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Friday, November 26, 2021

A Black Friday Door Buster Deal Like No Other – The Free Gift of Peace - Purity 586


A Black Friday Door Buster Deal Like No Other – The Free Gift of Peace - Purity 586

Purity 586 11/25/2021 Purity 586 Podcast

Good morning

Today’s photo of sunrise on Thanksgiving Day 2021 from the vantage of point of a “retired” friend’s backyard barn which is presumably somewhere in Otsego County in Upstate NY. I say presumably because our retired friend doesn’t advertise their current address on FB and their retired life is far from sedentary as they have been known to share the sights of their travels to various NY State parks, the Adirondacks, and “their cabin” up in Maine.  They also have been known to share photos of various work projects that lead me to believe that the term “semi-retired” is more appropriate because I can’t imagine anyone doing the work they do, repairing chimneys and doing roofs, to be a hobby.

It's Black Friday, that day after Thanksgiving when the Christmas shopping season begins in full force.   It’s a day that quite a few of us will have off to decide whether we want to spend it relaxing at home with Thanksgiving leftovers or to decorate for Christmas, or perhaps to take to the roads to see new sights on an extended weekend trek, or to brave the commercial wasteland of doorbuster deals.

For me, I’m not quite sure yet what the day holds specifically but I know that I won’t be chasing down the latest fad toy like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle all the Way. My adult children are past the age where I may have deemed that to be necessary and I have matured to understand how limited material items are in their ability to satisfy. Running into the chaos of a holiday shopping melee just isn’t on the menu anymore as I take more joy in the reason for the season than the hoopla of the holiday.  

So as we enter into the Christmas season, I pray that all my friends remember the Prince of Peace for whom the holiday is intended to celebrate and to consider that He came to earth to give us rest and his entrance into the world came with angelic tidings of peace on earth and good will toward men.    

So whether you decide to use the weekend to decorate for the upcoming holiday, to fight the good fight of claiming your share of some holiday shopping deals, or just decide to rest after the stress of Thanksgiving, I encourage you to include some contemplation of the reason why we celebrate and why we are here.  

God sent Christ to earth to reconcile mankind to Him and to save us from ourselves.  Our selfish and sinful lives are in opposition to the peace, love, joy, and goodness that the Lord would have us experience through the fruit of the Spirit. 

While sinful man would encourage us to buy our way into happiness, the Lord calls us to accept the free gift of salvation that we can’t buy, work, or fight for.  

The Lord calls us to stop striving and to stop trying to earn the peace and joy that is only possible through a harmonious relationship with Him.  He calls us out of the darkness of the world system and our own efforts to humbly acknowledge our need for rest and peace with Him. 

So connect or reconnect with the Prince of Peace. Know that in Christ death has lost its sting because He gives everlasting life to all who place their faith in Him.  When we know our future is assured to be good, we can enjoy the present. So keep walking and talking with God. His gift of salvation is not for sale on Black Friday, it comes through faith in Christ alone and the burden of a life with Him is light and He will give you rest and peace forever more.


Today’s Bible verse is drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.  

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 37:5 (NLT2)
5 Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.

 

Today’s verse speaks of the spiritual reality that God will indeed help us but it indicates there may be some conditions to meet to receive it.  

Our Heavenly Father isn’t a genie in a bottle.  Our Lord is a personal God.  He loves us and cares what happens to us and how we live our lives.  So while just about everyone would gladly take whatever blessings and help that the Lord could offer them, we should understand that typically the help we receive from the Lord is proportional to the relationship we have with Him. 

I often refer to Romans 8:28’s promise of God’s working all things together for good but am quick to emphasize that the promise is for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.   That verse, like today’s verse tells us that God will help us but like today’s verse it also indicates that a relationship with God is required.  Romans 8:28 tells us that the promise for all things being worked together for good is conditional on the recipient loving God and being called to His purposes.  

Today’s verse assures us that God will help you but that help comes to us when we commit everything we do to the Lord and that we trust Him.  

Committing everything we do to the Lord is the disciple’s path where we decide to live according to God’s way by trusting that the word of God can teach us how to live our lives and that we trust God enough to actually apply the Bible’s teachings to our lives on a continual basis.  

The help we receive can include miraculous instances of divine intervention or by being the recipient of God’s providence as His hand influences the “normal” circumstances of time and space to result in favorable outcomes for us.    

But the help we receive from the Lord can also be the result of the consequences of good choices that are made based on God’s word.  By following the Lord’s wisdom for living from the Bible, we can be said to “be those who help themselves” by aligning our hearts and our actions with God’s will for our lives.  

Rather than a disconnected religious recipe of meeting all the conditions of prayer to manipulate the Lord to bless us,  our faith should be seen and lived as a dynamic relationship with Him where we demonstrate our trust and love for our heavenly Father by living as He instructs, seeking His presence, and listening for His guidance. 

God will help us.  So trust in Him and commit everything you do to the Lord  by placing your faith in Jesus and living like one of His disciples.

 

 

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 “Evil and Suffering… Why? Is God Fair?

 

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.

E. What Is the Problem of Evil?

The very presence of evil in our world presents a major problem to many people who acknowledge God and His involvement in the world ... people who know the claims about God—that He is morally perfect, all-powerful, and all-knowing. The premise is that evil cannot coexist alongside a good, all-powerful, and all-knowing God because they are mutually exclusive of one another. Therefore, skeptics conclude that the presence of evil in the world negates the presence of a good, all-powerful, and all-knowing God. The problem involves 3 components and 3 assumptions:

If God is all-good and all-powerful, why does He allow evil?

  • There are 3 components contained in answering this classic question.
    • #1 God is all-good.
    • #2 God is all-powerful.
    • #3 Evil is present in the world.
  • The 3 assumptions are...
    • #1 If God is all-good—He would want to prevent evil.
    • #2 If God is all-powerful—He could prevent evil.
    • #3 If God is all-knowing—He could anticipate evil and therefore stop it!
  • If any one component is missing, then you don't have a problem.
    • #1 If God is not all-good, the problem vanishes. God is a "cosmic demon" who causes evil.
    • #2 If God is not all-powerful, the problem disappears. God is too weak and powerless to stop evil.
    • #3 If no evil is present in the world, the problem evaporates. Evil (sin and suffering) is mere illusion.
  • However, all 3 components are true, based on the Bible...
    • #1 God is good... and He gave people free will, which is good.
          "The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him." (Psalm 92:15)
    • #2 God is all-powerful... and He can do anything that is logical, but it is illogical for Him to both grant free will and constrain it.
          "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do." (Isaiah 46:10-11)
    • #3 Evil and its effects (sin and suffering) are present in the world... because people chose to exert their God-given free will and disobey God.
          "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

Biblical Counseling Keys: Evil and Suffering... Why?: Why God? Why?.

---------------------------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. 

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

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