Christian Retreats
and Holy Days, What Can They Do For Us?
(A short paper on
the effects of spiritual warfare--battle fatigue, and some good
suggestions for countering it.)
First of all let's
realize that according to the Bible, we are all in a dangerous spiritual
warfare that can tax our abilities more than we realize. Paul states in Ephesians 6:10-13, "Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can
take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of
God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand
your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." Many times we can draw very accurate pictures
of spiritual warfare by looking at its physical counterpart, especially
in the psychological areas of warfare, what it does to our psyche
and ability to fight. All
through these verses (through verse 19), Paul shows us the weapons
of our warfare come from putting on Christ through prayer and Bible
study. But constant spiritual
or physical warfare without sufficient re-supply, rest and recuperation
has a powerful negative effect on the soldier, be he in an army of
this world or a Christian soldier of Jesus Christ. I came across a very good description of what
effect continued warfare has on the average soldier in the U.S. Army
fighting its way up Italy during World War II. I
found this description in the late Ernie Pyle's BRAVE MEN, written and published in 1944. I will quote from pages 84-86. If you see yourself in this description, you
are in serious need of spiritual R &
R. Oftentimes (during
World War II) an army would go as long as 28 days in continuous battle
on the front lines, without rest for its soldiers. Ernie
describes the psychological result of this continuous warfare on
the mind of the average soldier. I'll
let Ernie tell it from here. "Outside
of the occasional peaks of bitter fighting and heavy casualties that
highlight military operations, I believe the outstanding trait in
any campaign is the terrible weariness that gradually comes over
everybody. Soldiers become exhausted in mind and in soul
as well as physically. They
acquire a weariness that is mixed up with boredom and lack of all
gaiety. To sum it all up: A man just gets damned sick
of it all.
The infantry reaches a stage of exhaustion
that is incomprehensible to folks back home. The men in the First Division, for instance,
were in the lines twenty-eight days--walking and fighting all that
time, day and night.
After a few days of such activity, soldiers
pass the point of known human weariness. From then on they go into a sort of second-wind
daze. They keep going
largely because the other fellow does and because they can't really
do anything else.
Have you ever in your life worked so hard
and so long that you didn't remember how many days it was since you
ate last or didn't recognize your friends when you saw them? I never have either, but in the First Division,
during that long, hard fight around Troina, a company runner one
day came slogging up to a certain captain and said excitedly, "I've
got to find Captain Blank right away. Important
message."
The captain said, "But I am Captain
Blank. Don't you recognize
me?"
And the runner said, "I've got to
find Captain Blank right away." And
he went dashing off. They
had to run to catch him.
Men in battle reach that stage and still
go on and on. As for the rest
of the Army--supply troops, truck drivers, hospital men, engineers--they
too become exhausted, but not so inhumanly. With
them and with us correspondents it's the ceaselessness, the endlessness
of everything that finally worms its way through us and gradually
starts to devour us.
It's the perpetual, choking dust, the
muscle-racking hard ground, the snatched food sitting ill on the
stomach, the heat and the flies and the dirty feet and the constant
roar of engines and the perpetual moving and the never settling down
and the go, go, go, go, night and day, and on through the night again. Eventually
it all works into an emotional tapestry of one dull, dead pattern--yesterday
is tomorrow and Troina is Randazzo and when will we ever stop and,
God, I'm so tired.
I noticed this feeling had begun to overtake
the war correspondents themselves. It
is true we didn't fight on and on like the infantry, that we were
usually under fire only briefly and that, indeed, we lived better
than the average soldier [except for Ernie, who kept up with the
front lines, almost as a matter of pride. Only
one who had been through this himself could so accurately describe
this psychological effect on the soldiers]. Yet
our lives were strangely consuming in that we did live primitively
and at the same time had to delve into ourselves and do creative
writing.
