Taking a Joy Field Trip, Now - 28 Day Joy Challenge –
Day 26– Purity 1082
Purity 1082 06/30/2023 Purity 1082 Podcast
Purity 1082 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the waters of Lake Ontario crashing
over the shoreline rocks at sunset comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography,
as Rocco Saya captured this magic moment back on June 13th.
Well, It’s Friday, Thank God, and after another week
filled with work, ministry, and “taking care of business”, I for one am looking
to crash on into the weekend and a new month as we say goodbye to June come
midnight.
Last weekend Arthur Cincotti presented us with the
topic of “Time Passages” for our Bible Study discussion, you can check it out
on YouTube to see what we had to say about that, but now that I think of “my birthday
month” (really?) coming to an end I realize that June of 2023 had some real “Kairos”
(significant, opportune, or “timely”) transitions as some major “life events” and
changes have come to pass in the lives of many of my friends and family. Just like the official shift from spring to
summer, many of the lives of my friends and family have begun a new season, as
things that were steady and unchanging coming into June are now a thing of the
past. Children graduating into
adulthood, relationships torn asunder, changes in employment, medical issues,
and the loss of loved ones into eternity have all transpired in the lives of
family and friends and I realize that the beginning of July will mark the transition
into a “new normal” as the way things were are no more.
This is the way it always is, of course, life goes
on and the idea that “nothing changes, everything stays the same” is nothing
more than an illusion or a denial of reality.
So thus it is important to practice appreciation,
now – to be thankful for what we have now and to enjoy the moments of our lives
as they happen. Instead of pining away
for the glory days of the past or looking to ahead to some hoped for future
state of bliss, we owe it to ourselves to appreciate today and to mark the time
we have right now as “good” – in spite of the shock and turmoil of the negative
circumstances that going through life might bring at times.
If we are alive and know Christ as our Lord and
Savior, we have two things to be thankful for and if we realize just how
special those two facts are, we should be able to expand our view to see the vast
number of blessings that surround us all the time.
When we take time to stop and appreciate the good
around us we experience joy, right now.
And that brings us to our current series, where we are
walking through the 28 Day Joy Challenge,
(https://4habits.org/) because we are encouraging
ourselves and others, you, to “find peace” in our lives by increasing our
capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple
practices of quieting and appreciation.
The 28 Day
Joy challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner & Chris Coursey’s latest book,
The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free,
and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Coursey on topic of Joy, by
going to https://4habits.org/.
So let’s
jump into Day 26, which will direct us to plan a field trip.
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Day 26 - Joy Field Trip
Welcome to Day 26
of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge!
Today’s Encouragement:
Today’s activity
involves planning to get out and connect with someone you enjoy. If you can’t
meet with someone in person, consider a phone call or a video chat. If you have
scheduling conflicts, a backup plan would be to send a meaningful text. Get
creative and make the exercise work for you!
Today’s Practice:
Exercise 26
This exercise is
about noticing what activities and interactions are joy-filled and life-giving
for us.
- How This Exercise
Will Benefit You:
Connecting with
friends is a great way to build joy. When we anticipate a joyful connection we
benefit from the hopeful moment.
- Exercise Steps:
Plan a special
visit with a friend where you connect over coffee or tea, take a walk, visit,
and interact in a simple but meaningful way. Once you have a plan in place,
it’s time to anticipate being with your friend. What do you look forward to
when you think about the upcoming visit? During your visit, share what you
enjoy about this person. After the visit, notice what is meaningful from the
anticipation and compare it with what was satisfying from your visit.
Have fun with this
exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice!
Because
it is Friday and I will be going up to my countryside home in Easton NY to be
with my wife, TammyLyn, the “special visit” I am planning is to be with
her! So when I go up to see her this
evening, I am going to suggest we take a “field trip” to be true to today’s
challenge. It has been a while since we
have been to Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, I may suggest going there
for a walk after dinner so we can spend some quality time being together and appreciating
each other’s company. So I anticipate
being with her, walking through the park, seeing the River, possibly seeing a
good sunset, and talking with her about the week we have had and the plans we
will make for tomorrow.
I love TammyLyn
because of her faith, her beauty, her humor, and her spirit and that is why I have
her as my wife and I plan on spending the rest of my life making “special visits”
and taking “field trips” with her.
So what
about you? Do you have a special friend or loved one that you can make a plan
to visit today or soon? Part of
appreciating the “good” in life is by being intentional to enjoy your life with
the people that you love. So step out and be bold and let your friend or loved
one know that you appreciate them and that you want to spend some time
together. If the plan comes together,
you can anticipate the joy before you experience and enjoy it together when it
happens. And then afterward, your experience will become a memory that can give
you joy too!
So
start living in joy today, by making a plan to experience joy and by living in
the moment of actually doing it and appreciating the fact that “we did that”
after it is done.
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For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Adultery:
Proverbs 4:13-18 (ESV)
13 Keep hold of instruction;
do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of
the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil.
15 Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep
unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made
someone stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of
wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous
is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
Today’s verses are used by our resource to point out that “Adultery can be avoided.”
In fact our resource, gives us more than today’s offering towards that end, and we will share all of Bible verses they list on this point in the days ahead.
But for today, I chose to share this passage, from verse 13 to 18 because it seemed to adequately be a complete train of thought. When we share the word or study the word, we have to be careful to not just cherry pick the verses we like without considering their context. A single verse or two may be able to convey God’s wisdom but if we should be sure of what the entire passage of scripture says before assuming we are being true to the overall meaning of that section of scripture.
