Going on an “Ego Trip” to Share the Lord’s Love – Purity 678
Purity
678 03/14/2022 Purity 678 Podcast
Good
morning,
Today’s photo of trees covered
by freshly fallen snow under a crisp blue sky comes to us from a friend who
captured this scene near their home on Waite Rd in Clifton Park commenting
that: “The snow on the trees yesterday morning was so stunning. It was truly a
gift from God for us to enjoy.”
The weather had been unseasonably warm
prior to this light snowfall last week and the way it covered everything in
white again was truly stunning but after God gave us more of this snowy gift
this past Saturday I know that I am looking forward to watching this gift
disappear as higher temperatures are predicted for this last week of winter as
the “first day of spring” is this coming Sunday!
Well, it’s Monday again and I have failed to
mention that I am officially on vacation again this week!
Now you may be wondering, “Wow, He just got back from Tampa a few weeks
ago where is He going now!? Or maybe you’re thinking: “Is He just going to put
His feet up to enjoy the beginning of March madness? or to take a week off for an
extended celebration of St. Patrick’s Day? or to say goodbye to the last week
of winter?
In retrospect, all of those sound like a
great way to spend a week’s vacation, I guess, but I didn’t have the forethought
to plan an epic “staycation to end all staycations”, maybe next year. No, I won’t be laying around the house and I
am not off to some exotic location with my beloved TammyLyn.
No, this weeks’ vacation is more like an “ego
trip”, to borrow a phrase from that scifi classic “Total Recall”. The reason I may have failed to mention the
fact that I am “on vacation” this week is because although I won’t be doing
what I normally do and am using 40 hours of vacation time, I will be still be
working this week!
In October of 2021, I got hired as a per diem
psychiatric technician for the Mental Health Association of Columbia & Greene
Counties but due to my full time job and the agency’s changing Covid-19
restrictions and staffing issues there hasn’t been any opportunity to get me
trained. As things have been settling to
some extent in my personal and ministerial life, I decided to sacrifice a week’s
vacation to get trained and actually be qualified to work at the job I was
hired to almost 6 months ago!
So this week, I go from being a telecommunications
technician for a fortune 500 company to becoming a mental health worker for my
local community and I have that strange mix of excitement and trepidation that
is common to the “first day jitters” of staring a new job. I also consider it the
beginning of a “new mission” as I hope to use my education and experience in
counseling to serve the community, share the love of Christ in whatever way I
can, and to make a few extra dollars in
the process.
Some may say this is a strange way to spend
your vacation, but I look at it as another opportunity to be used by the Lord
to help others and to develop personally.
As I have used vacation time in the past to go on short term mission
trips, both foreign and domestic, I am truly excited for this week’s mission
trip into the mental health communities of Columbia and Greene Counties of
Upstate NY.
I mean how often in life do you get to step
out of your normal 9 to 5 job to work somewhere else for a week? Just like Douglas Quaid in Total Recall who
dreamed of being a secret agent on his “ego-trip” to Mars, I will be challenged
to try on a new identity of sorts as I learn the ropes of working for the
Mobile Crisis Assessment Team. I’m
looking forward to meeting new people, learning new skills, and doing my best
to offer care and comfort to those seeking peace by addressing their mental
health concerns.
As a Christian, I really feel that God
gives us His peace and love to share it with others and that we should step out
in faith in our local communities to do so.
After getting free from the problems of my past, I have continually tried
to share the hope that I have found in Christ by going out in the community to
represent Him in whatever way I can. I
feel that Christians should be “in the world” serving others to do the good
work of helping others without expectation but with the hope that while we are
working the Lord will use us in some way to bring people to Christ.
In this “diverse” but politically correct
world, I think Christians have to be “real”
by being ready to share their faith with those around us but to also work
within the limitations that they encounter.
So while I will look for opportunities to share my personal testimony
and point people to Christ, I will be equally concerned with doing what is
expected of me in this new role and offer compassionate care and service to all
the people I encounter regardless of who they are or what they profess to
believe.
Christ told us to love our enemies and as
we walk through this world that is increasingly hostile to the things of God,
and the gospel of Jesus Christ in particular, I think we can realize why He
told us that.
Before coming to Christ, we were all
enemies to God but Jesus was gracious enough to love us anyway and no matter
how lost or hostile to the idea of following the Lord we were, the Lord didn’t
give up on us and just kept on loving us until we were ready to make peace with
Him by finally putting our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior.
So whether it’s just another week of the
same old daily grind or if you actually had the fore thought to plan a week off
the clock to enjoy some basketball, celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, or
to say adios to winter, keep walking and talking with God. He loved us when we were wholly unlovable
and now that He has drawn us close to Him, let’s enjoy the peace we have in Him
and share the love that He has given us by reaching out to others to love them
too.
