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Saturday, December 11, 2021

From Guatemala to Oxford Michigan– A Small World and a Loving Father - Purity 599

From Guatemala to Oxford Michigan– A Small World and a Loving Father -  Purity 599

Purity 599 12/11/2021  Purity 599 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a full moon over an orphanage in Zacapa Guatemala, comes to us yours truly as I have once again felt led to grab a photo from the archives to coincide with this morning’s message.  This photo comes from a vacation mission trip that I went on in 2019. Our mission trip in Guatemala was to share the hope of Jesus Christ, to perform some maintenance work around the orphanage in Zacapa, to level and lay the foundation for a church in the mountains near Jocotan, and to install ovens that would be used in food preparation and providing heat in some of the mountain villager’s homes.  It was a challenging but rewarding trip. 

While I was there I happened to make the acquaintance of a fellow American, named Keegan Everett, who was serving at the orphanage for several months.  Unlike myself who went to Guatemala as part of a team of 30 or so,  Keegan had answered the Lord’s call to the mission field of Guatemala solo.  I don’t know about you but when I was in my early twenties I was far from the Lord, and I it find it simply amazing that a young man like Keegan from the States would be completely surrendered to the Lord’s service.  Keegan’s faith was for real.  His example is an encouragement for all of us.  

Keegan’s mission to encourage people to follow the Lord didn’t stop when he eventually returned to the States to settle in Venice Florida.  We’re friends on FB and I see that he, like myself, uses social media to point to God and to the hope and the new life that is found in Jesus Christ.  

This morning I happened to see the following post about being “real” emotionally as Christians from Keegan and I advised him that I simply had to share it on my blog and podcast because I felt “the Lord had need of it” and that people could benefit from its message. Keegan Everett writes:  

“Christians are not called to be pessimists, for then they would not be able to rejoice with those who rejoice or be able to enjoy the great glories of God.

Neither are Christians called to be optimists, for then they would have to lie to themselves about their own real griefs and they would not be able to weep with those who weep. Rather Christians are meant to be realists in the most true sense.

This is because our first reality, and in fact the truest reality, is the Word Who says I Am Who I Am.

Why do all things exist? Because of the eternal self-existent, self-sufficient One. “I Am”

He is never without hope, joy, peace, and self-sufficiency, nor is He ever a liar to His emotions, which reflect and perfectly align with Who He is and His perfect Will.

So if we dwell in the reality of Him, then we can really, truly be sad about the things which grieve His heart, and we can likewise really rejoice in all that is good and pure and holy.

We don’t have to rain on people’s parades who are grieving, but in love can sit in the sadness they are dealing with, weeping beside them. Yet in the same day we can be fully rejoicing because of the great hope in which we dwell. Not a shakable or indefinite one, but a sure and unchangeable all powerful hope that cannot be defeated.

Therefore we Christians can be the most real with our emotions, truly weeping and rejoicing, we don’t have to be sorry about it or change our emotions as to hide from others.

We get to be the most real because we dwell in reality: the reality that is the great “I AM.”

He who dwells in unapproachable light and yet is perfectly revealed in the personal savior, Jesus Christ. All things were made through this baby born on Christmas Day, and all things were made for Him.

If the God of heaven is so untouchable, and yet so personal and touchable at the same time—what a paradox—then we really can be real with ourselves and others, because the untouchable God knows us, and likewise weeps and rejoices personally with us, touching and healing our hearts. And we know, He is working out all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

He wastes nothing in all creation, no evil shall be left unturned or able to taint or defeat what He brings about. For our joy and His glory. All things bow to YHWH. He shall even, in finality, wipe away our tears.

And yet He already does now through His comforting Holy Spirit, and He collects each one of those tears in a bottle as a sign, and a proclamation, of how much He cares and loves His people.

A day is coming when He will show us how He has kept watch over all our pains and sufferings, how He has dwelled beside us, went through it with us, and wasted none of it.” 

- Keegan Everett

Keegan’s words of encouragement speak the truth of the Lord’s presence and care of us and how we can represent Him. 

As I thought about meeting Keegan in Guatemala in 2019, I tried to remember where it was in the States that Keegan had come from.  I knew he lived in Florida now but that wasn’t where he was coming from when I met him in 2019.  So this morning I looked at his profile and remembered that Keegan hailed from the Midwest, Michigan. Oxford Michigan.    

As someone who tries to limit the influence of the world by not watching the news, I’m not always up on things. However, significant events will come across my radar.

If Oxford Michigan sounds familiar, it is because on November 30th of this year there was a mass shooting that occurred at Oxford High School. Four students were killed and seven people were injured, including a teacher.

In the wake of the shooting,  \former Oxford Michigan resident, Keegan Everett posted the following:

“Pray for my hometown’s high school and the trauma that families are going through. There was a shooting today with about 8 injured and 4 killed.

Pray that God would use this situation to direct folks’ eyes to Him and His goodness, that they might have peace in Him even in the midst of the horrible situation.”

In our mad, mad world where our hurt and isolation can explode into random acts of violence, we need to find the peace that the Lord wants us to have that is provided through His Son, Jesus Christ.  