That statement may lay me open to wisecracks,
but however it may seem to you, writing is an exhausting and tearing
thing. Most of the correspondents
actually worked like slaves. Especially
was this true of the press-association men. A great part of the time they went from dawn
till midnight or 2 A.M. I'm
sure they turned in as much toil in a week as any newspaperman at
home in two weeks. We traveled continuously, moved camp every
few days, ate out, slept out, wrote whatever we could and just never
caught up on sleep, rest, cleanliness, or anything else normal.
The result was that all of us who had
been with the thing for more than a year finally grew befogged. We were grimy, mentally as well as physically. We'd
drained our emotions until they cringed from being called out from
hiding. We looked at bravery
and death and battlefield waste and new countries almost as blind
men, seeing only faintly and not really wanting to see at all.
Suddenly the old-timers among the correspondents
began talking for the first time about wanting to go home for a while. They
wanted a change, something to freshen their outlook. They
felt they had lost their perspective by being too close for too long.
I am not writing this to make heroes of
the correspondents, because only a few look upon themselves in any
dramatic light whatever. I
am writing it merely to let you know that correspondents, too, can
get sick of war--and deadly tired." [What
Ernie Pyle has described here in 1943 in Italy is clearly known now
as battle fatigue, a very real psychological malady. Ernie Pyle transferred over to the Pacific
theatre to continue his coverage of the war, this time against Japan. He was killed in action by a sniper on the
island of Okinawa. He died
a soldier's death, amongst the ones he loved so much, and lived with
and wrote about for so long.]
When I was a member
of the Worldwide Church of God, we would observe what is called in
Leviticus 23 and Zechariah 14:16-19, The
Feast of Tabernacles. We
would save what amounted to a (second) tithe of our earnings and
go to a nice resort area where the church was meeting for the Feast,
and then we'd spend it during those eight days. We
lived liked kings, ate like them too. We
heard eight days worth of spiritually nourishing sermons. The
Feast was a spiritual high point, a time of spiritual and physical
refreshing. For Messianic
Jewish Christians these days can provide the same kind of spiritual
refreshing—as observing the other Holy Days can to a lesser degree. For
Gentile Christians, Christian retreats can also fill this huge spiritual
need we all have for spiritual R & R. It was learned from such observations of Ernie
Pyle and those like him, that soldiers needed to be rotated from
the front lines on a regular basis, where they could rest and recuperate
from the grind of continuous battle. This
kept them and the army they fought with fresh and on their toes. The Sabbath for Messianic Jewish Christians,
or Sabbatarian Christians, and Sunday for Gentile Christians is an
important spiritual recuperation day, or else it should be. Christians should plan on going on Christian
retreats on a regular basis, at least once or twice a year, bare
minimum. For those who do still keep the Feast of Tabernacles,
this time can also be used as a spiritual time of refreshing, before
going back into spiritual battle again. If
you see yourself in Ernie Pyle's description, you need to do something
about it, and fast. You can't
go on like that. You'll crack,
or become some sort of spiritual zombie, living in that condition
Ernie called second-wind
daze. If you're doing
a work for the Lord, day in, day out, without letup, and are sort
of out there on your own (many of us Christian web-publishers are
in this boat [or spiritual bomber-aircraft]), you are very prone
to this type of burn-out. Pastors
and ministers are also very prone to this type of burn-out. It is very real, and comes with the territory,
of being in constant spiritual warfare. I clearly saw my own emotions mirrored in Ernie
Pyle's description here. It's
real. You can't ignore the
symptoms, they won't go away. Others
will see them in you before you do. But
Ernie describes the identifying feelings pretty well, so you can
readily recognize them in yourself if they're there. Most
churches have planned retreats. If
you feel this way, sign up for the next scheduled retreat and take
the time to refresh yourself in the Lord before you go back into
battle. If you are a pastor, deacon, Christian web
designer, writer, or serve others in the body of Christ in any way,
others depend on you. It's
hard to be an effective tool in the hands of the Lord to help others,
if you suffer from spiritual battle
fatigue.
