Trials, Daddy Issues, and Taking a Peace Break- 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 10 – Purity 1066

Trials, Daddy Issues, and Taking a Peace Break- 28 Day
Joy Challenge – Day 10 –  Purity 1066

Purity 1066 06/12/2023 Purity 1066 Podcast

Purity 1066 on YouTube: Coming Soon!

Good morning,

Today’s photo
of the setting sun beneath a mammoth cloud formation seen through my less than
spotless windshield comes to us from yours truly as I just had to capture this
beauty at the end of the day Saturday as a I was racing west on I90.  The wildfires of Canada’s effects on our air
quality and the subsequent rain storms prevented us from enjoying the beauty of
the sun over the past week, so when I saw that big yellow orb in the sky
Saturday afternoon,  I was filled with
joy and had to act quick to catch it, before I exited on I87 and my northernly
direction took it out of view.    

Well, It’s
Monday and even though we will be “on the road again” to make that morning
commute to work, I am content because even though things aren’t perfect in all
the areas of my life, I was reminded yesterday that there can be a variety of
reasons why we can find ourselves in “the valley of the shadow of death” – or trials
and not all of them are my fault!   

Yesterday,
my local church was blessed by an awesome message by Pastor Roscoe Lily that
reminded us that there are three possibilities for why we experience trials in
life.  I am sharing a link (https://fb.watch/l6DENoUDjE/) on the
blog today because I thought Roscoe’s message was “that good” and while I don’t
want to spoil it for those who are curious, the three reasons why we find ourselves
“in the valley” is because, in my own words:  

1.   
 Trials are a part of life – trials are a consequence
of living in a world broken by sin – where things fall apart, age, or change
and everyone dies.  Trials are “natural”.

2.   
Trials
are a consequence of the choices we make – bad choices lead to bad consequences
– when we don’t agree with and follow God’s word, we “reap” the harvest from
the “bad seed” we have sown.  Sometimes
we bring the trials to ourselves.

3.   
Trials
are used by God to test our faith and to prepare us for His purposes.  Sometimes God brings a trial into our lives to
make us grow and mature into the people He wants us to be.

And of
course, even though those three points cover the separate reasons that could
lie behind trials, if you have experienced some, you know that sometimes our trials
can rightly be seen as a “perfect storm” of all three, as there is never an
instance that we don’t live in a world broken by sin, that we are free of the
consequences of our actions (good or bad), and where God isn’t moving all
things for His purposes.  

But it is
good how Pastor Roscoe explained it all individually because sometimes we need
to understand that our walk through life isn’t all because of “one thing, over
another”.  I especially liked the
emphasis that is rightly placed on the first point – that trials and suffering
is a normal part of life – because even though I am relatively happy this
morning, I have to understand that my trials for the day are manageable, there
will be a time where they will be more intense.  

Its Father’s
Day this coming Sunday and I was reminded last week that the presence of our
fathers in our lives doesn’t last for ever as a dear friend of my family went
into eternity.  This man’s family will
spend the first Father’s Day over the last 50 years without him in their lives.  My parents are aging and while I plan on
visiting my Dad this weekend, I don’t know how many more Father’s Days, my
brothers and I will have to let him know that we love and appreciate him.  So, I’m giving everyone a heads up about the
next “Hallmark holiday” but was reminded of how they won’t last forever, so if
there are unresolved “Daddy issues” out there I recommend forgiveness as a
pathway to peace.  

I also
recommend that we don’t just focus on our trials as we walk through this world
because even in the midst of some very challenging trials or times of suffering,
peace and joy are available for those who know how to find them.     

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 10, which will direct us to practice finding a moment’s peace,
right here and right now. It’s time to take a “peace break”.

———————————————————————————————————

Day 10 – Peace Break

Welcome to Day 10
of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge!

Today’s
Encouragement:

The busier we are,
the harder it can feel to slow down and rest. It is important to remember that
giving yourself permission to rest during your day is not a waste of time! You
are developing healthy rhythms that will benefit your mind and body for the
rest of your life.

