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Monday, February 28, 2022

The Number of the Beast, The Number of a Man – Purity 666

The Number of the Beast, The Number of a Man   – Purity 666

Purity 666 02/28/2022    Purity 666 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a palm tree and the blue sky above the beach at the E.G. Simmons Regional Park in Ruskin Florida comes to us from yours truly as my wife and I decided to have a low key day of relaxation on the last full day of our honeymoon vacation last Thursday.  

I reported that it was “back to reality” on Friday because we had returned to our homes in upstate New York only to be welcomed back by a snow storm, but today is the real day of reckoning as my job as “spontaneous vacation tour guide” has been exposed for the temporary assignment that it was and I return to the working world and my “real job”.  

While I only give my employer 40 hours a week, I try to give the Lord all of my life and a part of my desire to follow the Lord are these nearly daily encouragements that begun as personal texts to a brother I was in an accountability relationship with. “Purity 1” was a single text that was intended to encourage my brother in Christ that he could had victory in the area of sexual immorality. Shortly after that first encouragement, I started sharing the texts with all the men that walked through the doors of our recovery ministry and then started sharing the encouragements along with photos that highlighted God’s creation on Facebook.  In 2020, I decided to bring them to mt4christ.org which had been dormant since 2018 with Purity “217” and now we have reached the dubious number of Purity “666”.  

Numbers can be meaningful or novel as we all witnessed as there was quite a bit of hoopla over 2/22/2022 last week.  Numbers can also be seen as ominous as some see the number 13 as bad luck and thus we have some buildings out there with no 13th floor. So as I realized that we were reaching Purity “666”, I wondered if I should talk about the elephant in the room that comes to mind with that “number of the beast”, the anti-Christ.   

In light of the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia, many are speculating over whether these events will lead to World War III, the emergence of the anti-Christ on the world stage, and the fulfillment of end times prophecies in which Russia is speculated to play a significant role.

So is this the end? Is this World War III? Is the anti-Christ going to come on the world stage to usher in the time known as the Tribulation? What does the number 666 even mean?

As for the first three questions, I confidently say “I don’t know” but based on what I know from my study of the Bible, I would say “I don’t think so” because scripture indicates that the event commonly referred to as the rapture will occur before the tribulation. According to the pretribulation view of the end times, which the vast majority of Bible scholars agree on, Christ comes and “snatches away” the church before the Tribulation period begins. 

But I am not here to argue over or predict the end times, as a “freedom fighter” for Christ, I don’t really push one end times scenario over another and take a more pragmatic view of my role as a disciple of Christ.  I believe that our purpose as Christians lies in the “great commission” given to us by Jesus to go into all the world and to make disciples regardless of the times or seasons that we encounter on the earth. 

As for “666” John MacArthur’s commentary on Revelation 13:18 where the number of the beast is mentioned tells us that “666”

is the essential number of a man. The number 6 falls one short of God’s perfect number, 7, and thus represents human imperfection. Antichrist, the most powerful human the world will ever know, will still be a man, i.e., a 6. The ultimate in human and demonic power is a 6, not perfect, as God is. The 3-fold repetition of the number is intended to reiterate and underscore man’s identity. When Antichrist is finally revealed, there will be some way to identify him with this basic number of a man, or his name may have the numerical equivalent of 666. (In many languages, including Heb., Gr., and Lat., letters have numerical equivalents.) Because this text reveals very little about the meaning of 666, it is unwise to speculate beyond what is said.[1][1] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Rev 13:18.

Well, I am not going to be unwise and speculate over who the anti-Christ will be, nor will I push one end times view that attempts to incorporate current events over another.

Instead, as someone who has known and seen the spiritual reality of the forces of demonic darkness,  I will continue to live the life of a Christian disciple regardless of the times or seasons. I will attempt to live according to the Lord’s ways for my life and not fear the times to come. Our purpose in Christ should be to share the gospel that teaches of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ to save and to encourage Christians to pick up their crosses to follow Jesus by “walking in the Spirit”, by praying at all times, by giving thanks to the Lord at all times, and by rejoicing at all times.

All the theories about the end times and all ideas about a political solution to the problems of world events should not cause us to fear or cause us to lose our focus to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the wisdom of living by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit in all the aspects of our lives.

If Christ comes back tomorrow or the anti-Christ rises to power and an age of darkness and destruction comes  to the world stage, we are to be doing what Christ called us to do: to tell the world about Him and to live according to His wisdom.   

