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Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Purity 410: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


Purity 410 05/05/2021  Purity 410 Podcast

Good morning.

Today’s photo comes from a friend’s early April excursion to Joshua Tree National Park in California which is hailed on Google Maps as a “Desert destination with geologic wonders”.  They reported hiking the Arch Rock Nature Trail at the time and I do believe that the geologic wonder captured here is the “Arch Rock” itself. If you zoom in you will see some hikers underneath the arch to give you an idea of how massive this geologic wonder is!

It’s Wednesday today and what can I say I love getting over “hump day” by sometimes showing some of the natural peaks and valleys that God has provided us to enjoy.   

Of course this is also a desert photo and as flourishing as springtime can be, I realize the reality that some of us may be walking through a dry season of life as we experience moments of depression or anxiety due to the stagnant pace of life, unwelcomed changes, or due to traumatic losses.  Also, sometimes we could have made it through the dessert only realize that we have some scars that we ignored or didn’t tend to during our miraculous escape.  

May is mental health awareness month and recently I decided to do some selfcare and discovered a Christian divorce support group. Although I can bear testimony of God’s unbelievable mercy and guidance that brought me to the amazing views from my new home “down by the River”, I realized now that I have made it to the promised land it would be a good idea to maybe take a look at the things that I didn’t deal with as I was pushing towards my purpose of finding a new home and sanctuary for my family. 

I was nervous and apprehensive of course about going to a new place, meeting new people, and facing a part of my life that I am glad to have left behind but after settling in and meeting others that have faced similar heartaches and pain, I knew that it was a good idea. I think this group will not only be a good way to deal with the recent past but also give me guidance and strength to face the future.  The atmosphere of honesty and caring from people who have gone through, and are going through, similar trials was an immediate comfort and I realized that while I have persevered, I have more to learn about dealing with my divorce and may have something that I can contribute to someone else’s healing.  When you come into community to face a common problem, you can give and receive.

So whether you are currently in a dessert or have made it to the other side, I encourage you to learn from your experience and to reach out to help others who are facing similar trials. When you do, all parties benefit.   

And of course, just because this rocky desert scene may seem desolate when we are looking down in the dirt, if we look up we can see that there is an expansive blue sky above it that is stunningly beautiful.  When we look to the heavens, we instinctively know we are not alone.  

So wherever you are on your journey, connect with the Creator of all things and let Him know that you thank Him for His presence and for all the things He has provided in good times and bad. He can even provide us with others to lean on as we make our way out of the darkness.  


This morning’s meditation verse is:

Romans 12:1 (NKJV)
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Today’s verse comes from the mighty book of Romans, the book that caused the Protestant Reformation as Martin Luther discovered that the “just shall live by faith” in Romans 1:17, unlocking the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ that had been obscured and lost. Translating the Bible from the Latin to its original Greek made the gospel of grace clear as what was once rendered “penance” was correctly seen as repentance, meaning that salvation didn’t have to be bought or paid for by our hard work but was more rightly understood to be something that was granted to the believer for “changing His mind” and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Its from this contemplation of the amazing grace of God, to not demand our earning our salvation but freely giving it to us through Jesus Christ, that I would like to approach this verse.  

Paul’s long exposition on the amazing grace of God towards us leads us to this verse in Romans 12.   He beseeches us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.  In light of the mercies of God, Paul encourages us to give ourselves completely to God in an act of surrender that can only be considered reasonable.  

As Creator, He has provided everything we have ever had and everything that we are.    

As Redeemer, God has forgiven us everything we have ever done and is now welcoming us into His kingdom and the mysteries that lie beyond life and death.

Regardless of what happens in this world, He has given us life everlasting and promises to be with us always.  

Too often this verse gets skipped over because it may seem rather poetic, and it can seem to be accomplished with a simple affirmative response that is little more than mental ascent.  “You bet, Lord. I surrender. Now let’s get to verse 2 because I know I have to renew my mind”.  

But honestly, I think that the only way that we can truly work verse two, that instructs us to not be conformed to the world and to renew the mind, is to not gloss over verse 1 and to seriously present ourselves to God with the intention of being holy and acceptable to the Lord and surrendering ourselves to His service.   

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God has given us everything. It is only our reasonable service to give Him all that we have to give and to walk in the way He calls us to go.  

I invite all to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we continue to share from Dr. H. Norman Wright’s “Experiencing Grief

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Wright’s books for your own private study and to support his work. If you need this title you can find it online at several sites for less than $5.00:

Chapter 25.
Trauma—the Deepest Wound

It's been said that it takes two years for the recovery a natural death. Untimely or sudden deaths, the age of the person, the violence of the death, how you heard about the death, or whether you saw it firsthand will intensify the length of recovery. If the death was traumatic for you, the recovery could extend for several years.

