Series: Christmas Pure & Simple Simpler Expressions Pastor Nathan Weller December 9, 2018 Series: Christmas Pure & Simple

Silence and solitude are the antidote to the busyness of the season

Be intentional about experiencing silence

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… a time to keep silence, and a time to speak... --Ecclesiastes 3.1, 7b ESV

Be still, and know that I am God. --Psalm 46.10 NIV

--Psalm 46.1-3, 8-10 NIV 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. 8 Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. 10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God”... --Psalm 46.1-3, 8-10 NIV

30 The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught. 31 Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. 32 So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone. --Mark 6.30-32 NLT

Be intentional about seeking out solitude

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him... 12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness... --Mark 1.4-5, 12 NIV

“Solitude is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place. There is a solitude of the heart that can be maintained at all times. Crowds, or the lack of them, have little to do with this inward attentiveness.” --Richard Foster--

“But here is what is happening: this world of stimulation and activity, is changing our brain and impacting our faith. when we gaze at the richness of the gospel and the church and find them dull and uninteresting, it’s actually we who have been hollowed out. We have lost our capacity to see wonders where true wonders lie. We must be formed as people who are capable of appreciating goodness, truth, and beauty...Our addiction to stimulation, input, and entertainment empties us out and makes us boring– unable to embrace... (cont’d)

--Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary-- ...the ordinary wonders of life in Christ... The kind of spiritual life and disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive, and ordinary. I often want to skip the boring, daily stuff to get to the thrill of an edgy faith. But it’s in the dailiness of the Christian faith—the making the bed, the doing the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small—that God’s transformation takes root and grows.” --Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary--

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. --Titus 3.4-8 ESV

Series: Christmas Pure & Simple Simpler Expressions Pastor Nathan Weller December 9, 2018 Series: Christmas Pure & Simple