Past Joy, Future Joy = Present Joy 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 14 – Purity 1070

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 a wide view of a magical sunset over the Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography, as Rocco Seja recently shared this shot from May 22nd, 2020 on social media again. Although Facebook isn't what it used to be, one of the things it still does right is that it causes us to look at our past by periodically reminding us of what we posted previously. It reminded Rocco of these shots, uh, this shot he took back, uh, took in 2020, and it caused him to share them again, blessing all his friends with their beauty. Either for the first time or as a memory of the first time Rocco shared it. Rocco's work and his decision to fondly recall it and share it again undoubtedly gave him joy, gave me joy, and now I am passing it along to all who see this message. Yep, joy is contagious, and if the fact that it's Friday doesn't cause you to rejoice and thank the Lord, I hope Rocco's photo brings a smile to your face. Anyway, while we can experience joy in the present moment by remembering good things in the past, we can also experience joy anticipating good things to come. While I know many people who are suffering through trials currently, we joyfully anticipate the time in the future when they will overcome by moving above and beyond their present difficulties or by accepting the conditions of their new normal with humility and contentment. Currently, I am suffering negative consequences due to the actions of others, myself, or just due to the nature of this fallen world. And as much as I have learned to meet problems head-on and to— and like to get 'er done, sometimes we run into situations where things are beyond our control and we just have to wait. On Thursday, Glo, one of Tammy Lynn's inherited cats, was viciously attacked by an unknown predator. She luckily had the strength to escape and has been treated by the vet, but she suffered a gaping bite wound to one of her hind legs and several other superficial puncture wounds from the predator's teeth. Even though the vet bill has been paid and Tammy Lynn will do all she can to make Glo comfortable, her healing is in God's hands now, as all healing in everything is, and we will have to wait to see when she will be her old self again. Although she will have to readjust to her new normal of being a housebound cat as her running out the door and roaming free days are over. So in spite of this latest calamity and, and, and the, and in, and the other calamities in friends' lives, or what, uh, boy, that was a mess. Anyway, we are here to remind ourselves and everyone else who hears or reads this message to Do everything you can to prevent and solve problems. Leave the rest up to God and anticipate good things to come. Romans 8:28 tells us, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." God is working all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And because I know that I love the Lord and am trying my best to continually answer the call of his purpose on my life. I know this truth applies to me and that I can anticipate good things coming my way. Even if I were to suffer the rest of my life here on earth, I know that I am guaranteed the good thing of being in God's kingdom in eternity, or when Christ comes to rule and reign on the earth. But I'm not just anticipating the joy of heaven. I am walking by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, and I experience the fruit of the Spirit as I go. So I have peace, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control, even in the midst of trials and traumas. So I continually look for the good and live my life in a way to continually experience joy. Gratitude for what I have right now gives me joy right now. Anticipating the good things to come, like healing, overcoming, and in my case tonight, being reunited with my loving wife at my countryside home, give me joy right now and in their future fulfillment. And finally, like Celestial Blue's photo from 2020, when I remember things of the past that were good, or how God helped me overcome the bad, I remember the joy of the past and experience it here in the present. And that brings us to our current series where I am walking through the 28-Day Joy Challenge 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 and Chris Corsi'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 Cursey on the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org. So let's jump into Day 14, which will direct us to remember an activity from our past that gave us joy. And the 28-Day Joy Challenge says, Day 14: Past Joy equals present joy. Welcome to Day 14 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: The exercises you are practicing have the ability to produce in you a healthier, more balanced brain and nervous system. What you are doing today will benefit your mind and body for the rest of your life. Way to go! Today's practice, Exercise 14: Our exercise today helps us to, helps us appreciate the past and understand more about ourselves. How this exercise will benefit you: remembering the good stuff from our past trains our brain to scan for the good stuff in the present. Exercise steps: reflect on a favorite activity you enjoyed from your childhood. Identify how you feel as you remember this activity. Share your thoughts with someone, including what was meaningful about this reflection exercise. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. And that's from our friends at 4habits.org. This morning, as I sat down to do today's joy practice, I thought back to my childhood days, thought about the different activities that I enjoyed doing as a kid. As a child of the late '70s and '80s, like many others from my generation, as spent a lot of time outside, as being indoors seemed to be a privilege we could only enjoy in times of inclement weather, as our parents would command us to get out of the house and to not come back until— back home until dinner. Recently, I saw one of my fellow Gen Xers post a video in response to a millennial who just couldn't understand why we drank from garden hoses as youths by asking, Didn't they have sinks in the past? To which she informed this entitled, clueless young man of, of the reality of our past, where we weren't allowed indoors and we were expected to survive on our own with the bare necessities. We didn't have cell phones. Video games were just emerging. We were— we really weren't allowed to watch TV, and we were told to entertain ourselves. Or to just go out and do something. In those days, we would play ball, not as a travel league. Sure, we had organized sports, but we also regularly played ball as a family or neighborhood pastime phenomenon. Baseball, football, basketball, catch, and weird unorganized games of our own creations were what we did. Cycling wasn't a hobby, it was a way of life. Almost every kid had a bike, and we would take, take them all over our local communities into outlying areas of barren