In this passage, we are told to hold onto instruction (biblical wisdom) and to avoid the path if the wicked, with the warning that way of evil corrupts your soul causing one to be restless – hungry and thirsty – to do wrong. But the path of the righteous is brightness and life. So we should choose to “do what is right” according to God’s work and shun the temptations to do evil.
Adultery, and all sin, can be avoided when we know who we are in Christ and are diligent in obeying the teachings of the word of God. Christ has set us free, but we still must choose to go on the path of righteousness and rejecting the way of evil.
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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 The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3)
A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit
11 - The Spirit Quickening
First
the Work of the Spirit, Then the Word
Under the guise of honoring the written word,
many have (no doubt unwittingly) dishonored the Holy Spirit. The idea which
seems to prevail in “orthodox” circles today is that all which is needed for
the salvation of souls is to give out the Word in its purity, God being pledged
to bless the same. How often we have heard it said, “The Word will do its own
work.” Many suppose that the Scriptures are quite sufficient of themselves to
communicate light to those in darkness and life to those who are dead in sins.
But the record which we have of Christ’s life ought at once to correct such a
view. Who preached the Word as faithfully as He, yet how very few were saved
during His three and a half years’ ministry?!
The parable of the
Sower exposes the fallacy of the theory now so widely prevailing. The “seed”
sown is the Word. It was scattered upon various kinds of ground, yet
notwithstanding the purity and vitality of the seed, where the soil was
unfavorable, no increase issued therefrom. Until the ground was made good, the
seed yielded no increase. That seed might be watered by copious showers and
warmed by a genial sum, but while the soil was bad there could be no harvest. The ground must be changed before it
could be fertile. Nor is it the seed which changes
the soil: what farmer would ever think of saying, The seed will change the
soil! Make no mistake upon this point: the Holy Spirit must first quicken the
dead soul into newness of life before
the Word obtains any entrance.
To say that life is
communicated to the soul by the Spirit’s application of the Word, and then to
affirm that it is the principle of life which gives efficacy to the Word, is
but to reason in a circle. The Word cannot profit any soul spiritually until it
be “mixed with faith” (Heb. 4:2), and faith cannot be put forth unless it
proceeds from a principle of life and grace; and therefore that principle of
life is not produced by it.
“We might as well
suppose that the presenting of a picture to a man who is blind can enable him
to see, as we can suppose that the presenting of the Word in an objective way
is the instrument whereby God produces the internal principle by which we are
enabled to embrace it” (Thomas Ridgley, Presbyterian,
1730—quoted by us to show we are not here inculcating some new doctrine.)
Yet notwithstanding
what has been pointed out above, many are still likely to insist upon the
quickening power which inheres in the Word itself, reminding us that its voice is that of the Almighty. This
we freely and fully acknowledge, but do not all the unregenerate resist, and
refuse to heed that Voice? How, then, is that opposition to be removed? Take an illustration. Suppose
the window of my room is darkened by an iron wall before it. The sun’s beams
beat upon it, but still the wall remains. Were it of ice, it would melt away,
but the nature of iron is to harden and not soften under the influence of heat.
How, then, is the sun to enter my room? Only by removing that wall: a direct
power must be put forth for its destruction. In like manner, the deadly enmity
of the sinner must be removed by the immediate operation of the Spirit,
communicating life, before the Word enters and affects him.
“The light of the
body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full
of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness”
(Matthew 7:22, 23). By the “eye” is not here meant the mind only, but the disposition
of the heart (cf. Mark 7:22). Here Christ tells us in what man’s blindness consists, namely, the evil disposition of his heart, and that the only way to remove
the darkness, and let in the light, is to
change the heart. An “evil eye” is not cured or its darkness removed merely
by casting light upon it, any more than the rays of the sun communicate sight
unto one whose visive faculty is dead. The eye must be cured, made “single,”
and then it is capable of receiving the light.
“It is said the Lord
opened the heart of Lydia, that she
attended unto the things that were spoken by Paul (Acts 16:14). It would be a
contradiction, and very absurd, to say that God’s Word spoken by Paul was that
by which her heart was opened; for she knew not what he did speak, until her
heart was opened to attend to his words and understand them. Her heart was
first opened in order for his words
to have any effect or give any light to her. And this must be done by an immediate operation of the Spirit of God
on her heart. This was the regeneration now under consideration, by which her
heart was renewed, and formed unto
true discerning like the single eye” (Samuel Hopkins, 1792).
The soul, then, is
quickened into newness of life by the direct and supernatural operation of the
Spirit, without any medium or means whatever. It is not accomplished by the
light of the Word, for it is His very imparting of life which fits the heart to
receive the light. This initial work of the Spirit is absolutely indispensable in order to have spiritual illumination.
It is depravity or corruption of heart which holds the mind in darkness, and it
is in this that unregeneracy
consists. It is just as absurd to speak of illumination being conveyed by the
Word in order to have a change of
heart, or the giving of a relish for spiritual things, as it would be to speak
of giving the capacity to a man to taste the sweetness of honey while he was
devoid of a palate.
No, men are not
“quickened” by the Word, they must be
quickened in order to receive and understand the Word. “And I will give them a
heart to know me, that I am the LORD;
and they shall be My people, and I will be their God” (Jer. 24:7): that
statement would be quite meaningless if a saving knowledge of or experimental
acquaintance with God were obtained through the Word previous to the “new heart” or spiritual life being given, and was
the means of our being quickened.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7); the “fear of
the Lord” or Divine grace communicated to the heart (spiritual life imparted)
alone lays the foundation for spiritual knowledge and activities.[1]
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tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
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at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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These teachings are also available on the
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Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