______________________________________________________________________
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27
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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 :
Proverbs 15:30 (NLT2)
30 A cheerful look brings joy
to the heart; good news makes for good health.
Today’s Bible verse speaks of the ability that our perspective can have on our mental and physical health.
Mostly written by King Solomon, the Book of Proverbs is the Old Testament’s collection of God’s wisdom for living and while the verses in proverbs can provide pithy nuggets of biblical wisdom and can stand by themselves, they are often complimented by accompanying “couplet” verses or by the overall context of the “chapters” in which they appear.
The verse prior to today’s verse lays the foundation for where we are going to “look” to find our joy and to who we are going to receive the “good news” from that will give us “good health”.
Verse 29 says,
Proverbs 15:29 (NLT2)
29 The LORD is far from the wicked, but he
hears the prayers of the righteous.
So this preceding verse indicates that we should be in conversation with the Lord via prayer and it assures us that if we are righteous He will hear us. This intimate relationship with the Lord is what will cause us to give us a “cheerful look”.
Our relationship with the Lord will cause us to see the world for what it is: His creation where everything is created by Him and will ultimately be used for His purposes. When we look at the world and see it as God’s handiwork, we can appreciate His design and the beauty He has made for us to enjoy.
The “good news” we receive from looking at the world is that “There is a God! There is a God! THERE IS A GOD!” and for those of us who have seen the truth of the gospel and made Jesus our Lord and Savior, just like Buddy the Elf proudly proclaimed his relationship with Santa Claus: we can boldly say: “I know Him!... I know Him!”.
When we know God, we can see the world in a different light, the light of Jesus, and our look can be cheerful because we know the “good news” that He hears us and has given us the “good health” that comes with a new and everlasting life that will one day be spent forever in His presence.
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 begin 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.
“First
seek the counsel of the Lord.”
(1 Kings
22:5 NIV)
Overeating
Freedom
from Food Fixation
June
Hunt
Television commercials can be
tantalizing … and at the same time, reflect what we wish wasn’t true. One
long-running ad featured a bag of potato chips with the tag line, “Bet you
can’t eat just one!”
This fascinating commercial featured
different people who, after tasting one chip, were prevented from having
another. Oh, oh, oh, the agony! First they would fidget and sweat … then leap
over obstacles, tackling grocers to get to the chips. Finally, when they got
their hands on those tasty tidbits … oh, the ecstasy of finishing off the whole
bag!
We all share one common
characteristic: When we find something we especially like, we simply want more!
But if our common desire becomes a compulsive demand—if our natural drive to
eat becomes a notorious slave driver—then we are out of control. The fact that
our God-given appetite can turn into an all-consuming fixation is an example of
this principle …
“…
‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.’ ”
(2 Peter
2:19)
I. DEFINITIONS
The potato chip commercials were
memorable for the clever way they showed people losing
self-control—specifically, losing all sense of portion size. They always ate the whole bag! For those caught in
the cycle of compulsive eating, the craving is for quantity, not quality.
Consider ice cream: If one scoop is good, two would be better … if two are
better, three are best! (Or why not the whole carton?)
This same
compulsive mind-set applies to cake and candy … doughnuts and drumsticks …
bacon, biscuits, and brownies—in spite of this common sense caution …
“It
is not good to eat too much honey.…”
(Proverbs
25:27)
A. What Is Overeating?
It all began in the 1980s.…
The
collective waistline of people throughout the world began to spread at an
unprecedented pace. Literally millions of people packed on millions of extra
pounds because of food saturated in fat, sugar, and salt … driving folks to eat
more fat, sugar, and salt. Increasingly, country after country became inundated
with compulsive overeaters.
Apart from
poor food choices, other factors contributed to this worldwide weight gain,
including the exploding availability of fast food, larger menu portions, and
eating on the go rather than eating slowly around the dining table.
No wonder
weight gain is out of control. We are controlled by the fruit of overeating
instead of the “fruit of the Spirit.” The Bible explains it this way …
“The
fruit of the Spirit is … self-control.”
(Galatians
5:22–23)
• Overeating
means excessive eating.
• Overeating
often results in obesity, a condition characterized by body fat 20% or more
above recommended body weight.
• Overeating
in Scripture is described by the word gluttony,
which means consuming excess food to the point of losing control. The Bible
states …
“A
discerning son heeds instruction, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his
father.”
(Proverbs
28:7)
Overeating and Sin
Question:
“Can overeating be considered a sin?”
Answer: Yes, overeating is a pattern of yielding to
fleshly desires instead of yielding to God. Those who habitually eat to excess
are controlled by their natural appetites rather than controlled by the Spirit
of God. The Bible contrasts the wise man with the foolish man.…
“The
wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.”
(Proverbs
21:20)[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”,
"Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
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
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encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via 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)
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), 1–2.
