Those “Crazy People” Who Find Rest – Purity 1388
Purity 1388 06/29/2024 Purity 1388 Podcast
Purity 1388 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of this spectacular seaside (or bayside?) sunset sky comes to us from Jesika Petruck who shared this view near Kittyhawk NC on social media on Thursday with the one word hashtag, #home.
Well, it’s Saturday and be it ever so humble there’s no place like home, and even though my shifted tour has me working today, this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it, because, among many other reason, Lord willing, I will be back at my countryside home with my beloved wife when the work day is done.
Hey, heads up everybody, June is virtually over. Tomorrow is the 30th and Monday is July 1st, and just like that half of the year 2024 will be gone! I like to give wake up calls to all of us because our lives are meant to be enjoyed and if your life is anything like mine, time can fly by pretty quickly. And as that 80’s fictitious sage, Ferris Bueller, once said “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.” So let’s use today to look around and enjoy where we are today and to appreciate what we have accomplished or endured over the last 6 months. No matter what we have done, haven’t done, or suffered through, were here – we made it and God with us – so I’m call it: “Good.”
The last six months of my life have been positively jammed-packed with work, ministry, study, development, and launching new ventures. To say my cup was full, would be putting it mildly, but amazingly the Lord gave me the skill, strength, and increased my capacity to go through it all with peace and joy. You never know what you can do unless you try and the Lord revealed to me, man oh man, that when we follow Him our potential for growth is virtually limitless.
With that said, as I drew near to this particular time and space, and was wondering what I was going to do next in this small space between the first half of the year and Fall 2024’s Freedom in Christ season, the Lord gave me a simple one-word instruction that I have both received with joy and been challenged to walk into, The word? Rest.
Who me? Rest… um.. okay. But you know there are a couple of nights here that I could do coaching or maybe start a class… you know, teach, encourage, or advise others on experiencing their freedom in Christ? Crickets… O.K. We’re doing this now… Resting….
The instruction of course is Biblical, but I’m not used to it. While I normally get some rest on the weekends, this call to rest seems to be commanding me to cool my jets for more than 48 hours. While I don’t feel like I’m getting the instruction to “do nothing”, I do feel that I am not supposed to stretch myself too thin by booking the few nights I do have available to minister to anyone… at least not yet.
So to get some good advice on the topic of rest, I am turning to the Cosen Teams’ “Get Used to Different Student Guide” to share an excerpt from Chapter 25, “Come to Me All You Who Are Weary” which says:
“ … there are those crazy people who’ve had really bad experiences but still managed to find ongoing comfort, peace, wholeness, and fullness in Jesus. To find rest for their weary souls.
How? Where does faith like that come from?
Well, ironically, from experience.
Life is hard in a thousand ways because sin has wrecked the world in a thousand ways. Everything from the environment to the family unit; From how we interact with one another to what we do when no one is watching; from our physical bodies to the deepest parts of our hearts … we’ve made a mess of things. And nothing will be truly fixed until Jesus comes back and restores creation to the way it was supposed to be.
But in the meantime, Jesus offers us rest. Which means He hasn’t left us to struggle on our own. Instead, He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11: 28-30 NIV).
That kind of exchange- our weariness for Jesus’s strength; our heavy, heart-rending burdens for His comfort – only happens when we muster what measly faith we do have and enter into His presence. When we sit with Him, our hearts and hands open. When we confess our inability to carry our burdens alone. When we profess that He’s the only one who can really help.
In those quiet moments, something happens, not necessarily to our circumstances, but to our ability to endure them; Jesus takes our burdens and gives us His yoke instead.
So, what’s a yoke? Well, in Bible times a wooden yoke joined two animals together, allowing them to combine strength in order to pull a heavy load. By itself, an ox or horse has no rest from grueling work, no help in exhaustion, no options when it all became too much – they just had to plow ahead.
Jesus is offering to be yoked to you. He’s offering to help carry your load. To bring His otherworldly strength, love, kindness, faithfulness, mercy, power, and wisdom to your circumstances.
By yourself, you’ll have no help. No rest from the grueling world, no help in exhaustion, no option when your circumstances become too much.
