Are you new to the Celebration of God? Click here for your first steps.TranscriptIntroduction
Welcome to the final episode in our Life series. I pray the past episodes have been a huge blessing and encouragement and challenge for you. It has been so valuable for me.
But before we round off this series, I would like to invite you to interact with us on social media via Facebook, Instagram, and now on Twitter and Pinterest. We’re slowly growing our presence on Twitter and Pinterest, but we’re sure that if you use those platforms, our content will be a blessing to you there. And you should also check out CelebrationOfGod.com for today’s free celebration tools, transcript, and life resources. And now let’s talk about how to celebrate life in God. Topic
I think the best place to start today is by defining what we mean by . . .
1. Celebrating God What is it? Well, if you’ve never listened to our introductory episodes, you really should. I’ve put a link in the description of today’s episode labeled What Does It Mean to Celebrate God?, and every blog post has a link which reads, “Are you new to the Celebration of God? Click here for your first steps.” Those intro episodes will answer this question for you in great breadth and depth. However, by way of simple reminder, to celebrate God is to do everything He commands of us. It’s worship, it’s praise, it’s exultation. We celebrate Him by submitting to Him, following Him, and obeying Him. Celebrating God is giving Him the preeminence that’s due Him. For many Christians this is easy to do during—what we call—the High Days. These are days like Sunday and the sacred holidays on our Christian calendar. But the hardest form of celebration occurs on—what we call—the Low Moments. These are all the other days and hours and minutes and seconds that make up our average, daily lives. God deserves our worship on the Holidays and the Everydays. So, let’s look at some great ways to celebrate the life of God this Season. 2. Celebrating the Life of God during the Holidays The Year Long Celebration of God celebratory calendar has a number of amazing High Days in the Season of Life. In fact, that greatest holiday of the entire year falls in this Season. Let’s take a quick look at them. First, Lent Lent is a time where God’s people prepare for the celebration of Resurrection Sunday by fasting, praying, and serving. And—again—if you’re new to the show, then it will be important for you to hear the details of how we celebrate these holidays. We are not Catholic or Lutheran. This ministry is protestant, and we follow baptistic creeds. This means that we don’t carry the baggage of the catholic observation of Lent, but we still get the benefit of the historical celebration of God. I’m going to put links into today’s episode notes so that you can easily access all of our information about all of these holidays. Please check them out to learn more. And the next minor holiday fits perfectly within the 46 days of Lent because it’s . . . Second, World Day of Prayer Obviously, we can and must pray every day without ceasing, but gathering with the Universal Church on the first Friday in March to join in prayer together is a fantastic way to celebrate the life of God. And then comes . . . Third, Passion Week This week is more of an Observation than a Celebration, but we don’t need to get into the semantical weeds. As deep and painful as the events of this week were, it was glorious how God redeemed them. Passion Week includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Wednesday, Good Thursday, and Silent Friday and Saturday. Yes, you heard me right, though it’s not sinful to observe Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we have a number of episodes that reveal the biblical and historical realities that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. So, check them out! And all of that is in preparation for the greatest holiday of the year . . . Fourth, Resurrection Sunday Were it not for Easter, all of our hopes and faith would be in vain. It’s Christ’s return to life that is the cornerstone of our entire faith. It’s the perfect celebration of the life of God in that God raised Jesus from the dead and—because of that miraculous event—we too can have eternal life in Christ! And then a little later we celebrate . . . Fifth, Stewardship Day Stewardship Day is a biblical way to appreciate Earth Day on April 22nd because we Christians should recognize more than anyone else the important responsibility we have to steward the earth for God’s honor and glory. This minor holiday is another fantastic addition to the Season of Life in that Creation is alive and is a gift from God to sustain our lives in the here and now. But, did you know that the yearly celebration of Resurrection Sunday rarely lines up with the historical date on which Jesus rose form the grave? That’s why we also take a day to celebrate . . . Sixth, Technical Easter It’s not a flashy name, but for those who like to take a moment to continue the celebration of Resurrection Sunday, April 25th is a great way to do it. And then we have another amazing way to celebrate life . . . Seventh, Mother’s Day Praise God for the miracle of life that God ordained to occur in a woman’s body! We thank the Lord for using our mothers to give us life and so much more. And then we look forward to two more beautiful holidays before the end of the Season of Life. Eighth, Ascension Ascension is the day we celebrate Jesus’ return to glory where He sat down at the right hand of the Father and completed His redemptive work! And finally . . . Ninth, Pentecost This is a wonderful day set aside to celebrate the gift of the church. Life within the body of God’s people is a joyous blessing, and we love to celebrate Him for it. So, those are the High Days, the Holy Days, the Holidays in the Season of Life, and though God doesn’t require us to observe any one of those days, they are a beautiful opportunity to join with God’s people to thank Him for the gifts for which all of His people naturally desire to thank Him. But those are only a few handfuls of days. There are plenty more opportunities to celebrate God in the Season of Life than the High Days. And—let’s be honest—if we only try to worship Him during the Holidays, it’s safe to say we’re not worshipping Him at all. That’s like someone who tries to do the “good Christian” thing on Sunday and then lives the rest of the week for himself. I promise you that God is not pleased by his pretense on Sunday.