It's important for all of us to understand trauma. It's the feeling, "I just can't seem to get over it." When you experience trauma, you feel as out of control as a rider bucked off a horse in a rodeo. A traumatic experience literally disrupts the functioning of your mind and inhibits your ability to reason. It overwhelms your coping ability. It's too much. Trauma shatters your beliefs and assumptions about life, challenges your belief that you have the ability to handle life, and tears apart your belief that the world is safe. Trauma leads to silence; you won't have the words to describe it. Trauma leads to isolation; no one seems to understand the experience you had. Trauma leads to feelings of hopelessness; you feel there was no way to stop what happened or the memories.

Signs of Trauma

One of the main indicators that trauma may be part of a person's life is reexperiencing the trauma. Thoughts and pictures of what occurred in the form of dreams, nightmares, or even flashbacks may take up residence in your life. Sometimes they slip into your mind like a video stuck on continuous replay. This sensitivity can become so extreme that an event can trigger a flashback and make you feel and act as if you were experiencing the original trauma all over again. Again and again trauma interrupts life. It stops the normal process of life by its constant intrusion.

In a flashback, it's as though you leave the present and travel back in time to the original event. It seems so real. You see it, hear it, and smell it. Sometimes a person begins to react as if he or she were there. Many times a person is hesitant to admit this to others for fear of their reaction. A flashback is like a cry of something that needs to come out and does so in the only way it knows how. When survivors can talk about the trauma, write about it, and bring it to God in an honest and real way through worship, there isn't as great a need for this memory to be so intrusive in nightmares, images, or flashbacks.

Some reexperience the trauma through dreams, nightmares, or insomnia. A person may shake, shout, or thrash about during the dream. Even though the dream may not be remembered, the terror and fear experienced may be. Sometimes a person reexperiences trauma not through memories or images but through painful and angry feelings that seem to come out of nowhere. These feelings occur because they were repressed at an earlier time. Now the emotions are simply crying out for release.

Another way people reexperience trauma is through numbing and avoidance. It's painful to reexperience trauma. For some, it's agonizing. They want it to go away and disappear forever; but it doesn't, so the body and the mind take over to protect against the pain. This is done by emotional numbing. When numbing occurs, it can create a diminished interest in all areas of life. Some may feel detached from others around them, even the ones they love the most. Often there is no emotional expression because they've shut down everything. They tend to reduce their involvement in life.

Another characteristic of trauma involves a person's increased alertness, usually referred to as hyperalertness or hyperarousal. The strong emotions one experiences—fear, anxiety, anger—affect his or her body, particularly adrenaline output. People who have experienced trauma have their own sets of triggers that can activate the memories of what they experienced. The effort to avoid these situations can make a person a prisoner as well as create difficulty in interpersonal relationships.

If you ended up being traumatized, it's not because of a defect in you. You are not abnormal. The event was, and you may want to talk to someone who is knowledgeable in this area.


Appendix

GRIEF

Grieving the Loss of Someone You Love, Raymond R. Mitsch and Lynn Brookside, Vine Books, 1993.

*Tear Soup, book and video, Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen.

*When Children Grieve, John James and Russell Friedman, HarperCollins, 2001.

HOLIDAY GRIEF

Journaling Your December Grief, Harold Ivan Smith, Beacon Hill, 2001.

SUDDEN DEATH

No Time for Goodbyes, Janice Harris Lord, Pathfinder Publishing, 1987.

LOSING A CHILD

*Holding On to Hope, Nancy Guthrie, Tyndale, 2002.

LOSING A PARENT

Losing a Parent, Fiona Marshall, Fisher Books, 2000.

Grieving the Death of a Mother, Harold Ivan Smith, Augsburg Press, 2003.

SUICIDE

*Survivors of Suicide, Rita Robinson, New Page, 2001.

Healing after the Suicide of a Loved One, Ann Smolen and John Guinn, A Fireside Book, 1993.

*Aftershock, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.

HELPING OTHERS

*Helping Those That Hurt, H. Norman Wright, Bethany House, 2003.

*The New Guide to Crisis and Trauma Counseling, H. Norman Wright, Regal Books, 2003.

*Helping Others Recover from Loss and Grief, curriculum, H. Norman Wright, Christian Marriage Enrichment, 2001.

 

These books can be ordered from Christian Marriage Enrichment, 800-875-7560.


Experiencing Grief.

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

 

God bless you all!

 

Join our Victory over the Darkness Discipleship Class via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154) and Google podcasts (https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL210NGNocmlzdDI0Ny9mZWVkLnhtbA%3D%3D

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

                             Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 

 

 

 

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