Regardless of the wars between nations, ultimate reality will come down to who we chose to stand with and serve. We can choose to go with God and share the hope of Jesus as a living expression of our faith or we can choose the ways of the world, religious systems that deny who Jesus is, or our own personal philosophies and agendas that separate us from God.  

Jesus Christ came to earth to give us life and life more abundantly. Having faith in Christ and trusting that the Lord is in control means that we follow Him regardless of the circumstances that surround us.  

So keep walking and talking with God. See the good in the world and share the hope that transcends the evil that men do, the hope that gives us everlasting life, the hope that lies in Christ alone.   


Today’s Bible verses come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verses are:

Matthew 10:29-31 (NLT2)
29  What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.
30  And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.
31  So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

Today’s Bible verses encourages us to not fear, as our sovereign Lord knows everything that is happening and has deemed us to be very valuable.   

Today’s verses are the words of Jesus, Himself, and prior to this section of scripture Jesus is telling us that we should not fear men who could kill our physical bodies but to instead fear God who could destroy both our bodies and souls in hell!

Yup, that’s the kind and gentle Jesus that we know and love, warning us of the wrath of God and the consequences of not making peace with Him.    

But Christ doesn’t want to scare us, He wants to save us. He wants us to be assured that as scary as the world can be, God knows what is happening in the world and considers us to be valuable.  

Jesus contrasts the value of sparrows with that of man who is made in God’s image – indicating that we are not created equal with the beasts of the earth. Jesus seeks to assure us that God is in control over the matters of life and death and that He is aware of when things will die, even sparrows.  God’s knowledge is so great that He even knows the insignificant details of life, like the numbers of hairs on our heads.  

All of this is said by Christ, to reveal the Father’s omnipresence and His sovereign control over life and death matters.   

Jesus assures of us of the immense value that we have in the Father’s eyes and that God seeks us to give us the assurance of our safety by being reconciled to Him through Jesus.  If we put our faith in and follow Jesus, we don’t have to fear other men or the death they could dispense through violence. In Christ, we are brought under the protection of God and assured our value and safety.    

So don’t fear man, and don’t fear death.  Fear God and make peace with Him through Jesus Christ to know the peace that comes from knowing that you are very valuable to Him and that He will give you life everlasting.  

 

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 sharing from June Hunt’s Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.

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 his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

IV. Steps to Solution

The primary problem with codependency can be called "idolatry"—giving a greater priority to anything or anyone other than God Himself. Our God is the One who created you and who has a wonderful plan for your life. He is the Lord who loves you and knows how to fulfill you. If you are in a codependent relationship...

  • Your excessive care causes you to compromise your convictions.
  • Your excessive loyalty leaves you without healthy boundaries.
  • Your excessive "love" allows you to say yes when you should say no.

However, our Maker and Master has the right to have primary rule in our hearts and over our lives. Any other substitute is simply idolatry. The Bible says.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6:5)

A. Key Verse to Memorize

No other verse in the Bible is better at helping us set our priorities straight... put our relationships in the right order. We must put "first things first" or else we, in our relationships, will never have the fulfillment that God has planned for us.

"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Galatians 1:10)

Biblical Counseling Keys: Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.

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

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" 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. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


 

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - His Story - 02/27/2022

 Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 02/27/2022

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: His Story Podcast



His-Story

 

“I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jer. 31:33

 

The Christian faith is the saga of a people in search of their God, while, at the same time God is wooing them unto Himself. The Scriptures begin and end with a wedding. Gen. 2:24 / Rev. 21:2

 

Unlike the “holy books” of other religious systems, the Bible is a narrative with all the elements of such.

 

         Setting: Creation; Jn. 1:1-3, Rom. 1:20

         Period: Time, with some inferences to previous time.

                                                                                 Jde. 1:25 NLT

         Plot: The redemption of man; Rom. 3:24

         Conflict: Man’s resistance; Rom. 5:8

         Main Characters: Jesus Christ; Col. 1:17

                                      Everyman; Rom. 3:23, 5:12

                                      Satan; Eze. 28:2

                                      Angels; Heb. 1:5

         Climax: The cross; Col. 2:15

         Conclusion: Gathering the “elect”; Heb; 11:40

 

Other religious texts largely consist of injunctions and philosophical ideas of how to live righteously with, in some cases, narratives woven in as examples.