But with Him, you’ll have Him. Experiencing His presence in the midst of your circumstances will increase your faith and allow you to not only endure, but to also believe God is all the things the Bible says He is.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles; They shall run and not be weary; They shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40: 28-31
Then the Chosen Team prompts us to:
“Pray.
Lord, life can be really too much for me sometimes. I admit I’m struggling to carry my burdens alone. Honestly, I wish You would just take them away – I wish that You’d use Your power to fix what’s broken. Help me trust Your wisdom and timing while I wait for that day. Help me to believe You’re all the things the Bible says You are. And help me accept the offer to be yoked to You, Jesus. With Your supernatural strength, please help carry this load.
(Get Used to Different Student Guide, The Chosen Team: Covington, Bennett, Hershberger, Claypool, Mallerna, Campbell, & Murdock, 2024).
Amen.
So, I hope that encourages you to give whatever heavy burdens you have been carrying thus far in 2024 to the Lord. When we walk with Him, we receive His strength, peace, comfort, and love. I have been doing my best to follow what I believe to be God’s plan for my life and at this point in my walk, for the time being any way, He seems to be telling me to take a breather.
We can only give to others what we have received and what we have in store. While the last six months have been amazing, I feel like the Lord is telling me its ok to take some nights off to rest. So I am going to rest, because He knows what’s coming where I don’t and if God tells you to rest, you should rest because you probably need to be restored and you probably will need to be restored for what will in the future. I don’t think I believe in retirement or permanent vacations because the great commission indicates at the very least we should be teaching others to know and to follow Jesus, and with that call our lives, we may get a rest every once in a while but I believe that these periods of rest are used to prepare us for the good works that God has prepared for us to do.
But don’t be wearied at the prospect, sharing your faith should be a labor of love. It’s a light burden, remember? And telling people about the peace and joy us crazy people have by following the Lord should be no sweat.
So take some time this weekend to rest up. Reflect on the first half of the year. Thank God for what He has moved you through, and enjoy today knowing that tomorrow, the Lord will be with you to power through and carry those burdens once again.
———————————————————————–
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 verse comes from the section on Example (Good or Bad).
2 Thessalonians 3:7-8 (NASB)
7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you,
8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you;
Today’s verse is the third of three passages of scripture that fall under the third point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Example (Good or Bad).
3. The apostle Paul set a godly example to teach others how a Christian ought to live.
Today’s verse is about living a life of integrity and how our good conduct and practices can be proof of our genuine faith and an example for others.
This was my big challenge as a new born-again Christian in 2010. How do I do this? How do I live as a “real Christian”. While I got the good advice to read the Bible and to pray every day, my walk was greatly assisted by encountering other Christians that were actually doing these practices and living according to their faith. Through the example of others, I learned how to preach, teach, serve, worship, praise, and pray in ways I never would have on my own. While much of our faith is highly personal and individualized, we were never meant to go it alone, and the faithful example of others is one reason why. Comfort, friendship, fellowship, and help are some of the others.
I was encouraged to be a “real Christian” by the example of other faithful men and women of God who were as “real” in their practice of their faith as they were in their profession of their faith. So talk that talk, but don’t bother saying a word if you’re not going to “be real” by walking that walk.
———————————————————–
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com 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 “According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own private study and to support his work. This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.
MORNING READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 14
“Let all things be done decently and in order.”
– 1 Corinthians 14:40
The literal translation of this verse is “Let all things be done becomingly and according to arrangement.” What an exhortation to all who seek to run or organize the concerns of God! First, all things must be done as “becoming” the Lord, worthy of the Lord, and His glory. How careful one ought to be then to see that nothing in any way casts dishonor on what is done for Him. Second, “according to arrangement” does away with all the well-worn ideas about no pre-arranged plans necessary. The teaching here is clear that order and arrangement must characterize all that is done for God.
In my life and ministry, Lord, let all things be done
“decently and in order.”[1]
—————————more tomorrow————————
The MT4Christ247 audio podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartradio, Podbean, Audible, and many more podcast platforms!
Subscribe to The MT4Christ247 Channel on YouTube!
Email me at m.t.clark@mt4christ.com with any questions, or comments, or to inquire about our Christian Life Coaching or Prayer Ministry Services.
“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
[1] Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
Leave a Reply