Finding Healing, Love, and Wisdom in the House of Mourning – Purity 1889
Purity 1889 02/17/2026 Purity 1889 Audio Podcast
Purity 1889 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a raging Zambezi River and a rainbow created from the sunlight and mist over Victoria Falls comes to us from yours truly as I captured this incredible scene during my visit to the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Livingstone, Zambia, back on February 20th, 2016.
Well, it’s Tuesday, and as I reflect on my short time at Victoria Falls, ten years ago, I really have to encourage you to step out and faith and boldly go where ever the Lord may lead you because they journey He invites you to take will bless your heart, mind, and spirit and will forever change how you look at life and faith. I’m not necessarily talking about taking a mission trip to Africa; however, if you’re interested, I could certainly introduce you to some people who make a regular habit out of going to distant lands where they see amazing places, do some hard work, and share the gospel. Whether it’s across the ocean or across the street, when the Lord beckons to your spirit to “come and see”, you should go because the lessons you will learn directly from the Lord are the ones you are meant to lean and the experiences that He has for you to walk out are part of His plan your life.
After nearly 16 years of being a “born again” Christian, the advice I have now is similar to the advice I would have given you on the banks of the Zambezi River in 2016. The advice isn’t unique, in fact its summarized by Jesus in Matthew 6:33, where He said:
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV): But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Seeking both God’s kingdom and His righteousness is the key here. While I can’t tell you what “all these things” will be for you specifically, I can tell you that they are well worth the effort of seeking.
I think that God invites all of us to seek Him at one point or another, but don’t harden your hearts against the Lord because of some pain you may have suffered in life, because even though pain is an inevitable part of life, God has the healing that will satisfy our souls.
Speaking of pain and receiving healing from the Lord, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today touches on those subject,s and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to always go to the Lord, no matter what losses we may have to mourn. Dr. David Jeremiah writes:
“THE HOUSE OF MOURNING
Randy Alcorn is well-known for his writing on heaven and eternity. However, after his wife died of cancer, the knowledge that she is in heaven waiting for him hasn’t minimized the fact that he misses her deeply. Of this time of grief, he says, “The Lord has—through the process of grief—restored me to a place of being able to…write again, to be able to do things again.”
The lessons “in the house of mourning” are always the deepest. When Jesus faced death, He said, “Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Everyone who has suffered, especially in the “house of mourning,” knows that lessons are learned in that “house” that cannot be learned elsewhere—especially not in a party house. It is only in difficult days that the reality of Romans 8:28 hits home—that God is able to cause all things to work together for good.
Embrace the hard times God allows you to experience. Embrace them as wise teachers that will take you deeper into God’s sufficiency.” – David Jeremiah
Death is the foreshadowing of life. We die that we may die no more. – Thomas Hooker
Amen. As much as my youthful self may have thought himself wise or worldly because of all the different experiences I had in “party houses”, I later realized how much a fool I was and how very little I knew about life and love.
I thought I had life all figured out, but it wasn’t until I suffered the loss of my son and entered into the house of mourning did I begin to really seek the answers to life’s big questions. If not for my tragic loss, I wouldn’t have sought the truth about life and death and the question of God.
As it was, because of my pain, my searching was misguided, and it is only because of the grace of God that I was able to discover the truth about God’s abundant love.
Yesterday, I made the acquaintance of someone else who had a deep relationship with the Lord because of their time in the house of mourning. Even though we were complete strangers one minute, when we shared briefly about our losses, I had the feeling that we were kindred spirits because we had real experiential knowledge of God and His loving care. I told this person that because of our pain and the healing and comfort we received from the Lord, when we told the Lord that we loved Him, we really meant it.
We will all experience times in the house of mourning but not all of us will learn the lesson of love the Lord wants to teach us. But for those who do, we are forever changed – knowing God personally.
While I would never wish experiencing loss at such a deep level on anyone, knowing the Lord and learning the lessons He had to teach in the house of mourning, took my grief and confusion and exchanged it for peace and purpose.
So, if you experience loss, trials, or a disruption to your life that doesn’t feel good, I encourage you to seek the Lord and to ask the big questions of life and death because the answers He has are true and healing.
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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 verse comes from the section on the Providence of God.
Psalm 103:19 (NASB) The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.
Today’s verse is the first of three passages of scripture that fall under the second point of our counseling reference guide resource section on the Providence of God.
2. God’s sovereign rule extends over all things.
Today’s Bible verse contains one of the fundamental lessons of our faith: God’s sovereignty rules over all.
As much as we could debate about the extent of man’s free agency versus God’s will, any argument of our ability to control our lives hits a serious roadblock when we consider our mortality. As much as I would like to think that I am the captain of my own ship through life, I have to admit that I don’t have any control over where my life’s journey will eventually take me.
No matter how much control I can exert over where I go and what I do in life, when and where I end up on the other side of eternity will be determined by God’s grace. I didn’t choose where and when I was born, and so it follows I won’t have a terrible amount of control over when and where I go on the other side of life.
Now, while I fully believe that because I have put my faith in Jesus, I will not have to fear God’s wrath and judgment, I still can’t claim any level of control over when I will go into His kingdom. But I do trust the Lord, and His word is true, and that I really don’t have to worry about the eternal mystery that I am someday destined to enter. And even though I can’t necessarily make anyone else put their faith in Jesus to be saved, I can speak about God’s goodness and how Jesus is the way to have peace with Him in hopes that the Lord will use my efforts for the good of others and for His glory.
God’s in charge, that’s the good news. We can trust that He knows what He is doing and that He has a good plan for His creation, and because He is love, we can be sure that those who stand with Him will be blessed. So, seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness and pray that all the good things He has will come your way.
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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 “Pause for Power” By Warren Wiersbe.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Wiersbe’s 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 23- Times, Good and Bad- Read Ecclesiastes 7:13–29
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future. – Ecclesiastes 7:14
God balances our lives by giving us enough blessings to keep us happy and enough burdens to keep us humble. If all we had were blessings in our hands, we would fall right over, so the Lord balances the blessings in our hands with burdens on our backs. That helps to keep us steady, and as we yield to Him, He can even turn the burdens into blessings.
Why does God constitute our lives in this way? The answer is simple: to keep us from thinking that we know it all and that we can manage our lives by ourselves. “A man cannot discover anything about his future” (Eccl. 7:14). Just about the time we think we have an explanation for things, God changes the situation, and we have to throw out our formula. This is where Job’s friends went wrong: They tried to use an old road map to guide Job on a brand-new journey, and the map didn’t fit (Job 2:11–37:24). No matter how much experience we have in the Christian life, or how many books we read, we must still walk by faith.
Something to Ponder: During times of adversity how do you try to see what God may be trying to teach you?[1]
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[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures, 2nd Ed., Year in the Word Series (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010).
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