Today’s Practice:
Exercise 10

Today we will
practice resting and breathing.

– How This Exercise
Will Benefit You:

Taking time to
quiet and calm ourselves not only benefits our body and emotional state, it
also sets us up to be more productive and creative when we get back to work.
“I’m still deep breathing when needed and feeling the benefits in my body.” –
Julie

– Exercise Steps:

We rest to recharge
our nervous system so we can practice more joy. Find a comfortable, quiet spot
then try to be still and quiet for three minutes. Focus on your breathing while
you inhale deeply. Expand your stomach with each breath. Notice how this
calming practice feels.

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

As a former regular practitioner of “calm abiding”
meditation, I thought that today’s joy challenge of just sitting quietly and focusing
on my breath for three minutes would be a cinch.  In the past I would meditate on the breath
for much longer durations that three minutes, but this morning I was reminded
that the practice of meditating on the breath is seldom done perfectly as it
takes effort to stop the mental chatter of your thoughts and that even after
entering into a state of peaceful relaxation we have to pay attention to keep
the thoughts at bay and to “enjoy the silence”.  

For those of you who are new to “quieting” and
focusing on the breath, you may be wondering where “the silence” is or if “silence”
is even possible because if you are not in the practice of quieting, “quiet”, “peace”
and “stillness” may be foreign concepts to you as you may believe that “you can’t
control your thoughts’ or that you are always “thinking about something”.  And believe me, I get it.  When I started practicing meditation, I
feared for my sanity a little bit because of the racing discursive thoughts
that seemed to never want to go away, or how my mind would wander and would be
drawn to imagine or speculate on something other than the present moment and my
breath.   But I discovered that with
practice and effort, I could not only enjoy brief moments of peace, I was able
to increase my capacity for it and progressively increase the amount of time I
could quiet myself and enjoy the peace of a “quiet mind”.   

This morning even though I have the capacity for
long periods of quiet, or at least I think I still have the capacity for it,
shortly after I started today’s “joy exercise”, my mind began to wander – what I
started to think about – I don’t recall because I quickly realized that I had
gone off track and reminded myself to “just focus on the breath… in and out, in
and out”.  My wandering mind wanted to go
elsewhere more than once but when I caught myself “thinking”, I immediately
stopped that train of thought and went back to the breath.   After a couple of interruptions, I who generally
practice quieting meditation with eyes closed, decided to check my timer to see
where I was.   The timer read – 3:49 – so
I had “made it” but because I didn’t “do it perfectly” and because I decided I
could use another “peace break” decided to try again for another 3 minutes.  

The second attempt was better but not perfect, as
most meditation sessions aren’t-  they
are generally a continuous reminder to “stay on the breath”  but the distractions do decrease with
practice.  

After the two sessions, I recognized that my body
and mind were much more peaceful than when I sat down and I then proceeded with
my regular practice of gratitude – giving thanks for the various good things in
my life – and by praying for the Lord to go before me today and for the needs
of friends and family.   

Today’s “joy challenge” reminded me of the
importance of “quieting” and of “practice”. Quieting gives us peace and the
ability to quiet one’s self is a key to experience joy, maintain good mental
health, and increases our emotional resilience – but we have to actually sit
down and practice it from time to time – regularly – to realize these
benefits. 

Just knowing that something is good for you is not enough,
we actually have to do them to benefit from them, we have to “practice”
quieting, prayer, Bible study, and doing good works to experience their
effects.   So even though it is Monday, I
encourage you to start or continue the habit of “quieting” by taking a “Peace
Break.    
——————————————————————————————–

 

Today’s
Bible verses comes to us from my personal Bible Study this morning as the “The
NLT Bible Promise Book for Men” resource is most likely at my countryside home.

This
morning’s meditation verse is:

Proverbs 19:21 (NLT2)
²¹  You can make many plans, but
the LORD’s purpose will prevail.

