Moving to Tahiti or Conquering Depression through the Spirit - Purity 1219

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of Paul Gauguin's, Gauguin's Seascape in Brittany of 1889 comes to us from yours truly as I captured it during my visit to the Springfield Museums on Saturday. Gauguin was a Post-Impressionist artist artist who was inspired by the land and seascapes of Brittany in northwest France. Some scholars believe this painting was painted during the summer of 1886 while the artist was visiting the village of Les Poldus on the southern coast of Brittany. The early completion date of the painting explains the muted palette, as the artist used bolder colors later in his career. Once a stockbroker, Gauguin began this profession after the stock market crash in France in 1882 and devoted his time to painting. His unhappy family life, financial troubles, and turbulent relationship with Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh led to bouts of depression. The lone seagull visible in the seascape in Brittany very tiny in the middle, uh, suggest feeling— feelings of loneliness and gloom. Gauguin later traveled to more exotic places like Tahiti and illustrated the island's peoples and landscapes in woodcut prints and paintings. Well, it's Monday, and while the forecast is for snow with a winter weather advisory in effect till 1 PM in my neck of the woods, that's not necessarily going to send me into a bout of depression and cause me to quit my job, take up painting, and move to Tahiti. Although I have to admit that idea does have some escapist romantic charm to it. But I don't have a ton of artistic talent when it comes to painting, and I really don't, uh, hear the call to be some beachcombing artist on my heart. But I can fully understand how depression, uh, could cause us to seek sunny places to escape from the high-stress environments of the business world. Seasonal affective disorder is a thing, and work stress is definitely a thing. But rather than heading, uh, you know, abandoning all, uh, and heading off to Tahiti, I would suggest a daily spiritual practice of quieting and appreciation, box breathing, and giving thanks for what you do have, uh, to set the foundation for your day and to put things into— in their proper perspective. And if the lack of light in the winter months seems to give, give you the blues, I would suggest taking vitamin D, getting a sun lamp, and perhaps planning a February vacation in the South to give you something to look forward to and to give you a break from the 90 days of night the winter can sometimes feel like. Now, that is just some practical advice, but if you want to infuse all of those practices and your life with supernatural power, I would suggest living living a life in the spirit by placing your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and turning towards the Lord's ways for living that lead to a life full of love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. If you are suffering from depression, don't look at the world because even sunny skies have a limited capacity to give you lasting satisfaction. Look to the Lord, uh, who created the heavens and the earth and is infinite in nature, so his love never runs out and he never fades away. We were never meant to seek our happiness from the changing circumstances in the world, and now is the season to point to the light of the world, Jesus Christ, to tell people the good news that in Jesus we have a savior. Who not only covers our sins but who also came to give us an abundant life. I suffered from negative thoughts, anxiety, fear, and depression through most of my life, and I tried to manage my emotions by trying to make myself happy with food, alcohol, drugs, sex, relationships, accomplishments, knowledge, and changing my environment, with limited and fleeting success. And no lasting satisfaction. After being shown the truth of God's gospel of grace through Jesus Christ, I discovered that it was never supposed to be this way, that true peace and satisfaction are only found by having peace with God through faith in Jesus and by agreeing with what he says about living, by abiding in the Lord's presence and actually doing what his word instructs. Healing came through faith in Jesus and by repenting. I stopped doing what my— what was selfish and wrong according— and, uh, you know, stop to stop doing what was selfish and wrong and by doing what was right according to God's word. It really is that simple, but it may not be— not— may not be easy as you have to surrender to Jesus's lordship and follow his lead, which which always involves changing the way we think by renewing our minds with God's Word, and by changing the way we feel about how we live by renewing our hearts to love the things of God and to forsake the fool's gold of this world, the things that shine and offer some pleasure but ultimately can't provide anything of enduring value. So as we go into another Monday, let's focus on the good in our lives. Thank God for them and agree to follow him into the better life that he has for us by becoming the people he created us to be. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on church discipline, and the verse is Galatians 6:1. And the word of God says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watching yourself lest you too be tempted. Today's verse falls under the second point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on church discipline. That second point is restore one who has fallen with gentleness. Today's verse encourages us to help our fallen brethren with compassion, but to be wise in avoiding the snare that they fell into, them into ourselves. I have been leading recovery ministries almost continuously since 2015, and I have seen a lot of lives changed by God when people decide to let go of the ways they did things and choose to follow him into repentance. However, I have seen even more lives disrupted and literally destroyed when someone chooses to turn back to their former worldly ways on their own or through the influences of others. When you go into recovery, you will inevitably lose relationships. Quite frankly, you have to, because your new sober life, preferably as a Christian disciple, is completely different from where you were living and the people you lived with in darkness. Those people, and those people may not be on board with going into the light and will actively work to pull you back into the dark. I've also seen the enemy introduce seemingly good or quote-unquote Christian people into recovering addicts' lives whose worldly ways were enough to produce a relapse and destroy the addict's recovery. Likewise, when we go to help a brother in need, there is a possibility that the person who has fallen will attempt to convince the one who has come to help to join them in giving in to temptation, as today's verse indicates. Um, yes, that has also been known to happen. As two addicts are convinced by the world, the flesh, or the devil to be, quote-unquote, independent together in throwing off the restraints that had given their lives peace and stability for some good times from the bad old days. So be quick to restore those who have fallen, but be not led into temptation yourself as you seek to help deliver them. From evil. 