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Monday, November 23, 2020

Purity 272: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


Purity 272               

 Good morning!

Today’s photo was taken earlier this month by a friend who captured this stunning sunset scene on the shores of Lake Okeechobee in Florida.

I share it because it’s Monday again, there is rain in our local forecast, and we may be longing for some sunlight on what could be a less than pleasant day. I also share it because of its surreal beauty that challenges the mind, is it a painting or is this real? Either way, it can make us all appreciate the wonder of God’s creation even on a Monday.   

As we move into Thanksgiving week, I pray that all of my friends remain healthy and safe.

My plans for Thanksgiving changed this weekend as my perspective host announced they were sick but still wanted to host dinner.  Not surprisingly, the other guests canceled, and I followed suit.  In this day and age, its one thing to unwittingly pass on disease to others but its quite another to take a risk when symptoms are present.  As someone in ministry, no matter how humble it may be, I have an obligation to those I serve to remain healthy and avoid unnecessary risks.   Nobody’s cooking is worth interfering with my small role in serving the kingdom of God. 

So, I will be cooking dinner for my children (I was going to make a turkey anyway. You have to have leftovers, right?) for our inaugural Thanksgiving in my new home “down by The River.” 

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This morning’s meditation verse was:

Psalm 105:1 (NLT): Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness. Let the whole world know what He has done.

You know, when a bible verse about giving thanks to the Lord comes up on the Monday before Thanksgiving it tells me two things:

  1. We are definitely “tracking with the Spirit”, a phenomenon that I describe as receiving indications from the Lord that He is with you and is communicating.
  2. We need to give credit where credit is due.

Yesterday in the men’s bible study that I attend, the leader presented Psalm 136, which is a psalm absolutely filled with the sentiment of giving thanks to God and recognizing that “His mercy endures forever”.  The teacher presented PS 136 to drive the point home that when we give thanks there has to be “an object” to whom we give thanks to.

Generally, we make the object of our thanks people who perform some task for us.  While it is awesome to have someone do something for us or to be a continual support, we should recognize how subjective or fleeting this scenario could be.  You are thankful for “Sue” because of making such a fine dinner, for being so kind, or for her quirky personality that makes you laugh.  But what if Sue decides not to make dinner, be so kind, or becomes dull as life extends into the latter years?  The point is that our thanks are conditional on Sue pleasing us and if she doesn’t please us, we might not be so thankful. Situations like this can easy turn into co-dependency as two people place expectations on one another to make each other happy when only a life with the Lord at the center can truly satisfy. 

And then there are those who just give thanks for giving thanks sake… “I’m just thankful... for everything!” or, please forgive them, “Thank you, universe!”  In essence people like this have recognized that there is something about creation that is transcendent, but they refuse to recognize the person or work of Christ as meaningful.  They have rejected Him and not only Jesus, but they refuse to even recognize God in general.

With our localized thanks or our general ethereal thanks, we remain short sighted. The people we are thankful for were made by God. The goodness of the people that He made is a reflection of who He is as all men are made in His image. The universe, heavens, or nature were also created by God.  They reflect His beautiful mind as a creative genius. 

So, when you sit down to give thanks this week, make sure to thank God. If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, be sure to thank Him and the Holy Spirit as well.  

Today we continue to share from Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again, where the authors discuss how our bodies react to stress. 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Anderson’s books for your own private study and to support his work:

The Whole Picture

Now let's see how the rest of the outer self correlates with the inner self. The brain and the spinal cord make up the central nervous system, which splits off into a peripheral nervous system, as shown in the following diagram.

The peripheral nervous system has two channels—the autonomic and the somatic nervous system. The somatic nervous system regulates our muscular and skeletal movements such as speech, gestures, etc.—functions over which we have volitional control. This channel obviously correlates to our will. Except for functions of our autonomic nervous systems, as discussed in the following material, we normally do nothing without first thinking it. The thought-response sequence is so rapid that we are hardly aware of the sequence, but it is always there. Of course, involuntary muscular movements can occur when the system breaks down, as is the case with Parkinson's disease (shaking palsy), a progressive degeneration of nerve cells in one part of the brain that controls muscle movements.