Today’s verse reminds us
that although we can plan all kinds of things, God’s purposes will
prevail.   In other words, God is in
control and if He doesn’t allow or ordain what we want to do, it simply won’t come
to pass.  

Now from our perspective
it appears that we have completely free will and we can do whatever we choose,
whenever we want, and nothing can stop us from doing it.

But riddle me this, Batman,
why do some of the things we plan for never come to pass?  

There are endless examples
of this in life but the one I like to point out is when my company informed me
that I would be doing an out of town tour in the winter/early spring months out
in Buffalo, NY.  That even though I didn’t
want to go, I was being “forced” and “they could do that” and having been sent
out of town on more than one occasion in the past, I accepted my fate.  

However that winter tour
was scheduled to happen in the year of our Lord, 2020 and a little thing called
the Covid-19 Pandemic – changed the best laid plans of mice and men. The out of
town assignment was cancelled and I haven’t been sent out of town ever
since.         

So make plans if you want,
but God is in charge – so try to align yourself to His will the best you can,
and accept what happens as a way to His purposes.  

———————————————————————-

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

The Meaning of the Advent of the Spirit

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came as He had
never come before. Something then transpired which inaugurated a new era for
the world, a new power for righteousness, a new basis for fellowship. On that
day the fearing Peter was transformed into the intrepid evangelist. On that day
the new wine of Christianity burst the old bottles of Judaism, and the Word
went forth in a multiplicity of Gentile tongues. On that day more souls seem to
have been truly regenerated, than during all the three and one half years of Christ’s
public ministry. What had happened? It is not enough to say that the Spirit of
God was given, for He had been given long before, both to individuals and the
nation of Israel (Neh. 9:20; Hag. 2:5); no, the pressing question is, In what sense was He then given? This
leads us to carefully consider the meaning
of the Spirit’s advent.

1. It was the fulfillment of the Divine promise.
First, of the Father Himself. During the Old Testament dispensation, He
declared, again and again, that He would pour out the Spirit upon His people
(see Prov. 1:23; Isa. 32:15; Joel 2:28, etc.), and now these gracious
declarations were accomplished. Second, of John the Baptist. When he was
stirring the hearts of multitudes by his call to repentance and his demand of
baptism, many thought he must be the long-expected Messiah, but he declared
unto them, “I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh,
the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the
Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:15, 16). Accordingly He did so on the
day of Pentecost, as Acts 2:32, 33 plainly shows. Third, of Christ. Seven times
over the Lord Jesus avowed that He would give or send the Holy Spirit: Luke
24:49; John 7:37–39; 14:16–19; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7; Acts 1:5, 8. From these we
may particularly notice, “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father … He shall testify of Me”
(John 15:26): “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7).

That which took place
in John 20:22 and in Acts 2 was the fulfillment of those promises. In them we
behold the faith of the Mediator: He had appropriated the promise which the
Father had given Him, “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)—it was by faith’s anticipation the Lord Jesus spoke
as He did in the above passage.

“The Holy Spirit was
God’s ascension gift to Christ, that He might be bestowed by Christ, as His
ascension gift to the church. Hence Christ had said, ‘Behold, I send the
promise of My Father upon you.’ This was the promised gift of the Father to the
Son, and the Savior’s promised gift to His believing people. How easy now to
reconcile the apparent contradiction of Christ’s earlier and later words: ‘I
will pray the Father and He shall give
you another Comforter;’ and then, afterward, ‘If I depart I will send Him unto you.’ The Spirit was
the Father’s answer to the prayer of the Son; and so the gift was transferred
by Him to the mystical body of which He is the head” (A. T. Pierson in The Acts of the Holy Spirit).

2. It was the fulfillment of an important Old
Testament type. It is this which explains to us why the Spirit was given on
the day of “Pentecost,” which was one of the principal religious feasts of
Israel. Just as there was a profound significance to Christ’s dying on Passover
Day (giving us the antitype of Ex. 12), so there was in the coming of the
Spirit on the 50th day after Christ’s resurrection. The type is recorded in
Leviticus 23, to which we can here make only the briefest allusion. In
Leviticus 23:4 we read, “These are the feasts of the Lord.”

The first of them is
the Passover (v. 5) and the second “unleavened bread” (v. 6, etc.). The two
together speaking of the sinless Christ offering Himself as a sacrifice for the
sins of His people. The third is the “wave sheaf” (v. 10, etc.) which was the
“firstfruits of the harvest” (v. 10), presented to God “on the morrow after the
(Jewish) Sabbath” (v. 11), a figure of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor. 15:23).

The fourth is the
feast of “weeks” (see Ex. 34:22; Deut. 16:10, 16) so-called because of the
seven complete weeks of Leviticus 23:15; also known as “Pentecost” (which means
“Fiftieth”) because of the “fifty days” of Leviticus 23:16. It was then the
balance of the harvest began to be
gathered in. On that day Israel was required to present unto God “two wave
loaves,” which were also designated “the first-fruits
unto the Lord” (Lev. 23:17). The antitype of which was the saving of the 3,000
on the day of Pentecost: the “firstfruits” of Christ’s atonement, compare James
1:18. The first loaf represented those redeemed from among the Jews, the second
loaf was anticipatory and pointed to
the gathering in of God’s elect from among the Gentiles, begun in Acts 10.

3. It was the beginning of a new dispensation.
This was plainly intimated in the type of Leviticus 23, for on the day of
Pentecost Israel was definitely required to offer a “new meal offering unto the Lord” (v. 16). Still more clearly was it
fore-announced in a yet more important and significant type, namely, that of
the beginning of the Mosaic economy, which took place only when the nation of
Israel formally entered into covenant relationship with Jehovah at Sinai. Now
it is exceedingly striking to observe that just 50 days elapsed from the time when the Hebrews emerged from the
house of bondage till they received the Law from the mouth of Moses. They left
Egypt on the 15th of the first month (Num. 33:3), and arrived at Sinai the
first of the third month (Ex. 19:1, note “the same day”), which would be the
forty-sixth. The next day Moses went up into the mount, and three days later
the law was delivered (Ex. 19:11)! And just as there was a period of 50 days
from Israel’s deliverance from Egypt until the beginning of the Mosaic economy,
so the same length of time followed the resurrection of Christ (when His people
were delivered from Hell) to the beginning of the Christian economy!

That a new
dispensation commenced at Pentecost further appears from the “tongues like as office” (Acts 2:1). When John the Baptist
announced that Christ would baptize, “with the Holy Spirit and with fire,” the
last words might have suggested material burning to any people except Jews, but
in their minds far other thoughts would be awakened. To them it would recall
the scene when their great progenitor asked God, who promised he should inherit
that land wherein he was a stranger, “Lord, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it?” The answer was “Behold a smoking
furnace and a burning lamp …” (Gen. 15:17). It would recall the fire which
Moses saw in the burning bush. It would recall the “pillar of fire” which
guided by night, and the Shekinah which descended and filled the tabernacle.
Thus, in the promise of baptism by fire they would at once recognize the
approach of a new manifestation of the
presence and power of God!

Again—when we read
that, “there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon
each of them” (Acts 2:2), further evidence is found that a new dispensation had
now commenced. “The word ‘sat’ in Scripture marks an ending and a beginning. The process of preparation is ended and the
established order has begun. It marks the end of creation and the beginning of
normal forces. ‘In six days the Lord made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all
that in them is, and rested the seventh day.’ There is no weariness in God. He
did not rest from fatigue: what it means is that all creative work was
accomplished. The same figure is used of the Redeemer. Of Him it is said ‘when
He had made purification for sins (He) sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ No other priesthood had sat
down. The priests of the Temple ministered standing
because their ministry was provisional and preparatory, a parable and prophecy.
Christ’s own ministry was part of the preparation for the coming of the Spirit.
Until He ‘sat down’ in glory, there could be no dispensation of the Spirit …
When the work of redemption was complete, the Spirit was given, and when He
came he ‘sat.’ He reigns in the
Church as Christ reigns in the Heavens” (S. Chadwick in The Way to Pentecost).