wilderness— outlying barren wilderness areas as well. However, as much as those things were a part of virtually every kid in the '80s lives, the activity I decided to fondly recall with swimming. I was taught to swim at Oakdale Lake or pond in Hudson, New York, as Tim and Lee would say, a little bitty, and I loved it from the start. Our family would go on, go to outings at Lake Taconic State Park, vacations to Lake George, Cape Cod, Myrtle Beach, New Smyrna Beach in Florida, and my brothers and friends uh, would— and I would go to nearby creeks and to the quarries off of Newman Road. And as varied as all these locations were, they all had swimming in common. As a kid, my parents' dual income blessed us with the means to get an in-ground swimming pool. And as an adult, I enjoyed raising my kids with an above-ground swimming pool of my own. I have so many memories of the people, places, and things in my life where swimming was a highlight of times of joy. I love to swim with my family and friends, and I love to swim by myself. There's something about the freedom of movement and the refreshment that is found in the water that can be, that can be found nowhere else. And to this day, when I travel, I usually book accommodations where swimming is possible. Remembering all these things about swimming this morning filled me with joy over my past and has me thinking about planning a swimming outing in the near future. So what about you? What activity from your past gave you joy? Do you still do it today? Whether, whether if you, whether you are only remembering when or have plans to do that activity again soon, why not share your joy over it by sharing it with a friend. Um, when we share our joy, it spreads. So your fond remembrances of things that gave you joy can not only spark joy in your day today, but it can also bring joy to others. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible, Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Matthew 6:33, and And the Word of God says, "Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." Today's verse are the words of Jesus that give us two simple instructions that encompass the purpose of the lives of a Christian disciple. To borrow from the New King James Version, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Seeking the Kingdom of God is not only seeking a redeemed relationship with the Lord, but also involves seeking His wisdom and ways for our lives. His righteousness not only involves living righteously, it also points to Jesus, our means of righteousness. I recently commented on Matthew 6:33 during the last Bible study with the Sankatis on how deep and wide it is in its meaning and application. And will hold that it is a key verse for a disciple of Jesus Christ to live by. So seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and you will, you will see God give you everything you need. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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 The Holy Spirit by A.W. Pink. And today we begin chapter 9, which is on the work of the Spirit. Chapter 8 said it was going to look at the application, and here it is. So it begins the discussion on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and today's section examines how it works upon both the saved and the unsaved. So if you want to see how the Holy Spirit works in both the redeemed and the unredeemed, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see at the end of today's blog post what A.W. Pink has to say about that. As always, we encourage a life of joy and Christian discipleship, walking in the Spirit to experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives on a continuous basis, because It's not only beneficial for us, it is also our purpose as Christians to seek God's kingdom and to live righteously. So we encourage people to do that in a way that, you know, may go beyond, you know, the traditions of a local church worship service on a Sunday morning. We recommend a daily spiritual practice of prayer and Bible study. And of, you know, trying to live by the word of God, by doing good works as a means in life, a means of a lifestyle for our lives, to forsake the things of this world that are sinful, um, and unholy, for the good that God would have us think about and do. So if you don't know what he's talking about, I recommend you check out our discipleship teachings that we provide on the podcast and our YouTube channel, uh, M.t. for Christ 247, on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all based on the word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson from Freedom in Christ Ministries, of which I am a Community Freedom Ministry associate. And so I recommend doing those courses and going through the steps to freedom in Christ to resolve your personal and spiritual conflicts and to live free in Christ. And as always, we encourage Bible study as part of your daily spiritual practice and the way to get your— the wisdom of God's word into your mind, to renew it, and to give you the hope that is found in scripture. We recommend Bible study, and we do a Bible study of our own. As I said, we do a little program called Bible Study with Cottis, where myself, my wife, Arthur and Susanna Cincone gather around the Word of God to discuss the things of God and how they apply to our lives. So, well, it is Friday. I am very happy to be running out the door soon to go to work, but not just to go to work. I'm happy for what lies ahead. I'm anticipating a joyful reunion with my wife and Easton tonight. And I don't know what we have planned for the weekend, but the weather's nice. Maybe swimming somewhere because that's on my mind. Yeah, the hot weather doesn't, you know, it's nice, but you know, I want relief. And you know, hot weather without swimming is like a waste, you know, you just sweat. We should be refreshed with jumping into a body of water somewhere. So that's what I'm anticipating. I don't know if it'll be fulfilled or not, but it will be fulfilled as long as I'm able sometime this summer. As I stated, swimming is a joyful experience that I like to do. Anyway, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all you do for us and all you've provided for us in this world and through your Son, our Savior, and all the wisdom that's given to us in the Word of God. Lord, we just pray today for anyone who's listening or reading today's message. We pray for them to be blessed by you and guided by you into the things they should do, um, Lord, because we all need your help and guidance and strength to, to to go through this world and to overcome, uh, the things that happen to us. Um, so we ask for you to go before us today, set things up, and open our eyes to the things that you want us to see, and guide our paths in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom and to be a light in the darkness, to encourage people to find the life they could find in Jesus and the freedom, uh, that they can find when they follow him. So Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.