The Beauty of the
Feast of Tabernacles
Near the beginning
I mentioned the Feast of Tabernacles that the Worldwide Church of
God kept. I would like to discuss that a little more,
since it proved to be such a powerful time of refreshing for those
of us who observed it. The
beauty of the Feast of Tabernacles wasn't to be found in the legalistic
keeping of it, nor with any of the other Holy Days we observed--sundown
to sundown [i.e. no work, manual labor, sundown to sundown as spelled
out in OT law]. The beauty of observing the Feast of Tabernacles
for us was in the Holy Spirit who flared up in born-again believers
fellowshipping, working, playing, feasting together at restaurants--that
was the beauty that came out of the Worldwide Church of God's Feast
of Tabernacles and Holy Day observances.
When
burning coals are placed together they multiply heat, fire and energy
beyond the sum total of their individual contribution. The
inverse of that is when you take a coal away from other coals, it
dies down almost immediately. When
Holy Spirit led and filled individuals congregate and fellowship,
not just in their local church services on a Sunday or Saturday,
but at day-long observances of a Holy Day, meals included--spiritual
coals of fire share and
multiply spiritual heat and energy. I
found this especially true, having to get to a rented hall, or sometimes
a restaurant with a function room we'd rent, to help the sound crew
I worked with to set up for services. Solomon
said in Proverbs 27:17, "Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens
the countenance of his friend." When
we had these days, using them in such a way--we came out of the world
and its influence for a time of tremendous spiritual refreshing and
strengthening. Follow with me for awhile. I'm trying to get to the heart of something
important here--and it isn't about the legalistic observing of Old
Testament Holy days. It goes
much deeper.
The
hidden contribution of following the legalistic application of the
biblical
"sundown to sundown" requirement of the old covenant Law
was that it merely gave us "lively coals of fire" more time
to remain together and get refreshed. While
some, perhaps many, fell into the legalistic trap, in my personal opinion
our old covenant Worldwide Church of God had at least 45 to 50 percent
having the Holy Spirit indwelling in them--a probable average of Holy
Spirit filled people in any spiritually alive and active Christian
church. For those Christian
groups that observe the Old Testament Holy Days--Messianic Jewish Christians
and some Sabbatarian Christian groups--these observations I'm making
here should be heeded so that a huge spiritual resource and opportunity
for spiritual refreshment is not lost through lack of understanding
and proper application of these spiritual principles. Again, to the Christian churches and denominations
that observe traditional orthodox days--you will have to supplement
for not having as many days to refresh spiritually [understand something
about Christmas and Easter, these two days have become highly secularized
and commercialized]--you have to plan to have many periods of time
called "Christian retreats"
to achieve this same level of spiritual refreshment and rejuvenation
outside of the world's evil influence.
Let's
look closer at the Worldwide Church of God's Feast of Tabernacles
observance and what made it possible for these Christians to achieve
this rejuvenation. It takes
money to go someplace for eight days. To
observe the Feast of Tabernacles the way we did in the old covenant
Worldwide Church of God, we saved a biblical 2nd tithe
of our incomes, spelled out in Deuteronomy 14:22-26, which states, "Thou
shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth
forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God,
in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe
of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of
thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord
thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee, so that
thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee,
which the Lord shall choose to set his name there [for us, the Feast
site locations, for the Jews when this was written, Jerusalem], when
the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, then thou shalt turn it into
money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the
place which the Lord thy God shall choose: and thou shalt bestow
that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth [desires] after, for oxen,
or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink [the Bible teaches
extreme moderation in alcohol consumption, not total abstinence. Some denominations teach total abstinence which
is fine, as long as they don't try to say that that is what the Bible
teaches], or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat
there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and
thy household, and the Levite that is within thy gates..." This,
Bible scholars know, is a second tithe, a Feast tithe, that Israelites
were supposed to save so they would have the funds to travel to Jerusalem
and live for the eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles, as well
as the other Holy Days when they traveled to Jerusalem. [To better understand the old covenant tithe
system, log onto http://www.UNITYINCHRIST.COM/gifts4.htm .] In
reality 7.5 percent of a Christian's net income should suffice to
provide for this wonderful spiritual opportunity of rejuvenation
and strengthening. I don't
want to go back into legalistic observances again, but I do think
we ought to try to recapture the spiritual essence of why it was
good, for our continued spiritual benefit.
