Curious Questions Answered with Joy – 28 Day Joy Challenge
– Day 28– Purity 1084
Purity 1084 07/03/2023 Purity 1084 Podcast
Purity 1084 on YouTube: Coming Soon!
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a golden wheat field under cumulus
cloud filled blue skies comes to us from yours truly as I captured this summer
scene on the first day of my 51st year on the earth, back on June 25th. Well, it’s Monday, and Friday in a sense,
because tomorrow is America’s Independence Day, giving some of us, a one day
work week and I don’t know if today’s photo says “America” or not, but I am
sharing its simple beauty this morning because I realize that we can’t even
take the somewhat common place phenomenon of “blue skies” for granted!
The Summer of 2023 may be forever remembered as the “Summer
of White Skies” because of the effects of the Canadian wildfires that had a
significant impact on the last day of June and the first couple of days of July.
For those who may have forgotten, this is the second
time that the wildfires in Canada have cause a “white out” of our north eastern
atmosphere, – the first instance was so bad that the skies over NY City on June
8th were so smoky that the sky looked like had been run through a “Sepia”
filter” – and so I will be praying for the Lord to stop the fires and to give
us – “normal” skies again.
Saturday was sunny and pleasant enough to cause me
to push for a “beach day” at Lake Lauderdale in Cambridge and after getting “my
swim on” I was ready to “check off” Summer ’23 as a success but upon further
review, although I will accept the cup I have to drink weather wise but will be
praying for “normal” blue skies going forward.
Persistent white skies in summer, with or without rain, are just plain
weird, even in upstate New York, and I will be adding “blue skies” to my
gratitude list on a permanent basis because I enjoy them and appreciate
them. While I was able to experience joy
this weekend, without blue skies, I joyously anticipate the day we see them
again.
And that brings us to the end of our current series,
where we are 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 the last day, Day 28, which will direct us to allow our curiosity to lead
us to joy.
———————————————————————————————————
Day 28 – Are You Curious?
Welcome to Day 28
of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge – we made it!
Today’s
Encouragement:
We hope you found
these exercises life-giving! We encourage you to pick some of your favorites
and do them again and again. The more we “stop and smell the roses,” slow down
to rest and find things to enjoy, the more our quality of life increases. Share
some of your joy with others in your life, then watch what grows!
Today’s Practice:
Exercise 28
Today we practice
cueing our curiosity to keep our joy switch on.
– How This Exercise
Will Benefit You:
Curiosity is a good
reflection that our brain’s joy switch is online and working.
– Exercise Steps:
What in life sparks
curiosity in you? Who or what topics make you curious? If you could have
answers to any questions in the world, what would you ask? Create a list and
share your thoughts with a friend.
You did it!
Congratulations on completing the 28 Days to Joy exercises with us.
Well, it may come as no surprise, considering I produce
a Christian blog and podcast 6 days a week, but the thing in life that sparks
my curiosity like nothing else are the things of God! I am curious about God the Father, Christ the
Son, the Holy Spirit and the Lord’s plan for all of us, and me
specifically.
If I could have the answer to any questions in the
world, I would want to know:
When will Jesus Christ come to rule and reign on the
earth?
Will I be physically alive on the earth when that
happens?
What does the Lord want me to do with my life?
How can I give God glory?
How Can I know Him more?
What is next?
I could go on and ask a bunch more questions regarding
the end times, future events on earth, or God’s final answer on debatable points
of Christian doctrine, but because I walk by faith – by the Spirit – I am somewhat
content knowing that I don’t have to “know everything” or have to be “right”
about everything.
My big questions about Jesus’s return and my place
in God’s plan for my life – or what’s next – will all be revealed in time and
the other questions about how to give God glory and to know Him more – I think
I already know the answers to.
To know Him more and to give God glory, I need to
seek the Lord – His presence, wisdom, and ways – and follow Him.
As for the rest, I guess we will see.
But don’t get me wrong, I have great joy in this
curious process of life – where I discover more about God and about His plan
for my life as I go. Life in the Spirit
is the adventure of adventures and if anyone is “seeking their best life now” – you may not be blessed with material
prosperity – but I can tell you that the way to find it is to decide to pick up
your cross and to follow Jesus!
So what about you? What are you curious about that
gives you joy? There are many aspects to
our lives that give us joy and inquiring and discovering the truth about things
can be a worthwhile endeavor when it brings you joy. So what are your questions? What do you
joyfully contemplate knowing about?
Whatever those things are I hope you enjoy the
journey of asking, seeking, and finding what you are looking for! Just because
the 28 Day Joy Challenge is over, it doesn’t mean that you have to stop finding
joy in life. So practice quieting, practice appreciation, and continue to be
curious about life and how joy is available to find when we seek it.
——————————————————————————————–
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Adultery:
Proverbs 6:27-28 (ESV)
27 Can a man carry fire next
to his chest and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk on hot
coals and his feet not be scorched?
Today’s verses are used by
our resource to point out that “Adultery can be avoided.”
These are the last verses
shared under this particular point in our resource and they indicate that the
sin of adultery will cause you to “get burned”. If we know something is wrong, do we really
expect that we can make them a part of our life and not suffer negative
consequences?
Well, we shouldn’t expect that,
and we shouldn’t dismiss the word of God and what tells us about what is right
and wrong. Our culture’s entertainment
industry glorifies adultery as exciting and sexy but the broken hearts and
families that result from going after “forbidden fruit” are not something anyone
wants to see or experience.
Today’s verses are in the
midst of a whole discourse on avoiding adultery and so I invite you to read
Proverbs 6 (in its entirety because it is wisdom literature – after all) but
verses 20 through 35 to get the full counsel on the matter of adultery. Those
verses highlight how we get “burned” by this sin and how someone who falls into
to it can expect to not “go unpunished” as
it causes disgrace, dishonor personally and may cost you “all the goods of your
house” after a divorce and or the cold servings of revenge from betrayed
spouses on either side.
So avoid adultery and choose
to be sexually pure, the passions of lust burn everyone involved and sometimes
the fires sparked by that sin consume and destroy everything.
———————————————————————-
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
11 – The Spirit Quickening
Only
the Beginning
Let it be pointed out in conclusion that the
Spirit’s quickening is only the beginning
of God’s work of grace in the soul. This does not wholly renew the heart at
once: no indeed, the inner man needs to be “renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
But from that small beginning, the work continues—God watering it “every
moment” (Isa. 27:3)—and goes on to perfection; that is, till the heart is made perfectly clean and holy, which is not
accomplished till death. God continues to work in His elect, “both to will and to
do of His good pleasure,” they being as completely dependent upon the Spirit’s
influence for every right exercise of the will after, as for the first. “Being
confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work within you will finish it until the day of Jesus
Christ” (Phil. 1:6).[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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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
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