The Music of Our Lives - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 21 – Purity 1077

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 sunset sky comes to us from self-published author and Christian life coach Lauren Roskillie, who shared this scene from an evening's walk at Beach Head, Beachy Head, Eastbourne in the UK on social media back on June 20th. Lauren heads Mindful of Christ Ministries and just celebrated 1,000 Amazon sales of her first of her 5 books since 2017. That might not sound like much, but that's not bad for a mom of 2 who, before coming to Christ in 2004, suffered, suffered from ups and downs with her mental health. The Lord has transformed Lauren's life, giving her victory over depression, anxiety, and the tendency to self-harm. Arm, which caused her to make it her mission in life to help others to tackle mindset difficulties in discovering their identity and purpose in Christ. I was honored to be on the launch team of her book Indestructible Faith in 2022, and I am happy to see her continue to succeed. So I'm sharing the links, uh, to the Mindful of Christ website, Facebook group and her YouTube channel today. Well, it's Saturday, and even though my throat is still sore, I can have joy for Lauren's success and joy that I am at my countryside home with my life— wife, Tammy Lynn. If misery loves company, I wouldn't know it, because even though my physical condition isn't optimal, I am trying and succeeding at keeping a positive outlook on life. If anything, my weakened condition has me more appreciative of my health and the things that the Lord has done in my life. After I woke up this morning with throat still feeling raw, I momentarily wondered if I should give my voice a rest and skip doing the podcast today. But almost immediately, my mind thought of some old lines from my angry gangster rap phase and Eminem's Till I Collapse, which begins with Slim Shady's— a Slim Shady motivational speech that says, 'Cause sometimes you just feel tired, feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you want to just give up. But you gotta search within you, try to find that inner strength, and just pull that bleep out of you and get that motivation. To not give up and to not be a quitter, no matter how bad you just want to fall flat on your face and collapse. And then M. Mathers launches into a rapid-fire obscenity-laced song that I won't be quoting here that speaks of the passion he has for his craft and how nothing short of death would stop him performing. Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out, till his legs give out, Eminem can't shut his mouth apparently. And if he can't— and if he can have such passion for the musical art form that took him from rags to riches, I certainly can— I can certainly muster up enough strength to do my little blog and podcast to give glory to the one who took me from death to life. It is funny how music can be such a force in our lives. Even old secular music that we never listen to anymore can come to mind to remind us of where we have come from, what we have been through, and to even inspire us to keep going with the intention to walk by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Music plays a huge part of my story, as the soundtrack to my life would be a vast and varied one. That would reflect all the different chapters of this incredible journey. Music can comfort us in times of trouble or bring us to heights of joy as we celebrate life. 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 through simple practices of quieting and appreciation. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner and 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 the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org. So, let's jump into Day 21, which will direct us to reflect on a favorite memory involving music that gives us joy. And the 28-Day Joy Challenge says, Day 21: Musical Memories. Welcome to Day 21 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: Take the time to breathe deeply and quiet— and quiet yourself before each exercise. When we are relaxed and peaceful, the joy practice can be a much more positive and meaningful experience. Today's Practice: Exercise 21. Today we practice attuning to our own feelings in the past and expressing them to others. How this exercise will benefit you: Music evoked autobiographical memory is a process where we remember something because we hear familiar music. Music activates memories of past events, people, and places. Exercise steps: What is a favorite memory around music that brings a smile to your face? Close your eyes and sit for a few minutes, enjoying the details of the memory. Share your meaningful music moment with a friend. Have fun with this exercise, and we pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. And that's from our friends from 4habits.org, and we won't pick up tomorrow with Tomorrow's Joy practice because we only do it 6 days a week. Um, but, uh, you know, we will be having a prayerfully having a Bible study with the Sincatis tomorrow that you can join us. Anyway, um, be advised my reflection would probably go against the directions of the good people at 4habits.org who would, who would wisely advise us to select joyful memories that are simple and pure and free from the quote-unquote splinters of pain. Uh, as a student of Deeper Walk International School of Prayer Ministries, I've learned that as we attempt to prepare people to resolve personal and spiritual conflicts with Emmanuel or real prayer, we begin with setting the stage by directing them to remember something joyful. And it is ideal to have them focus on something simple to begin with because the process can be complicated enough as it is, as it is, and we don't need to deal with trauma that surrounds a joy, a joy memory. For instance, um, while getting, uh, the news that your cancer scare was only a scare could be a moment where you experience real joy, it isn't really an ideal memory for establishing the baseline of joy for prayer ministry because it comes from a place of some real fear and dread. And the idea is to establish a good place to start from before directing prayer ministry clients to consider more disturbing territory. But this is my life, and there has been quite a bit of trauma. But don't worry, we are not going there. Um, but as I thought of memories where music was involved that evoked feelings of joy, a lot of them had to do with my overcoming hard times. And as difficult as those times were, the associations I had with the music are especially joyous because of the struggles I faced. I have a whole playlist on YouTube called the Empty for Christ Worship Playlist that is full of songs that give me joy and give God glory because they were songs that I listened to and sang along with as I grew in my faith and maturity in Christ. And the link for that's on the blog today if you'd want to listen. Um, you don't get— for me, you know, you don't get the joy of overcoming without overcoming something. And I have quite— I have had quite a journey individually. Well, me and the Holy Spirit, right? But as I thought about music that held a joyful memory this morning, I thought of Kenny G's version of Auld Lang Syne. And the link for that's on the, on the blog as well. I suppose lots of people love that song because of New Year's, but it became extremely meaningful and joy-producing to me because I married Tammy Lynn on New Year's Day of 2022. And while our love story is amazing and sweet just because of how we both had the intention of following the Lord with our lives and he used that desire to bring us together, our story is even more joyous because of the fact that because of the fact that our love story was the culmination of us both overcoming quite a bit of suffering. So when I hear that instrumental song, it represents not only the love of my life and I finding one another and committing ourselves to one another, it also represents the journey, uh, the years of suffering. Not surprisingly, when I hear that song, I get choked up. Because it represents love and victory, a sense that we made it, we won, and we love. That great, uh, that great was the confusion and darkness of this world and our former lives, but because of the Lord, we made it, and it is going to be a happy new year from now on, come what may. And no sore throat or other negative circumstance that we may encounter in the future will ever take that away from us, because our joy is a gift from the Lord, and his gifts are eternal. So what about you? What memory around music gives you joy? What song, circumstance, and someone do you remember? I hope it's a good one, preferably free from those pain splinters. But regardless of what may surround your joy, I hope that you remember it. Feel the joy today. And share it. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Ephesians 6:18, and the word of God says, pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. Today's verse encourages us to pray in the Spirit at all times, on every occasion, and for all believers everywhere. Talk about an all-encompassing direction. When? At all times, on every occasion. Sounds like walking and talking God to me. And for you? And for who? For every believer everywhere. That will give you one long prayer list. While this may seem impossible, I believe that the Apostle Paul was being serious, uh, that disciples of Jesus Christ should practice prayer continually, that we should persist in our conversation with God all the time. And before you go off pondering what praying in the Spirit means, consider the act of praying at all times, on every occasion, for all believers everywhere to be the definition of it. It's self-explanatory. To be praying in the Spirit is to be continuously in prayer. To continuously be walking and talking with God, to be living in the Spirit. I have heard teaching on praying in the Spirit that indicated that it means praying Scripture in accordance with God's will, or even praying in tongues. Oh boy, quite the mystery there. But I believe that praying in the Spirit is staying God-conscious and keeping the conversation going continuously. And obviously not going against God's Word, and in whatever language you feel the Lord is calling you to speak. There are many different ways to pray, and I don't practice them all. I wouldn't recommend them all, but I wouldn't seek to prohibit any of them that lead to God's will being done on earth. So pray in the Spirit by praying at all times, on every occasion, for all the believers everywhere. 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 A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and we're sharing from chapter 10 on the Holy Spirit regenerating. And today's topic is regeneration of existing, not new faculties. So if you want to know what A.W. Pink's I suggest you go to mtforchrist.org, and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship and walking in the Spirit. That's, you know, being God-conscious, talking— walking and talking with God as you go through this world, and agreeing with the truth of what Scripture says. It's not just some ultra-spiritual quest that's not based on anything.— it's based on the truth of God's Word and it's grounded in the faith in Jesus Christ. As always, we encourage people to check out our discipleship classes of teaching that are available on the podcast for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, which are all based on the Word of God and Dr. Neil Anderson's teachings. And we always recommend Bible study as well. If you want to join our Bible study, we do one each week with Arthur and Susanna Zinkadi, and you can check those out under the heading of Bible Study with the Zinkadis. Well, it's Saturday. My voice is labored, but I am doing my best to keep positive, and I think I'm doing okay with that. And, uh, but I do want to cut it short and just pray, and, uh, let's do that. Let's, let's go. Uh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you, uh, for another day in your kingdom. And Lord, until I collapse, I will give praise and glory to you, and ever with every day of my life. I don't know how long I have and how long that'll be, but every day I'm able, I'll, uh, I'll praise you even without a voice in my spirit. Um, Lord, we just thank you for what you've done, uh, on this journey of life and And, um, Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that they be blessed, that you come alongside them in their prayer requests. Um, some other people need a lot more healing than I do, and, uh, you know, whether it's loss or physical or mental, um, or we just pray for anyone who's listening who needs help today, Lord. And, uh, we just pray for you to go before us, show us, uh, show us what you want us to see today. And, uh, move us in the way we should go. Because, Lord, all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom. We thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.