On the Path – Answer the Upward Call - Purity 555
Purity 555 10/21/2021 Purity 555 Podcast
Good morning
Today’s photo of a stairway somewhere along the Indian Ladder Trail at John
Thatcher State Park in Altamont NY comes to us from a friend’s hike on October
17th.
While they shared several photos from their excursion that were worthy
to pass along, I share this one because I like the way the stairway ascends
through the rocks and has fallen leaves as a sign of Autumn along the path.
It’s Thursday and as always I also shared today’s photo as an
encouragement to my friends to answer the upward call of God and to begin, or to
continue, their faith walk along the path of Christian Discipleship which is
defined by an intention to follow God’s way for living and seeking out your
purpose in His kingdom. One way you
could do that is to join our Freedom in Christ Discipleship Class tonight at
Rock Solid Church in Hudson NY at 6:30 pm or by listening to the classes via
the mt4christ247 podcast.
The power of the Christian faith doesn’t lie in sitting in a pew or a
comfy chair at a church service once a week, although that is time well spent.
The power of our faith lies in living in the presence of God on an ongoing
basis where you seek His wisdom, strength, and guidance to lead you to
experience the fruit of the Spirit regardless of the circumstances you face.. A
life of peace, love, joy, faithfulness, goodness, kindness, gentleness,
patience, and self-control is worth pursuing and it is the life that God wants
you to have.
So keep walking and talking with God.
Christ came to earth to save us from the consequences of our sins by
reconciling us to the Father, but He also came to give us life and life more
abundantly. So put your faith in Him and answer the upward call of Christ to enter
into His peace every day.
Today’s Bible verse
is drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Proverbs 15:1 (NLT2)
1 A gentle answer deflects
anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.
Today’s verse teaches us some wisdom for dealing with one another
that could result in peace.
I love how God uses His Word to address the difficulties of
human interactions and guides us in the way we should go. While we can’t control how other people
behave, we can be responsible for our part in our relationships with others and
use the wisdom God has given us to affect the outcomes of our
interactions.
Here the Lord advises us to give a “gentle answer” to deflect
anger rather than responding with harsh words that can make “tempers flare”.
Generally, when people are angry they are ready for confrontation
and may be looking for a fight. When
people bring angry words they are anticipating an angry response and are ready
for things to escalate or they are ready to dominate the other person’s
response with more angry invectives. When we fight fire with fire, bring harsh
words as a response to theirs, tempers can flare, feelings can get hurt, and
relationships can be strained or broken.
So God advises we do the unexpected and to speak calmly to
encourage those who are angry to naturally lower their volume by meeting their
vitriol with a peaceful demeanor and a soft response.
The angry person generally doesn’t expect a soft response
and may see that there is no reason for their hot temperament and slowly cool
off.
Even if they don’t we can take solace from the fact that we
didn’t make things worse and learned a valuable lesson in using restraint and
patience when facing conflict.
The Lord wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to
have peace in our lives. One way we can do that is to meet anger and the pain,
confusion, or ignorance that may have caused it with compassion.
So the next time someone brings an angry word to you,
remember the Lord’s advice, and respond with a gentle answer and a
compassionate heart that seeks to be at peace with all men whenever possible
and to share the love of God at all times.
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 sharing from June Hunt’s Dating:
Secrets to Great Relating When Dating
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private study and
to support her work. If you need this title you can find it online at several
sites for less than $5.00:
III. Causes
Many dating relationships are unfulfilling because they begin with the wrong
focus and then stay off course. If you have an unfulfilling dating
relationship, could it be that the progression of your dating is outside God's
established order? When you commit yourself to God's progression and wait for
His timing, He will protect and direct the course of your dating....
"For he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his
faithful ones." (Proverbs 2:8)
A. What Sets Up Dating Disasters?
Melinda thinks the relationship with Chris is progressing, so she invites
him to join her at an outdoor concert. Chris arrives—with another woman! Both
women assume Chris is "my date," but neither one can tell if either
one is really a date! In clamoring for Chris' attention, the two
competitors find they have much in common and become friends. In the end, poor
Chris is left in the lurch....
"A continual dripping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are
alike." (Proverbs
27:15 NKJV)
Some sure pitfalls to successful dating include...
- Past
abuse/poor role models
No one sets out to be emotionally unhealthy due to woundedness. Love cravings often are created in childhood because there is "no water in the well"—their "love buckets" are empty. These children may become adult love addicts because they... - —Did
not receive enough positive affirmation or affection as children
- —Experienced
a traumatic separation or a lack of bonding with a parent or significant
adult
- —Felt
and continue to feel intense sadness and a profound loss at being
abandoned or rejected
- —Felt
and continue to feel extreme fear, helplessness, and emptiness
- Emotional
immaturity/inexperience/fear
Children with empty "love buckets" create a fantasy about some "savior" who will remove their fear and finally make them feel whole. As adults, they still behave like emotionally needy children who... - —Believe
that being loved by someone—anyone—is the solution to their emptiness
- —Enter
relationships believing the other person cannot take care of themselves
- —Assign
too much value and power to the other person in a relationship
- —Live
in fear that those who truly love them will ultimately leave them
- Poor
self-image/lack of character or conviction
Children who grow up being emotionally needy, lacking a sense of intrinsic value, and who do not learn the skills necessary for forming healthy, adult relationships never learn healthy interdependence. Typically, they... - —Have
difficulty speaking the truth
- —Rarely
ask for what they want or set personal relational boundaries
- —Become
codependent adults who are addicted to unhealthy relationships because
they never learned anything different
- —Desperately
need to finish what they began in infancy—to grow up emotionally,
psychologically, and spiritually so they can mature relationally
The Bible refers to
immature grown-ups by using the analogy of infants feeding on milk instead of
on solid food....
"Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to
teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk,
not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not
acquainted with the teaching about righteousness." (Hebrews 5:12-13)
Unequally Yoked
Question: "What difference does it
make if I date and marry someone who doesn't share my faith if we truly love
each other?"
Answer: A new house has
the best chance of enduring if it is built on a solid foundation. When you're
"equally yoked" with someone who shares your faith, you have a
greater sense of unity, cohesiveness, and oneness on which to build your lives
together.
- Being
"yoked" to someone means you are joined together and, therefore,
either going the same direction or struggling against one another and
going nowhere.
- Picture
two different animals yoked together to pull a wagon or a cart. If they
are unequally yoked, one will try to pull the other in the direction it
wants to go while the other wants to go in another direction... or doesn't
want to move at all!
- A constant
conflict persists because the two do not share the same goals, purposes,
objectives, and intentions.
In an unequally yoked relationship, the unbeliever will not have a genuine
relationship with the Lord, and, as a result, the believer will not experience
the full joy of God's blessing within that marriage. Being of the same mind and
spirit is essential to spiritual oneness and growth....
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness
and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"
(2 Corinthians
6:14).
Biblical Counseling Keys: Dating: Secrets to Great Relating When Dating.
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
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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