Purity 300 12/25/2020
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FRIENDS!
Today’s photo was taken by a friend who captured this sunset scene near their home in Stottville NY..
I share it as a
reminder that although Christmas has finally arrived, the sun will be setting
on this day before we know it.
So celebrate and show
the love that God showed, and continues to show, us to your friends and family
today!
(There is More at
the restricted blog). Follow me on Twitter, MeWe, or Parler for easy
access. Blog M T 4 Christ dot org – This
is where the Facebook post ends.)
This morning’s verse
comes from “The Magnificat” – Mary’s song of praise in response to being chosen
to birth the Christ:
Luke 1:46-48 (NLT2)
46 Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul
praises the Lord.
47 How my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior!
48 For he took notice of his lowly
servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
Instead, having
finished the Gospels of Matthew in November, and then John yesterday, I turned
to Luke’s gospel this morning, that presents the events leading up to Christ’s birth
and the Christmas story in Chapter two.
I share these verses
this morning to reminded us that we are to “rejoice in God my Savior” because, just
like the virgin Mary, the Lord took notice of us “lowly servants” and from now
on all generations can call us blessed.
While we didn’t
birth Jesus, we have been chosen and adopted into God’s family through our
faith in Him.
And as members of
God’s royal family, we can rejoice at the amazing grace that saved wretches
like us but at the same time look to serve God’s Kingdom by sharing the good
news of the resurrection power that lies in putting our faith in Jesus and by delivering
our personal testimonies of what the Lord has done and continues to do in our
lives, as we have entered into a rich and robust relationship with the Lord that
will never end.
In Christ, we are
all highly favored and all generations can rightly call us blessed.
Rejoice and follow
where the Lord leads you!
Although we have gained much in Christ, we will experience losses
throughout our lives on earth and it is my prayer that the author’s information
and advice is helpful to those feeling the pain of losses this holiday
season.
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:
Dealing with Loss
As I looked, the poplar rose in the
shining air
Like a slender throat,
And there was an exaltation of
flowers,
The surf of apple tree delicately
foaming.
All winter, the trees had been
silent soldiers,
A vigil of woods, their hidden
feelings
Scrawled and became scores of black
vines,
Barbed wire sharp against the
ice-white sky.
Who could believe then in the green,
Glittering vividness of full-leafed
summer?
Who will be able to believe, when
winter again begins
After the autumn burns down again,
and the day is ashen,
And all returns to winter and
winter's ashes,
Wet, white, ice, wooden, dulled and
dreary, brittle or frozen,
Who will believe or feel in mind and
heart
The reality of the spring and of
birth,
In the green warm opulence of
summer,
And the inexhaustible vitality and
immortality of the earth?
Dalmore Schwartz, "The
Deceptive Present"
How completely satisfying to turn
from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in His heart. For
Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him
all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God never hurries. There
are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know that is to quiet our
spirits and relax our nerves. For those out of Christ, time is a devouring
beast.
A. W. Tozer
Roxanne and David had been married
for five years. David was a successful businessman who was deeply devoted to
his wife and children. One Sunday afternoon, as David packed his bags for his
next trip out of town, the couple started to quarrel. Roxanne was bothered by a
minor demand David had placed on her. Words were exchanged, a brief apology
came and life went on. Later that day the couple chatted quietly as they rode
together to the airport. Roxanne kissed David as he boarded the plane. He
turned, smiled and waved as he entered the loading tunnel to the waiting
aircraft.
Roxanne never saw David alive again.
The trip to his destination and the meetings were uneventful. David then
boarded the airplane and headed home. The aircraft developed mechanical problems
and attempted to land in a crippled condition. The pilot and an off-duty pilot
who happened to be on board were responsible for saving some of the lives on
board. David, however, was thrown from the aircraft and killed, along with many
other passengers. It was a terrible catastrophe.
Roxanne was torn with pain, and went
through many turbulent reactions to her loss. Scrambling for some explanation
for why the tragedy had happened, she began to blame herself. If I hadn't
complained or argued with David, he would still be alive, she reasoned.
