Which, if you think about it, is a rather strange title because we don’t normally associate celebration with discipline. However, the disciplines Foster writes about are the basic disciplines associated with practicing the Christian faith. There are thirteen chapters, each of which is dedicated to a different essential basic discipline of practicing the faith. The first twelve chapters cover such things as prayer, study, simplicity, service, confession of sins, worship, etc. But the last chapter is all about celebration. Foster insists that celebration is an important means of practicing the faith and it is the foundation which underlies all the others. If we’re not experiencing great joy in our relationship with the Lord, and if it isn’t showing itself in celebratory ways, something is wrong at a deep level. He writes: “Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ … Celebration brings joy into life, and joy makes us strong. Scripture tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength.” However, there’s a problem: “The carefree spirit of joyous festivity is absent in contemporary society. Apathy, even melancholy, dominates the times. Harvey Cox says that modern man has been ‘pressed so hard toward useful work and rational calculation he has all but forgotten the joy of ecstatic celebration.” I love the thought, “Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ.”, and I completely agree. As Saint Augustine once famously said, The Christian should be one big alleluia from head to toe!” Today is Thursday, the weekend is coming. Do you have some healthy and holy celebrating planned? I hope you do. A robust and enthusiastic worship service certainly fits that description. We’ll be doing that kind of celebrating at Oak Hill Baptist Church. Our worship service begins at 10:00. Join us in-person, or for the online live-stream on the Oak Hill Baptist Church Facebook page. You can also participate in the celebration later by viewing the recorded version on our website at www.oakhillbaptist.net. Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ. Therefore, we should be intentional about finding lots of reasons and ways to celebrate. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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God bless you alsso!