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Friday, December 8, 2023

Learning and Loving in Failure - Purity 1217


 Learning and Loving in Failure - Purity 1217

Purity 1217 12/07/2023 Purity 1217 Podcast

Purity 1217 on YouTube:



Good morning,

Today’s photo of a pink and purple sunrise sky over the lands near my countryside home in Easton NY comes to us from TammyLyn Clark as my beloved wife captured this scene and shared it on social media, yesterday morning.  

Well, It is Friday, and I can’t wait for the workday to be done so I can be back with TammyLyn at our countryside home once again. There is nothing like being in the company of those you love and last night I had a bittersweet moment as I said goodbye to my friends from Deeper Walk’s School of Prayer Ministry as our classes came to an end.  It was really bittersweet in more ways than one as I will miss seeing them each week and as I had the unenviable position of wishing them congratulations on their successful certification while I have additional work to do to make the grade.  I meet with the school’s leadership on Tuesday to receive the development plan that I will have to follow to receive certification, but last night was all about celebrating what we have learned at the school and about one another.  

Yesterday morning I reached out to my classmates in a group email to give them the news that I didn’t get certified because I wanted them to know, because it didn’t feel right to hide it – going into our “graduation celebration”.  I didn’t want to go into our last meeting and “put on a happy face” with the secret of my failure between us.  I felt I had come too close to my classmates over the last 9 months to not tell them the truth even if it was painful or personally embarrassing.  

I also wanted to reach out to share the news of my “delay in certification”, that feels like rejection, or failure, for those few who also didn’t make it. In setting up my meeting for next week, my instructor indicated that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get certified, so I shared my bad news in the email also as an attempt to offer comfort and encouragement to whoever else didn’t get their certificate. Based on last night’s meeting though it appeared to me that most of my classmates did pass, as the group was asked by a show of hands “who has received their certificate in the mail already?”  I was shocked to see what appeared to be a sea of hands raise up and enthusiastically wave their indication that , yes, they had received their “golden tickets”, making me feel all the more foolish for offering my support to the “others” which may indeed only been one other who I didn’t see wave their hand.  I’ll have to go to the videotape to get a head count of those who didn’t make it to be sure but in considering the idea of “others who didn’t make it” , I had speculated over who “they” may be and I have to be honest in admitting that I was a little shocked, jealous, but pleased to see that some of the people I thought may have to do more work, were joyously indicating their success.  

OOF, misery loves company and I guess a part of me wanted to have my failure validated as “common” with more of my classmates NOT making it.  But they did! And I’m glad they did. While it makes my failure all the more embarrassing and rarer, I am genuinely happy that the people I consider to be my friends didn’t have to go through what I went and am yet to go through.   When you love somebody you want them to prosper and can take joy in their success even when you can’t share in it personally.   

And honestly, that’s what I did last night. Because I had revealed my undisclosed failure, I was able to go into our last meeting with no bitterness or fear and was able to really enjoy our farewell proceedings and honestly congratulate and thank everyone for being a part of my life journey over the last nine months.  The people I have met through the Deeper Walk School of Prayer Ministry are dear to me and I was blessed to discover that they appreciated me too.  

Before the meeting, my email disclosing my failure was responded to by a few who graciously offered their support and kind words of encouragement.  Last night during the meeting, I received private chats messages from others thanking me for my contributions to the group and offering their love and support.  And most shocking of all, one of my fellow students went out of their way to say kind words about me in front of everyone during the Zoom meeting and the instructor of the class, who didn’t certify me – mind you – shared some very encouraging words about me too.   

So even though I didn’t make the grade and have more work to do if I want to receive my “golden ticket” of certification, I felt that my time in the school was well spent as I have learned a lot – far more than the lesson material – and feel that being humbled in this way was perhaps the best thing to help me grow, more than if I had just “passed with flying colors”.   I had idolized the people at Deeper Walk and was somewhat prideful about getting that certification and I think it was fitting to receive this humble pie, to show me that everything I have received has come from God and I shouldn’t idolize or put pride in anything other than Him.

This chapter and over and to be continued and even though it was a shock a disappointment, I will always think of my time at the Deeper Walk School of Prayer Ministry and the people I was able to meet there as a significant part of my Joyful journey through life and my getting even closer to God.  

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.

( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This morning’s meditation verse come from the section on Church Discipline.

Romans 15:14 (NIV2011)
14  I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

Today’s verse is the first of two verses that fall under the first point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Church Discipline

1.    Discipline begins with personal admonition.

Today’s verse encourages those in the body of Christ that we are more than capable to instruct one another when we are full of the goodness and knowledge that comes from knowing the Lord.    God’s ways are higher than our ways and when we come to faith we need faithful men and women who have walked with the Lord to show us how to live as Christians.  

I benefited from Deeper Walk’s School of Prayer Ministry, but before that I have had the privilege of being educated and ministered to by a whole cloud of witnesses in the body of Christ – my Bible College program, Master’s program in Christian Counseling, Training with Freedom In Christ Ministries, my personal Mentorship by Pastor Bob Costello, and countless Christian podcast, articles, and books have instructed me in the goodness and knowledge of what it means to be a Christian and to be free in Christ. And while none of the people I have encountered along the way were perfect – their desire to show and share the love and wisdom of the Lord came from a heart filled with God’s perfect love.   

While our resource rightly calls it “discipline” because we need to be diligent in applying God’s ways to our lives, learning the Christian way of life should always include the fruit of the Spirit of patience, goodness, faithfulness, and love. Yes we need to know a lot, but our following Jesus will also cause us to love a lot if we are being truly instructed in His goodness and knowledge.  

So seek knowledge and wisdom but be sure to apply it to your heart to really know the Lord.

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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.   

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.

God is in the Manger – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ADVENT WEEK TWO -  MYSTERY

DAY SIX

The Mysteries of God

No priest, no theologian stood at the manger of Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology has its origin in the wonder of all wonders: that God became human. Holy theology arises from knees bent before the mystery of the divine child in the stable. Without the holy night, there is no theology. “God is revealed in flesh,” the God-human Jesus Christ—that is the holy mystery that theology came into being to protect and preserve. How we fail to understand when we think that the task of theology is to solve the mystery of God, to drag it down to the flat, ordinary wisdom of human experience and reason! Its sole office is to preserve the miracle as miracle, to comprehend, defend, and glorify God’s mystery precisely as mystery. This and nothing else, therefore, is what the early church meant when, with never flagging zeal, it dealt with the mystery of the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ.… If Christmas time cannot ignite within us again something like a love for holy theology, so that we—captured and compelled by the wonder of the manger of the Son of God—must reverently reflect on the mysteries of God, then it must be that the glow of the divine mysteries has also been extinguished in our heart and has died out.

Wonder is the only adequate launching pad for exploring this fullness, this wholeness, of human life. Once a year, each Christmas, for a few days at least, we and millions of our neighbors turn aside from our preoccupations with life reduced to biology or economics or psychology and join together in a community of wonder. The wonder keeps us open-eyed, expectant, alive to life that is always more than we can account for, that always exceeds our calculations, that is always beyond anything we can make.

Eugene Peterson

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:15–20[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

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  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)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 28–29.

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Love is Spoken Here & Who Does God Say You Are? – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement Purity 1216

Love is Spoken Here & Who Does God Say You Are? – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement Purity 1216

Purity 1216 12/06/2023 Purity 1216 Podcast

Purity 1216 on YouTube:



Good morning,

Today’s photo three Christmas trees shining bright, with the proclamation that “Love is Spoken Here” displayed prominently in between, in the front lobby of my local church, comes from yours truly as I had the privilege last night to have the place to myself after hours and decided to capture this peaceful moment that celebrates the Christmas season and tells us what the gospel is all about – love!

John 3:16 (NKJV) tells us
16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Well, It’s Thursday, and although I usually like to share pathway photos on Thursdays to visually encourage my friends to get on or stay on the path of Christian Discipleship, sometimes you have to show a photo of where you should be going, so in this case, I am subtly pointing out that if you are following Jesus, you should find yourself at church! Quite regularly as a matter of fact!

I can’t tell you what an amazing honor and joy it is to be in our Father’s house, the church, serving in whatever capacity you can.  When you serve the church, the church becomes your home and there is no awkwardness in making yourself at home in the Lord’s presence, because He loves you and wants you to stay with Him.

The gift of God’s love is really experienced in the church and the best gift we can give one another in the body of Christ is each other in our presence, our fellowship, our comfort, our help, and our encouragement. I love the support I receive from my family, the church, and don’t mind leaning on my brothers and sisters in Christ because we are family.  

So after a long Wednesday of work and ministry, I don’t feel shy in getting a little help from my friend in the UK, Mindful of Christ’s Lauren Roskilly, who sends out a weekly “Word for Wednesday” that I always find encouraging. So, I am sharing it here on the blog, today.   You can sign up to get Lauren’s Word for Wednesday and other valuable Christian resources from her by going to https://mindfulofchrist.net/ .

Lauren shares:

1 Peter 2:10 (NIV2011)
10  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Lauren writes: 

Who does God say you are?

 

Have you ever wondered who you are?

Perhaps you're still wondering!?

 

Well, If you are a believer you belong to God and His kingdom. You are a child of Christ. & You have Christ in you.

 

Who does God say you are?

 

You are Chosen...

You are loved…

You are wonderfully made…

You are adopted into His family…

You have been given gifts & skills…

You have plans and a purpose for life…

 

Do you believe these in your heart of hearts? Well, you should. So check out these verses and meditate on what God says about you, look into a mirror and repeat these. It may be uncomfortable at first but with repetition, you will come to know these as truth & and accept who you are in Christ.

 

Blessings

Lauren x”

Thank You Lauren! Any encouragement that points out our Identity in Christ and that we are a family in the body of Christ is a good encouragement to me!  

Lauren also offers a free poster of Affirmations – Biblical Truths for Identity and I am sharing it a link so you can get yours (https://mindfulofchrist.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e7594469f7467301d13e436b3&id=a84fa6abbb&e=539e18b8b8) like I got mine.  I printed mine out on card stock and as it is Christmas time – it wouldn’t make a bad gift to a brother or sister in Christ. Just frame it and present it and you could give a fellow saint a gift that shares the truth of their identity in Christ that they can enjoy the whole year round.  

Who we are in Christ is the most important thing about us and when we live in that truth and enjoy of the fellowship with other Christians that know it too, we really can experience the love that God so freely gave us.  

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.

( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This morning’s meditation verse come from the section on Church, Communion of the Saints.

Revelation 7:9 (NASB)
9  After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;

Today’s versesfall under the eighteenth and final point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Church, Communion of the Saints.

 18. The church is a great multitude gathered from all nations and tribes.

 

 

Today’s versespoint to a blessed day yet to come for all who put their faith in Jesus. This scene from Revelation reveals that the church is a great multitude from every tribe and tongue who will one day gather together to celebrate the culmination of God’s kingdom being fully established!  

 

Joy to the world is the song that will be sung when the saints go marching in, in our white robes and palm branches in hand, to proclaim the victory and peace that the Lord has won.  

 

 

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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.   

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.

God is in the Manger – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ADVENT WEEK TWO -  MYSTERY

DAY FIVE

The Power and Glory of the Manger

For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied he sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope; they are judged.…

Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Luke 1:46–55[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

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  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)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 26–27.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Be A Living Christmas Display of Faith - Purity 1215

Be A Living Christmas Display of Faith - Purity 1215

Purity 1215 12/05/2023 Purity 1215 Podcast

Purity 1215 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of “the Hiwassee River, from along what was once the main way into town, before the dam was constructed in 1940, creating Hiwassee Lake,” comes to us from Fred Dimmick who shared this scene on Sunday, reporting that the River’s/Lake’s “water is down about 7 feet for the winter” showing us that man’s efforts, a dam, can affect the world but try as we might some things, like the seasons, are completely in God’s hands.  

Well, It’s Wednesday and I share Fred’s photo which features a reflection of the sky on the water’s surface that looks rather mountainous as a visual reminder that we will be reaching the summit of another work week sometime today, Happy Hump Day to you.  

Well, it is December 6th, and depending on how you number your days, we either have 19 or 18 days until Christmas, as many consider Christmas Eve to be Christmas and others base their “days until Christmas” count on the time of the day from you are counting.  Either way, Christmas is coming, and I hope that all who read this will keep Christ in Christmas as the more I see of the holiday displays that go up, the more I wonder if people know the reason for the season.    

Driving around the capital district of upstate NY I am delighted to see people decorate their homes for Christmas but wonder and worry about those who are erecting monuments to “secular Christmas” or are sharing general nonspecific “season’s greetings” that promote “peace” or “joy” as general sentiments but don’t share the means to true peace and joy – a covenant relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.  

I love some of the cartoons, animated, and live action “Christmas” TV. shows and movies from my youth but as we have moved forward in time, I fear these “holiday classics” from years gone by are being elevated a little too high in people’s esteem as huge holiday displays are erected and merchandise is sold that celebrate characters from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, “The Grinch”, “Elf”. Home Alone, “A Christmas Story”, and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” – rather than pointing to the light of the world – Jesus Christ.   I fear that as merry as these things may make people or even cause them to remember fondly Christmases of the past and family gatherings around the old Boob Tube, they are missing the most important thing about Christmas and about life itself – Jesus.   And not for nothing, some of these “holiday classics” don’t even mention His name.  

Our eternal destiny has everything to do with our relationship to Jesus and when I see Christmas holiday displays that lack anything that points to my Lord and Savior, I remember those scary verses in the Bible where Jesus proclaims “I never knew you” to those who thought they were “safe” but weren’t.  

It is only faith in Jesus that can save us, of course, and our outward expressions of what we proclaim to believe won’t matter in the end because it’s genuine faith in the heart that is only discerned by God that will be the determining factor of our salvation,  but Jesus did say that you would know His disciples by their fruit.  And when I see no discernable reverence for or relationship with Jesus, but see lots of general holiday hoopla, I shudder to consider the spiritual condition of those who make merry in December but don’t reflect the Lord’s light any other time of the year.  

While I don’t know the hearts of men, I have to think that the less your holiday displays and celebrations have to do with Jesus, the more likely it is that you are on the outside of God’s kingdom.  

Believe me as a former agnostic, lukewarm “believer”, cultural congregational attendee, and atheist, I can fully understand the angst that people can have toward “organized religion” but no number of negative experiences that we have had with “supposed members of the Body of Christ” or those pesky “hypocrites in the church” should ever get in the way of our giving honor and glory to Jesus at Christmas.   If we profess to believe in Jesus, we should know that He is the only way to God and He should not take a back seat to anything else when we go to celebrate Christmas.  

If we have concerns with those “phony” Christians or hypocrites in the church, we have to do our part to represent the Light of the world by being “Real Christians” by sharing and showing the love of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ with the way we live our lives.  We have to turn from the world’s ways to God’s ways and let His Holy Spirit change us and demonstrate that God is alive and well and affecting the lives of men on earth.  

Instead of putting up a big display that celebrates fictional characters of holiday films or tv shows, we should proclaim Jesus – not just with quaint manger scene – but with the way we live our lives.  

So draw close to God this Christmas season and let people know the reason for the season all year round by walking and talking with God and by being a living display of His power and glory on the earth every day.

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.

( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Church, Communion of the Saints.

Jesus’ high priestly prayer

John 17:6-26 (NKJV)
6  "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
7  Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.
8  For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
9  I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
10  And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
11  Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13  But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
14  I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17  Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19  And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
20  "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21  that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
23  I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24  Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
25  O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.
26  And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

Today’s verses fall under the seventeenth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Church, Communion of the Saints.

 17. Jesus prays for the church.

Today’s verses display Jesus’s love for us and His desire that His joy be fulfilled in us through our sanctification by His word and in following Him. Jesus’ high priestly prayer shows that, we are not all God’s children as Jesus specifically prays for those who believe in Him, and who will believe in Him – that’s us. As Jesus’ disciples’ let’s be an answer to this prayer by seeking to represent Jesus on the earth by following His example and sharing His message of hope and faith in Him alone.

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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.   

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.

God is in the Manger – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ADVENT WEEK TWO -  MYSTERY

DAY FOUR

The Scandal of Pious People

The lowly God-man is the scandal of pious people and of people in general. This scandal is his historical ambiguity. The most incomprehensible thing for the pious is this man’s claim that he is not only a pious human being but also the Son of God. Whence his authority: “But I say to you” (Matt. 5:22) and “Your sins are forgiven” (Matt. 9:2). If Jesus’ nature had been deified, this claim would have been accepted. If he had given signs, as was demanded of him, they would have believed him. But at the point where it really mattered, he held back. And that created the scandal. Yet everything depends on this fact. If he had answered the Christ question addressed to him through a miracle, then the statement would no longer be true that he became a human being like us, for then there would have been an exception at the decisive point.… If Christ had documented himself with miracles, we would naturally believe, but then Christ would not be our salvation, for then there would not be faith in the God who became human, but only the recognition of an alleged supernatural fact. But that is not faith.… Only when I forgo visible proof, do I believe in God.

The kingdom belongs to people who aren’t trying to look good or impress anybody, even themselves. They are not plotting how they can call attention to themselves, worrying about how their actions will be interpreted or wondering if they will get gold stars for their behavior. Twenty centuries later, Jesus speaks pointedly to the preening ascetic trapped in the fatal narcissism of spiritual perfectionism, to those of us caught up in boasting about our victories in the vineyard, to those of us fretting and flapping about our human weaknesses and character defects. The child doesn’t have to struggle to get himself in a good position for having a relationship with God; he doesn’t have to craft ingenious ways of explaining his position to Jesus; he doesn’t have to create a pretty face for himself; he doesn’t have to achieve any state of spiritual feeling or intellectual understanding. All he has to do is happily accept the cookies, the gift of the kingdom.

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:23–25[1]

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 24–25.