 

In Hinduism, for instance, their holy books, the four vedas, are divided into either Shruti (what is heard) or Smriti (what is remembered). Smriti are usually heroic tales and the obstacles the heroes faced.

Muslims accept the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible), which are largely narrative, but they claim that the Jews corrupted them.

The Quran is divided into chapters called “surah’s”.

All religious systems claim their “holy books” to be divinely inspired.

Hindu’s believe that their scriptures have always been in existence and were discovered by wise men who were in profoundly meditative states of mind. At first writing down the Vedas was forbidden. They were formally documented during 1500-500 BC, which is known as the Vedic Period.

Gautama Buddha lived around 563 to 400 BC. He was a Hindu who, upon his “awakening” rejected the authority of the Vedas and the cast system of Hinduism. Though today there are many versions of Buddhism, classic Buddhism is atheistic. His teaching are not extent and don’t appear  in print until 400 years after his death.

Islam claims that the Quran was given to the prophet Mohamed by the angel Gabriel. Islam is a closed system which means that its claims to divine authority are exclusively within its writings. Therefor, the Quran claims to be divinely given because Mohamed says it was, and Mohamed is god’s prophet because the Quran says so.

 

None of these claims are well substantiated

 

Christianity, in contrast, is an unbroken narrative from the creation         to the prophetic end times.

It’s historic accuracy is unprecedented among ancient documents.

The divine use of many prophets as instruments of revelation place God as the centerpiece and author of all said, and not one man.

The accuracy of prophecy buttresses the Divine authorship.

The central figure is clearly manifest throughout the narrative.

Being a narrative, yet unfulfilled, it invites us in to have a personal   roll to play. Col. 3:4

The Bible also, internally declares its divine authorship; II Tim.      3:16; II Pet. 1:21

 

In contrast to a collection of abstractions, we are caught up, finding purpose and total fulfillment in all that Christ has promised.  

 

 -----Join us for another Bible Study Next Week -------

or

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" 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.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


Saturday, February 26, 2022

Victory Over Darkness – Witness to Freedom – Purity 665


 

Victory Over Darkness – Witness to Freedom  – Purity 665

Purity 665 02/26/2022   Purity 665 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a post snow storm sunset shining through clouds above and clouds below was captured by yours truly yesterday as I stopped for a moment to recognize this visible sign of God’s goodness as I made my way down Waite Rd to my countryside home in Easton NY.   We went from having nothing on the ground early Saturday morning to having anywhere from 5 to 9 inches of the white stuff by 4pm yesterday but when I saw that the snow storm was over I headed north to be with my wife and was delighted to see that the Lord had been merciful and blessed us with a late day sunset that assured me of His continual care for His creation and His people.  

It's Saturday and it is my prayer that all my friends enjoy the day that the Lord has made by rejoicing and by being glad in it.  Even though I just returned from Tampa Florida to be welcomed by a snow storm the day after my return, I am in a celebratory mood today as the affects of the storm have been dealt with and I am rejoicing in the fact that the storm wasn’t the “snow-magedon” that the news report’s seemed to indicate it would be and I am rejoicing in the fact that I am alive in Christ and was used by the Lord yesterday as the snow fell to encourage a brother in Christ resolve their personal and spiritual conflicts by leading them through the Steps to Freedom in Christ.   

I don’t claim to have any special anointing for deliverance ministry but yesterday I was blessed to witness my friend come before the Lord in repentance and watched as The Holy Spirit worked in this man’s life:

·       to renounce his pride and the lies the enemy had caused him to believe,

·       to confess the sins that kept him in bondage and that gave the enemy ground in his life, 

·       to forgive those who had hurt or harmed him

·       to humble himself before the Lord and affirm his identity as an adopted child of the God through his faith in Jesus Christ as His personal Lord and Savior

·       to renounce any involvements with the forces of darkness or any past participation in occultic, cult, or false religious practices

·       and to break any and all spiritual soul ties and generational curses that were oppressing him.   

At the end of the day, my friend went from reporting being oppressed by fear, mental blocks and harassment that didn’t allow him to pray or read his Bible, and voices that condemned him as a failure and a hopeless case to reporting experiencing peace, mental clarity, and confidence that he was forgiven and accepted by God and that the darkness that had oppressed him for so long had been cast out.  

Through a series of prayer, renunciations, and proclamations, the Holy Spirit had led this man to experience his freedom in Christ in a very dramatic way where we glimpsed the reality of the forces of darkness in this man’s life and how they were powerless compared to the power of God the Father, the name and blood of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to heal, rescue, and redeem.  

The freedom appointment took several hours but at the end of the day our friend had experienced the love and power of God in his life and he knew without a shadow of doubt that he knew the Truth and the Truth had set Him free just as the word of God promises to all who trust in Jesus and repent.  

To hear my friend’s painful story of abuse, sin, and spiritual oppression and to witness them experiencing the peace that comes from being set free convinces me that although I may have not always made the best decisions in life, I must have been guided by the Holy Spirit when I decided to be trained to become a Community Freedom Ministry Associate to be used by the Lord to encourage others to experience their freedom in Christ.  

Even though I personally knew the joy of experiencing my freedom in Christ years before and know the peace of still living in it today,  when you face doubt, skepticism, and rejection for your efforts to share the gospel and encourage others to walk in the Spirit and to experience the freedom that comes from living the Christian disciple’s lifestyle, you begin to wonder if anyone even wants to be set free and you wonder if you have the prophet’s curse of knowing the truth but having everyone around you being unable able or unwilling to receive it.   

But then I have days like yesterday, where I can share in the victory over the darkness, and I get to  see that the power of God work in someone’s life with my own eyes.  

I’m not sure how many people will hear and believe the message of freedom and victory that is possible through faith in Jesus Christ and who will make the choice to follow Him but, because I know it is true, I know that I will share it until the Lord calls me home.   

So believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and make the decision to follow Him with how you live your life. If you put your faith in Jesus and start, and keep on, walking and talking with God you will know the peace, love, joy, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, patience and self-control that only the Lord can give.

The fruit of the Spirit grows when you walk in the Spirit and even though my friend has his freedom in Christ now, in order to maintain it he will have to make the daily decision to reject the lies of the enemy and the temptations of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,  and the lust of the pride of life to prevent the enemy from reestablishing a foot hold in his life.   To experience our freedom in Christ on a continual basis, we must choose to follow the Lord rather than the ways of the world.       

Some will say to live the life of a Christian disciple is impossible, but everything is possible with God and when you place your faith in Jesus, God is with you through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirt.  The Lord will never leave us or forsake His children but we must choose to not forsake Him by abiding in His presence and walking in His ways. So keep walking and talking with God, there is freedom down that road and the path that leads to continuous victory, peace, love, and joy.   

 ,

Today’s Bible verse come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Hebrews 12:2 (NLT2)
2  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Today’s Bible verse reminds us who sets us free and guides us into victory.   

The “this” in today’s verse refers to running the race that God has set before us.  How can we do “this”? How can we run this race that God has set before us?    

We can “do this”, live a Christian disciple’s life, by keeping our eyes on Jesus, our champion who not only initiates our faith by calling us to salvation and giving us eternal life but who also perfects our faith.  Jesus helps us in our walk.  

The way to receive Christ’s help in “running the race” is that we must keep our eyes on Him.  While miraculous visions of Jesus in our experience are possible, we can keep our eyes on the unseen Jesus by reading the word of God and remembering what He has done and what He has said.  We can keep our eyes on Jesus by knowing who we are in Christ and by seeking to live according to the ways He demonstrated and taught his disciples to follow.  We can keep our eyes on Jesus by knowing that we have the mind of Christ and that the Spirit of Christ lives in us. 

Christ lived a perfect life on earth despite opposition and with the knowledge that His suffering was required in order to reconcile those who would one day believed in Him to God.   And as today’s verse tells us, it was because of the joy of doing the Father’s will and saving those who would believe, that’s me and you, that Christ endured the cross, disregarded its shame and is now seated in the heavenlies to be exalted and to rejoice over every sinner that becomes a saint through their faith in Him.   

So keep doing “this”, keep running the race that God has set before you, by keeping your eyes on Jesus.  His love, presence, and example is ours to motivate us to follow Him and to share in the joy that comes from doing our heavenly Father’s will on earth.     

So keep you eyes on Jesus and accept the help He gives to help you run the race that the Lord has set before you.


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 sharing from June Hunt’s Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.


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 his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

D. What Is the Root Cause of Codependency?

Everyone is created with three God-given inner needs—the needs for love, for significance, and for security. If we expect or demand that another person meet all of our needs or if we become dependent on another person to do so, we have a misplaced dependency. The Bible makes it plain that...

"God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)

 

Wrong Belief for the Dependent:

"I need to be connected to a stronger person who will provide me with a sense of love and emotional security."

