Purity 301
Good morning! 12/26/2020
Today’s photo comes from WRIP’s (97.9 FM Mountaintop Radio from
Windham-Hunter NY) Facebook page, and it captures
a scene from C D Lane Park in Maplecrest NY that shows the aftermath of flood
waters due to unseasonably warm temperatures and rain on Christmas Day and the
setting sun.
I share it as a
reminder that we are not in charge of the things that go on in this earth. Man only responds to what is allowed by the
Sovereign will of the Lord. But regardless
of circumstances we can still have peace, when we make peace with God through
His Son, Jesus Christ.
It is my hope that
all my friends had a Merry Christmas yesterday, but I realize that regardless
of the multiple Facebook posts that showed festive Christmas gatherings that
there were friends that didn’t feel so jolly in the midst of the Yuletide fun
or who spent the day working or alone and the fact of the arrival of Christmas
somehow made the circumstances that they were facing even worse.
Whether flood
waters, or power outages, or disappointment, or depression, or grief that may
have put a shadow over yesterday, I want all my friends to know that you are
not alone. God is there for us when no
one else is.
The madness of the
Christmas celebration, that may leave us wondering where God is in all of this
hoopla, is over!
The presents, food,
family, friends, and “fun” that surround Christmas were never meant to satisfy
our soul’s longing for meaning and purpose.
Presents wear out, disappoint,
and break.
The food is ingested
and eliminated. The “comfort” of food
passes and, if it is overindulged in, can make you fat or sick.
Family and friends
are imperfect and impermanent. We all have lives of our own and they move on,
sometimes separating us forever.
The “fun” ends when
the morning comes or as the weekend ends and we have to go back to work and our
our normal lives. Chasing the “fun” of pleasant
experiences, alcohol, drugs, or sex can become a never-ending cycle that has
diminishing returns.
Only a close
relationship with God, and the fruit of the spirit that is cultivated through
that relationship, can truly satisfy the needs of the human heart.
So if Christmas was
a joy, rejoice and thank God. Follow Him.
If Christmas was a
bust, rejoice that it has passed, but seek the One who never goes away and has
the answers to life and death. The joy
of the Lord is not based on circumstances and can be your strength and your
shield in all times if you seek it.
Seeking your
happiness in the things of this world was a losing proposition from the start. But we need not despair because Christ has
overcome the world. He brings a new life, meaning, and purpose to those who
call on His name, place their faith in Him, and follow where He leads.
(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 meditation
verse was:
Psalm 108:13 (NLT2)
13 With God’s help we will do
mighty things, for he will trample down our foes.
Yup, although I
faltered for a minute or two this morning, I decided to answer the call to
resume my regular morning practices of exercise, meditation, and Bible study,
and I’m glad I did!
After taking the “day
off” yesterday for Christmas, I was tempted to rest again but I just felt
compelled to follow the disciplines that give me peace and purpose. And you
know what? I immediately felt a great
sense of relief and empowerment as I owned my practices as a part of my disciple’s
path.
As “called out ones”
(from the Greek “Ekklesia” – meaning the church), we answer the Lord’s call on
our lives with actions. Some of the “fruit”
that we produce as disciples of Christ are the disciplines of prayer, Bible
study, seeking to renew our minds, and bringing our flesh into submission to
the Lord’s will for our lives.
Now, if I really
needed the day off, there is grace for that. God has given us free will to
choose our path. I could have slept, but
sometimes sleep doesn’t revitalize as much as it anesthetizes, keeping us in a
lazy, foggy, or whiny state.
But I chose to face
the day “doing what I do” (which changes periodically), and when I did, my
heart was filled with enthusiasm for a new day and for following the path that the
Lord has led me to.
So today’s verse
seemed extremely appropriate, as “With God’s help” we can do “mighty things”,
as He will help us “trample down our foes”.
Often our foes in
life are not so much a rival or nemesis as much as they are our attitudes,
emotions, and self-imposed limitations.
For me, I know that
at times I can be “my own worst enemy”, when my pre-Christ ways of darkness want
to creep their way back into my thoughts and actions.
Before Christ, I
thought it was impossible to change, but with God anything is possible, and He
can even “trample down” the foes of our former lives.
The key is to
co-operate with the Lord and to surrender your old ways of dysfunction for His
ways of righteous living. Keep walking
and talking with God!
Today we begin chapter 8 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again,
where the authors discuss the stages of grief
As someone who has faced his fair share of losses in life, I pray that
this material is found helpful.
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:
Stages of Grief
Grief and reactive depression can arise from any crisis
that interferes with well-intentioned or meaningful plans. It could be the loss
of a job, our health, our spouse or other loved one, or the end of our dreams.
Such losses sow the seeds of depression when we fail to see that our times are
in His hands. Let us examine here the first three stages of grief as diagrammed
on the preceding chart—the phases people often go through on the way to the
depths of depression.
