I’ve
Got to Get A Message to You – Look inside the Word to Find it! - Purity 622
Purity
622 01/07/2022 Purity 622 Podcast
Good
morning,
Well it’s Friday and I am thanking the Lord God
Almighty for the end of the work week more today than I have in the recent past
because today I will be leaving work to be reunited with my loving wife immediately
following my “9 to 5”. In a world
complicated by divorce and its consequences, and just the demands on some
people’s lives for other situations, some couples are married are but are separated
from each other physically because they are required to, or choose, to maintain
two households or are taken away from each other because for work reasons.
I knew of a couple who had a home in Columbia County
where the wife kept house and took care of the kids but whose husband maintained
an apartment in New York City and would be in the city that never sleeps from
Monday to Friday and then head upstate to be with his family on the
weekends. Word has it they lived this
way for decades and were a stable couple and pillars of their community.
So although our families are wondering when TammyLyn
and I will be living under one roof on a permanent basis, our situation is not
as complicated or uncommon as many would think. The difficulties of having a blended family
and trying to put all the pieces together caused me to doubt if TammyLyn and I
would ever get together and had me thinking that in about 10 to 15 years things
would settle in our lives where we could talk about marrying and living together,
but the love we have for one another was greater than my doubts and we both
decided to marry and deal with our respective situations united as man and
wife.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and
I can tell you that for me and TammyLyn that is true. But we are in daily communications with each
other via Facebook messenger and Zoom and are there for one another each day
even though we are separated by 45 miles of upstate NY real estate.
Our situation reminds me of how some people feel
about God. Deists believe that God exists but doesn’t interact with His
creation. In their view God just made the universe and walked away. Deists can
point to the suffering around us and say that it is obvious that God is not
involved because of all pain and evil in the world. They may believe in judgement day, the day of
the Lord, the day Christ returns, but believe that until than we are separated from
God.
A view like this can make us doubt if God does in
fact love us. It can make us doubt that God cares. God isn’t sending us texts
on FB messenger. He is not sending us any
Zoom invitations. And sometimes when we pray, Deists and non-Deists alike, we don’t
always see results for our petitions and sometimes we can feel that we are just
speaking into thin air. Our prayer life can be discouraged if we don’t
think that anyone is hearing us. It makes
me wonder if a Deist would even bother to pray.
But I was reminded last night that God does
provide a means to communicate with Him that gives us encouragement, hope, and direction
on how we should live our lives. The Bible
is God’s message to the people He created: that’s all of us.
The question is: Are you receiving His message,
by reading the Bible?
Bible illiteracy is a huge issue in America.
Amy Watson shared the following about Bible
reading statistics stating:
“A survey from 2021 found that 11 percent of
Americans read the Bible daily. Trends in reading habits over four years
showed that the majority of Americans never read the Bible, however in
2021 this number dropped to 29 percent of respondents.
Bible readership varies across each demographic,
with Millennials most likely to have never read the Bible, whereas the most
frequent readers were those aged over 70 years old. …
Although figures show that fewer people are
reading the Bible, there is still a genuine desire to read the Bible amongst
the American population, with 56 percent of those asked in 2019
expressing a wish to read it.” (https://www.statista.com/statistics/299433/bible-readership-in-the-usa/)
The statistics tell us that people aren’t
receiving God’s message. They aren’t reading the Bible although 56% percent of
Americans indicated that they would wish to.
The Bible is the inerrant word of God and one of
the pieces of evidence for its truth is the lives that are transformed by the
people who read it.
So I would encourage those 56% of Americans that
wish to read the Bible to decide that 2022 is the year that you will do it and
I would encourage you to read with an open heart and open mind, as your attempt
to communicate with God.
God wants you to know Him more and the Bible is
the way we can hear His voice and know His will for our lives. By the way, the
Bible will also assure you that God hears us when we pray.
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) says
12 For the word of God is
living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The word of God is living and powerful and it discerns the
thoughts and intents of the hearts of those who read it. That tells me that when we read the Word, the
Word is reading us. That’s two way
communication! Not only is God sending
His message to us through the words in the Bible, but He is also receiving what
we are thinking when we read it.
So as we go into the weekend, if you are not reading the Bible
already, consider getting a Bible app, an audio Bible, or just a plain old paper
version to learn what God’s word says and to get to know the Lord.
For new readers I recommend and easier to read versions of the
Bible like the New Living Translation (NLT), New King James Version (NKJV), New
American Standard Bible (NASB), the English Standard Version (ESV) , or the New
International Version (NIV).
I also recommend that you read the New Testament first, staring
with John’s gospel, and then going back to read the rest of the New Testament
in order. The New Testament tells us all
about Jesus and what we need to know as Christians in terms of who we are in Christ,
how to live our lives, and where all this is going.
After you are done with the New Testament, you can read the “Prequel”
The Old Testament, and see how God revealed Himself to man from the beginning of
our existence and how He had a plan to redeem us that worked its way throughout
history and culminated in Christ.
God wants you to know that He loves you and that He cares about
you. That’s why He sent Jesus! And He also wants you to talk to Him and hear
what He has to say to you by reading His word.
So pick up the Bible and read it and keep walking and talking to
God.
Today’s Bible verse
comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Romans 8:1-2 (NLT2)
1 So now there is no
condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
2 And because you belong to
him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin
that leads to death.
I love these verses. Verse 1 is my life verse and Verse 2 tells us that we have indeed been set free from sin and death. But I do prefer the NKJV that says:
Romans 8:1-2 (NKJV)
1 There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. How can the NLT leave that out?!?!? That’s why I advise people to read the NLT and then move on to the NKJV, our use the NKJV as guide to see what the “easier to read” NLT may be rewording.
No condemnation means that all the negative thoughts that we put on ourselves or are being whispered into our ears by Satan are no longer true about us if we are in Christ and are walking according to the Spirit, A.K.A following Jesus.
So if you are beating yourself up as someone who disappoints God or is incapable of leaving your besetting sins behind, read Romans 8:1 & 2 believe what it says about you.
If you are in Christ, you are God’s child and not only do you have freedom over death because of the eternal life that faith in Jesus provides, you also have the power over sin and have already been forever changed.
The battle is to believe these verses and to show our faith in God’s word by dismissing any condemnation that is brought to your doorstep as a lie of the enemy and by choosing to believe that you have your freedom and just need to lean on the Lord to walk it out day by day.
So fight the good fight of faith by just believing in what the Lord has done for you that is described in these verses and know the joy that comes from knowing there is no condemnation for you and that you have been set free.
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue to share from Dr. Neil Anderson’s
. “Restored: Experience Life with Jesus”. Today, we continue sharing from
Chapter 3.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase Dr. Neil Anderson’s books for your own private
study and to support his work.
EXPOSING LIES AND AFFIRMING TRUTH
A lady wrote, “Going through The Steps to Freedom has been the
most exciting part of my Christian walk.” She had struggled with voices and
screaming in her head, nightmares and apparitions in her room, and strong
deception through lies and condemnation. She said, “I have been unwilling to
take responsibility for my own thoughts. I have wanted some kind of help from
the outside without being willing to do the necessary work myself.” In a letter
she wrote to Jesus, she said, “I confess my unbelief, my selfishness, my
obsessive thoughts. I renounce the lies that would destroy and incapacitate me.
I ask Your forgiveness and forsake all thinking that would destroy the truth
that is in me.” Attached to her letter were six typewritten pages of lies she
had believed, accompanied by Scripture verses she found that exposed those lies
and affirmed the truth.
The same woman wrote this letter after going through The Steps to
Freedom in Christ:
As I’ve thought about and weighed what happened in God’s presence
in your office, I am awestruck at the reality that not only has Christ
completely severed the spiritual bond between myself and all the others I was
involved with, but that He also touched the deeper issue—a place where I have
held the belief that I actually became the slut, whore, adulterer, the “evil
one,” the “witch” that mom and dad had always said I was.
Facing the reality of that truth—or rather the lies that I have
believed about myself—has been more than I ever believed God could make clean
or redeem. I could not escape the embarrassment, nor could I forgive my willing
participation. The violations were easier to renounce because I was not
choosing them for myself.
Is it possible that as I’ve continued to renounce both the sexual
acts themselves and the beliefs that I became the embodiment of the evil I
participated in, that the Lord would expunge the record...and change my
life...that I am no longer identified by the names my earthly father gave me,
but I am truly a new person in Christ...that I am as you said, “clean as a
hound’s tooth?” I have always thought of myself as a slut and an adulteress who
was just taking up space in the Church, but who could never take a position of
responsibility or ministry because my past is so evil. It’s like God has taken
a giant sponge to the battered and bloody portion of my life that has been a
major stronghold, absorbed all the blood, all the pain, all the lies. And as He
took all this away, He left me new and free and clean in Him. I don’t have to
contend with the weight of that sin because it’s forgiven, nailed to the cross
through the blood of Jesus.
I have known all the lies in my head and have wanted to believe
that God’s Word was true; today I know it in my heart and spirit. As I
renounced these things, I thought, How can these words set me free? Yet how
could they not? They are the power of God.
Today, I don’t just believe God is cleansing me; I know I’m clean!
I don’t just believe God will free me from my past; I know I’m free! I am no
longer my father’s daughter, his sex toy. I am no longer another man’s
mistress. I am no longer the embodiment of the evil I participated in. I am a
child of the King, called and chosen by Him. Cleansed, forgiven, made new to
live in His family forever. Free to love and give and enter into relationship
with Him and the Church, to be the person He has called me to be. Praise His
name!63
CHAPTER THREE:
OVERCOMING DECEPTION
56. John 8:31, 32 (NKJV)
57. Ephesians 6:14
58. Psalm 51:6
59. Psalm 32:2
60. 1 John 1:6, 7
61. John 8:44
62. 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9
63. 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5
64. 1 Timothy 4:1
---------------------------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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.