Keegan and I know that the Lord’s presence is a present, everyday reality that give us hope, peace and purpose. 

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write today and figured that “borrowing” Keegan’s post was just going to be a nice way of “mailing it in” on a Saturday morning.  

But the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth and directs us to keep looking and I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit directed me to see Keegan’s message this morning and to see that a larger picture, that included a mass shooting, was in play here.  

It’s the Christmas season, where we speak of peace on earth and good will to men, and  I believe that the Lord brought this latest shooting to my attention again to let people know that He is not some distant God who doesn’t care about what happens in this world. 

When horrible things like this happen, a search for answers, and where to place blame or responsibility, begins.  Ultimately, regardless of influences and other surrounding circumstances, the shooter is the one to blame and the one who is responsible.  We will all be judged for the things we do, and only if we are in a covenant relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ will we be forgiven.

But the search for answers, in all things, must lead us back to God. The evil that men do is in direct opposition to the Lord’s will for our lives.  He sent the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, so that we would have peace with God and with each other.   No measures that man can institute will give us the security and peace that God provides in Jesus Christ.

So as we draw closer to Christmas, share the love of God that brings peace, hope, and a new life. We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it, and we can use today to let people know that above all the chaos of this world there is a God who is good, who offers us peace, and who will eventually repay the evil that was done and will make all things right.  

Today’s Bible verse is drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.  

This morning’s meditation verses are:

 Deuteronomy 11:18-21 (NKJV)

18  "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
19  You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
20  And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21  that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

 

Today’s verses remind us of the primacy that the Word of the Lord is to play in our lives and of the benefits that come from following His counsel.  

Today’s verses tell us that we are not only supposed to read the word of God, they indicate that we are to really absorb it into our hearts and our souls. That goes beyond just knowing what the word says intellectually.  That points to us knowing it intellectually, emotionally, and experientially.  This level of engagement with the word of God indicates that we know that the word of God is true, and that because it is the truth sent from God above, it simply must be believed and applied to our lives.  If we fail to agree with and to follow the Word of God, we are foolishly in rebellion to the good counsel that the Lord wants us to know. 

Lukewarm or Nominal “Christians” will sometimes warn people to “not get too carried away” with the study of the word of God, but scripture, that comes from God, doesn’t teach that.  

These passages state that we are to absorb the word, talk about the word day and night, teach the word to our children, and to decorate our homes with sayings from the word.  

So while we should be balanced and wise in our approach to living out our faith, we really can not be “too extreme” in our study of the word of God.  

The word of God is said to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It teaches us all about Jesus and is good for us. 

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT2)
16  All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
17  God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

The word of God prepares us to do His will on earth and, as today’s verses indicate, when we give the primacy to the word of God that it deserves, our days and the days of our children will be multiplied. 

God wants us to know, and live according to, His word and when we do that these verses indicate that we will prosper and that we will fulfill the purpose that the Lord has for us. 

So keep walking and talking with God.  When we do that, His word comes into our hearts and flows out our lives to share the love of the Lord everywhere we go.

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

 

Today we continue sharing from A.W. Tozer’s Advent Devotional – From Heaven,  for Day 15, as this current resource series will lead us to Christmas Eve.

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Tozer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.

DAY 15

THE GLORY OF CHRIST

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father …

JOHN 1:14

I hear sermons on the radio sometimes that make the physical body everything, and works of miracle everything, and I wish that I could go along with such interpretations and say that the glory of Jesus Christ lay in His ability to cast out devils, heal the sick, raise the dead, and still the waves. Now undoubtedly that was wonderful, and He did get some praise to Himself from these necessary miracles. But I believe that there was a greater glory than merely works of wonder, which our Lord manifested there.

For always remember this friends, that who a man is is always more important to God than what he does. Remember that if a man were able to stand up and create pine trees and lakes and hills, but were not a good man, he would still be of no value to God. And let us remember that if a man were a good man, through and through a good man, and had no power at all to do any miracle, he would still be one of the sweetest treasures of God, and God would write his name on His own hands. For it is goodness that God is looking for; it is being and character and personality that God is looking for, not the ability to do amazing things.

So it was who Jesus was that was glorious, not only what He did. In fact, what He did was secondary; who He was was primary. So Jesus Christ’s glory lay in the fact that He was perfect love in a loveless world, that He was purity in an impure world, that He was meekness in a harsh and quarrelsome world, that He evinced humility in a world where every man was seeking his own place, that He showed boundless, fathomless mercy in a hard and cruel world, that He evinced selfless goodness in a world full of selfishness. It was the deathless devotion of Jesus—and the patient suffering and the unquenchable life and the grace and the truth—that they beheld.

They beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And so it was this that made Jesus wonderful. As little as the poor, blind world knows about it today in all its wild, money-inspired and profit-inspired celebrations, it is not celebrating turning water into wine. It is not celebrating healing the sick or raising the dead. It is not celebrating the cursing of fig trees or the sticking on of cut-off ears. The poor, blind world with what little bit of religious instinct it has left in it yet, is this season celebrating who He was.

Tozer, A. W. (2016). From heaven: a 28-day advent devotional. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.

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

 

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