Clark, Scrooge, & Bailey – Christmas Testimonies – Purity 1839
Purity 1839 12/13/2025 Purity 1839 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of a deer standing at the foot of the steps to a yellow and white house comes to us from yours truly as I captured this surprising moment while delivering packages for Christmas on Hickory Hill Rd in Ghent yesterday afternoon.
Well, it’s Saturday and although I have to admit that the packages I delivered yesterday may not be “for Christmas” specifically and the appearance of a deer so close to a home in a wooded area of upstate isn’t miraculous or too surprising, it doesn’t mean that we can’t be surprised by a Christmas “miracle” on occasion nor does it mean that we don’t have something special to give to others during the Christmas season.
The best gift a Christian can give at Christmas, or any other time of the year, is their personal testimony of how God came into their life and revealed to them the truth of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
I’ve shared my testimony of how a David Jeremiah radio message brought me into the kingdom back in 2010 and this year I am celebrating my salvation, Christmas, New Years, and my wedding anniversary by going on a David Jeremiah Conference Cruise to the Caribbean on December 27th. The cruise will be a wonderful time for my wife and I to spend time together and to celebrate our faith and life together and I can’t wait for it.
But just so you don’t think, I am some sort of “prosperity Christian”, I can tell you that my life of faith hasn’t always been easy. I am currently going through a trial with career and am waiting for God’s grace to deliver me to the next chapter of my work life which I don’t expect anytime soon. So I am doing the best I can by working as a seasonal delivery driver to meet my needs and trusting that God will continue to provide for me where I need it most – in my spirit.
In my journey I have learned that we can go through all kinds of trials and tribulations, but it’s a lot better to go through them with God than without Him. When you are walking in the Spirit, the Lord gives you hope for the future and occasionally He will decide to show up in surprising miraculous ways.
In 2019, I received my finalized divorce papers on Christmas Eve and as happy as I was to finally have the closure of a finalized divorce agreement, I wasn’t exactly full of joy come Christmas morning when my ex took my kids to visit their sister for the afternoon. Left alone in the home that would eventually need to be sold, I was overcome by the grief of a long and nasty divorce and still not sure how I would finally be delivered to an independent life as financial burdens required us to cohabitate for over a year while we “weren’t together” as I moved into the basement. Even though I was in deep sorrow over my situation, I was still had enough faith to trust that God would help me but I was hurting and I went to the Lord asking Him for His help. I was reading Perry Stones’ Season of Angels that day and inspired by the book, asked the Lord to “send me an angel” to take my pain away or to help me somehow. Previous to this time in my life, I had encounters with God’s presence in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, so I wasn’t unfamiliar with supernatural manifestations of the Lord’s presence.
I did write about this episode previously on the blog but don’t recall all the details perfectly, but I will state that I cried, I prayed, and the Lord sent me an unseen presence that I believe was an angel. There might have been an illuminating presence, perhaps, but I just recall being bowed down in tears and praying and then suddenly feeling the presence of another and a warm infusion of God’s healing love and comfort. It was very similar to my experiences with the Holy Spirit over the years but it seemed different in a way I can’t explain. I have like zero proof to substantiate this claim of the miraculous but I know that I was in deep grief and I received comfort and an experiential piece of evidence that confirmed what I already knew: I was not alone God was with me.
From that dreary yet miraculous encounter on Christmas Day 2019, the Lord moved me forward into what I often testify to as being led by His amazing grace to my new home, “down by the River”, in the midst of a global pandemic in June of 2020. God has helped me continuously since coming to faith in Jesus Christ in 2010 and has completely transformed my life and I will bear witness of the goodness of God and all the little miracles I have experienced with Him all the days of my life.