Denial:
No, not me!
The first response is often denial, a refusal to accept
the crisis or the loss. Some may find it too painful to face the truth. They
consciously or subconsciously think, This is all a bad dream or a trick
that someone is playing on me. I refuse to even consider this as real. Or
they may consciously choose to not entertain thoughts that it actually
happened. I'll deal with this tomorrow or maybe next month. Others are
incredulous. They wonder, How could this be happening to me? I'm a good
person. They may make many attempts to recover what is lost, or go on
living as though it never happened.
A very depressed graduate student was
laid off from his engineering job. He couldn't face the shame of telling his
spouse, even though the downsizing of his company had nothing to do with his
competence. So he got dressed the next Monday morning drenched in denial, and
went to work as he normally did. By Wednesday his old employer had to call the
police.
Anger:
Why me?
Denial can last for 30 seconds or 30 years. When people
finally face the truth, they feel angry or resentful because what happened to
them wasn't fair. They think, Why is this happening to me? Their anger
can be directed toward others, including God, who they think caused the crisis.
Those who feel guilty or ashamed direct their anger toward themselves, as when
Roxanne blamed herself for her husband's death.
Bargaining:
Maybe I can alter it.
After their anger has simmered, some start to bargain.
They reason, Maybe I can alter the situation or undo the events that led up
to this crisis. They become depressed when they discover they can't do
anything to change what happened, nor can they reverse the consequences. They
believe the situation is hopeless and they are helpless to do anything about
it. They tried to undo it all, but couldn't. Now they're not sure if they can
go on living with the present circumstances. The tragic loss seems too much to
bear. It is the winter of the soul. How can one even possibly imagine what
summer is like again?
A Time to
Mourn
It is natural, normal and certainly not sinful to mourn
the loss of anything that is morally good or even morally neutral. It is
inordinate, destructive or inappropriate grief that can lead to serious
depression. It is normal to grieve the loss of a loved one; but note how Paul
would help us guard against destructive grief over a loved one who has died in
the Lord:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are
asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those
who have fallen asleep in Jesus (1 Thes. 4:13,
14).
We are protected from destructive grief
when our hope lies in the finished work of Christ, not in the things of this
world that we have no right or ability to control. We grieve for that which we
have lost because we have become attached to certain people, places, ideas and
things. The extent of the grief is determined by the degree of attachment we
had, whether appropriate or otherwise.
In Losing,
We Win
Paul was deeply attached to the Pharisaic traditions and
customs of his people, and he had worked hard to achieve his status in life.
For him to give all that up would require a massive intervention by God.
It came suddenly on the Damascus road.
Paul was struck down and blinded by the power of God. All his hopes for a
successful future were dashed in a moment. "Why, God?" he must have
asked. "Why did you do this to me? Nobody has been more zealous for You
than I." To make matters worse, his only hope would come from the Church
he had so fervently persecuted. Reflecting on this later in life, Paul wrote:
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss
for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view
of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain
Christ (Phil.
3:7, 8).
Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool
who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain that which he cannot
lose." There is nothing on planet Earth that we cannot lose. This is the
central teaching of all four Gospels. "For whoever wishes to save his life
[Greek psyche] shall lose it; but whoever loses his life [zoe]
for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the
whole world, and forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:25, 26).
The first reference to life (psyche)
in this passage refers to the soulish life that comes from humans. The second
reference to life (zoe) refers to the spiritual life that comes from
God. He who finds his life within himself will eventually lose it. He who finds
his life in God will keep it for all eternity.
In other words, those who find their
identity, security and sense of worth in the natural order of things will lose
it. We cannot take it with us. Whatever name we made for ourselves, whatever fame
we achieved, whatever earthly position we attained, whatever treasures we were
able to amass—all will be left behind. Attachments to this world subtract from
our attachment to Christ.
On the other hand, nothing can separate
us from the love of God, and we will suffer no debilitating loss that we cannot
endure if we find our life, identity, acceptance, security and significance in
Christ.
Destructive reactive depression
signifies an overattachment to people, places, ideas and things that we have no
right or ability to control. It indicates that we simply will not let go of
something we are going to lose anyway, or have already lost.
In Africa, monkeys are caught by
hollowing out a coconut shell and attaching a chain to it. The other end of the
chain is tied to a tree or a stake in the ground. Then the hunters put some
favorite monkey food in the hollowed-out shell. The monkey comes along and puts
his fist into the shell to get the food. But when he makes a fist around the
food, he can no longer extract his hand from the shell. Then the hunters simply
detach the chain from the tree or stake and walk off with the monkey.
"Why doesn't the monkey just let
go?" you ask. I don't know. Why don't we?
Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.
------------------------------more on Monday-------------------------
God bless
you all!
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