Right Belief for the Dependent:

"While God often expresses His love through others, He doesn't want me to live my life depending on another person. I need to live dependently on Jesus, who will meet my needs, give me healthy relationships, and make my life fruitful." Jesus said,

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)

Wrong Belief for the Codependent:

"I am responsible for meeting all the needs of this person whom I love, and that gives me a real sense of significance."

Right Belief for the Codependent:

"If I try to meet all the needs of any other person, I'm taking the role that God alone should have. My need for significance cannot be met by pleasing another person, but it is met by pleasing God and finding my significance in Him."

"We make it our goal to please him [God]." (2 Corinthians 5:9)

Question: "As a counselor, how can I keep my clients from developing an unrealistic dependency on me?"

Answer:

  • —Don't have a session without first praying for God's wisdom. Then let your client know that you will be depending on the discernment God will give you.
  • —Don't allow yourself to be your client's "savior"—there is only one Savior, and you are not Him!
  • —Don't always be available—you have other responsibilities that will need to be given high priority levels.
  • —Don't pull your client to yourself, but rather present and model how to have an intimate relationship with the Lord.
  • —Don't rely on your own sufficiency based on your education or experiences. Instead, rely on the Lord's sufficiency and encourage your client to do the same.

"Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God." (Psalm 146:5)


Biblical Counseling Keys: Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.

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

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" 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. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Friday, February 25, 2022

Somebody that I Used to Know - How Ever Do You Want Me – Purity 664


 Somebody that I Used to Know -  How Ever Do You Want Me – Purity 663

Purity 663 02/24/2022  Purity 664 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of peaceful blue skies over Otsego Lake comes to us from a “brother and a friend” from my college days who shared this picture from their visit to Cooperstown NY on Monday.  

After safely making my way back to the Empire State yesterday, I thought I would share a scene that shows winter in Upstate New York that more accurately reflects my “new normal” as it is “back to life, back to reality” as my honeymoon vacation in Tampa Florida is over and a significant amount of snowfall is forecasted to welcome me back.     

Yup it’s back to “Back to Life, Back to Reality” and for those who aren’t old, those words are lyrics from an old Soul II Soul club classic and they tend to come to mind when a vacation or a weekend ends.  But it’s Friday today and I am going to thank God for the fact that I am safely home, I don’t have to work until Monday, and that I know Him and His Love.   

The concepts of “relationships” has been at the forefront of my mind lately as my relationship with my wife, TammyLyn, has grown stronger through our recent travels and due to the fact that we had dinner with one of her old friends on our last night in Tampa. 

All the down time of vacation has me in a contemplative mood and I am marveling over the nature of our journey through life and how we could view our lives as having different seasons where we formed new relationships only to transition to new seasons where our relationships changed or ended.    

As we enter life we form relationships with our family first and then venture into the world and make friends, acquaintances, and enemies with people in our neighborhoods or at school.  Through our childhood and adolescences, we can make new friends every year as our school classes change and we can meet new people through sports, camp, or other activities.   As we venture into our teenage years, our interests turn to romantic relationships. As we settle into the working world, we make friends and acquaintances through our business contacts.  In our lives of faith, we can make friends at church and through ministry work.   

Among all these different options and environments, we will make, and break, relationships based on our direction in life that is determined by our choices and preferences.  As many friends and close relationships we can have in life , we can only choose a limited number of people that we will decide to spend time with or who we will remain in contact with.  

Social media certainly affords us the ability to keep track of our friends and our friendships remain intact but if we are honest we can come to the realization that our relationships are more “past” than present and that in “reality” we may have no actual contact or interaction with the people we call friends.  

Hey don’t get me wrong now,  I got love for all of my old friends, and current friends, and wish them well. I am not saying that we don’t like these people that we have limited or no interactions with, nor am I saying that if we don’t hang out with everyone they are not our friends.  

But the “reality” is that all our lives move forward in time and space and the choices we make in life will send us all in different directions and cause us to only be available for a limited number of relationships.  Its just realistic.  We all have lives to live and as much as we may value the relationships we have made along the way eventually many of the people in our relationships could be referred to as “Somebody that I used to know”.  

Anybody who remembers the 2011 Gotye song of the same name, knows that even our most intimate relationships can become painful memories of regret as break ups sort of change the relationship dynamic causing us to throw out the good memories with the bad as we just try to forget about people and erase them from our lives as easily as making them disappear for our social media pages.  

