Accepting Our Middle – In Search of Wholeness – Purity 1922
Purity 1922 03/27/2026
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of Albert Bierstadt’s (1830-1902) oil on canvas, “Light in the Forest” (1870) featuring a lone stag standing in a sun-drenched forest clearing, with the light filtering through the trees to create a “golden hour” effect, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this work of art while visiting the Springfield Museums back on December 9th, 2023. This particular piece is a classic example of his “Luminist” style—a technique that focuses on the soft, glowing effects of light to create a sense of tranquility and spiritual awe.
Well It’s Friday, thank God, and I share Bierstadt’s work of art as part of my Lenten journey to recognize beauty in the things of the past and invite each one of us to let the light of God’s love shine into our hearts to fill us with a tranquility and peace that will fill us with heavenly spiritual awe.
Recently, I took advantage of a free trial of the Hallow App and have been enjoying it as a prayer tool to draw me closer to the Lord during this season of Lent. This morning, I was listening to a Sunday Homily By Mike Schmitz that reminded me of the middle of my journey through life and how I sincerely wish that I hadn’t lived the way I did. When I look at the decades I wasted in sin and confusion, I really wish it wasn’t so, but I also understand that I wouldn’t have learned the things I have learned or become the person that I am if I hadn’t gone through the experiences of my past. While I am not proud of sin or ignorance of my past, I can help others more because I learned from them. I don’t think I could have articulated it at the time, but all of my foolishness of the past was part of the search for meaning and love. I was looking for love and meaning in all the wrong places, of course, but at the right time, God met me to show me the way to wholeness.
Speaking of the search for wholeness, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley from a few days ago spoke about this topic, so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to find it through our faith in Jesus Christ.
“In Search of Wholeness
Jesus offers living water that quenches the thirst in our soul.
John 6:32-35
God created us to be comfortable in our own skin. In spiritual terms, humans are designed to experience peace, joy, and contentment. But many people go through life feeling fragmented and empty.
In John 4:7-30, Jesus talked with a Samaritan woman who was clearly feeling incomplete and disillusioned with the way her life had turned out. Attempting to fill her soul with human love, she’d experienced many heartbreaking relationships and was presently involved in a sinful one. This woman had dipped her “bucket” repeatedly into the well of human love to get the acceptance that she hoped would make her whole. But each experience left her thirsty. Standing before Jesus, she was a broken soul and social outcast.
People throughout history have been drinking from false wells. The truth is that only a relationship with Jesus can make a person whole. From Him comes living water that quenches our thirst forever (John 7:37-38). This means He meets our every need in this life. In a world marred by sin, we will not have a perfect existence, but through Christ, we can expect to live with a sense of deep and lasting satisfaction. – Charles Stanley
Amen. Before coming to Christ, I had a nagging sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. I tried to fill that hole with knowledge at first, but without God, I just began to see life as being meaningless. What was the point of learning or building a life if we just die in the end? In light of the brevity of life, I decided to “live it up” and chose to meet my selfish and sinful desires for pleasure as often as I could. But my lifestyle of hedonism didn’t give me any satisfaction either – instead I got locked in a vicious cycle of addiction and negative emotions, separating myself from others to keep my sins a secret.
It was a hopeless existence, but thankfully, the Lord woke me up and showed me the truth about love, forgiveness, and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. In Christ, I found peace with God, rest for my weary soul, and the assurance of life forevermore.
After coming to faith in Jesus, I saw the emptiness of life of sin and realized that there is a higher purpose to our lives. Life went from meaningless to meaningful as the Lord restored me to wholeness.
I have learned that the more we relate to God, the more we feel satisfied and whole. So if you still feel a little empty at times, go to the Lord and ask Him to fill you afresh with the Holy Spirit and to reveal your purpose in His kingdom.
You may have some learning to do, but the Lord will lead you and fill your life with peace, meaning, and purpose.
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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 the Providence of God.
Jonah 4:6–8 (ESV) Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
Today’s verses are the fourth of four passages of scripture that fall under the twenty second point of our counseling reference guide resource section on the Providence of God.
22. The story of Jonah strikingly reveals God’s providence.
Today’s Bible verses show us how the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away as God provided for Jonah’s physical needs in comfort with the quick-growing plant, only to take it away through a worm at its appointed time.
When God appoints a wind and the sun to move Jonah, he despairs over the loss of the plant and wishes himself dead! To which God says, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Jonah‘s story ends with God chastising the prophet for his hardness of heart, and we can only hope that we too won’t be so resistant or hard-hearted if the Lord should send us to share the gospel with people we don’t like. God loves us all, after all, and we should remember that it’s the people, not the things, that matter in life.
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.
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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 56 – A Relatable King – Read Isaiah 36
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. – Isaiah 36:1
Except for David and Solomon, no king of Judah is given more attention or commendation in Scripture than Hezekiah. He restored the temple facilities and services of worship, destroyed the idols and the hill shrines where the people falsely worshipped Jehovah, and sought to bring the people back to vital faith in the Lord. He led the people in a nationwide celebration of Passover and invited Jews from the northern kingdom to participate.
After the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BC, Judah had constant problems with Assyria. Hezekiah finally rebelled against Assyria (2 Kings 18:7); and when Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, threatened to attack, Hezekiah tried to bribe him (Isa. 36:13–16). It was a lapse of faith that God could not bless. Sennacherib accepted the treasures but broke the treaty (33:1) and invaded Judah in 701 BC. The account of God’s miraculous deliverance of His people is found in Isaiah 36–37. Though the setting today may be different, the problems and temptations are still the same; for Hezekiah’s history is our history, and Hezekiah’s God is our God.
Something to Ponder – When you, like Hezekiah, “inherit” something that all your predecessors have made a mess of, do you do what’s easy and go with the flow, or do what’s hard and correct the situation?[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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