Purity 292
Good morning!
Today’s photo was taken by yours truly while I was out travelling
through suburban Niskayuna, NY. Despite
temperatures in the 30’s, the weather yesterday was sunny and bright, and I
knew I had to pull over to capture the sun and blue skies above these pines as
evidence of the “calm before the storm” as we anticipate December’s first big snowstorm
later today.
As someone whose grown up in upstate New York, I know what snow is and I
know about the inevitability of its coming, but sometimes you just irrationally
hope that it just won’t come. We know it’s
a fact of life but yet we hope against hope that we can somehow avoid it.
The reality of its coming was brought to my attention by a friend and I
realized that I had to make a decision to cancel the last Celebrate Freedom
meeting of the year. It was also to serve as our holiday party but with
circumstances of a fast-approaching Christmas and other considerations, I also
realized that rescheduling wasn’t really an option. So I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t
wrap things up like I had anticipated.
But instead of living in fear and anxiety of the storm to come or being
bitter about Celebrate Freedom’s cancelation, I decided to enjoy what the Lord
had brought me in the present moment. I captured this photo of the sun and blue
skies. I enjoyed the unobstructed travel
on the roads as I drove around. I also enjoyed the fact that people have
decorated the outside of their homes in anticipation of Christmas. I even
enjoyed the idea that, if the outpouring of this projected snowstorms lasts, we
would have a white Christmas. But most
of all I enjoyed the fact that I have a relationship with God who loves me and
has set me free of my personal darkness and the consequences that have resulted
from it.
When I focus on that fact, and the fact that every moment I live and
breathe and walk in the freedom that God has given me, it continues, and is
promised to never end, I find it difficult to remain upset, disappointed, or
fearful of a snowstorm for long.
God is with me and, if you turn to Him, He will be with you too. Stay safe in the storm by making peace with
the One who controls it all. Keep
walking and talking with God or start today.
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This morning’s
meditation verse was:
Psalm 115:11 (NLT2)
11 All you who fear the LORD, trust the LORD! He is your helper and your shield.
Whenever the fear of the Lord is mentioned in scripture, I always think
of how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So I looked up that
verse:
Proverbs 9:10 (NLT2)
10 Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge
of the Holy One results in good judgment.
As the above verse says, those who fear the Lord, trust Him. If we trust
Him, we follow Him, and He becomes our Helper and Shield.
The storms in life aren’t always meteorological. I have friends who currently have walked away
from the Lord and who are again locked in their old familiar cycles of addiction
and broken relationships.
There is power in the name of Jesus, but that power comes from a faith that
is active and alive. That power comes from a restored relationship with the
Lord. It comes from not just saying you’re
sorry. The power comes from a decision to abandon the old familiar ways of life
that never satisfy and instead decide to walk out life His way.
The prodigal son was welcomed home with open arms. The door is always open, but the prodigal must
surrender to the Father and come home. It’s my prayer that those who are lost
in darkness, go home.
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:
Not Living Up to the Good News
During the Civil War, General Sherman burned Atlanta,
then waged war against the civilians of the South during his long march toward
the Atlantic coast. His theory was that soldiers fight wars, but civilians
support the soldiers and pay for war. He wanted to defeat the South's ability
to support the war. He broke the back of the war effort the moment they felt
defeated, hopeless, useless and helpless, and no longer believed the war could
be won.
This is exactly what Satan wants us to
believe, with the demonic intent that we will be demoralized in the spiritual
battle between good and evil. But our war with the world, the flesh and the
devil has already been won! We just have to believe it.
Slavery in the United States was
abolished on December 18, 1865, by the Thirteenth Amendment to the
Constitution. How many slaves were there on December 19? In reality, none; but
many still lived like slaves—because they hadn't learned the truth. Others knew
and even believed that they were free, but chose to live as they had been taught
under slavery.
Several plantation owners were
devastated by this proclamation of emancipation. "We're ruined!" they
cried. "Slavery has been abolished. We've lost the battle to keep our
slaves." But Satan, the chief spokesman against the truth, slyly responded,
"Not necessarily. As long as these people think they're still
slaves, the Emancipation Proclamation will have no practical effect. We don't
have a legal right over them anymore, but many of them don't know it. Keep your
slaves from learning the truth, and your control over them will not even be
challenged."
"But, what if the news
spreads?"
"Don't panic. We have another
bullet to fire. We may not be able to keep them from hearing the news, but we
can still keep them from understanding it. They don't call me the father of
lies for nothing. We still have the potential to deceive the whole world. Just
tell them that they misunderstood the Thirteenth Amendment. Tell them that they
are going to be free, not that they are free already. The truth they heard is
just positional truth, not actual truth. Some day they may receive the
benefits, but not now."
"But they'll expect us to say
that. They won't believe us."
"Then pick out a few persuasive
ones who are convinced that they're still slaves, and let them do the talking
for you. Remember, most of these free people were born slaves and have lived
like slaves all their lives. All we have to do is to deceive them so that they
still think like slaves. As long as they continue to do what slaves do, it will
not be hard to convince them that they must still be slaves. They will maintain
their slave identity because of the things they do. The moment they try to
profess that they are no longer slaves, just whisper in their ears, 'How can
you even think you are no longer a slave when you are still doing things that
slaves do?' After all, we have the capacity to accuse the brethren day and
night."
Years later, many have still not heard
the wonderful news that they have been freed, so naturally they continue to
live the way they have always lived. Some have heard the good news, but
evaluated it by what they are presently doing and feeling. They reason, I'm
still living in bondage, doing the same things I have always done. My
experience tells me that I must not be free. I'm feeling the same way I was
before the proclamation, so it must not be true. After all, your feelings
always tell the truth. So they continue to live according to how they
feel, not wanting to be hypocrites!
