Ghosted in Christmas Present – Merry Christmas! – Purity 1230

Ghosted in Christmas Present – Merry Christmas! –
Purity 1230

Purity 1230 12/25/2023 Puity 1230 Podcast

Purity 1230 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of my canine friend, Harley, with eyes
fixed on something in the distance, or pretending he never knew me, as the sun
lights up the sky and tries to hide behind a power tower comes to us from yours
truly as I captured this scene at the place were “Freedom” and Waite Road meet while
out walking Friday afternoon.  

Well, Its This is Christmas, and if you had a
similar experience to the one I had yesterday you may be wondering “What have I
done?” as another year (almost) over and a new one’s (almost begun).  SO

 Okay that was
an attempt to harness John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” cadence as a I try to
make light of something that happened at the Christmas Eve service at my local
church yesterday.   Oh, by the way – to keep
the John and Yoko classic rolling – have a

Very Merry Christmas, And a happy New Year

Let’s Hope it’s a good one.

Without any fear….. 

Fear? What’s there to be afraid of at Christmas
Time?  Well, Ebenezer Scrooge would tell
you that there are Ghosts to be aware of. And I would tell you that if you’re in
recovery, there are demons and “spirits” of the past – that will attempt to
pull you into relapse – that you may have to ward off.  Full confession – I took a two day “break”
from sanity and my food plan – and will celebrate Christmas today – making wise
food choices and drinking lots of water to flush out all the sugar I put into
my body over the last 48 hours. But as frightening as a relapse can be, if it
doesn’t kill you (not a joke), there is always a new day to ask the Lord for
forgiveness and strength and to start again.  

With the food addiction, my body will be back “in
the zone” in a few days and as long as I don’t get trapped in a vicious cycle
of temptation and “giving in”, I will be back on the road to increased health
and physical fitness in no time, and I will be armed with another reminder of
just how unsatisfying giving into the things that tempt you can be.  

With recovery from substance abuse (drugs, drinking,
or food) and/or sex addiction, one often arrives to a moment of clarity where
the addict clearly sees the “emptiness” of the object of their obsession where
you can see that there is nothing in and of the object of your addiction itself
that has anything of substance or lasting satisfaction – where you realize that
the thing that has kept you in chains is almost ethereal, or ghost like  in how it’s effects can give you pleasure and
then just fade away – where you realize there is “nothing to it”.   That moment of clarity is a good moment to
have because can gain an insight to the mirage like quality of how you have
been deceived and believed the lie that there was something inherently “good”
about the object of your addiction and now you can renounce the lies that you believed
and hopefully, not forget and get lured into them again.   Over the last two days, I was reminded of
how sugar and carb laden foods really aren’t “good food” – they really aren’t and
now will choose to put that insight into practice and feel my body slowly
recover from the “heaviness” those foods put on me.  

Okay, with all that said about relapse and recovery,
one may think that I may have been tempted to relapse at my church with sweet
treats or something, and even though that has happened before, it wasn’t the disturbing
thing that happened to me yesterday that has me reminded me of the big stigma
you get when you walk through life with the “recovery” label.  

While I have seen the fear and awkwardness in the
eyes of some of my Christian brothers and sisters, when they come to realize
that I’m “one of those” Christians – a prodigal or a former “carnal” Christian
or a “man with a past” or “brokenness”, I am still somewhat taken aback when I
encounter someone whose demeanor towards me changes when they realize I am in
recovery but I was really quite shocked yesterday, when I was “ghosted in
Christmas present” by someone who I have been encouraging to come out of the
darkness of addiction themselves.  

While waiting to go into the Christmas Eve service
yesterday, I saw someone I knew from one of “the rooms” as people in AA
say,  and gave a quick “Hey _______.” to
which they didn’t respond – as they averted their eyes, looked off into the
distance and said something like “ Hey what’s over here?” to the person they
were walking with as they walked off without responding to my nonchalant greeting.   

Ghosted on Christmas Eve by someone who I have tried
to help? It couldn’t be. Could it?  As
awkward as these little interactions can be – whether you’ve been blown off or
are the one blowing someone off – trying to avoid them, you know that often you
get a “second pass” – that somehow you end up encountering the person again!  And sure enough, as I stood waiting to be let
in the church service, because of the bustling crowd, the person who had “walked
on by” ended up being pushed in my direction once again, and while I didn’t try
to greet them the second time, the second pass made it painfully obvious to me,
that they were indeed avoiding me! “Ghosted” again!

Anyway no big deal, there is a stigma to recovery
and the person may have been under the impression that I am known for running
the recovery ministry group – which I am probably kidding myself but… I don’t think
I am – not in our big church, right? – and they didn’t want to be associated
with me to keep their addiction a secret… or perhaps more likely, because I haven’t
seen them in a few weeks, they may be in the midst of a holiday recovery hiatus
that is a little more illicit that eggnog, candy, and cookies.  They may have “walked on by” because they
have fallen into their addiction again and were convicted by my mere
presence.    I have seen it before and if
I was a gambling man, like I used to be, I would put some money down and make a
wager that more than social embarrassment, my “friend” avoided me because they
are back to hiding in the shadows.  

Everything’s fine, nothing to see here.  I don’t need recovery. Thanks, move along
please, move along. 

Well, he moved along, and I will too and will wonder
if I will see them in the rooms again after the holiday hoopla is gone and the
new year begins.   I hope they do come
back because I know about those shadows and life is so much better living in
the light.  

So as we enjoy the BIG holiday today, it is my
prayer that all my friends have a safe, sensible, and self-controlled Christmas
and that you thank God for all the gifts you have received and find some peace and
rest knowing that Christ has given you a new and eternal life that gets better
the close you get to Him.  

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verses come 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 Comfort.

Deuteronomy 32:10-12 (NKJV)
¹⁰  “He found him in a
desert land And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He
instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.
¹¹  As an eagle stirs up its
nest, Hovers over its young, Spreading out its wings, taking them up, Carrying
them on its wings,
¹²  So the LORD alone led him, And there was
no foreign god with him.

Today’s
verses fall under the second point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Comfort.

2. As an eagle stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young, so God cares for his own.

Today’s verses come from
the Song of Moses, where he reflects in song all about how the Lord swooped in
and rescued the nation of Israel and literally walked them through the desert
to the promised land.  Where the “the
Lord alone led” them from slavery to freedom.

The themes of rescue and
provision should be very familiar to the Christian – because we were once lost
and are now found. We were dead and brought to life. We were in darkness and saw
the light.   I could sing a song of
praise to the Lord for all He has done for me, and I have.

 In fact last night, as I was driving back to
my countryside home from my parent’s place in Hudson, I was a little tired and
realized I had to be diligent to stay awake so I turned off the audio book I
was listening to and put on a playlist of worship music from my Celebrate
Freedom days in Hudson and it didn’t take long before I was WIDE AWAKE and
singing and shouting out praises to the Lord as I drove north.  As I was reminded of how the Lord has rescued
me and blessed my path, I was lifted to heights of joy as I sang and shouted out
my thanks and praises. And the fact that I was doing it on Christmas Eve, took
my worship session up a few notches higher as I realized that I was doing what
all Christians should be doing on Christmas Eve – thanking God, praising Him,
and proclaiming our undying allegiance to following Him. 

So on this Christmas day –
let’s remember the rescue and the new life we have and rejoice over the best
gift we have ever received – our Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ.

——————————————————————–

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 are sharing from “God is in the Manger-
Reflections on Advent and Christmas” – By Dietrich Bonhoeffer.   

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for less than $10 at many sites.

God is in the Manger – Dietrich
Bonhoeffer

THE
TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY

CHRISTMAS
DAY (DECEMBER 25)

Living by
God’s Mercy

We cannot approach the manger of the Christ child
in the same way we approach the cradle of another child. Rather, when we go to
his manger, something happens, and we cannot leave it again unless we have been
judged or redeemed. Here we must either collapse or know the mercy of God
directed toward us.

What does that mean? Isn’t all of this just a way of speaking? Isn’t
it just pastoral exaggeration of a pretty and pious legend? What does it mean
that such things are said about the Christ child? Those who want to take it as
a way of speaking will do so and continue to celebrate Advent and Christmas as
before, with pagan indifference. For us it is not just a way of speaking. For
that’s just it: it is God himself, the Lord and Creator of all things, who is
so small here, who is hidden here in the corner, who enters into the plainness
of the world, who meets us in the helplessness and defenselessness of a child,
and wants to be with us. And he does this not out of playfulness or sport,
because we find that so touching, but in order to show us where he is and who
he is, and in order from this place to judge and devalue and dethrone all human
ambition.

The throne of God in the world is not on human thrones, but in human
depths, in the manger. Standing around his throne there are no flattering
vassals but dark, unknown, questionable figures who cannot get their fill of
this miracle and want to live entirely by the mercy of God.

“Joy to the world!” Anyone for whom this sound is
foreign, or who hears in it nothing but weak enthusiasm, has not yet really
heard the gospel. For the sake of humankind, Jesus Christ became a human being
in a stable in Bethlehem: Rejoice, O Christendom! For sinners, Jesus Christ
became a companion of tax collectors and prostitutes: Rejoice, O Christendom!
For the condemned, Jesus Christ was condemned to the cross on Golgotha:
Rejoice, O Christendom! For all of us, Jesus Christ was resurrected to life: Rejoice,
O Christendom!… All over the world today people are asking: Where is the path
to joy? The church of Christ answers loudly: Jesus is our joy! (1 Pet. 1:7–9).
Joy to the world!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little
while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your
faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by
fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is
revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do
not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and
glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of
your souls.

1 Peter 1:6–9^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

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