So that’s why we finish off today’s discussion by looking at ways of . . .
3. Celebrating the Life of God during the Everydays First, let’s start with the Christian discipline of Bible Study. All of God’s people should long for and enjoy their daily time in His Word. To that end we’ve put together a simple 3 Month Bible Reading specifically for the Season of Life. You could use it alone, or you could easily add it to your other devotions. You can find the Season of Life Bible Reading at CelebrationOfGod.com. God is well-pleased when we not only read His Word, but we study it in order to better understand it and apply it to our lives. But there’s another vital Christian discipline in which we should engage every day. Second, Prayer. I mentioned this earlier, but it’s important enough to revisit. I love reenergizing my prayer life as I fast in preparation for Resurrection Sunday. It’s a wonderful way of getting me back on track for the rest of the Season and the year. I look forward to the day that we’ve created more resources on prayer, so—depending on when you’re listening to this—be sure to check out our website for more biblically-based teaching in the nature and habit of prayer. Until then, though, be sure to not just ask God for a bunch of things. Praise Him, confess your sins, advocate for others, and enjoy the complexity and depth of a robust conversation with God. And yet another desperately important discipline is . . . Third, Assembling with the Church. We did a series called Celebrate God at Church; so definitely be sure to check that out as you strive to worship Him better as church. But there are still so many other ways in which we need to celebrate God this Season. That’s why we encourage you to worship God in . . . Fourth, Everything Else. To help you do that, we have a growing body of resources dedicated to helping you better understand and apply God’s Word in every area of your life. For example, we have episodes on discipleship, worshiping God at work and school, celebrating Him with your rest, vacations, and recreation. We talk much about pleasing the Lord with what and how you eat including the discipline of fasting. We have a series about worshiping God in your friendships. We even discuss how to celebrate God with the reality of death. And—of course--TruthLoveParent.com provides you thousands of ways to worship God better in your parenting. There are so many tools and resources designed to help you worship God better this year than you did last year, the real question is whether or not you’ll take advantage of them. We pray you will, and we pray you’ll subscribe to this show and revisit CelebrationOfGod.com as it continues to grow so that we can equip you to be a better follower of Christ. Conclusion
Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that other followers of Christ can learn how to celebrate Him better this Season.
And if you’re in need of biblical counseling or assistance in your discipleship, please reach out to us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com. And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same. To that end, we’ll be starting our new series called The Evidence of Spiritual Life.
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The Year Long Celebration of God is a discipleship experience designed to equip followers of Christ to better know, love, and worship Him as they help others in their lives do the same. We exalt God, teach His people how to practically worship Him every day of the year, and train them to disciple others.
Whether it's a small group, church, classroom, one-on-one, or community relationship, this resource is guaranteed to draw people closer together as they draw closer to God. AMBrewster is the creator of The Year Long Celebration of God and host of its podcast. Archives
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