The Music of Our Lives – 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 21 – Purity 1077

The Music of Our Lives – 28
Day Joy Challenge – Day 21 –  Purity 1077

Purity 1077 06/24/2023 Purity 1077 Podcast

Purity 1077 on YouTube: Coming Soon!

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a sunset sky comes to us from self-published
author and Christian Life Coach, Lauren Roskilly who shared this scene from an evening’s
walk at BeachyHead,  Eastbourne in the UK
on social media back on June 20^th. 
Lauren heads Mindful of Christ Ministries and just celebrated 1,000
Amazon sales of her 5 books since 2017. 
That might sound like much but that’s not bad from a “mum of two” who before
coming to Christ in 2004 suffered from ups and downs with her mental health. The
Lord has transformed Lauren’s life, giving her victory over depression,
anxiety, and the tendency to self-harm which caused her to make it her mission
in life to help others to tackle “mindset difficulties and discovering their identity
and purpose in Christ.

I was honored to be on the launch team of her book,
Indestructible Faith, in 2022 and I am happy to see her continue to succeed so I
am sharing the links to the Mindful of Christ website (https://mindfulofchrist.net/),  FB group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindfulofchrist)
, and YouTube Channel today (https://www.youtube.com/Mindful%20of%20Christ).   

Well, It’s Saturday and even though my throat is
still sore, I can have joy for Lauren’s success, and joy that I am at my
countryside home with my wife TammyLyn. 
If misery loves company, I wouldn’t know it because even though my
physical condition isn’t optimal I am trying and succeeding at keeping a
positive outlook on life. 

If anything my weakened condition has me more appreciative
of my health and the things that the Lord has done in my life. After I woke up
this morning, with throat still feeling raw, I momentarily wondered if I should
give my voice a rest and skip doing the podcast today but almost immediately my
mind thought of some old lines from my angry “gangster rap phase” and Eminem’s “Till
I collapse” which begins with a Slim Shady motivational speech that says: 

“’Cause
sometimes you just feel tired

Feel
weak and when you feel weak

You
feel like you wanna just give up

But
you gotta search within you

Try
to find that inner strength and just pull that (Bleep) out of you

And
get that motivation to not give up

And
not be a quitter, no matter how bad

You
wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse” (https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/tillicollapse.html)

And then Mister Mathers launches into a rapid fire obscenity
laced song that I won’t be quoting here that speaks of the passion he has for
his craft and how nothing short of death would stop him performing.  

“’Til the roof comes off, ’til the lights go out”, ‘Til
his legs give out, Eminem can’t shut his mouth apparently.  And if He can have such passion for the
musical artform that took him from rags to riches, I can certainly muster
enough  strength to do my little blog and
podcast to give glory to the One who took me from death to life.     

It’s funny how music can be such a force in our
lives. Even old secular music that we never listen to anymore can come to mind
to remind us of where we have come from, what we have been through, and to even
inspire us to keep going with the intention to walk by faith in the power of
the Holy Spirit. 

Music plays a huge part of my story as the
soundtrack of my life would be a vast and varied one that would reflect all the
different chapters of this incredible journey.  
Music can comfort us in times of trouble or bring us to heights of joy
as we celebrate life.  

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 21, which will direct us to reflect on a favorite memory
involving music that gives us joy.  

———————————————————————————————————

Day 21 – Musical Memories

 

Welcome to Day 21
of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge!

Today’s Encouragement:

Take the time to
breathe deeply and quiet yourself before each exercise. When we are relaxed and
peaceful, the joy practice can be a much more positive and meaningful
experience.

Today’s Practice:
Exercise 21

Today We practice
attuning to our own feelings in the past and expressing them to others.

– How This Exercise
Will Benefit You:

Music-evoked
autobiographical memory is a process where we remember something because we
hear familiar music. Music activates memories of past events, people, and
places.

– Exercise Steps:

What is a favorite
memory around music that brings a smile to your face? Close your eyes and sit
for a few minutes, enjoying the details of the memory. Share your meaningful
music moment with a friend.

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

Be
advised, my reflection would probably go against the directions of the good
people at 4habits.org who would wisely advise us to select joyful memories that
are simple and pure and free from the “Splinters of pain”.   As a student of Deeper Walk International
school of prayer ministry, I have learned that as we attempt to prepare people
to resolve personal and spiritual conflicts with Immanuel or REAL prayer, we
begin with setting the stage by directing them to remember something joyful and
it is ideal to have them focus on something simple to begin with because the
process can be complicated enough as it is and we don’t need to deal with
trauma that surrounds a joy memory.  For
instance, while getting the news that your “cancer scare” was only a scare
could be a moment where you experienced real joy, it isn’t really an ideal memory
for establishing the “base line of joy” for prayer ministry because it comes from
a place of some real fear and dread and the idea is to establish a “good place”
to start from before directing prayer ministry clients to consider more disturbing
territory. 

But
this is my life and there has been quite a bit of trauma – but don’t worry we
are not going there. But as I thought of memories where music was involved that
evoked feelings of joy, a lot of them had to do with my overcoming hard times
and as difficult as those times were the associations I had with the music are
especially joyous because of the struggles I faced.  

I have
a whole playlist on YouTube call the MT4Christ Worship Playlist that is full of
songs that give me joy and give God glory because they were the songs that I
listened to and sang along with as I grew in my faith and maturity in Christ. (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYr9n4D1yfkqTat0ovqY0CRkhIJ2Tq61r).
You don’t get the joy of overcoming without over coming something, and I have
had quite a journey, individually – well me and the Holy Spirit, right.  

But as
I thought about music that held a joyful memory this morning, I thought of Kenny
G’s version of “Auld Lang Syne” (https://youtu.be/6xeMFywzp5A) . I suppose lots
of people love that song because of “New Years”, but it became extremely
meaningful and joy producing to me because I married TammyLyn on New Year’s and
while our love story is amazing and sweet just because of how we both had the
intention of following the Lord with our lives and He used that desire to bring
us together, our story is even more joyous because of the fact that love story
was the culmination of us both overcoming quite a bit of suffering.  So when I hear that instrumental song, it
represents not only the love of my life and I finding and committing ourselves
to one another, it also represents the journey – the years of suffering – that we
both went through to finally experience the love we so desperately needed.  Not surprisingly, when I hear that song I get
choked up because it represents love and victory – a sense that “We made it” –
we won” and we love. That great was the confusion and darkness of this world
and our former lives, but because of the Lord, we made it and it’s going to be
a Happy New Year for now on, come what may.  
And no sore throat or other negative circumstance that we may encounter
in the future will ever take that away from us, because our joy is a gift from
the Lord and His gifts are eternal.  

So what
about you, what memory around music gives you joy? What song, circumstance, and
someone do you remember? I hope it’s a good one, preferably free of those “pain
splinters” but regardless of what may surround your joy, I hope that you remember
it, feel the joy today, and share it. 

\——————————————————————————————–

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

This
morning’s meditation verse is:

Ephesians 6:18 (NLT2)
¹⁸  Pray in the Spirit at all
times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for
all believers everywhere.

Today’s verse encourages
us to always pray in the Spirit – at all times, on every occasion, and for all
believers, everywhere.  

Talk about a all
encompassing direction! When? At all times, on every occasion – sounds like “keep
on walking and talking to God” to me! 
And for Who? For every believer, everywhere – that will give you one
long prayer list!       

While this may seem
impossible, I believe that the Apostle Paul was being serious – that disciples
of Jesus Christ – should practice prayer continually, that we should persist in
our conversation with God, all the time.  

And before you go off pondering
what “praying in the Spirit” means, consider the act of praying at all times,
on every occasion, for all believers, everywhere to be the definition of
it.   It’s self-explanatory  – to be “praying in the Spirit is to be
continuously in prayer – to continuously to be “walking and talking with God”,
to be living in the Spirit.  

 

I have heard teaching on “praying
in the Spirit” that indicated that it means “praying scripture”, “in accordance
with God’s will”, and even “Praying in tongues” – oh boy – quite the “mystery”
there” – but I believe that “praying in the Spirit” is staying God conscious
and keeping the conversation going continuously, and obviously not going against
God’s word – in whatever language that you feel the Lord is calling you to
speak.  

There are many different
ways to pray, and I don’t practice them all. I wouldn’t recommend them all, but
I wouldn’t seek to prohibit any of them that lead to God’s will being done on
earth.  So “pray in the Spirit” by
praying at all times, on every occasion, for all believers, everywhere.

———————————————————————-

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

10 – The Holy Spirit Regenerating

Regeneration
of Existing (Not New) Faculties

In view of a certain school of teaching upon
“the two natures in the believer,”
some readers may experience difficulty over our statement above that at
regeneration no new faculties are
created, the soul remaining, substantially, the same as it was before. No, not
even in the glorified state will any addition be made to the human
constitution, though its faculties will then be completely unfettered and
further enlarged and elevated. Perhaps this thought will be the more easily
grasped if we illustrate it by a striking case recorded in 2 Kings 6:17,
“Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see.
And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

No new faculties were
communicated unto Elisha’s servant, but the powers of his vision were so
enlarged that he was now able to discern objects which before were invisible to
him. So it is with our understandings at regeneration: the mind (abstractly
considered) is the same in the unregenerate as in the regenerate, but in the
case of the latter, the Spirit has so quickened it that it is now able to take
in spiritual objects and act toward them. This new spiritual visive (i.e., of
vision) power with which the understanding is endowed at the new birth is a quality, super-added to the original
faculties. As this is a point of importance, yet one which some find it
difficult to grasp, we will proceed to dwell upon it a moment longer.

The bodily eye of the
saint after resurrection will be elevated to see angels (which are now
invisible), and therefore may be rightly termed a new eye, yea, a spiritual eye—even as the whole body will be a
“spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44)—yet that change will be but the super-induction
of new spiritual qualities for the eye (and the whole body) unto spiritual
objects. In like manner, the entire being of one who is born again is so
spiritualized or endued with “spirit” (John 3:6) as to be styled a “new man,” a
spiritual man; nevertheless, it is but the original man “renewed,” and not the
creating of a new being.

After regeneration
things appear in an altogether new light, and the heart exercises itself after
quite a new manner. God is now seen as the sum of all excellence. The
reasonableness and spirituality of His law is so perceived that the heart
approves of it. The infinite evil of sin is discerned. The one born again
judges, condemns, and loathes himself, and wonders that he was not long ago
cast into Hell. He marvels at the grace of God in giving Christ to die for such
a wretch. Constrained by the love of Christ, he now renounces the ways of sin
and gives himself up to serve God. Hereby we may discover what it is which persons are to inquire after in order to determine
whether they have been born again, namely, by the exercises of their hearts,
and the influence and effects these have upon their conduct.

We have pointed out
that at regeneration the faculties of the soul are spiritually enlivened, grace putting into them a new ability so
that they are capable of performing spiritual acts. At the new birth the Holy
Spirit communicates principles of spiritual life, whereby the soul is qualified
to act as a supernatural agent and produce supernatural works. The need for
this should be evident; God and Christ, as they are revealed in the Gospel, are
supernatural objects to the natural faculties or powers of the soul, and there
is no proportion between them—not only such a disproportion as the bat’s eye
has unto the sun, but as a blind man’s eye to the sun. Thus there is a greater
necessity for the soul to be given new principles and abilities to act in a
holy and spiritual manner than at the first creation to act naturally.^[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
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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