Speaking of Christmas time and the power of our testimonies, the Turning Point with David Jeremiah devotional for this weekend talks about telling others about Jesus at Christmas time and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to talk about the light of the world, David Jeremiah writes:
“A LIFE EVERGREEN: CHRISTMAS BOUGHS
Surveys tell us that blue is the most popular color in the world, but green comes in at second place in Thailand, China, and the United States.1 During the holidays decorating with boughs of pine branches or garlands of evergreen can create a festive atmosphere that reminds us of Christmases past and generations now gone.
Psalm 71:18 suggests a prayer for those who are approaching the golden years: “Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.”
Christmas is a wonderful time to share your story of faith with your family. Nestled in your chair or at your table, surrounded by the greenery of the season, tell your children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews about how you celebrated the birth of Christ when you were their age. Share what Christ has meant to you. Let your testimony be boughs of evergreen!” – David Jeremiah
How you live your life is a testimony of what you believe about God – Henry Blackaby
Amen! Believe it or not the testimony of how you came to faith in Jesus has the same power that rose Jesus from the grave – Holy Spirit power.
Revelation tells us that Safan is defeated by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. So as we celebrate Christmas this year let’s speak to others about the goodness of God and the wonderful gift we have in Christ!
Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life are two stories about two different men who are transformed because of the revelation they received from God about how His love has been with them all their lives.
In Scrooge’s case, the Lord sends spirits to remind a bitter old man about the joy of Christmas (the celebration of Christ) and the love that he knew before he became obsessed with material wealth. When Scrooge’s eyes are open, he declares that he will spread the joy and truth of Christmas for rest of his life, a promise to fulfill the great commission.
In It’s a Wonderful Life, we have another case of divine intervention. In an somewhat opposite case, George Bailey lives a good life but among the joy of doing what is right he suffers through trial after trial, until happenstance creates a trial that steals his hope and causes him to contemplate suicide – but the prayers of others cause God to send an angel to reveal just how wonderful his life has been. With his eyes opened by the reality of what life would have been without him, George Bailey repents of his suicidal thoughts and fully accepts whatever may come in his devastating trial if he could just “live again”. When the revelation is complete, Bailey runs through the town screaming MERRY CHRISTMAS and rejoicing over the town that has been so impacted by his solitary life. The Lord than moves all of Bailey’s friends who prayed to come together to bail him out of the crisis that an evil man manipulated.
Let this message of these two examples of God’s transforming grace and the remembrance of what God has done for you, cause you to boldly speak to others about the joy of Christmas, and a life transformed by faith in Jesus Christ, this and every year!
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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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. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Prayer – Waiting On the Lord.
Philippians 4:6–7 (NLT) Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Today’s verses fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Prayer.
7. Pray about everything instead of worrying.
Today’s Bible verses exhort us to not worry and to pray about everything and God will provide a peace that goes beyond your understanding.
After my angel testimony, I can tell you that God answers prayer in sometimes amazing ways.
However, even though supernatural encounters with the Lord are awesome, I would also tell you that an abiding peace of the Spirit comes to us when we have a close relationship with God that includes a daily spiritual practice of prayer and a continuous conversational relationship of prayer that doesn’t cease.
If we are truly to prayer about everything that requires us to talk to God continuously, so let today’s Bible verses be your biblical guide to a life with God, in prayer.
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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 “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 338
… there arose no little disturbance over the Way … – Acts 19:23
Demetrius, the silversmith, warned his guild that Paul was about to put them out of business. Diana, the Ephesian goddess, was well-known throughout the Mediterranean world and people traveled from afar to worship her. Tourists would purchase little statues of her made from silver. The apostles were making such headway for the faith, that Demetrius feared for his business (vv. 19, 26–27). Listen to him: “This Paul has persuaded and perverted a good-sized crowd, saying that gods made by hands are not gods. There is danger … that our business may fall into disrepute.…” How wonderful. Wouldn’t it be great today to put all sorts of false religions out of business by the preaching of the Gospel? It is sad, but frequently many Christian business people make a choice: my business before truth. How foolish to choose temporal wealth over treasures in the heavens![1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 346.
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