Facing Father's Day: Purity 448

 Purity 448 06/18/2021  Purity 448 Podcast

Good morning

Today’s photo of sunrise over a rustic barn comes from a friend in Liberty Kentucky who gets up and goes out to enjoy the beauty that the Lord has made.   Because they were an early riser we get to enjoy this wonderful sight!

As the sunrises on the end of another work week, I am equally excited by the prospects of spending time with friends and family and also getting some rest this weekend. 

For anyone local, I will be going to the Saratoga Winery Saturday Night between 7 and 10pm to for a summer kickoff party with Capital Region's favorite party band...FUNK EVOLUTION!   Tickets are $10 per person and must be reserved in advance! I am including the link on FB and my blog for those who want to join me and get their groove on.   https://fb.me/e/1BlNY7IOB   With what’s coming Sunday, you might want to cut loose and have some fun.

That’s right: Heads up its Father’s Day on Sunday.  While there can be many varied thoughts and emotions that come up about that Hallmark Holiday depending on one’s relationship or lack of relationship with one’s earthly father, I just want to remind you that God, your heavenly father, loves you and always will.    

God commands us to honor our fathers, so I pray that those who hear this message do so in some way or use this year to make peace if your relationship is estranged.   Forgiving or asking for forgiveness is also commanded by God and it is the cure for bitterness.  Forgiveness or asking for forgiveness could be the act that can set both parties free and fix broken relationships.

So regardless of if you get funky Saturday night or have misgivings about Sunday afternoon, it is my prayer that all my friends have a peaceful weekend.   

**There are some technical issues with the mt4christ247 podcast on some platforms so I am advising to download the Podbean App and to subscribe to the podcast there because I am not sure if or when these issues will be fixed or if it was just a one day thing. Time will tell. **

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Romans 10:10 (NKJV)
¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Today’s verse gives us some helpful indicators of, or instructions for, salvation.    

“With the heart one believes unto righteousness”, This phrase alone when dissected challenges everything that the world would teach us about being declared righteous.  

First, it tells us to believe with our hearts. That points to an emotion or love which points to a relationship.  We don’t just believe intellectually; we must believe relationally and experientially.  “I think that too”.  Isn’t really going to do it.  We must believe with our hearts.  

Second, the revolutionary idea that our righteousness would be gained by what we believe is introduced.  The world system would teach us that our actions would determine if we were righteous or not.  The world would tell us that we must do good deeds and not do bad things to be righteous. But the word of God tells us that it is through our heart belief, our faith, that we are righteous.   

So this phrase challenges us to enter into a relationship with God with our hearts and tells us that when we do we will be righteous.   

The world doesn’t think in these terms. Belief for the world is mostly an “I think that too” type of mental categorization of preferences that is exemplified by concept of “fan-dom”. “I like that team too.”     

Running with that analogy, we all know that there are fair weather fans that are vocal when their team is winning but may go silent or completely abandon their affiliation with a team if their performance suffers for too long.  Then there are die hard fans who buy their teams products and who are dearly devoted to their team and who will never stop identifying with their team no matter how bad their performance may be.  

The fair-weather fan doesn’t believe with their heart. The die hard does.   So in terms of our faith we have to be “die hard” followers of Jesus Christ, where we believe with our mind, will, and our hearts.  

The second part of the verse: “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” shows us that if we really believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord we are going to speak about it.  We are going to make a verbal commitment to follow Jesus Christ by making Him our Lord and Savior.  Our belief is to be with the heart and when we believe with our heart you don’t have to convince us to speak about the One we love.  Our love for God will be clear because we will tell others about the acceptance, significance, and security that we have found in the saving relationship we have with Him through our faith in Jesus Christ.    

So if your belief is more in your head than in your heart, I encourage you to pray and meditate over the word of God, over who God is, and over the good things He has done.  A gateway to heart belief is gratitude and praise.  Thank God for who He is to you and your natural response should be to praise Him with your heart. 

Praise and gratitude can unlock a new dimension to your relationship with God.   When you believe with your heart, you experience the love that God has for you and when that happens experientially in your life, you are forever changed from just “thinking so” to “knowing so” when it comes to salvation and your relationship with God.    

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we continue with Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory Over the Darkness, continuing Chapter 3.

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Anderson’s books for your own private study and to support His work. If you need this title you can find it online at several sites for less than $15.00:

Relationship Versus Harmony

Considering all this emphasis on God's complete acceptance of us in Christ, you may be wondering, What happens to this ideal relationship with God when we sin? Does our failure interfere with God's acceptance of us? Let me respond by using a very simple illustration.

When I was born physically, I had a father. His name was Marvin Anderson. As his son, I not only have Marvin Anderson's last name, but I also have Marvin Anderson's blood coursing though my veins. Marvin Anderson and Neil Anderson are blood related.

Could I possibly do anything that would change my blood relationship to my father? What if I ran away from home and changed my name? I would still be Marvin Anderson's son, wouldn't I? What if he kicked me out of the house? What if he disowned me? Would I still be his son? Of course! We are related by blood and nothing can change that.

Could I do anything that would affect the harmony of our relationship as father and son? Yes, indeed—and by the time I was five years old I had discovered almost every way! My relationship with my father was never in jeopardy, but the harmony of our relationship was interrupted countless times by my behavior.

What determined whether I lived in harmony with my father? Trust and obedience. The relationship area was settled for life when I was born into Dad's family as his son. The harmony problem was addressed repeatedly as a result of my behavior and misbehavior. I discovered very early in life that if I obeyed Dad I lived in harmony with him. If I didn't obey him we were out of harmony. Whether we were in harmony or not, however, he was always my father.

In the spiritual realm, when I was born again I became a member of God's family. God is my Father and I enjoy an eternal relationship with Him through the precious blood of Christ (see 1 Peter 1:18, 19). As a child of God, can I do anything that will change my relationship with Him? Now I realize that I may step on some theological toes here. The question of eternal security is still a topic of debate among Christians. For the sake of this discussion, I am less concerned about that debate than I am about making a distinction between two separate areas. Our relationship with God is based on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by how we believe, not by how we behave.

A lot of Scripture supports the assurance of salvation. Paul asks in Romans 8:35: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" He then answers that no created thing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39). Jesus declared: "My sheep hear My voice, . . . and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:27, 28). I am a born-again child of God, in spiritual union with Him by His grace, which I received through faith. My relationship with God was settled when I was born into His family.

Can I do anything that will interfere with the harmony of my relationship with God? Absolutely! Harmony with God is based on the same concerns as harmony with my earthly father: trust and obedience. When I trust and obey God I live in harmony with Him. When I don't perfectly respond to God, the harmony of our relationship is disturbed and my life will reflect it. I love my heavenly Father and I want to live in harmony with Him, so I strive to live by faith according to what He says is true. Even when I fail to take Him at His Word or choose to walk by the flesh, my relationship with Him is not at stake, because we are related by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

God bless you all!

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” 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, and Audible.com. 

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship