Remembering Times of Peace- 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day
5 – Purity 1061
Purity 1061 06/06/2023 Purity 1061 Podcast
Purity 1061 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo
of the sky over Waite Rd set ablaze by a winter’s sunset comes to us from yours
truly as I captured this scene back on December 17th of 2022. I
presume that I was out walking the dog as I shamefully admit that I honestly
don’t know if I would take as many walks as I do, especially in December, if it
wasn’t for the yearnings of our canine friend, Harley. I don’t recall really
anything of that day in particular but was fortunate to have my phone along for
the stroll as I used it to capture the glory of God’s creation painted on the
skies. If this scene looks familiar, it’s
because I shared a nearly identical photo from this vantage point back on
December 19th. But I apparently
took two shots of it and as I was called to remember a time of peaceful restfulness
my thoughts brought me back to December 2021, so I decided to look back in my
photo archive to get an accompanying December visual reminder to accompany
it.
And although
we are 6 Days into June, my mind is calling up jumbled lines from The Counting
Crow’s song – “A Long December”:
As I have
friends, family, and former friends going through medical issues, grief, and tough
times I think of the line that say:
“….The smell
of hospitals in winter
And the
feeling that it’s all a lot of oysters, but no pearls.”
And even
though we are in the hot months, people are suffering from the cold effects of
loss, pain, and uncertainty. But to
echo the hopeful verses from that same 90’s pop classic:
“And it’s been a long December and
there’s reason to believe.
Maybe this year will be better than
the last
I can’t remember all the times I
tried to tell my myself.
To hold on to these moments as they
pass” (https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/countingcrows/alongdecember.html)
We only get
one “present”, and that’s right now and for my friends and family who may be
feeling that it’s been a long year, a long couple months, or couple of weeks,
or a long couple of days in light of the things they are suffering, I would
encourage you to “hold on” to even these moments as they pass but to keep
walking and talking with God until you get to the other side of these current
trials by focusing on the good you have, right now, and by remembering similar
trials and troubles that you have survived and walked away from in the past, or
by just remembering good times or just simple times of peace in the past, knowing
that you can have similar moments in the future or right now, if you seek them
in the presence of the Lord.
And that brings us to our current series
where I am walking through the 28 Day Joy Challenge, (https://4habits.org/) because we are encouraging
ourselves and others, you, to “find peace” in our lives by increasing our
capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple
practices of quieting and appreciation.
The 28 Day
Joy challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner & Chris Coursey’s latest book,
The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free,
and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Coursey on topic of Joy, by
going to https://4habits.org/.
So let’s
jump into Day 5, which will direct us to remember a time of peace.
———————————————————————————————————
Day 5 – Reflecting on the Restful Moments
“Welcome to Day 5 of the 28 Days to Joy
Challenge!
Today’s
Encouragement:
Give yourself permission to take a break
from your busy day to enjoy some peace and rest. Listen to the birds sing. Feel
the sun on your face. You may be surprised how much more focus and energy you
feel afterward!
Today’s Practice:
Exercise 5
Today we practice remembering peace and
rest from the past.
– How This Exercise
Will Benefit You:
We remember restful moments from the past,
so we feel peaceful in the present.
Our friend Janet shared, “I miss my
granddaughter when I’m not with her. Now I can quiet and think about good times
with her.”
– Exercise Steps:
Find a comfortable, quiet spot and
reflect on one of the most restful, peaceful moments from your life. This is a
time in your life where you felt calm, quiet, and refreshed. Set a timer for
four minutes to reflect on your peaceful moment. Try to focus on taking deep
breaths that expand your stomach.
Have fun with this exercise. We pick up
tomorrow with more joy practice!”
As I contemplated the instructions of today’s joy challenge, I was thankful that I have a history of
seeking peace through the practice of meditation.
Hear this first and foremost before what I say next. The religions and philosophies of this world,
particularly of the New Age or eastern mysticism – Buddhism and Hinduism –
would lead you astray and take you on a calm ultra spiritual journey to Hell –
and there would be no rebirth, nirvana, enlightenment or reincarnation to get a
second chance at life or to “save all sentient beings”. In my broken journey to know the truth of
the ultimate reality that is revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, I
practiced a form of Tibetan Buddhism for 5 years where I spent countless sessions
in meditation, – calm abiding where you just focus on the breath – and insight
meditation – where you meditatively examine different aspects of life where you
would wonder and examine different aspects of reality – (God’s creation,
hello) but somehow never acknowledge the
Creator. And ironically, because God
created it all – our breath, our bodies, and the glories of His universe, even when we don’t acknowledge Him, we can
find a measure of peace in the things He created. So I had a lot of history of peaceful, restful
times in meditation and just in times of appreciating wonderful sights in my
travels from which I could have drawn from for today’s practice.
And after I have been saved, born again, I have countless sessions
of morning prayer and meditation and instances of “mini-retreats” where I read
the Bible or other Christian books”, that I could have thought about for today’s
practice.
However, I instead decided to focus one of the most peaceful
memories of resting that I have experienced on this earth where I wasn’t alone –
if we can, we should utilize memories and experiences where we were being
relational in these practices – and that
would also give glory to God.
The memory I chose to meditate on for the 4 minutes of today’s
challenge was from the first Christmas that I spent with my wife, then fiancée,
TammyLyn back in December of 2021. That Christmas
morning and for most of the day, TammyLyn and I were alone and spent the time
rejoicing over one another’s company and the celebration of of the birth our Lord
and Savior. It was theculmination of a
dream of mine that I had all my life: of spending Christmas – just in the
company of the one I love where there was peace. While I have enjoyed several joyful and peaceful
Christmases in the past, that Christmas of 2021 was without a doubt the best
one I have ever known and it was because of not only who I was with but because
of who I had become to be – a Christian who had surrendered to the Lord’s will
for His life, and although had suffered much loss and many trials, had come to a
place of freedom, victory, and love – as had my wife. The Lord had guided our paths to one another,
and that Christmas was one where I had a true sense that we “had arrived”. Cue Barry Manilow:
“Looks
like we made it.
Left
each other on the way.
To
another love
Looks
like we made it.
Or I
thought so till today.
Until
you were there, everywhere.
And all
I could taste is love the way we made it.
Looks
like we made it.
Whoa
babe we made it.”
(https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/barrymanilow/lookslikewemadeit.html)
Anyway, we made it! And I was
filled with joy as I meditatively remembered that day this morning, as I “Crushed”
today’s 28 Day Joy Challenge , practice number 5, by going well beyond the 4
minute mark in peaceful contemplation as the challenge directs.
So remember the times of peace in your life and rejoice, but make
sure that you remember all of this has come under God’s guidance and direction
and seek the Lord to find more of those magic moments by following Him to your
future and hope.
——————————————————————————————–
For those who want more evidence for Christianity
than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s
website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
—————————————————————————–
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verse is:
Psalm 25:7 (NLT2)
7 Do not remember the
rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for
you are merciful, O LORD.
Today’s verse reminds us
to thank the Lord that He doesn’t hold our pasts against us, as we have been
forgiven of all things when we put our faith in Jesus.
Rebellious sins of my
youth? Hey, that’s me! Oh Lord, I was such a rebel, such a jerk, so ignorant,
stubborn, and selfish. I thank God
everyday for pulling me out of the darkness of my selfish fleshly life to give
me a new life of meaning and purpose.
Part of our journey is
knowing that the word of God is really true and its not only not a matter of
debate – although lots of Christians like to debate various aspects of our
faith – it is a matter of realizing the word of God is the ultimate truth and
that it applies to us personally. It is
only by making the decision to believe and live according to the word of God, that
we can ever overcome our doubts and rebellious spirit.
When you are not sure, you
take God’s word “under advisement” and essentially ignore it! You struggle and sin because “you’re not sure”
if your saved, if your forgiven, or if you “really are a Christian”!
So forget that, forget
those rebellious days, and decide to live according to the decision you have
made in making Jesus your Lord and Savior.
When we accept Jesus’s forgiveness and eternal life, we should also
accept that we are now to live a Christian life. We can’t ask the Lord to forget our
rebellious youth, in our rebellious old age.
Instead live in the
natural consequence of knowing God’s mercy and unfailing love, by being
obedient. Leave the rebelliousness in past
and follow the Lord into your purpose where peace and joy define your life.
————————————————————————
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 The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3)
A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit
7 – The Holy Spirit and Christ
The
Spirit in the Ascension of Christ
The third degree of Christ’s unction was
reserved for His exaltation, and is thus described, “Therefore being by the
right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the
Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:33).
This highest ride of unction, when Christ was “anointed with the oil of
gladness above his fellows” (Ps.
45:7) and which became apparent at Pentecost, was an ascension-gift. The
declaration which Peter gave of it was but a paraphrase of Psalm 68:18, “Thou
hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received
gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD might dwell among
them.” That bountiful supply of the Spirit was designed for the erecting and
equipping of the New Testament church, and it was fitly bestowed after the
ascension upon those for whom the Spirit was purchased.
Christ Bestows the Spirit
As Mediator, the Lord Jesus was anointed with
the Holy Spirit for the execution of all His offices, and for the performance
of all His mediatorial work. His right to send the Spirit into the hearts of
fallen men was acquired by His atonement. It was the well-earned reward of all His toil and sufferings.
One of the chief results of the perfect satisfaction which Christ offered to
God on behalf of His people, was His right now to bestow the Spirit upon them.
Of old it was promised Him, “By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant
justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities: therefore will I divide Him a
portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because
He hath poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:11, 12). So, too, His
forerunner had announced, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”
(Matthew 3:11).
What has just been
said above is further borne out by Galatians 3:13, 14. “Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us … that the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith.” The promised Spirit followed the
great work of canceling the curse as the effect follows the cause. To give the Holy Spirit to men, clearly implied that
their sins had been put away; see Leviticus 14:14, 17 for the type of this—the
“oil” (emblem of the Spirit) placed upon
the “blood!” Not only does Christ’s right to bestow the Holy Spirit upon His
redeemed intimate the cancellation of their sins, but it also clearly argues
His Divine dignity, for no mere servant, however exalted his station,
could act thus or confer such a Gift![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 Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), 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)
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Arthur Walkington Pink, The Holy Spirit
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, n.d.).
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