“There are few
incidents more illuminating than that recorded in ‘the last day of the feast’
in John 7:37–39. The feast was that of Tabernacles. The feast proper lasted
seven days, during which all Israel dwelt in booths. Special sacrifices were
offered and special rites observed. Every morning one of the priests brought
water from the pool of Siloam, and amidst the sounding of trumpets and other
demonstrations of joy, the water was poured upon the altar. The rite was a
celebration and a prophecy. It commemorated the miraculous supply of water in
the wilderness, and it bore witness to the expectation of the coming of the
Spirit. On the seventh day the ceremony of the poured water ceased, but the
eighth was a day of holy convocation, the greatest day of all.

“On that day there
was no water poured upon the altar, and it was on the waterless day that Jesus
stood on the spot and cried, saying: ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me
and drink.’ Then He added those words: ‘He that believeth on Me, as the
Scripture has said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.’ The
Apostle adds the interpretative comment: ‘But this spake He of the Spirit,
which they that believe on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not given
because Jesus was not yet glorified.’ ‘As the scripture hath said.’ There is no
such passage in the Scripture as that quoted, but the prophetic part of the
water ceremony was based upon certain Old Testament symbols and prophecies in
which water flowed forth from Zion to cleanse, renew, and fructify the world. A
study of Joel 3:18 and Ezekiel 47 will supply the key to the meaning both of
the rite and our Lord’s promise.

“The Holy Spirit was
‘not yet given,’ but He was promised, and His coming should be from the place
of blood, the altar of sacrifice. Calvary opened the fountain from which poured
forth the blessing of Pentecost” (S. Chadwick).

4. It was the Grace of God flowing unto the
Gentiles. We have considered the
meaning of the Spirit’s descent, and pointed out that it was the
fulfillment of Divine promise, the accomplishment of Old Testament types, and
the beginning of a new dispensation. It was also the Grace of God flowing unto the Gentiles. But first let us
observe and admire the marvelous grace of God extended unto the Jews
themselves. In His charge to the Apostles, the Lord Jesus gave orders that
“repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem”
(Luke 24:47), not because the Jews had any longer a covenant standing before
God—for the Nation was abandoned by Him before the crucifixion—see Matthew
23:38—but in order to display His matchless mercy and sovereign benignity.
Accordingly, in the Acts we see His love shining forth in the midst of the
rebellious city. In the very place where the Lord Jesus had been slain the full
Gospel was now preached, and 3,000 were quickened by the Holy Spirit.

But the Gospel was to
be restricted to the Jews no longer. Though the Apostles were to commence their
testimony in Jerusalem, yet Christ’s glorious and all-efficacious Name was to
be proclaimed “among all nations.” The earnest of this was given when “devout
men out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) exclaimed, “How hear we every
man in his own tongue?” (v. 8). It was an entirely new thing. Until this time,
God had used Hebrew, or a modification of it. Thus Bullinger’s view that a new
“Jewish” dispensation (the “Pentecostal”) was then inaugurated is Divinely set
aside. What occurred in Acts 2 was a part reversal and in blessed contrast from
what is recorded in Genesis 11. There we find “the tongues were divided to
destroy an evil unity, and to show
God’s holy hatred of Babel’s iniquity.” In Acts 2 we have grace at Jerusalem,
and a new and precious unity, suggestive of another building (Matthew 16:18),
with living stones—contrast the ‘bricks’ of Genesis 11:3 and its tower (P. W.
Heward). In Genesis the dividing of tongues was in judgment; in Acts 2 the cloven tongues were in grace; and in Revelation 7:9, 10 we see men of all tongues in glory.^[1]

 

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
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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     

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship