Good day, My Friends. I’m sorry this is late being posted today, but I ended up with an unusually busy morning. Crazy stuff..some to do with logistics for the Saint Louis Wind Symphony for the remainder of this season, and another was just a social event. Gotta tell ya…I feel much better getting this done first thing in the morning. I relax best once my work is done rather than vice versa. Oh well, enough jawing. It’s time to get to the matter at hand…sharing a message of hope.
This month Discovery Church (my church) has been using Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol as the basis for our messages. As I watched the story unfold, I saw the typical format of a “morality play”, meaning the main character, through his actions, words and deeds, has created a past that comes back to haunt him. He comes face to face with “who” or “what” he has become; he makes a decision to change; he sets out to rectify the wreckage of his past, then he reaps the benefit of a bright, productive future. I have witnessed that very process change people’s lives time and time again. As a story-telling format, it reached its pinnacle in the 15th and 16th centuries in Tudor dramas. But when I look at that format, I see the outline of a “Christian walk”.
Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843. He wrote it specifically to call attention to the plight of England’s poor population. Many scholars believe that the characters and situations he presents in the story are people and events he experienced during his childhood. He was raised in Kent, England. His father was a gambler, a womanizer, and an alcoholic. When Charles was 10 years old, his father moved the family to the outskirts of London, to an area we might call the slums today. When Charles was 12 years old, his father was sentenced to a debtor’s prison. As odd as this sounds to us today, but apparently is was common at the time, Charles’ mother moved her children, minus Charles, into the debtor’s prison with the father. Charles was left to care for himself. Consequently he was forced into child labor and worked in deplorable conditions at a bottling plant just outside London.
The main character in “A Christmas Carol” is Scrooge, described by Dickens himself, as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scalping, clutching and covetous old sinner!” (Wow! How would you like that on your tombstone??) Suffice it to say…Scrooge was a tight-fisted, cold-hearted, greedy old man. He had disdain for people, and he particularly disliked Christmas and anything having to do with joy and laughter – and especially giving! His words and actions drove everyone away, and Scrooge finds himself a prisoner in his own lonely, dark, cynical world. This confirms a truth found in Galatians 6:7 “do not be deceived … whatever a man sows, so shall he reap.”
The first apparition to visit Scrooge is Marley, his business partner, who had been dead for seven years. Marley appears draped in chains, representing the bondage resulting from his former selfishness and greed, and he tells Scrooge to change his ways or he will experience the same fate. He also tells Scrooge he will be visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future.
The ghost of Christmas Past escorts Scrooge on a return journey to previous Christmases from the curmudgeon’s earlier years. Scrooge gets an objective view of the damage and hurt he caused. The ghost of Christmas Present makes very clear to the miser the despicable person he has become, while at the same time planting seeds for change. The ghost of Christmas Future reveals to Scrooge what the future will hold if he continues down the same path of self-centeredness. As a result of this enlightening journey with his visitors, Scrooge experienced the awakening all of us must experience if we are going to embark on the process of change. It is in the process itself that we begin to experience freedom from the bondage of our past.
All of us have a past, and who we are today is a sum total of that experience. Our past either empowers us to victory, or it chews us up and spits us out. If your case is the latter, there is hope. If you find yourself in shackles to doubt, fear, guilt, shame, remorse, or destructive behavior, there is a pathway to freedom. The first step down that path is admitting you have a problem and making a decision so seek help.
The call to change either takes the form of an epiphany – a burning bush experience such as enlightenment or revelation, or perhaps we find ourselves in a state of brokenness and are willing to surrender with a plea for help. Many times that plea is as simple as “God, help me!” The good news is found in Hebrews 13:5, “…never will I leave you or forsake you.” and James 4:10, “When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.” God knows the state of your heart. He is just like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke 15:11-32. He is there to meet you with open arms and to say, “Welcome home!”
Whether the impetus for change comes from an epiphany or brokenness, we need to continue to fan the flames of our endeavor or those flames will start to die out. The answer to this situation is found in John 15: 4-5, “Abide (remain) in me and I will remain in you…Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will produce much fruit.” If we stay in line with God’s will for our life rather than pursuing the former path of self-obsession, his promise is to be there for us.
Once we are willing and ready to commit ourselves to finding God’s purpose for our life, we begin cleaning up the past messes we have made. We begin by making amends to people we have harmed by our actions or our words. When we do this, we are taking responsibility for our actions. Matthew 5:23-24 addresses this: “So if you are standing before the altar in the temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar and go be reconciled to that person.” As we clean-up the wreckage from our past, we begin rebuilding our spiritual connection with God. Now we are becoming the person He created us to be.
This process outlined above is also the Christian walk. We know there is a need for us to change; we’ve received a wake-up call. We turn to God and we admit our dependence on him. His first priority is to lead us to Jesus Christ. He is our pathway to freedom. When we are in Christ, we are heir to all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm and all the promises in the Bible. When we are in Christ, we are a new creation…our former sin nature is taken away and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, whose nature is not to sin! Now we are no longer slaves to our old nature, but we have choices, and the Holy Spirit prompts and empowers us the make decisions that are in line with God’s will for our lives. When we are in line with God’s will and we have the Holy Spirit empowering us, Isaiah 54:17 tells us, “…no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” This is reinforced in 1John 4:4, “He that is in me (the Holy Spirit) is greater than he (Satan) that is in this world.”
As Christians we already have everything we need to be victorious in this life. As Jesus proclaimed when he began his ministry, “repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) When we are in Christ, we already experience the Kingdom of Heaven – an “abundant life”, right now, right here on earth. This awesome life manifests itself in happiness, joy, peace and serenity. Whether we know it or not, that is really what we have been searching for all of our life, but in most cases we were “searching for love in all the wrong places”. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-29, “come to me all who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.”
Are you experiencing the abundant life Jesus promised?
May God Bless ya, and feel free to respond to this message.
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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