Blaming herself for his death only compounded her sense of loss.
The Response of Sadness
The melancholy that followed
Roxanne's loss is called reactive depression. This emotional
response to any crisis of life is the most common form of depression. But the
crisis itself did not cause the depression. Our mental perception of external
events based on what we believe, and how our minds have been programmed, are
what determine how we feel and react to any crisis.
People typically go through a very
predictable cycle when they experience a crisis, as depicted in the following
diagram:
Most of us settle into a lifestyle we assume will continue
indefinitely, or hopefully improve. We make plans for the weekend and summer
vacations, assuming that life will go on as scheduled. Daily events are
scheduled with the hope that we will still be alive, our health will be okay,
and that all the conditions necessary for life to go on as it is will be
favorable. According to the poet Dalmore Schwartz, quoted at the beginning
of this chapter, it is hard for us even to imagine in the summer of our
souls what it will be like in the winter of our discouragement. We don't even
want to think about it.
Some people take a fatalistic approach
to tomorrow. They say with Solomon, when he limited his view to things under
the sun, "That which has been is that which will be....So there is nothing
new under the sun" (Eccles. 1:9). Such
people make no realistic plans, and consequently they end up having no
meaningful future.
Others, even Christians, presume upon
the future. James has some sobering advice for those who do that:
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or
that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you
do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist
that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say,
"If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it
is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the
good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins (James 4:13-17,
NIV).
The good, which we ought to do, is the
Lord's will, so we must choose to live a responsible life one day at a time.
The will of God will not take you where the grace of God cannot keep you.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells
us not to worry about tomorrow. If God takes care of the lilies of the fields
and the birds of the air, will He not much more provide for you? Jesus asks
(see Matthew 6:30).
Because your heavenly Father knows your needs, "Seek first His kingdom and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not
be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:32-34).
This does not mean we don't make plans
for tomorrow. We have to do some planning to live responsibly. However, the
primary purpose for setting goals and making plans for the future is to give us
meaningful direction for our lives today. Because we don't have control over
many circumstances that can totally disrupt those plans, we need to say,
"Lord willing, tomorrow we will do whatever, and regardless of what
tomorrow holds, we will trust Him." This requires us to mentally and
emotionally prepare for impermanence.
Preparing
for Impermanence
Nothing will be as it is five years from now. There is no
permanence; there is only change. Tennessee Williams said, "We are all
terrorized by the idea of impermanence." The Lord tried to prepare His
disciples for this reality when He told them three times "that the Son of
Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating
the matter plainly" (Mark. 8:31, 32).
The disciples' first response was
denial. Peter actually rebuked the Lord (see Mark 8:32). When
He told them a second time what was going to happen to Him, they didn't
understand what He meant, and were afraid to ask (see Mark 9:32). They
didn't want to talk about it.
Finally, as Jesus and His fearful
disciples approached Jerusalem, He told them a third time what was going to
happen (see Mark
10:32-34). His purpose for telling them in advance was to teach them the
principle that the Messiah must die to purchase salvation for humankind, and to
give them hope when they faced persecution. He wanted to assure them that even
though He would be killed, He would rise again.
Hope does not lie in the possibility of
permanence, or in avoiding trials and tribulations. Hope lies in the proven
character that comes from persevering through them. Neither does our hope lie
in the eternal preservation of our physical bodies. Our hope lies in the
Resurrection.
To survive the crises of life, we must
have an eternal perspective, because time, as Tozer said, is a devouring beast
for those who are outside of Christ. Without such a perspective, we cannot see
the hope of summer during the emotional winters of our soul. The "deceptive
present" masks the possibility of any hope for tomorrow. The psalmist's
statement, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly
ones" (Psalm
116:15), doesn't make sense from a time-bound perspective. But it makes
complete sense from an eternal perspective.
Finding Hope Again: Overcoming
Depression.
------------------------------more
tomorrow--------------------------
God bless
you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.