So
to the Messianic's I say this, you have a tremendous resource here
in the traditional Holy Days you still observe. But
understand, in not being Jewish, Mr. Herbert W. Armsgtrong did not
follow the "traditional" way of allowing a Jewish family
to fulfill the Feast of Tabernacles requirements by building a Sukkot
tent in their backyard--which ignored the greater old covenant command
to 'save a 2nd tithe and take it to
the place the Lord had set his name upon and observe the Feast of
Tabernacles for eight days'. The "Sukkot
tent" custom sort of circumvented the old covenant command to
save a second tithe and take it and go to the Feast of Tabernacles
for eight days. In circumventing
a tithe law--which had fallen into disuse after the destruction of
the temple and subsequent wholesale slaughter and scattering of the
Levitical priesthood in 70AD--a custom arose which prevented the
Feast of Tabernacles from being observed to the fulness of it's original
intent. Then from 1934 to 1986 Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong,
mistakenly and legalistically applied old covenant law (which was
designed and given for the ruling of a theocratic nation) to a Christian
church. This enabled that
church to practice and taste the fruits of the proper observance
of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles. The spiritual fruits of this were
stunning, in spite of the legalistic trappings. As
explained just previously, the spiritual fruits of observing the
Feast of Tabernacles in its original prescribed manner were that
many
"lively coals of spiritual fire" came together for tremendous
spiritual refreshing and rejuvenation.
Many
members of the Worldwide Church of God, not being wealthy by any
stretch of the imagination, never had sufficient funds to have a
regular family vacation apart from the Feast of Tabernacles, so the
Feast of Tabernacles became their family vacation, and the church attending the Feast
of Tabernacles became their extended family. Christian
singles, often not in great number back home in their local congregations,
met other Christian singles in far greater number. Relationships often started, and subsequent
marriages took place--all because one man mistakenly applied old
covenant theocratic "nation of Israel" laws to a Christian
church [i.e the full three tithe system set of laws and Holy Day
observance (read Leviticus 23, whole chapter)]. The spiritual benefits were huge. Sadly,
the casting off of these days, I believe, have contributed to the
decreased spiritual vitality of the Worldwide Church of God and it
has nothing to do with the casting off of legalistic requirements. Mr. Armstrong stumbled onto a great spiritual
principle through the misapplication of several old covenant laws
given to the "nation of Israel". That
principle is found in Hebrews 10:25, "By observing one another,
let us arouse ourselves to rival one another's love and good deeds. Let
us not neglect meeting together as some do, but let us encourage
one another, all the more as you can see the great Day is coming
nearer." [Goodspeed translation]
Recently
the tiny Messianic congregation I attend started a mid-week Bible
study, which includes a period of group prayer. After
about three weeks, I myself, as well as the others have noticed our
spiritual walk is more lively, our strength to face the world is
increased. Sometimes, just doing what a you can as a congregation
to double the amount of time members spend together will yield tremendous
spiritual dividends for those who take advantage of these spiritual
resources. It’s not like every
group can go right out and keep a Feast of Tabernacles. That
Feast took tremendous planning on the part of all the ministry and
HQ church of the Worldwide Church of God, as well as the combined
faithful saving of funds by everyone who attended. Often
times, vacation time was used to be able to attend. Parents and children alike had hassles with
school departments for taking kids out of school for about 10 days
in the fall. The cost of observing this feast was huge,
in many ways, but the spiritual dividends were huge as well. As this world grows colder and colder spiritually,
as Matthew 24:11-13 says it will, Christian Retreats, Sunday or Saturday
church services, mid-week Bible studies and prayer meetings are crucial
periods of time for recuperation and strengthening the parts of the
body of Christ we are a part of, regardless of the days of worship
your group observes or doesn’t observe. Time
is a gift of God. Use it wisely. Redeem it, as the times grow more evil.
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