The Little Tree and The Big Sky – Peace and Joy Right Now – Purity 899

The Little Tree and The Big Sky – Peace and Joy Right
Now – Purity 899    

Purity 899 11/26/2022 Purity 899 Podcast

Purity 899 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a short tree with abundant shade under
a pleasant blue sky on the shores of an unknown beach comes to us from the
photo archives of my phone and an unknown friend who shared this scene back on social
media back on November 25^th , 2021.  

In my zeal to share beautiful scenes of God’s
creation I will save photos that friends have shared but when you have as many well-travelled
friends as I have, you end up saving more photos than you use, so this morning
I decided to dial it back a year and see what I could find.  This was the first one that grabbed it and so
I shared it. I am setting it free. I’m putting it out there and deleting it from
my phone. So if this memory is yours, thank you for going “there” and sharing
it.   If you want to let us know who you
are and where you went, we will update the blog.

Yesterday, my wife dressed up in a red and white
dress and Santa hat to do face painting at Troy’s Landscape Supply in Cohoes
for their Black Friday Event where scores of people picked up their Christmas
trees, so when I look at today’s photo I am thinking of Charles Schultz’s
Peanuts and Linus’ humble little Christmas tree and am reminded that sometimes
the little things, the simple things can mean a lot.  

Let’s face it, our “little tree that could” on this
unknown beach isn’t much to look at. The sky’s pretty, the water’s pretty, and
yeah, this Bonsai-esque tree is cute, but where’s the sun? 

But sometimes we don’t need the “flash” and big
things to have joy. Sometimes we can just rest in the peace of what is and
appreciate life for what it is. Last night, I was out walking my canine friend,
Harley, at 6pm, which means it was as black as midnight outside. I wear a
headlamp when I take the dog out at night because I would like to see where I
am going, and I would like any motorists that are fling down Waite Rd to see me
too!  

The thing about walking under the light of the head lamp
though is that you sort of have “tunnel vision”.  The head lamp is a good one and casts quite a
strong beam of light into the distance but the contrast of the dark of night
makes it feel like the world outside of the light has faded to black and more
or less disappeared.  

But last night on the return trek back to my countryside
home, I happened to look up to see that all though the land was dark the sky
above me was illuminated by a galaxy of stars! It was a real planetarium like
view just overhead, but my head lamp was obscuring the show. So, I stopped the
dog from walking for a moment and turned it off and just beheld the glory of
outer space standing in the dark on the side of a road in upstate New York and
enjoyed this little moment under the great big sky.

And these two experiences of the little tree on an
unknown beach and the great big night sky last night, remind me to remind you to
step outside the “situations” of your life and to immerse yourself in the joy
and peace that you can find in the present moment. 

In every life there is drama, “the bills”, “the
people”, “the work”, “the news”, and all of these things can so preoccupy our
minds and emotions it is as if we are walking in the night and our light is
only shining on them. Our preoccupation with these problems or ongoing
situations gives us tunnel vision. While we should always take care of the
things we need to take care of, when we are only focused on the problems or
dramas of our lives we can miss the moments of peace and joy that are there for
the taking.  Our lives can become so busy
“taking care of business” that we end up missing the moments where we could
have found a little bit of peace, or a little bit of joy. 

And that’s why I recommend a life of Christian
Discipleship, of walking in the Spirit, where you keep walking and talking with
God because if you are doing that you will gain two things:

1.    An understanding of what really matters in life: our
relationship with God.

2.    Freedom from the preoccupations with the world
system and what other people think.

And when you have those two things and agree with
what the Bible says about you, you have freedom in Christ, and you will experience
the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life as your meaning and purpose come
into focus as you widen the lens of your vision.  

Last night, I thanked the Lord for the moment under
the stars, and the walk back to the house, and the cool evening breeze that
told me I was alive and well. And I thanked Him for His presence that told me
that I would never be alone.  

I came to the realization again that rather being
consumed with the dramas of this world, there is great joy and peace to be
found from the little things, from the big things, and from just the experience
of life. These are things that anyone can “dig” on but when you have a
relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, you can enjoy the mystery
of life because you know there is a purpose to it all because you know the
Author of the story.

And even though, we have no idea what’s going to
happen next our how the dramas of our lives will play out, when we stay in His
presence, we can enjoy the show all the same.  

So take a time out to look around and realize “Hey,
I’m okay!” and enjoy that fact and enjoy the presence of the Lord who created
that moment just for you and who has a whole host more of them waiting for you
to experience and appreciate as you keep walking and talking with Him.

