The Chosen: A Picture of Real-Life Discipleship to Follow
Purity 471 07/15/2021 Purity 471 Podcast
Good morning
Today’s photo of the Towpath Trail near Lock 19 of
the Historic Erie Canal in Vischer Ferry NY comes to us from a friend who
decided to get out and stretch their legs with their daughter one evening back
in June. Considering the green peaceful tranquility of the Towpath Trail, it’s no
surprise that our friend referred to the as their “happy place”.
Well, it’s Thursday again and as is my habit I
just had to share another photo that featured a pathway as I will be teaching a
discipleship class tonight at Rock Solid Church in Hudson NY, and I wish to
encourage others to pursue a deeper relationship with God by choosing to seek
to know Him more by walking on the path of Christian Discipleship.
Unfortunately, I have discovered that there are
Christians who genuinely love the Lord but who have some real questions and
concerns about their faith that are not addressed in their weekly church services
and that their questions remain unanswered as they try to balance living by
faith and living in the world. Their
desire for understanding is just repressed as they press on with their lives encouraging
themselves to “just obey” or to “just do what works” because they don’t have
anyone that they feel will be able to explain how to live by faith in the power
of the Holy Spirit, or they would be a bother to those they inquire of, or they
would ask someone only to receive platitudes or an attitude that would be
accusatory and would result in forced service.
The result of this lack of a discipleship platform
or relationship is either frustration, with Christians “trying to do everything
right” by the sweat of their own brow, or hopelessness, resulting in Christians
living much like they did before coming to Christ because they really believe
living by faith is only for the “super spiritual saints” who have “real faith”.
Unfortunately, very few Christians know what
discipleship is and our world’s dog eat dog attitudes keep us from being
vulnerable to one another and asking for help so instead of coming together to
encourage one another in our walk and our understanding, we put on masks of
Christian wholesomeness once a week and then just do our own thing because we don’t
trust one another with the truth of our lives. We don’t know what discipleship looks like, so
we just do “us”.
While I have a love/yikes relationship with the
show, “The Chosen” I think that one of the things that the show gets right is
the complexity of the discipleship relationships between the Apostles. Seasons
1 & 2 of The Chosen have put flesh to the pages of scripture, and developed
their own speculative narratives, by presenting a picture of the human frailties
of Christ’s disciples. The disciples don’t
always get along. They fight. They argue. They insult one another. They
struggle to understand what Jesus is trying to teach them and they don’t know where
His leadership is leading them.
But they all somehow know that Christ won’t lead
them astray and that they really have no choice to follow Him because of who He
is, the Messiah. And as much as the
Apostles may dislike one another at times, they have one thing in common: Jesus
and their desire to follow Him. So after the arguments and disagreements are
settled, they encourage one another to keep going, they help one another in their
work, and they teach one another what they have learned.
Following the Lord’s will for our lives and loving
our neighbors as our selves is not easy, but when we receive the Lord’s love
and pursue Him out of love, we reflect His earliest disciple’s lives who
surrendered themselves to share their lives and all their knowledge of the Lord
with others.
Tonight, I teach about how part of pursuing the
Lord involves recognizing the enemy and how the lure of obtaining power and
special knowledge can lead people to follow false prophets and fall into
darkness. If you are not local, you can catch
the class later tonight on the mt4Christ247 podcast.
Instead of following some new age teaching, we
need to draw close to one another and to the Lord and choose to only seek the
truth comes from His word. For His word is truth and if you know the Truth, the
Truth will set you free.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Mark 12:26-27 (NKJV)
26 But
concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in
the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?
27 He is not
the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly
mistaken."
Today’s verses are the words of Jesus who assures us that our
lives are not extinguished at death and that God knows us personally.
This passage is a part of Jesus’ response to some Sadducees
who decided to ask about the continuity of marriage relationships after death.
The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, so their convoluted
question was posed with a spirit of skepticism and was most likely intended to
simultaneously trip up Jesus and prove their point.
However, the thing with Jesus is that in the scriptures his
answers often confound the one’s asking the questions.
In these verses, Jesus not only confirms that the dead will
rise but He also indicates that aspects of our soul, our personal identities,
and personalities, will transcend death.
What we see on earth as dead and gone is alive and living with God and
is awaiting the Day that Christ will lead the resurrected saints to judge and
reclaim the earth.
If you’ve read your Bible, you know that Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob all have their unique histories, faults, and personalities. By Christ affirming that God claimed that He
is the God of these patriarchs of the faith, He was not only acknowledging
their spiritual heritage as His people, but He was also telling us that the uniqueness
that make each one of us who we are, remains intact and that God knows each of
us personally.
By concluding by telling the Sadducees that they are “greatly
mistaken”, Jesus confirms that there will be a resurrection of the dead.
So, any atheistic dreams of blinking out of existence are
dismissed from Christ Himself.
But we need not fear Jesus’ words for He is the way to life
everlasting. He is calling all men to
place their faith in Him and as today’s verses show us, God knows us personally
and He wants everyone of us to be in that number when the saints go marching
in.
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, concluding Chapter 7.
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:
The Goal
Is to Become the Person God Called You to Be
It should be obvious by now that God's basic goal for
your life is character development: becoming the person God wants you to be.
Sanctification is God's goal for your life (see 1 Thes. 4:3).
Nobody and nothing on planet Earth can keep you from being the person God
called you to be. Certainly, a lot of distractions, diversions,
disappointments, trials, temptations, and traumas come along to disrupt the
process. Every day you will struggle against the world, the flesh, and the
devil, each of which are opposed to your success at being God's person.
Paul teaches that the tribulations we
face are actually a means of achieving our supreme goal of maturity: "We
also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does
not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:3-5).
James offers similar counsel:
"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance
have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
nothing" (James
1:2-4).
The word "exult" means
heightened joy. To be under tribulation means to be under pressure, and
perseverance means to remain under pressure. Persevering through tribulations
results in proven character, which is God's goal for us.
Suppose a Christian wife asked for
help because her husband had just left her. What kind of hope could you give
her? Would you say, "Don't worry, honey, we'll win him back"? That is
a legitimate desire, but is a wrong goal that could lead to manipulation and
control. Attempts to manipulate him to come back may be the same kind of
controlling behavior that caused him to leave in the first place.
It would be better to say, "I
will help you work through this crisis (perseverance) to become the person God
wants you to be (proven character). If you haven't committed yourself to be the
wife and mother God has called you to be, would you now? You can't change him,
but you can change yourself, which is the best way to win him back anyway. Even
if he doesn't come back, you can come through this crisis with proven
character, which is where your hope lies."
She may rightly ask, "What if the
problem was 90 percent his?" She doesn't have any control over that. By
committing to change herself, she is responsibly dealing with what she can
control. Her transformation may be just the motivation her husband needs to
change himself and restore the relationship.
Trials and tribulations reveal wrong
goals, but they can actually be the catalyst for achieving God's goal for our
lives, which is our sanctification—the process of conforming to His image.
During these times of pressure, our emotions raise their warning flags,
signaling blocked, uncertain, or impossible goals based on our desires instead
of God's goal of proven character.
Someone may say, "My marriage is
hopeless," and then try to solve the problem by changing partners. If you
think your first marriage is hopeless, be aware that second marriages are
failing at a far higher rate. Others think their jobs or churches are hopeless.
So they change jobs, only to discover their new job or church is just as
hopeless. They should hang in there and grow up. Now, there may be legitimate
times to change jobs or churches, but if we are just running from our own
immaturity, it will follow us wherever we go.
Is there an easier way to being God's
person than through enduring tribulations? Believe me: I have been looking for
one. I must honestly say, though, that it has been the dark, difficult times of
testing in my life that have brought me to where I am today. We need occasional
mountaintop experiences, but the fertile soil for growth is always down in the
valleys of tribulation, not on the mountaintops.
Paul says, "The goal of our
instruction is love" (1 Tim. 1:5).
Notice that if you make that your goal, then the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy (instead of depression), peace (instead of anxiety) and patience (instead
of anger). The following poem from an unknown author expresses well the message
of this chapter:
"Disappointments—His appointment,"
Change one letter, then I see
That the thwarting of my purpose
Is God's better choice for me.
His appointment must be blessing,
Tho' it may come in disguise,
For the end from the beginning
Open to His wisdom lies.
"Disappointment—His appointment,"
No good will He withhold,
From denials oft we gather
Treasures of His love untold.
Well He knows each broken purpose
Leads to fuller, deeper trust,
And the end of all His dealings
Proves our God is wise and just.
"Disappointments—His appointment,"
Lord, I take it, then, as such,
Like clay in the hands of a potter,
Yielding wholly to Thy touch.
My life's plan is Thy molding;
Not one single choice be mine;
Let me answer, unrepining—
"Father, not my will, but Thine."
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, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com.
Email me
at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be
encouraged.
Encouragement for the Path of Christian
Discipleship
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