Purity 303: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 Purity 303 01/04/2021 

Good morning!

Today’s photo was taken by yours truly just a few days before the new year, and the latest light snowfalls, from the familiar vantage point of my kitchen window during last week’s “stay-cation”.  

Sometimes there is no place like home for the holidays and I was happy to celebrate the six-month anniversary of moving into my home “down by The River” on Christmas day and to be able to rest and recharge as that calendar flipped to 2021. 

But that was last week, and now it’s back to reality and the new opportunities that are waiting for all of us to enter into this year.  

As I have announced on my blog and in a FB post last night, my request to alter the vision and mission of Celebrate Freedom has been approved by the church leadership of Rock Solid Church.

Starting February 4^th, Celebrate Freedom will no longer be a recovery ministry as our focus has widened to bring the message of freedom to all who seek to mature in their faith and wish to help others to experience freedom as well. 

Our ministry will teach from Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory over Darkness and The Bondage Breaker to teach the principles of discipleship and discipleship counseling. 

My path to freedom has been “the disciple’s path” and has been enriched by Anderson’s work and I am excited to become associated to his Freedom in Christ’s ministry by beginning a “Community Freedom Ministry” with the anticipation of completing my training as a Community Freedom Ministry Associate in the fall of 2021 and thus officially becoming a part of Freedom in Christ Ministries’ national “CFM Network”.  

In the meantime, we will be teaching from Anderson’s books with the anticipated pace of one chapter per week to lay a solid foundation for discipleship and the community freedom ministry to grow upon.

I appreciate you sharing the word about this new endeavor with those in our community that have a passion for their faith in Christ and for helping others.

 I also would appreciate your prayers for the success of this new venture. 

It’s a new year and I believe we are meant to do new things.  I encourage you to celebrate the freedom that you have by making this a year of hope and growth.

(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 108:3 (NLT2)
³ I will thank you, LORD, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations.

 

Sometimes when we get a break from our normal routine, we discover a lot about our lives that aren’t always clear otherwise. 

My “stay-cation” revealed to me that I take a great deal of comfort from encouraging others to pursue their faith and build their relationship with God.  I forced myself to take a break from the blog last week and from posting on FB and I was at first relieved by the rest but quickly discovered that I missed this aspect of my relationship with God and all who read these words.  

This blog has become a continuous way for me to thank the Lord “among all the people” to sing His praises “among the nations.”   It serves as an encouragement to those who read it, I hope, but it also serves to build up my own faith.  At the same time, it gives glory to God for who He is and for what He has done, continues to do, and will do in the future.  

As I recently told a friend, “when I encourage you, I too am encouraged” by reminding myself of how good God is.

The principle here reminds me of Revelation 12:11 that states that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.  We have to keep giving that testimony of how God has moved in our lives and how it just simply does not end!!

So keep walking and talking with God, but when you do make sure you tell somebody about how it’s going! Your testimony will encourage them, yourself, and give glory to Him!

Today we continue where we left off in chapter 8 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again, where the authors discuss “getting out of the rut”.  A new year is a great place to start doing that!

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:

Getting Out of the Rut

It's my fault that our company didn't get the contract (personalization). Now I'll never get the promotion I wanted (permanence). I'm a total failure in life (pervasiveness)! The constructs of personalization, permanence and pervasiveness dominate the way depressed people think. How can we change these "grids" that distort our perception of reality?

If you experience loss in one area, don't generalize it into a total life crisis. Keep it specific. If you experience a crisis today, don't allow it to affect you tomorrow. Keep short accounts. If the world is disintegrating around you, don't accept the blame when it's not appropriate!

If you are suffering the consequences of a bad decision, then change what you can, minimize your losses and move on. If you have committed a willful act of sin, then own up to it. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

Depression is an intertwining of body, soul and spirit, all of which are regulated by what we believe. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Choosing to believe the truth and living by faith is the essential prerequisite for living an emotionally healthy and productive life.

The converse is also true. Believing a lie and thinking unwholesome thoughts will fuel depression and lead to bondage. You can change what you believe and how you think, and that must happen if you are going to be free from depression.

Changing Wrong Beliefs

The story is told of a frog who was hopping around a pasture. It had rained the day before, and the soil was very damp. A truck had driven through the pasture and cut deep ruts in the ground. Unintentionally, the frog bounced into one of those ruts and got stuck. It made a halfhearted attempt to hop out, but didn't make it. The rut was too deep.

The next day a few of the frog's friends came looking for it, and they found it stuck in a rut. They encouraged it to try again to jump out, but the frog said it was hopeless. It was permanently stuck in a rut, it thought, and now wasn't good for anything. The frog further thought, It was probably my fault that it rained the other day. That was just God's way of getting even with me for not being a better frog. For five straight days the other frogs came by to encourage the stuck frog, but it remained stuck in its rut.

But on the sixth day, the frog's friends were surprised to see the frog hopping around the field. They ask how it managed to get unstuck. "Oh," it said, "a big truck came along and I had to get out of there!"

Fortunately, we don't have to stay in the rut of accepting fatalistically any of the three preceding "explanatory styles." We can change these grids:

From:	To:
Personal: "I'm the problem"	Impersonal: "It's a problem"
Pervasive: "In everything"	Specific: "In this one thing"
Permanent: "Forever"	Temporary: "For a season"

How do we get unstuck? The first step is to define the crisis and then put it into perspective. We can never change if we deny the crisis.

Is the Loss Real or Imaginary?

Analyzing the crisis helps to determine if the perceived loss is real or only imagined. Many people have gone all the way to the bottom of the crisis cycle only to find out that what they had believed or heard wasn't true. This can easily happen in early stages of diagnosing physical illnesses. One lady was so sure that her husband was going to die from cancer that she was already bargaining with God to save his life when she found out it wasn't cancer at all.

It is possible to go through all the stages of anger, bargaining and depression when the crisis is only a feared or potential loss. Suppose a man is very concerned about his job. His company just laid off a few good men, and now he is wondering if he is next. Then one day he just "knows" that it's going to happen. He begins to think, That isn't fair! I'm a good employee. How could they do that to me?

For the next several days he is angry about being fired. Then he starts to think, Maybe if I volunteer for overtime they won't fire me. So he begins to do just a little more than the others, hoping the boss will notice his efforts. But nobody seems to notice that he is making the extra effort. After a while he starts to get depressed about work. Now he is thinking, It doesn't make any difference how I work, they are going to lay me off anyway.

We can choose to mentally dwell upon facts or assumptions. The soul does not need facts to turn speculation into worry, worry into fear, and fear into despair. The emotional result is the same whether it is real or imagined.

Every real loss that is acknowledged will result in some degree of mourning. Denying the loss only robs us of the comfort we need. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). Christians are real people who bleed when they are cut and cry when they are hurt. It takes time to adjust to the loss.

Beware of Excessive Attachment

Excessive grief about any loss can turn into a depression. It may indicate that too much value was placed on one or more attachments. This requires an honest evaluation of the loss in light of eternity, and a decision to let go of the past and grab hold of God—as Paul exhorts us:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained (Phil. 3:12-16, NIV).

Avoid Blame and Guilt

Casting blame or feeling guilty are inappropriate responses to loss, and will only prolong the grieving period. We must accept the cards that have been dealt to us, realizing that God "causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45).

Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.

 

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

 

God bless you all!