Dear Friends,
We hear it over and over again in December: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” And indeed, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be just that.
For many, though, December is a tough month. You’ve probably heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder – SAD. It’s sometimes called the winter blues. SAD is defined by medical professionals as “a recurrent major depressive disorder with a seasonal pattern usually beginning in fall and continuing into winter months.” Symptoms can range from a mild case involving low energy and a lack of motivation to clinical depression. SAD disproportionately affects younger women, and the farther away from the equator you live, the more likely you are to experience it.
God’s people are not immune from depression and discouragement, even during the Christmas season. In fact, the experience of depression may be more normative than we know.
One Sunday morning in 1866, C. H. Spurgeon stunned his five thousand listeners when from the pulpit of London's Metropolitan Tabernacle he announced, "I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever gets to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to."
For some of his audience it was incomprehensible that the world's greatest preacher could know the valley of despair. Yet twenty-one years later in 1887 he said from the same pulpit, "Personally I have often passed through the dark valley".
Martin Luther was subject to such fits of darkness that he would secret himself away for days, while his family would remove all dangerous implements from the house for fear he would harm himself.
In the midst of one of these times, Luther’s wife, Katie, entered his room dressed in all black. Startled, Luther asked his wife who had died. She replied that based on the way he was acting, she assumed God must have passed away!
The nation of Israel experienced its own corporate dark night of the soul during their 70 years of captivity in Babylon. In the midst of their despair, the prophet Isaiah told them to stop and remember exactly who their God is.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.”
When we’re weary and discouraged, why should it matter to us that God is eternal? Or that He is the Creator of the ends of the earth? Or that He does not faint or grow weary, or that His understanding is unsearchable?
How do HIs attributes of His eternality, sovereignty, his omnipotence and his omniscience have any bearing on what you’re feeling?
Isaiah tells us how.
God, he tells us, “gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
“Wait on the Lord.” That’s Isaiah’s exhortation for those who are weary and discouraged. He uses the Hebrew qawah, which means “to trust, hope, or have confidence in.” Don’t run ahead of God. Wait on Him. He’ll renew your strength.
Mental health professionals and counselors have strategies they recommend for those who are experiencing a season of sadness. Here are a few of them.
- Practice intentional gratitude. Make it a point to spend time every day in December coming up with five things for which you are thankful. It can be things as simple as running water. Dependable electricity. Socks. Having enough to eat. Someone smiled at you today. You heard a favorite song. Keep a running list throughout the month of the blessings we experience each day that many in our world go without.
- Schedule time for what your soul needs most. That means setting apart time to rest in a season where the pace is relentless. Whatever is the right recipe for you, make sure you include this ingredient in your mix of holiday activities.
- Volunteer for something. There is something that brings comfort and joy when we find a way to have a positive impact on the lives of other people.
- Be smart about your use of alcohol. The link between alcohol and depression is well documented. Drinking too much doesn’t drown your sorrows. It increases them.
While those strategies can bring help, ultimately it is the Lord who renews our strength and revives a disquieted soul. The deepest longings of the human heart are spiritual longings.
In the end, the only solution for darkness is light. When God’s people were living in a land of deep darkness, God promised light. Upon them, Isaiah said, light shined.
In any season of darkness, wait on the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Look to the Light of the World to give you what you need when darkness clouds your days.
BRINKLEY HEIGHTS DONATION DRIVEIf you selected a Brinkley Heights student from our Christmas tree over the past several weeks, this Sunday is the day to turn in the personalized Christmas card that will accompany their gift.
If you haven’t written a check for $40 to cover the cost of the gift, please remember to do that as well.
Also on Sunday, a group of us will be noshing and wrapping the presents after our worship service. We’d love to have you join the wrapping party, but we need to know if you’re going to be there so we can make sure you have something to nosh on!
Let us know you're coming so we can make sure we have lunch for you.
Register here (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=acd4cd98e3&e=fbb0a4052b)LEADERSHIP IN THE LOCAL CHURCH
Tomorrow night. 7:00 pm. This happens.
NXTGEN GET TOGETHER
This Saturday night, all young singles and young adults are invited and welcome for a soiree at the Gurney’s!
REDEEMER KIDS CHRISTMAS CHOIROn Sunday, December 14, Our RCC kids, ages 3 – fifth grade, will open our worship service with a Kids Christmas choir. They’ll be singing Silent Night.
If your kids are in Awana, they’re already learning and working on the song. If your kids are not in Awana, they are still welcome to participate. Here’s a link (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=9bb7ac5ac7&e=fbb0a4052b) to a video you can use to practice with your children at home. And here’s a link (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=8194d52969&e=fbb0a4052b) to the lyric sheet for the song.
Then a week from Sunday, you’ll need to have your kids at church at 9:20 to practice staging and run through the song with the worship band. The children will sing right after the call to worship at the beginning of the service.
Please let Laura White know if your child(ren) will be participating or if you have any questions. This is always a special Sunday for our families and also a great opportunity to invite friends and family to come to church with you this Christmas season.
CHRISTMAS GATHERINGS IN DECEMBER
During the month of December, we have a number of special Christmas events happening at Redeemer.
First, on Saturday December 13, all the women of the church are invited to our annual Christmas Women’s Tea. (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=4813782d25&e=fbb0a4052b)All women and girls (6th grade and up) are invited.
Let us know (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=70041daced&e=fbb0a4052b)if you can make it!!!
On Sunday, December 14, moms and dads and kids will be getting together for our Family Christmas Pajama Party!
There will be cookie decorating, Christmas bingo, singing Christmas carols, and watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
Also, bring a wrapped ornament for each of your kids so they can participate in an ornament exchange! Keep your ornament gender neutral.
Pass the word to friends, family, and neighbors too. This is open to anyone with kids from baby thru 5th grade.
Sign up here (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=b23337413c&e=fbb0a4052b). And don't forget to come in your Christmasy pjs!!
Meanwhile, our Roots students will be having their own Christmas celebration on December 14 as well.
Finally, on Christmas Eve, plan to join us for our annual Candlelight and Carols Christmas Eve service.
UPDATED CHURCH CONSTITUTION
Just a note. Thanks to all those who are Redeemer Church members who voted recently to approve our updated Church Constitution (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=c1eb4402e1&e=fbb0a4052b). We’ve posted the newly updated constitution online, along with a document that spells our Key Theological Distinctives (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=45a9aeca32&e=fbb0a4052b) our church elders must affirm each year as part of their ongoing service to our church.
PREPARING YOUR HEART FOR SUNDAYHere’s our New City Catechism questions for this Sunday.
Here is the link to this week’s video (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=58808146eb&e=fbb0a4052b) where David Bisgrove talks about this week’s question and answer.
(https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=4d22ec96c1&e=fbb0a4052b)
And here is this week’s catechism song (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=d9e461cc18&e=fbb0a4052b).
(https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=79ab5339da&e=fbb0a4052b)And finally, as always, here is the link (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=cff0c1ca80&e=fbb0a4052b) that will take you to the Spotify playlist of the songs we’ll be singing together this Sunday.
It’s easy for all of us to lose our grip on grace. Something in each of us wants to get credit for performing our good works. We’d all like a little glory for ourselves. But as we’ll see Sunday, God will have none of that. All the blessings we have because we are in Him come to us by grace and through faith. Join us as we continue our study in Ephesians 2 this Sunday.
See you in church.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Bob
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