One Week with Bare Naked Ladies and I'm Sorry!- 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 8 – Purity 1064 –

 One Week with Bare Naked Ladies and I’m Sorry!- 28 Day
Joy Challenge – Day 8 –  Purity 1064

Purity 1064 06/09/2023 

Purity 1069 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo
of a picnic bench underneath a pine tree on the shores of Lake Ontario comes to
us from yours truly as I captured this scene back on November 10^th
2022 behind Johnson Hall on the campus of SUNY Oswego as I decided to make an
overnight tour stop to the city of my alma mater during my pilgrimage out west
to serve as a volunteer at the Evening with David Jerimiah event in Buffalo and
stopped on campus long enough to catch a few shots of the Lake before I simultaneously
felt that I had to hit the road and that my college days at SUNY Oswego were
long gone and that I didn’t belong there. 
To echo the sentiments in the lyrics from Radiohead’s 90’s classic “Creep”  I was afraid that some coed would think “…I’m
a Creep. I’m a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here, I don’t belong here…”  So I moved on knowing that in some ways you
can never go home again.  

Well, It’s Friday
and I am back at my place down by the River after doing a one night stay at my
countryside home in Easton, because of my shifted tour and to spend a little
bit of time with my wife, TammyLyn to celebrate her birthday,  and even though it is Friday – I’m not
necessarily feeling those end of the work week thrills that would cause me to shout
“Friday NIGHT!” ala Beavis and Butthead because I have to work tomorrow, making
Friday Thursday and my weekend reduced to a single day on Sunday.  

But you won’t
catch me gripping too much, because I did have the day off yesterday and
despite being a little disappointed at the cliffhanger ending of the latest
installment of the Spiderman franchise, Across the Spiderverse, I did manage to
enjoy my time off from work and got some much needed rest.    Which I was reminded is a necessary
companion to our efforts at seeking Joy.   

On the way
back to River house yesterday, I streamed a teaching from Deeper Walk’s Joy
Reset Conference, where Nik Harrang spoke about the Brain Science of Joy, in
which he balanced the good news that we could increase our capacity for joy no
matter how old we are with the provision that we have to take time to rest in
between to let our capacities for joy to increase. He likened “increasing the mental
capacity of our “joy buckets” in our brains” to exercising our physical muscles
of our bodies, pointing out that muscle growth happens during the in between
resting periods between physical exertion and that if we exercise our bodies
all the time without rest we will see less growth. 

So
yesterday, I got so much needed rest – napping before, after, and maybe a
little during my trip to the movies and now I feel refreshed and ready for the
challenges of a new day and for some more “joy building exercises”.   

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 8, which will direct us to reflect on the past and how it gives
us joy.  

———————————————————————————————————

Day 8 – Reflecting on the Past

Welcome to Day 8 of
the 28 Days to Joy Challenge!

Today’s
Encouragement:

You may have
noticed that practicing joy and rest has given your mind time to bring up other
less pleasant feelings. If this happens, don’t fret—this is normal. But here is
what you can do to help. For each exercise, try to focus on memories,
experiences, or people that bring joy or peace without any splinters of pain.
If you notice pain coming up during an exercise, acknowledge the feeling, and
then switch your attention to a person or memory that is not tied to pain or
sadness.

Today’s Practice:
Exercise 8

Today we are
focusing on practicing awareness of our own emotions through quieting.

– How This Exercise
Will Benefit You:

Learning how to
slow down enough to listen to our body and emotions can be rare for us, but the
awareness of ourselves that comes from practice can greatly reduce stress and
overwhelm.

– Exercise Steps:

Find a comfortable
position where you can rest. Play one of your favorite songs from a different
stage of your life. Close your eyes while you listen to the song. Notice how
this experience feels before, during, and after. What thoughts and emotions do
you notice? Share your experience with a friend.

Have fun with this
exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice!

Well, the reason the beginning of today’s blog post
started with a view from my alma mater and some 90’s references is because today’s
“joy exercise” took me for a trip down memory lane.  

Unlike the previous days of this 28 day Joy
Challenge, this morning I went in “cold” because I didn’t peak to see what the exercise
was covering so I just read the instructions and didn’t think about them too
much and just jumped right in like a fraternity brother being thrown into the
icy waters of Lake Ontario for being a little too overzealous in pledging the
newest class of brothers.  “Who me? Come
on fellas where all friends here… Brothers??? AHH!”  

Anyway, choose a favorite song from a different
stage of my life, oh brother… So I “randomly” opened up my iTunes and spun the
dial and let it stop “randomly” at an “artist” and I would just pick a song and
listen to it – with no preparation or contemplation and would see what would
happen.   The roulette wheel of chance didn’t
go far up as it just got to the “b’s” and given the choice between “Barbara
Streisand” and “Barenaked Ladies” – I decided that the Canadian 90’s Band had a
better chance of representing a different stage of my life than “Babs”  – so I clicked on them and discovered I only
had one of their songs, in that folder anyway – their 1998 rapid fire “frantic”
hit “One Week”.  Without thinking twice,
I played the song and was reminded of my college days and later (at this very
point in writing this) discovered the mind’s ability to fashion false memories
when certain aspects of our pasts are close “enough”.   

While I was listening to the song, I fondly
remembered my college partying days and had vivid memories of certain college
friends and the old familiar haunts of the Oswego party scene. I remembered Old
City Hall on water street in the summer specifically and the familiar casts of
characters of fraternity brothers and sorority sisters that I had spent most of
my time with.  I felt the “joy” of
youthful exuberance and remembered how passionately my friends and I embraced
the night and danced and sang to the music while looking for thrills wherever
the evenings would take us.  

But just before the song ended, and immediately
afterward, I experienced some deep grief, guilt, and shame as I mourned for my
younger self when I remembered just how much fear I lived in during those
days.  I was afraid of the future, so I partied
too much and because I partied too much I was afraid of the future.  I was afraid of being alone but was sometimes
anxiety ridden because I didn’t know what to say when I was in the company of others.
My social anxiety led to drinking which caused me to be more social and less
inhibited and consequently less in control. 
So I was also afraid of what I might do if I got too drunk.  I wanted to find love but unless I was drunk
I was nervous around women. I was afraid of rejection, but I was also afraid of
being in a committed relationship.  I loved
the night life, but I was afraid of running into violence – drunken brawls happen,
and I was afraid – even after I was “legal”, of the police.  I was afraid of driving drunk. I was afraid of
losing my mind and I was afraid of dying, but at the same time thought that
might be a better alternative to living as I was completely unprepared for it.  The quiet desperation, fear, guilt, and shame
of the party scene is never highlighted in those college party movies, but those
moments were there just as much if not more than the circumstantial happiness
of collegiate community and euphoric experiences of youth, drugs, sex, and
alcohol.  

So I guess these thoughts were the “splinters of
pain”  that the Joy Challenge instructions
warned us about (didn’t read that part) before jumping into it.   And that’s the thing about my past, it is
this unbalanced mess of “joy” – more circumstantial happiness really – and fear.  I had many friends, was well liked, and had good
times – but my relational skills were minimal, and all my relationships were
pretty shallow and were based on mutual interest in partying and so when the
party was over – I didn’t have much to say and found myself alone a lot as I didn’t
really trust anyone.  

But luckily, those years are long gone now, and I
now focus on the fact that the Lord has saved me and remade me, as I have been
set free of my addictions and all those negative emotions – depression, anger,
and fear – that come with a double minded life. 

So I focused on who I am today, thanked God for
keeping me safe and leading me out of the darkness of my ignorance and
addictions, and I thanked Him for all those old friends that I did have, even
if we weren’t the closest of friends and may be separated because of time or
distance or because of who I am in Christ now. 
I love them all and pray that the Lord would show Himself to them and
bring them into the kingdom, if they aren’t there already because I know full
well just how lost we can be when we think “we are good people” or that we
think we know what matters in life but don’t “go to church” or have “religion”.
 I had so many passionate, witty, and
beautiful friends back then and some are still my “friends” today – on social
media anyway – but I know they never mentioned the name of “Jesus Christ”
unless it was a curse word and pray that one day they will name Him the Lord of
their lives.  

Oh as for the false memories, I could have sworn
that “One Week” was one of the bar songs during my times in Oswego and that it
reminded me of my college friends,  but I
graduated in 1994. The song didn’t come out until 1998 – so I never sang along
with or danced to that music with my friends while in school.  I did go to a few alumni weekends and
weddings after the college days where that song may have been played but the
vivid memories that came to mind this morning were just my beleaguered mind
trying to put things together that “were close” in their associations but far
from each other in reality.  Crazy
huh. 

Anyway, make sure you have a clear picture of your
life and make sure you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He will show you the
truth and the way to everlasting life in His kingdom, and true peace and joy in
His presence when you make the decision to walk and talk with Him until you get
there. 

——————————————————————————————–

Due to time constraints, and the
fact that I misplaced my resource, there is no Bible verse from the “The NLT Bible Promise
Book for Men” for today.  So read the
Bible on your own – or jump into  Chapter
8 of A.W. Pink’s the Holy Spirit below. 

———————————————————————-

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  

8 – The Advent of the Spirit

It is highly important we should closely observe how each
of the Eternal Three has been at marked pains to provide for the honor of the
other Divine Persons, and we must be as particular to give it to Them
accordingly. How careful was the Father to duly guard the ineffable glory of
the Darling of His bosom when He laid aside the visible insignia of His Deity
and took upon Him the form of a servant: His voice was then heard more than
once proclaiming, “This is my beloved Son.” How constantly did the incarnate
Son divert attention from Himself and direct it unto the One who had sent Him.
In like manner, the Holy Spirit is not here to glorify Himself, but rather Him
whose vicar and Advocate He is (John 16:14). Blessed is it then to mark how
jealous both the Father and the Son have been to safeguard the glory and
provide for the honor of the Holy Spirit.

The Importance of the Advent of the Spirit

“ ‘If I go not away, the Comforter will
not come’ (John 16:7); He will not do these works while I am here, and I have
committed all to Him. As My Father hath visibly ‘committed all judgment unto
the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father’
(John 5:22, 23), so I and my Father will send Him having committed all these
things to Him, that all men might honor the Holy Spirit, even as they honor the
Father and the Son. Thus wary and careful are everyone of the Persons to
provide for the honor of each other in our hearts” (T. Goodwin, 1670).

The public advent of
the Spirit, for the purpose of ushering in and administering the new covenant,
was second in importance only unto the incarnation of our Lord, which was in
order to the winding up of the old economy and laying the foundations of the
new. When God designed the salvation of His elect, He appointed two great
means: the gift of His Son for them, and the gift of His Spirit to them;
thereby each of the Persons in the Trinity being glorified. Hence, from the
first entrance of sin, there were two great heads to the promises which God
gave His people: the sending of His Son to obey and die, the sending of His
Spirit to make effectual the fruits of the former. Each of these Divine gifts
was bestowed in a manner suited both to the august Giver Himself and the
eminent nature of the gifts. Many and marked are the parallels of
correspondence between the advent of Christ and the advent of the Spirit.^[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

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These teachings are also available on the
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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
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reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship