Common Cause of All Our Problems and the Way
Out – Purity 682
Purity
682 03/18/2022 Purity 682 Podcast
Good
morning,
Today’s photo of a blue sky
over a beach and a group of palm trees with a view of the Caribbean Sea comes to
us from a friend who recently traveled to beautiful Puerto Rico for a short vacation.
Well, It’s Friday and at the end of the
workday we can all pack our bags for a short vacation to that perennial paradise
known as “the weekend”. The next two
days may not promise palm trees for all of us but Sunday is the first day of
Spring and it is my prayer that the transition from one season to the next is a
relatively easy one and that the winter of 2021-2022 peacefully fades into the
past without any resurgences.
I myself am currently on vacation but
decided to use this “time off” to expand my horizons by being trained as a
Psychiatric Tech for the Mobile Crisis Team in my local community. And even
though I decided to continue my training by picking up a shift tomorrow I am
very thankful that it is Friday because I will be reunited with my wife at our
countryside home this evening.
One thing that my short time in the Mobile
Crisis Assessment Team has taught me is that there are a lot of hurting people
out there and that harsh reality makes me extremely grateful for the peace I
have in my personal life, in my marriage, and in my family relationships.
I would like to say that the dysfunction,
depression, and depravity I have been witness to in my limited time on the
Mobile Crisis Team are foreign concepts to me but the pain and problems I am seeing
in our local community have more than once reminded me of various situations
and shadows of my past. We have faced
suicidal adults, suicidal children, people locked in the chains of addiction, and people
who just don’t treat each other very well.
My heart has been moved by compassion more
than once because I could see shadows of myself, my children, and my family in
some of these situations. As different
as these particular people’s situations are from what I went through, our
experiences are the same. Where they are,
is where I used to be. The root of the myriad of all the problems I have seen
this week and the root of my problems of the past is that we either didn’t know
the Lord, didn’t know that He could help us, and we certainly didn’t follow Him.
As much as we would like to pass the buck
and blame those “problem people” in our lives to be the root cause to all our
unhappiness, and repeat the sentiments of Jean Paul Satre who famously said
that Hell is other People, the truth is that we also have to look at the man in
the mirror and see where we have contributed to our pain by being selfish and separating
ourselves from the life the Lord has for us.
The common factor that I have seen amongst
all the problems I have witnessed is that “these people don’t know God”. They have made themselves or other people to
be the center of their universe and are learning the pain that comes from
seeking happiness from the things or people of this world rather than seeking the
Lord’s presence, strength and guidance in their lives.
I don’t blame them. I used to have the same
problems and was thankfully shown the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and learned
how that it was only through surrendering to the Lord’s love and wisdom that I
could be delivered from the problems of my past.
But the good news is that God pours out His
love on all creation and even when people don’t want to acknowledge Him they
can still see the goodness that He has provided and we can use the things and
people that He has created to give people a measure of peace.
The hurting people that we have encountered
this week just wanted to know that they are cared for. They wanted to be heard
and understood. So whatever the
situation, the Mobile Crisis Team shows up and listens to what these people in
crisis have to say and try to assure them that they are not alone in their pain
and suffering and that there are people who care about them who are willing to
help them find a way to peace.
The team repeatedly has been successful in
leading people back to that truth, and the realization of that truth ends the
crisis as people are reassured that there are people that will help them and
there is hope that they don’t have to remain in the painful situations that
they are in.
Unfortunately, the people that we have
encountered don’t know that there is a greater hope and help available to them
that they are not utilizing: the hope and help that comes from a covenant
relationship with God.
Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is
just the entry point of the Lord’s hope and helpf for them. Our reconciled
relationship with God that comes through faith in Jesus resolves the issue of
death by giving us eternal life. We
need not fear death because Christ has conquered it and has gone before us to
prepare a place for us in eternity.
Jesus also demonstrated the life of peace
and joy that is possible when we seek the Lord’s presence in prayer and follow
His wisdom for living.
By forsaking what is evil for what is good,
we walk in the light of God’s goodness.
When we turn from our sin to His righteousness, the negative consequences
of sin are nullified. When we walk in
the Spirit, by living according to God’s ways, we reap a harvest of the fruit
of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness,
patience, and self-control.
When we simply love God and love people,
above trying to meet our selfish needs circumstantially, we learn that our
needs of love, acceptance, significance, and security are all met through Him
and through loving others like He first loved us.
So as we go into the weekend, let’s relax
but let’s never tire of doing what is good and let’s never give up in sharing
the love of God with a world full of people who have foolishly chosen to
worship themselves and are suffering the consequences of not following the
wisdom of the Creator for His creation.
The message of “your doing it wrong” might
not be received but when we offer to listen to someone and help them to see the
light of what is good, and the One who has created it all, there is hope that
they will see the error of their selfish ways and will choose to exchange their
dysfunction for a life that “works” according the wisdom of the One who loves
them and made the world for them.
So keep walking and talking with God. Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. People living in dysfunction are separated from the Lord and don’t know that. If we are patient and to listen to them and show them we care, we can offer them the Truth, Give them the Hope for Life, and Show them The Way Out.
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Today’s Bible verse come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is :
2 Timothy 2:10 (NLT2)
10 So I am willing to endure
anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those
God has chosen.
Today’s Bible verse encourages us to endure anything to share the new life that people can have through Jesus Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul has famously shared a
long list of the things he suffered in his efforts to share the truth of the
gospel.
Paul suffered significantly in His evangelical journeys. So was it worth it?
Yes! As today’s verse tells us, Paul confesses that He would endure anything to bring salvation to others and to give glory to Christ Jesus in the process.
So we should compassionately endure and listen to what people have to say and try to help them understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fact that a life surrendered to God is one that is defined by love, peace and joy.
People need to know that the answers to all their problems have been solved in Jesus and we should be patient and endure to try to adequately explain to them how the Lord loves them and is calling them to a better life here on earth and a life with Him forever in eternity.
The greatest promise of God is that He will never leave us or fore sake us and when we endure long enough to help someone understand that, we can rejoice with them as they realize that they have been chosen by God, who loves them, to be saved and to experience the glory of Christ Jesus in their lives here on earth and forevermore.
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 June Hunt’s Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation.
As always, I share this
information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private study and to
support his work. This resource is
available on many websites for less than $5.00.
C.
What Are Basic Characteristics of Binge Eating?
While overeating is certainly a
component of bingeing, everyone who overeats on a regular basis does not
necessarily binge on food, just as everyone who abuses alcohol does not binge
on alcohol. Being human, we all engage in sinful behavior. But being uniquely
made, each of us may take our own separate twists and turns when engaging in
sinful activity, whether it is bingeing while overeating or overeating by
engaging in night eating. The Bible says that not only have we all sinned but
we can all change because we have an all-powerful Lord, who loves us and by
whom we have been …
“…
fearfully and wonderfully made.…”
(Psalm
139:13–14)
Ask yourself these quantifying questions if you think you
may be binge eating:
• Do you consume large amounts of food in
secret?
• Do you eat and eat and eat until you make
yourself sick?
• Do you feel that you are totally out of
control when you are eating?
• Do you eat in an attempt to escape from
problems or to comfort yourself?
• Do you eat to satisfy an emotional need or
to feel better about yourself but end up feeling even worst?
• Do you feel disgusted with your behavior or
ashamed of yourself after eating?
• Do you despise yourself for not being able
to control your eating?
• Do you live with feelings of deep disgust
and depression?
• Do you reject yourself and expect others to
reject you?
• Do you feel totally unable to stop eating
even though you earnestly want to stop?
• Do you spend around two hours binge eating,
or do you binge “graze” throughout the day?
• Do you often eat even when you are not
hungry, and do you eat long after you are full?
• Do you sometimes stuff food into your mouth
so fast that you barely even taste what you are eating?
Unfortunately, those who binge fail to turn their focus
from food as a temporal refuge to the One who is an eternal refuge.…
“Taste
and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
(Psalm 34:8)
D. What Elements
Characterize Emotional Overeating?
The most prominent physical
characteristic of a compulsive overeater is easily identifiable—obesity. The
terms “compulsive overeating” and “binge eating” are often used
interchangeably; they refer to the same ailment and identical patterns of
behavior. Eating large quantities of food, often in secret, is symptomatic of
compulsive overeating, but some binge eaters engage in an additional harmful
habit—purging food. Bulimics may appear to be healthy, when in fact they ingest
huge amounts of food and then rid themselves of it.
Compulsive
overeaters often use food for comfort to cope with the pressures of life and
may allow lengthy intervals of time to pass between episodes of eating massive
amounts of food. Those struggling with food should heed the call of Scripture.…
“The
prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the
penalty.”
(Proverbs 27:12)
When eating becomes the primary means
of easing emotions, soothing stress, and putting off problems, it has become an
unhealthy and uncontrollable food addiction. Those who seek to use food to meet
needs designed by God to be met in relationship with Him, would greatly benefit
from making the following heart cry of the psalmist their very own.…
“You,
God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs
for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.… I will praise you
as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully
satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise
you.”
(Psalm 63:1,
4–5)
Some simple signs of emotional binge eating or overeating
include eating food to …
• Avoid dealing with seemingly insurmountable
problems
• Calm anxiety and soothe frayed nerves
• Cope with daily concerns and lessen life’s
stressors
• Lighten mood and lift spirits in order to
feel good
• Relax and feel rewarded
• Satisfy a relational or emotional, real or
perceived, emptiness in life
Sadly, emotional eaters eat to feed
their emotional emptiness rather than their physical emptiness. The problem, of
course, is that emotional eating can never satisfy emotional hunger because
food is matter and was created by God to satisfy physical hunger only.…
• Food contains no emotional component, so it
can never be food for the soul—the mind, the emotions, and the will.
• Emotional needs can be fully met only in
relationships that have an emotional component.
• Eating may be comforting for a brief
moment, but when reality sets in, the illusion goes and is replaced by remorse,
regret, and self-loathing.
• Rather than solving problems, compulsive,
emotional overeating leads to problems of its own—including weight gain and
obesity—which then serve to reinforce compulsive eating.
• The worse they feel about themselves and
their appearance, the more binge eaters use food to cope.
• Emotional eating becomes a vicious cycle:
eating to feel better, feeling worse instead, and then turning back to food for
comfort and relief.
All the while, what emotional eaters
need to do is turn to the Lord, who created them, who alone can satisfy their
emotional emptiness and set their spirits free.…
“Devote
your heart and soul to seeking the Lord
your God.… You [God] open your
hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”
(1
Chronicles 22:19; Psalm 145:16)[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”,
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(https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Overeating:
Freedom from Food Fixation (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008),
9–11.
