Fighting The Winter of Our Discontent with the Safest Investment – Purity 1863
Purity 1863 01/16/2026 Purity 1863 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of the snow-covered view from my former home’s front porch comes to us from yours truly as I captured this lovely scene of what was a white Christmas morning in Craryville, NY, on December 25th, 2017.
Well, it’s Friday, thank God and I share this snowy scene because I decided to reach back into the archives of my I phone’s photo gallery to clean house and because I wanted the thank the Lord for the lack of snow currently, only to be reminded that it is still winter this morning, as my electronic personal assistant informed my that there is a 65% chance of snow later this evening. Oh well, I’ll roll with the punches until spring gets here, and I will thank the Lord for whatever milder, warmer weather that may come our way until then.
With my out of work suspension causing stress and financial difficulties over the last two months, interiorly I have though of this season as the “winter of my discontent” and just as I thought I would put this unfortunate chapter of my life behind me as I return to work on the 26th, I received an unexpected bill in the mail yesterday that temporarily dragged me into deep despair. When we go through seasons of suffering, misery can seem to be compounded as one thing after another seems to go against us. I have been doing my best to get through my current crisis with grace and a grateful attitude but I think I had unknowingly created an expectation that now that my return to work date was drawing near that nothing else bad would happen to me, and when I received this rather significant bill in the mail, for a moment it felt like the last straw that broke that camel’s back of my resolve. So, I had a couple of bad hours last night as I freaked out over the prospect of even more of my dwindling funds being sucked out of my bank account.
As much as I tried to reassure myself with the assurance that the Lord will provide and sentiments of “it’s only money”, the shock of the news of another expense was coupled with demonic attacks of depression and suggestions of the suicidal final solution to my pain. Remembering the Frank Capra holiday classic and the crisis point of George Bailey, I tried to assure myself that it’s still “A Wonderful Life” and process the news rationally and faithfully, but the enemy in his attempts to drag me down was vicious at first. Thankfully, I talked to my wife, who always brings me comfort, and was eventually able to turn my thoughts away from my money problems by watching some relationship life coaching videos on YouTube.
When I focused on learning skills to help my life coaching clients in the future, this latest bad news faded away, but when I went to be,d and all was silent, the enemy struck again with thoughts and fears over what to do, tempting me to obsess over it to the point where I would loose my peace and a good nights slip. Luckily, this wasn’t my first rodeo with spiritual warfare and anxious thoughts, so I immediately started praying and was blessedly delivered to a peaceful sleep. The anxiety was there waiting for me in the morning, but I was able to brush it off by fully accepting the burden and trusting that the Lord would provide again, like He always has.
When we worry about financial problems, it really steals our peace, but when we are in Christ, we can remind ourselves of God’s promises to provide and focus on our treasures in heaven.
Speaking of treasures in heaven, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today references that phrase from scripture, and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to invest ourselves in the Lord. David Jeremiah writes:
“THE SAFEST INVESTMENT
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. – Matthew 6:19-20
In 2013, a hard drive belonging to a man in Wales was accidentally thrown away and ended up in a landfill. The man quickly realized the mistake. But he has been unable to retrieve the hard drive, which contained the digital keys necessary to access his investment in cryptocurrency, which, as of today, is worth almost $800 million! Sadly, this is irredeemable by him without the digital keys on the discarded hard drive, and so far, the courts have refused to allow him to dig up the landfill or buy it outright. His treasure remains lost.
Jesus warned His followers about accumulating treasures on earth where moths, rust, and thieves—and lost hard drives—can result in those treasures being destroyed. Instead, He advised accumulating a different kind of treasure—treasures in heaven that will last forever. Since we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20), we should accumulate our treasures there.
Only two things on earth will last forever: souls and the Word of God. Investments made in those will become treasures in heaven.” – David Jeremiah
We must read our Bibles, like men digging for hidden treasure. – J. C. Ryle
Amen. Ooof, that crypto story sounds like something I would do! Oh, the burden of trying to accumulate and keep our treasure on earth is felt by all of us, as certain seasons can come where it feels like the money is literally flying out of your pockets! Some of us may be in a season like that right now, and the pressure to make it financially can feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders.
In times like these, we might anxiously pray for the Lord to give us a financial windfall, but even though we can rest on the promise that God will provide for all our NEEDS, we would also benefit from recognizing what truly matters: our ultimate reality with God and the security we have in His kingdom.
Our lives are held in God’s hands, and He will provide. As we live out our lives here on earth, we should shift our focus from the things of this world and seek the treasures that we can receive from God, His word, and His service, and start laying up treasures in heaven.
Just as when we draw close to God, and we can be sure He will draw close to us, when we invest our time, talents, and treasure in the things of God, we can be sure we will receive “heavenly returns” on those investments.
So, dig deep into the things of the Lord and find the treasures that He has for you, both here on earth and in heaven.
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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 Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
Hebrews 5:11–6:4
Hebrews 5:12–14 (ESV) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Today’s verses fall under the second point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
2. Do not be content to be an immature Christian, as was the case with many Hebrew believers.
Today’s Bible verses prod us to want to grow in the wisdom of the Lord. Nobody wants to be called a child (unless it’s a “child of God). Even children take pride in being praised as being a “big boy” or “big girl”. So, it should come to us as no surprise that when we read these anointed words of the Apostle Paul, we long to be mature Christians who can stomach the solid food of God’s wisdom.
While we come as we are into God’s kingdom as babes in Christ, we are not supposed to languish in immaturity. When God calls us to faith, He calls us to die to ourselves and seek His purpose for our lives. When we fail to answer that call with diligence and a passion to know God more, we do a disservice to ourselves and to God’s kingdom.
Thus, Paul’s exhortation to grow up should be taken to heart to motivate us to be skilled in the word of righteousness and the powers of discernment that come from a regular practice of distinguishing the things of God from the things of evil.
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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 362
The Spirit’s fruit is … kindness, goodness. – Galatians 5:22
These two pieces of the Spirit’s fruit taste as much alike as peaches and nectarines, so we will consider them together. Kind people do good things for
others; good people act in a kindly manner toward them. You can clearly see the interrelationship between the two, can you not? There is so little kindness left in our increasingly coarse, crude, and selfish society that when this spiritual fruit is displayed, people are often amazed. Yet for you, as a member of the household of faith, kindness should not be an occasional, but a regular, aspect of your demeanor. And, goodness? Goodness of heart will cause you to find ways of extending such inward thoughts to outer actions. Goodness and kindness, as all of these fruits, are characteristics of the One Who went about doing good (Acts 10:38). He, and He alone, is the authentic model for both of these virtues. To whom might you show some act of kindness today?[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 370.
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