One former slave hears the good news,
and receives it with great joy. He checks out the validity of the proclamation,
and finds out that the highest of all authorities has originated the decree.
Not only that, but it personally cost the authority a tremendous price, which
he willingly paid, so that he could be free. His life is transformed. He
correctly reasons that it would be hypocritical to believe his feelings, and
not believe the truth. Determined to live by what he knows to be true, his
experiences begin to change rather dramatically. He realizes that his old
master has no authority over him and does not need to be obeyed. He gladly
serves the one who set him free.
The gospel is the "Emancipation
Proclamation" for all sinners. Because of the Fall, we were all enslaved
to sin. We were dead in our "trespasses and sins" (Ephes. 2:1),
"and were by nature children of wrath" (Ephes. 2:3). The
good news is that we are no longer slaves to sin. We are now alive in Christ
and dead to sin (see Romans
6:11). We have been set free in Christ. We are no longer sinners in the
hands of an angry God. We are saints in the hands of a loving God. We are
forgiven, justified, redeemed and born-again children of God.
You may not feel like it, you may not
act like it and others may tell you that you are not, but you have been
justified in Christ. "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).
Take God
at His Word
According to Hebrews 6:13-20,
God stakes His own credibility on the fact that our hope is in Him:
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for
him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, "I will surely bless you and
give you many descendants." And so after waiting patiently, Abraham
received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and
the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God
wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of
what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two
unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled
to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this
hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary
behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf (NIV).
The two unchangeable things are God's
promise and the oath confirming the promise. Our hope in God is a solid anchor
for our souls, and the answer to hopelessness and depression. If God cannot
lie, then the basis for our hope is found in the truth of His nature, character
and word.
Hopelessness
from Faulty Perceptions
Although God cannot change, our perception of Him can
change; and that will greatly affect how we feel. To illustrate this, look at
how Jeremiah became depressed because his perceptions about God were all wrong:
I am the man who has seen affliction because of the rod of His wrath. He
has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely against me
He has turned His hand repeatedly all the day. He has caused my flesh and my
skin to waste away, He has broken my bones. He has besieged and encompassed me
with bitterness and hardship. In dark places He has made me dwell, like those
who have long been dead (Lament. 3:1-6).
Jeremiah believes that God is the cause
of his physical and emotional hardships. He actually believes that God is out
to get him, when in fact He is out to restore him. Instead of being led by God,
Jeremiah feels that he is being driven to dark places where God has abandoned
him. Jeremiah is in the basement! Listen to his feelings of entrapment,
hopelessness and fear:
He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.
Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer. He has blocked
my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. He is to me like a bear
lying in wait, like a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways and
torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate. So I say, "My strength has perished,
and so has my hope from the Lord" (Lament. 3:7-11, 18).
Jeremiah was depressed because his
perception of God was wrong. God wasn't the cause of his affliction. God didn't
set up the circumstances to make his life miserable. God isn't a wild beast
waiting to chew people up. But Jeremiah thought He was, and consequently he
lost all hope in God. Then suddenly everything changed:
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to
mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not
consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is
your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I
will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the
one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord (Lament. 3:19-26,
NIV).
Nothing had changed externally in
Jeremiah's experience. The only thing that changed was his perception of God.
He had won the battle for his mind by recalling what he knew to be true about
God. Hope returns when we choose to believe in the true nature and character of
God.
This is why it is so necessary for us
to worship God. Our heavenly Father is not an egomaniac who needs His ego
stroked every Sunday morning. He is totally secure within Himself. He doesn't
need us to tell Him who He is. We worship God because we need to keep the
divine attributes of God constantly on our minds. We don't worship God to
change Him; we worship God to change ourselves, as Jeremiah did.
Faith As an Antidote for Hopelessness
The writer of Hebrews said, "Faith is being sure of
what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1, NIV).
Hope is the parent of faith, which is the evidence of things not seen. Martin
Luther wrote:
Everything that is done in the world is done in hope. No husbandman
would sow one grain of corn if he hoped not it would grow up and become seed;
no bachelor would marry a wife if he hoped not to have children; no merchant or
tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.
This truth can be illustrated in many
practical ways. Suppose you hoped to catch the next bus, which was scheduled to
come at 11:00 a.m. You leave your home at 10:45 a.m., giving yourself enough
time to walk at a leisurely pace. So you walk by faith to the bus stop, hoping
the bus would be on time and that the schedule was right.
If the bus were late and the schedule
were wrong, your hope would be dashed. You would lose faith in the public
transportation system. If you fell behind schedule and thought you had no hope
of catching the next bus, you would not proceed by faith. That would be
foolish.
If you thought there were no hope for
any promotion at work, you might look around for other positions. If you had no
hope of finding the grocery store open on Sunday at 6:00 a.m., you wouldn't
drive there.
What if you believed there were no hope
of being loved, no hope of eternal life, no hope of change, no hope for the
future, no hope for joy in your life? You would probably be depressed and not
very willing to continue living by "faith."
Biblical hope is not wishful thinking.
Hope is the present assurance of some future good that is solidly based on the
true nature and character of God. Remember, our hope is in God, not in
humankind nor in the circumstances of life. His word is true. His promises can
be claimed with confidence and counted on. He cannot break His covenant, which
assures us of His presence within us and the forgiveness of our sins (see Hebrews 8:8-13).
Matthew Henry said, "The ground of
our hope is Christ in the world, but the evidence of our hope is Christ in the
Heart." Paul wrote, "God willed to make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). It is
Christ's presence within us that changes our mood and our perception of
reality. "Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become
disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of
His presence" (Psalm
42:5).
Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.
------------------------------more
tomorrow--------------------------
God bless
you all!
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