The autonomic nervous system regulates our internal organs. We do not have direct volitional control over our glands. We don't consciously say to our hearts, "beat, beat, beat," or to our adrenal glands, "adren, adren, adren," or to our thyroid, "thy, thy, thy." All these organs function automatically.

The autonomic nervous system correlates to our emotions. In a general sense, we don't have direct volitional control over feelings. We cannot will ourselves to feel good or like somebody we hate. We can, however, exert indirect control of our emotions by what we think and believe.

Just as our glands are regulated by our central nervous system, so our emotions are primarily a product of our thoughts. The circumstances of life do not determine how we feel. Negative external events do not cause depression. Between the external stimulus and the emotional response is the brain (receiver) and the mind (interpreter). So how we feel is primarily determined by how we interpret life events (i.e., what we choose to think and believe), and secondarily by how we choose to behave. We can become depressed by interpreting circumstances with something less than a biblical worldview, or failing to believe what God has said.

When Stress Becomes Distress

Let's apply this to the problem of stress. When external pressures put demands on our physical system, our adrenal glands respond by secreting cortisone like hormones into our physical bodies. This means that our bodies automatically respond to external pressures—as in the natural "fight" or "flight" responses. If the pressures persist too long, our adrenal glands can't keep up, and stress becomes distress. The result can be physical illness, or we may become irritated about things that, in less stressful times, wouldn't bother us physically or emotionally.

Why, then, do two people respond differently to the same stressful situation? Some actually seize the opportunity and thrive under the pressure, while others fall apart. What makes the difference? Does one have superior adrenal glands? We don't think so. Although we may differ considerably in our physical conditions, the major difference lies in the "software." It isn't just the superior glands or external factors such as deadlines, schedules, trauma and temptations that determine the degree of stress. The major difference is how we mentally interpret the external world and process the data our brain is receiving.

The mind can choose to respond by trusting God with the assurance of victory, or to see ourselves as the helpless victims of circumstances. The Israelites saw Goliath in reference to themselves, and stressed out. David saw the same giant in reference to God, and triumphed in the same situation that left the others in defeat. Faith in God (i.e., what we believe) greatly affects how we interpret and respond to the pressures of this world.

The Spirit Can Affect the Flesh

It is critically important to understand that the adrenal glands do not initiate the release of adrenaline. They are the responders, not the initiators. The hormone is released into the bloodstream after the brain has recorded the external inputs and the mind has interpreted them. The brain itself can only function according to how it has been programmed.

God obviously created us with some natural programming for survival, such as the sucking instinct in a newborn baby and other necessary bodily functions that sustain life. This would be similar to how the animal kingdom operates through divine instincts. Applying the same logic, a natural or normal production of neurotransmitters also allows the brain to function, or else no physical life could be sustained in infancy. In other words, we are preprogrammed from birth to physically exist. There is a natural will to live, to seek food, clothing, shelter and safety.

Could the programming of our minds, or how we choose to think, affect how the brain operates? If the secretion of adrenaline from our adrenal glands is triggered by how we think or perceive reality, could serotonin or other neurotransmitters be affected by how we think and what we choose to believe?

Does the presence of the "Wonderful Counselor" transform the outer self or the inner self? In other words, what physically changed in our lives at the moment we were born again? Nothing changed that was observable to the naked eye. In a similar fashion, we might ask what physical changes you observed in your computer when you slipped in a new program. Even though the same number of hardware components existed in the computer, the screen began to show a different output. The electronic flow through the computer changed.

Would we begin to live differently if a new program were loaded into the "computer" that is our brain? We should have the potential to do so because our eyes have been opened to the truth, and the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to live by faith. The flow of neurotransmitters would certainly change, even though the number of brain cells would remain the same.

The presence of God in our lives will slowly affect even our physical being. According to the words of Paul, "He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you" (Romans 8:11). This is evident when we walk by the Spirit because "the fruit of the Spirit is love [the character of God], joy [the antithesis of depression], peace [the antithesis of anxiety], patience [the antithesis of anger], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22, 23). The connection between the initiating cause, which is the Spirit of truth working in our lives, and the end result, which is self-control, is the mind. The mind directs the brain, which in turn regulates all our glands and muscular movements.


Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.

 

 

------------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

God bless you all!

 

 



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