——————————————————–

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

1
Corinthians 9:25 (NLT2)
²⁵  All athletes are
disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away,
but we do it for an eternal prize.

Today’s verse encourages us to be
disciplined in our training, reminding us that the work we do for the kingdom
of God will never fade away.        

Discipline can be viewed as a dirty
word because it is usually associated with performing something repetitive that
is “done for our own good” but that may not have immediate results.  Also discipline can be with hard work.  

When contemplating change we like the
idea of the finished result but in the grueling process of getting there and
the discipline our goals require, we can easily grow weary and decide to take a
break from or quit altogether the disciplined activities we decided were
necessary to accomplish our goals.  

But those who stick with their disciplined
plan of action consistently and with a commitment to the long term, discover
that discipline is actually a good thing.   

So if you have a health goal or a
financial goal in mind, like I do, let’s encourage one another to walk out of
this Thanksgiving weekend with a renewed commitment to be disciplined in our
approach to accomplishing them.  This can
be a rough weekend for discipline when it comes to those two areas of our lives
and believe me I am “preaching to the choir” when I say we should endeavor to
get back on that bucking horse and not give up on our goals, regardless of how
much pie we ingested or how much money “Black Friday deals” may have cost us.  

That’s the great thing about being a
Christian, there is grace for our failures and there is no condemnation for those
in Christ Jesus. 

However, we should answer the call to
repent when we realize that we have stepped off the path.  

The good news is that in Christ we
are accepted regardless of our performance. SO in one sense it doesn’t really
matter what we do….. BUT – careful now, because the devil would love to tell
you to remain lazy, selfish, and sinful because of God’s grace. That’s a trap!

Paradoxically, while in one sense it doesn’t
matter what we do, in Christ we have been given the power to do things that we
formerly would have considered to be impossible.

 To quote myself: “When I discovered that the
Lord was willing to do the impossible in my life, I said: “What’s next?” 

So that is why we engage our
discipline and decided to follow where the Lord leads us, because if He puts
something on our heart to accomplish we should know that we are able to perform
it, but we have to pursue it and do it!

God has given us the eternal prize
and everything for life and godliness, so let’s agree to stay disciplined and
keep walking in the way the Lord would have us walk, and let’s go accomplish the
good works that He has prepared for us to perform!

___________________________________________

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s
“Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.

The Messengers

(An Interpretation of Matthew 10)

The Apostles

“Then
Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These
are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and
his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and
Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and
Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him”
(Matt. 10:1–4).

The prayer is heard.
The Father has revealed God’s own will to the Son. Jesus Christ calls his
twelve disciples and sends them into the harvest. He makes them into
“apostles,” into his messengers and coworkers. “And he gave them power.” This
power is, indeed, what is at stake here. The disciples receive not only words
or doctrine, but effective power. How should they do their work without this
power? It has to be a power which is greater than the power of the one who
rules on earth, the devil. The disciples know that the devil has power,
although it is precisely the deception of the devil to deny his power and to
make people believe that he does not exist. It is just this most dangerous
expression of his power which must be confronted. The devil must be pulled into
the light and defeated by the power of Christ. In this, the disciples come to
stand by Jesus Christ himself. They are called to help him carry out his work.
So Jesus does not deny them the highest gift possible to meet this task,
namely, participating in his power over the unclean spirits and over the devil,
who has taken hold of humanity. In this commission the apostles have become
equal to Christ. They are doing the work of Christ.

The names of these
first messengers will be preserved for the world until the Last Day. The people
of God consisted of twelve tribes. There are twelve messengers, who are to
complete the work of Christ among them. Twelve thrones will be standing ready
for them as judges of Israel in the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:28). The heavenly
Jerusalem will have twelve gates through which the holy people will come in.
The names of the tribes will be inscribed on the gates. The wall of the city
has twelve cornerstones and they will bear the names of the apostles (Rev.
21:12, 14).

The only thing which
unites the twelve is the call of Jesus that selects them: Simon, the man of
rock; Matthew, the tax collector; Simon, the zealot, who struggles for justice
and law against heathen oppression;^[15] John, whom Jesus loved and
who laid his head on Jesus’ breast; and the others, about whom we know only
their names; and finally, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Nothing in the
world could have united these men to do the same work except the call of Jesus.
It overcame all their previous divisions and founded a new, strong community in
Jesus. The fact that even Judas went out to do the work of Christ remains for
us an inscrutable dilemma and a terrible warning.^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and
Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship