Learning to Walk – Letting Go and Setting Out Solo - Purity 594

 Learning to Walk – Letting Go and Setting Out Solo  - Purity 594

Purity 594 12/06/2021  Purity 594 Podcast

Good morning

Today’s photo of a highlight illuminated Waite Road in Easton NY was captured by yours truly at twilight on Friday as I was mesmerized by the fading light on the horizon and had to stop and try to capture the beauty before me. If it wasn’t for my headlights the road and the surrounding farmland would have been completely shrouded in darkness as daytime was over and the night was coming on strong.  

It's Monday again, and the light that was the weekend has left us behind and as I wake quite early each day I start my work week shrouded in darkness waiting to see what the light of day and the new week will bring.  For me it looks like it will be as regular a work week as I can expect as I currently only have one planned activity for the week that falls outside of my work hours so I intend to use my available time to finish up some reading I had started and put some finishing touches on my Christmas preparations as I managed to get the lion’s share of my holiday shopping done yesterday.  

Christmas is 19 days away and I know that for me its best to get things done when I can as I always have a certain degree of uncertainty in my life of when I may be called to help others.  

When you walk in the Spirit you make yourself available to do the Lord’s will as He calls you and quite often you can find yourself being led to help others with tangible good works or you can be called to support or encourage others with your words or presence.  

However, sometimes we are called to stand back and let our friends or loved ones “go it alone” and walk through the trials before them by themselves.  In truth, as much as we may claim that “we are all in this together” or we are “surrounded by friends and family”, for the most part our lives are a highly individualized journey where only we will feel the pain of our struggles and only we can take the steps that will lead us out of the muck and mire that we find ourselves in.   

If you don’t believe me about how we are alone, ask any mother about giving birth. As much as a couple may say “we are pregnant” and no matter how many coaches, midwives, doctors, or family members are present at the baby’s coming, only the mother feels the experience of the “ring of fire” and the only she can bear down and push out her offspring. 

And as much as that mother will do her best to protect her baby and raise it to adulthood, there will be times when she must let her child do things on their own and will eventually let them go on to live independently.   Because of her love for her child a mother must teach them to stand up on their own and walk out their life’s journey.  

While thinking about this concept of how we are individually called to forge our own paths through life and how we have to stand back at times to let our friends and loved ones  live out their lives, I recalled the bridge to Our Lady Peace’s song, “Innocent” which says: 

“One day
You'll have to let it go
You'll have to let it go, no
One day
You'll stand up on your own
You'll stand up on your own, yeah

Remember losing hope
Remember feeling low
Remember all the feelings
And the day they stopped”

That’s part of the song really spoke to me at various times in my life when I had lost hope and when I was feeling low but how I stood up on my own, of how I had to “let it go” and trust my best efforts and the Lord to see me through.  

And when I walked away from the darkness of my life and overcame the various trials that I had to walk through in various seasons, I remember the joy, peace, and clarity that came from knowing I had survived and how that feeling of losing hope and those times of feeling low stopped. 

Life will present us with times that we must let those we love to walk through things on their own and there will be times when we ourselves will see that the path before us can only be walked out by ourselves.  

Just like in today’s photo of how the light of the head lights only penetrate so far into the darkness to reveal the road before us, the light of certainty that we have in our life journey’s only goes so far. Sometimes we don’t know what tomorrow or the days further ahead will bring, but we are on a road that must be travelled and all we can do is be sure in how we take the next step before us.    

For those of us who walk in the Spirit, we assess our situations, remember what we have learned and what the Lord has led us through, put our best foot forward and trust the Lord to bring us through again.  

It’s Monday, and no matter what lies ahead in your week, I would encourage you to stay in the Lord’s presence wherever you go.  The good news is that even though you may be “all by yourself”, when you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ you will never walk alone.  

So whether you are in a season where you have to “let go” and let someone find their own way, or if you find yourself called to “go it alone”, or, as life can be multilayered and complex somehow, find yourself having to do both, remember that God is with you and if you keep walking and talking with Him you will have all the company, wisdom, and strength to stand up on your own and make it to the next place that He has for you.

   

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Hebrews 13:8 (NLT2)
⁸  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Today’s verse reminds us of the divine nature of Jesus Christ and His immutability

Talk about a paradox.  Today’s verse may challenge us as it calls us to look at the big picture of the Godhead and to accept the idea of the Trinity.  

The Nicene Creed (https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/creeds/nicene-creed) summarizes the truth of who Jesus is to help us understand that Hebrews 13:8 speaks the truth. The section of the Nicene Creed about Jesus says that we believe:   

“… in one Lord Jesus Christ,

      the only Son of God,

      begotten from the Father before all ages,

           God from God,

           Light from Light,

           true God from true God,

      begotten, not made;

      of the same essence as the Father.

      Through him all things were made.

      For us and for our salvation

           he came down from heaven;

           he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,

           and was made human.

           He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;

           he suffered and was buried.

           The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.

           He ascended to heaven

           and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

           He will come again with glory

           to judge the living and the dead.

           His kingdom will never end.”

I present the creed not to start a debate. Many cults that deny the trinity take great delight in challenging specific words in scripture, like begotten, and the difficulty of understanding the paradox of the God the Son, and the Son of God for their antichrist agendas. 

I merely present it here to show that truth about how Christ doesn’t start at the manger in Bethlehem.  Jesus was “God from God”, “Light from Light”, and “of the same essence as the Father “before all ages”.   The creed then presents the facts Christ’s Incarnation, death, resurrection, and His future coming in glory to judge the living and the dead after which He will rule and reign forever.  

The Truth of Christ’s eternal nature and immutability should give us immense joy and hope. Christ always was and will always be.  Although He has different times and seasons in His existence that can confound us and challenge our understanding and faith, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever because of His divine nature.   

Christ’s earthly ministry and redemptive work displays God’s love for us and allows us to have peace with Him forever.

So enjoy the Christmas play at your local church this holiday season but don’t get wrapped up in confusion like a babe in swaddling clothes by thinking the birth of Baby Jesus was Christ’s beginning.   Jesus was the Word made flesh and the Word was there in the beginning with God and He will reclaim the earth and rule His eternal kingdom someday as God.

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 10, 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 10

OUR ANTICIPATION: JESUS THE VICTOR

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.

REVELATION 11:15

The unbeliever, who boastfully will “take my chances,” can only remain cynical. Deep within, he or she discovers doubts and uncertainties multiplying daily. Tell that person about this revelation, about the certainty of Jesus Christ’s ultimate victory, of God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth, and he or she can only react with the cynic’s biting contempt: “Who cares about fables and empty promises? No person in his right mind would ever confess that he has been reading the book of Revelation!”

Take my word for it. Men and women who think they have all the answers about this life and the next have been mouthing their brave words for generations. They are big, challenging words, but they come from puny, empty hearts and minds. These infidels are too blind to recognize or acknowledge that God does have an eternal plan—a divine plan in which mankind is never permitted to utter the first word or the last.

The fact is that God has always been God—and He always will be God. He knows all about our human beginnings. He has had to consult with no one about anything!

One day that little bundle of delight, so fondly nurtured by parents and family, finds herself in human consciousness and accepts the fact that she is. It is at that point that her volitional life begins. Until that time, she had nothing to say about anything—absolutely nothing.

Have you noticed, in the human family, how encouraged we are by the sound of our own voice? Men and women take to strutting and boasting, and in their pride they may declare their independence of God. Little do they realize that God in His divine sovereignty has reserved the right to take up at the last where He began at the first. It can mean only one thing: human beings are in the hands of God finally, whether they will or not.

I declare this truth in all frankness because God’s Word, including the book of Revelation, tells us clearly that our man-made civilizations, so called, will not prevail in the coming day of judgment and consummation.

Secular-minded men and women seem annoyed by the premise that the Creator-God has in mind a plan for ending this age in which we live. They do not want to be told that organizations, governments, and institutions cannot expect earthly things to continue as they are for ever and ever. Repeatedly and plainly the Bible tells us to expect Jesus, the Christ of God, to return to this earth in power and glory. People who have long joked about the “invisibility” of the kingdom of God will see it established in righteousness and with authority.

Humans try to ignore God, continuing to make their own ambitious, selfish plans. In the years before World War 1, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm, largely blamed for the beginning of that first world conflict, was exceedingly headstrong. At a chapel service attended by the kaiser, a faithful German minister preached on the coming again of Jesus Christ to establish God’s kingdom of righteousness and peace throughout the earth. Wilhelm was greatly offended and spoke to the minister at the close of the service.

“I never want to hear that kind of a sermon again,” he warned the preacher. “Such an event is not at all in keeping with the plans we have for the future and the glory of our Fatherland!”

But Kaiser Wilhelm and, a generation later, Adolf Hitler are merely fading memories—illustrations of that vain human propensity to make ourselves big and God small.

There is vastly more in Revelation than you or I will ever know while we are on this earth. But just God’s urging that we be ready for the announced coming events should be sufficient to keep us expectant, interested—and praying!

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

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

 

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