Purity 282 12/04/2020
Good morning and Thank God it’s Friday!
Today’s sunset photo comes from a friend’s vacation back in October to
Ocean Isle Beach North Carolina.
I share it because of its magnificent beauty and because it is a
reminder that the sun has set on yet another week of the continuing drama that
are the days of our lives.
As a leader of a Christian recovery ministry I have the privilege of assisting
those who come to the Lord for help with their hurts, habits, and hang-ups and
I am sometimes overwhelmed by the stories I hear about what my fellow brothers
and sisters in Christ have experienced and how the Lord has been faithful
beyond belief!
Several members of my church are known for their service and faithfulness
and it may make you wonder why these people have such faith. Why do they believe and behave like they do? Are
these just devout super saints? Are
they self-righteous and think they are holier than everybody else?
With my checkered past, when I came to faith in Christ I came with
extreme joy and extreme skepticism. I
wasn’t drinking the Kool-aide or going to “just believe, brother” with blind
faith. I came to Christ because the
gospel of faith alone was unlike anything I ever heard before because it assured
me of God’s forgiveness and my reconciliation with God.
This was awesome but if I was going to stay, I wanted to know this was
real. I wasn’t down to play along with some sort of “church game” where we
acted polite and nice on Sunday and went about our business as usual as soon as
we were out of “the building”. The
message that saved me was about forgiveness and promised a new life.
At first, I didn’t care about a new life, I was thrilled I wasn’t going
to hell! But I didn’t want to kid myself either. I wanted to know that what I
was experiencing was more than some sort of guilt response or mind game.
So I started to investigate my faith as I tried my best to follow the
Christian lifestyle. I found out that everything in the Bible was true,
although at times hard to understand. The thing that caused trouble for me was
that the word is very clear that those who are God’s change the way they live.
While previously bound to sin, we have been given freedom from it and
the power to overcome. So I trusted the
Lord, gave myself to Him, and He has led me through time and time again. I know God is alive and active in the earth
because He has been active in my life.
So for me there is no other choice, I’ve gone too far and seen too much
to do anything other than trust and serve Him in any way I can.
As I look at those other brothers and sisters who are known for their
service and faithfulness, I realize that the reason they are the way they are
is because God has moved in their lives too.
And in some cases, I don’t just mean they came to Christ and repented of
their sins and lead a good life now. For some, they have been literally healed
of cancer and tumors through the power of prayer. These testimonies confound medical reports
and all of modern science.
Miracles can easily be dismissed though, but for those who have received
after crying out to the Lord and appreciate what He has done, they give back to
the God that gave them so much by serving their fellow man and by continually
speaking the truth of Jesus Christ.
Miracles don’t save everybody though. Scripture tells of Christ healing
ten lepers with all but one walking away without acknowledging Jesus for what
He did. Nine of these lepers got their healing and left without saying a word.
But one of them gave thanks to the Lord and that one probably spent the
rest of his life not just telling about his healing but testifying of meeting
and knowing Jesus the Son of God.
Our faith can make us well, but Christ calls us to pick up our cross and
follow Him. We can make Him our Savior,
but we need to make Him our Lord. He has
a new life for those who endure and follow Him.
(There is More at
the restricted blog). Follow me on Twitter, MeWe, or Parler for easy
access. Blog M T 4 Christ dot org – This
is where the Facebook post ends.)
This morning’s
meditation verses were:
Romans 6:20-22 (NLT2)
20 When you were slaves to sin, you
were free from the obligation to do right.
21 And what was the result? You are
now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.
22 But now you are free from the
power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead
to holiness and result in eternal life.
These verses follow
yesterday’s meditation verse as Paul expounds on our freedom over sin.
As I indicated yesterday,
the keys to our victory is believing we are free and maintaining the Lord’s
presence in our lives.
But I like to keep
it real, this may sound simple but it certainly not easy. We have to
continually dedicate ourselves to the Lord’s ways of living and be careful not
to fall into our old habits that so easily can lead us astray.
The importance of
our Christian worldview and our intention to seek the Lord in all that we do can’t
be overstated. When we maintain these in
our attention, we can walk in victory.
But our walk is not
perfection. We will make mistakes. When
we do, we must remember that our miscues don’t change what Christ has done for
us. We are holy because we are His, not
because of what we do. Sin doesn’t nullify our salvation. However, it does
disrupt our harmony with the Lord.
The good news is
that our harmony and fellowship with God can re-established in a moment if we
just confess to Him our sin and ask Him for forgiveness and strength to walk in
His ways.
So go easy on
yourself if you step off the path, but make sure that you take the steps to get
in line with God again.
Today we conclude chapter 4 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope
Again, where the present the last area in which to resolve our personal
conflicts with God and assure us that help is available from the God of all
comfort.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and
encourage all to purchase Anderson’s books for your own private study and to
support his work:
Acquiescence
vs. Renunciation
The last step in helping others find freedom in Christ is
to renounce the sins of our past and our ancestors, actively take our
place in Christ and resist the devil.
The Ten Commandments reveal that the
iniquities of fathers can be visited upon the third and fourth generation. This
is evident in our society in the well-known cycles of abuse. Jesus said:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the
tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we
had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners
with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Consequently you bear witness
against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets"
(Matthew
23:29-31).
In other words, "Like father, like
son." We are not guilty of our fathers' sins, but because they
sinned we will have to live with the consequences of their sin. And we are
doomed to continue to live in the way we were taught by them unless we repent.
"A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully
trained, will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40). The
primary teachers in the first five years of our lives were our parents, and
much of our personality and temperament was established in those early and
formative years of our lives.
When God's Old Covenant believers
repented, they confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers (see Leviticus 26:39,
40; Neh. 1:5;
Neh. 9:2; Jeremiah 14:20; Daniel 9:10, 11).
We have the same responsibility today, "knowing that you were not redeemed
with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited
from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished
and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18,
19, emphasis added).
Every born-again Christian is a child
of God and a new creation in Christ. Don't let incomplete repentance, a lack of
faith in Him and unresolved conflicts keep you from experiencing your freedom
in Christ. This lack of connectedness with God often results in depression.
Help Is
Available
In Neil's book Helping Others Find Freedom in
Christ, he describes the discipleship process that has helped
thousands resolve their conflicts and find their freedom in Christ. Ultimately,
God is our only hope and we must live in harmony with Him if we are going to be
free from depression. These issues must be resolved and they can be. You can
resolve these personal and spiritual conflicts on your own by going through the
Steps
to Freedom in Christ in the appendix.
Those who are severely depressed will
also need the help and objectivity of a trained encourager. Such was the case
of a woman who attended one of Neil's seminars in Europe. She shared the
following testimony:
I
was born and raised in a very legalistic and abusive "Christian"
home. Church attendance was mandatory, but the physical and emotional abuse I
suffered at the hands of my parents distorted my concept of God. In our church
was a large sign that said, "God is love." But I had no idea what
love was. If what I experienced at home was supposed to be the love of God,
then I wanted no part of it. I moved away from my parents to attend college and
away from God. I finished my Ph.D. in psychology and worked as a professional
counselor for 20 years. During this time I suffered continuously from
depression. Finally I realized that I couldn't help myself, much less others,
so I went into educational psychology and finally into vocational psychology.
In desperation, I started to attend an international church.
A Sunday School class was going through a video series by Neil Anderson. I
learned who I was supposed to be in Christ and finally someone explained to me
the battle that was going on in my mind. I found out that there were trained
encouragers at the church who were taking people through the Steps to Freedom
in Christ. I made an appointment with great apprehension and much fear. I
didn't know what to expect but I knew I had nothing to lose and possibly much
to gain.
It was an amazing encounter with God. I could feel the
layers of self-righteousness, pride, rebellion, and sin come off. Every step
was meaningful to me, but the biggest release came when I forgave my parents
for their abuse and for distorting my concept of God. As soon as I was done, I
knew I was free from years of living in bondage to the lies I have believed
about God and myself. And I was connected to God in a living and liberating
way. His Spirit was now bearing witness with my spirit that I was a child of
God. I was set free. I never struggled with depression again.
The God of
All Comfort
God is your protection
You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in
your word (Psalm
119:114, NIV).
God
is always available when you need help
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in
trouble (Psalm 46:1,
NIV).
God
will not abandon you
I will never leave you nor forsake you (Joshua 1:5, NIV).
God
will comfort you in times of trouble
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we
ourselves have received from God (2 Cor. 1:3, 4,
NIV).
God
has a plan for you
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares
the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I
will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your
heart" (Jeremiah
29:11, 13,
NIV).
God
knows you intimately
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in
my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well (Psalm 139:13, 14,
NIV).
God
longs to help those who are hurting
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those
who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18, NIV).
Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.
------------------------------more
tomorrow--------------------------
God bless
you all!
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