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 are sharing from God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And as I stated before, we're— we love— we love Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and we wanted to utilize this resource during Advent. But the, the only catch is that we're sort of off schedule, um, with, with that. We had to start— in order to use all of the messages, we had to start early, and we might finish late, but we're going to walk through, uh, all the, all the writings and inspirations that, uh, they give us. And with that said, today, uh, our resource is on Advent Week 3. Redemption, and this is the message for day 1, written by Bonhoeffer, called Jesus Enters into the Guilt of Human Beings. And Bonhoeffer writes, Jesus does not want to be the only perfect human being at the expense of humankind. He does not want, as the only guiltless one, to ignore a humanity that is being destroyed by its guilt. He does not want some kind of human ideal to triumph over the ruins of a wrecked humanity. Love for real people leads into the fellowship of human guilt. Jesus does not want to exonerate himself from the guilt in which the people he loves are living. He— a love that left people alone in their guilt would not have real people as its object. So in vicarious responsibility for people and in his love for real human beings, Jesus becomes the one burdened by guilt, indeed the one upon whom all human guilt ultimately falls, and the one who does not turn it away but bears it humbly in eternal love. As the one who acts responsibly in the historical existence of humankind, as the human being who has entered reality, Jesus becomes guilty. Out of selfless love for human beings, Jesus leaves his state as the one without sin and enters into the guilt of human beings. He takes it upon himself. Bonhoeffer also writes from a sermon of For Repentance Sunday, November 19th, 1933, Bonhoeffer wrote, we have something to hide. We have secrets, worries, thoughts, hopes, desires, passions which no one else gets to know. We are sensitive when people get near those domains with their questions. And now, against all rules of tact, the Bible speaks of the truth. That in the end we will appear before Christ with everything we are and were. And we all know that we could justify ourselves before any human court, but not before this one. Lord, who can justify themselves? I'd say no one. That's why we need Jesus. And finally, our our, our resource here, 2 Corinthians 5:10, which says, for all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. And that completes our sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas for today, which is December 11th, Week 3, Day 1 of Advent according to our resource. As always, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship because, as I talked about, I once was lost but now I am found. I once was depressed, anxious, angry, worried, addicted, and now I'm not. The Lord has set me free. Um, he's given me freedom over alcohol and drug addiction, sexual addiction, and now this latest journey into freedom has led me to freedom over food addiction. And I'm currently in the best physical shape of my life at 51 years old. So God can change a lot, and when you faithfully follow him and utilize the tools that he gives you in the world like your brothers and sisters in Christ and the Word of God and the spiritual practices that are, you know, highlighted in the Word of God, you can find— you can find not only freedom and victory, but you can find the presence of the Lord in your life. You can see the beauty even amongst the ashes. You can overcome things you never thought possible, and it does require you to change your mind. You know, um, not just to agree with the word of God. It's like, yeah, that's a good idea, but to actually apply it to your life will require you to change and recognize that the way you lived your life before Christ wasn't exactly right or good, even though, you know, that's the way you learned how to live. God's got a better way for you. He's got an abundant life of freedom and joy and love, but you won't find it if you're going to hold on to your selfish ideals. About what life's all about. So we look to the teacher Jesus to show us the way. He is the Good Shepherd, and so when we follow him, we hear his voice and we follow him into the repentance, even if it's difficult and even if it costs us something, because it certainly will. It cost, you know, our freedom cost Jesus everything on the cross, and so we have to share in that cost through repentance. To experience all that he has for us. But it's a good, good life in Christ. We still enjoy our freedom, but we keep it in the boundaries of what God says is right. And we don't demand our own rights over our responsibilities and over the good sense that God would have us live by. So that's today's message. Um, I have to work. Like I said, it's going to be inclement weather out there, so I got an early start on the blog, and I have a ministry prep to do for a teaching on the Holy Spirit this week. Um, so we're gonna, we're gonna wrap it up here and pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. We thank you for works of art that we get to enjoy. We thank you for the creation you've made in the world and in our lives and everything you provided us for. Lord, today we, we thank you for all that. We, uh, we pray that you, uh, help us. We pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Lord, we all need your help and I need your help too. So I'm asking you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. All we want to do is represent you and your kingdom and become— can be more and more conformed to the image of Christ, to be more and more like Jesus. And the only way that's going to happen is through your help. So we just ask for that today. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.