I just saw one “friend”, (really a co-worker who I am friendly with, at work) announce that they are having another “purge” of their FB friends.  Obviously, the weight of carrying on even the most uninvolved relationships can be felt and may cause us to break relationships with people who we are no longer in interaction with or whose opinions and preferences have caused us to re-evaluate them as people and our need to be in relationship with them.  

We can understand the need to distance ourselves from people we no longer get along with or whose beliefs and opinions contrast with ours but what I have been thinking about lately is the almost tragic phenomenon of the way time, situations, distance, and our decisions can cause relationships we cherish to go by the way side.     

As we grow and go through life and move ever onward toward eternity our time becomes precious to us and our situations change causing us to invest our time in energy with only a few relationships. 

If we are wise we reduce the number of relationship “problems” we have be learning from our mistakes and by choosing to invest our time into the relationships that give us peace, love, and joy rather than disagreements and discord.

But even amongst our “good relationships”, we could benefit from seeing that as much as we love some of our family and friends,

·       They may not value us as much as we value them.

Or

·       We are simply going in different directions.

Or  

·       Through our choices, we simply don’t take the time to invest in our relationships.  

These considerations can make us feel guilty or question our family, friends or our own ability to have healthy relationships.  We can easily become jaded and condemn the people in our relationships for not loving us enough or we condemn ourselves for not being a better friend or family member.    

The last thing God wants is for us to condemn others or ourselves. SO if you feel that way stop it.   God knows we are human and only have a limited capacity for what we can do in life and for how we can answer the call to represent Him by loving our neighbors as ourselves.   

The reason I point out the transitioning ways of our lives and how our relationships with others come and go and how they can be less than satisfying is to encourage you to seek a relationship with God first:

·       to experience His love,

·       to be at peace with Him. and

·       to be at peace with yourself,

·       and to be more loving and discerning in your relationships with others.  

As heartbreaking as our lives of changing relationships can be, they should drive us to the realization that all our human relationships have a time limit because of the choices we make and because of the brevity of our lives. 

Instead of driving us to despair, the finite nature of our lives and relationships should seek us to find the meaning and purpose of our lives.  

The Bible tells us that God is love and that His love for us caused Him to bridge the gap between God and man by sending Christ to reconcile us to Him by paying for our sins with His life.  

Anyone who seeks God and puts their faith in Jesus, is forgiven and is given eternal life and a relationship with the Lord that will transcend our lives, continue forever into eternity, and increase our capacity to love others.     

As I contemplated the changing nature of our world and the way our relationships have time and seasons, it caused me to reflect on the relationship that will never end: our relationship with God.  

If we place our faith in Christ, we will be with Him in paradise, along with everyone else who make that decision. 

But if we don’t place or faith in Christ, it won’t matter what our interests were or how great a friend we could be to others.  If we reject Jesus, our relationship with God is contentious, as we will deny Him as sovereign King and as our heavenly Father.

Our choice to not accept God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ will separate us from Him and send us to a place that Jesus described as “darkness” where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, hell.  

Many speculate whether we will remember those who are consigned to hell or if God will erase them from our memories as “somebody we used to know”.

In response to a student who asked how they could be happy knowing their loved ones where in hell, the late theologian Dr. John Gerstner is reported to have said. 

"Don't you know that when you are in heaven you will be so sanctified that you could look at your own mother in hell and rejoice in the display of the justice of God." (https://www.ligonier.org/posts/2010-ligonier-national-conference-rc-sproul-ii)

When we see know God’s love and finally see Him face to face, we will see just how wicked it is to reject the free gift He offers us through Christ.  

The choice to “to “not hang out with God” is a choice to not be in relationship with Him.  When we choose ourselves or other relationships above our relationship with Him we are choosing His wrath.   

The pain of the loss of friends and family that we suffer in our broken relationships, though their deaths or just through decisions to go a different way or to spend time with someone else will be nothing compared to the loss one will experience when they are separated from God’s love and feel His wrath.  

So as I have come back to “reality”, I realize that this turned into a heavy message but just as that Soul II Soul song was about making a decision to be “real” and was asking someone if their relationship had only been a fantasy or if they truly wanted to be with them, God wants us to live and have a relationship with Him in peace for all eternity.  

The song says :

Tell me now, take the initiative
I'll leave it in your hands, until you're ready

How ever do you want me
How ever do you need me,”

I don’t know if you want God in your life, but I know we all desperately need Him.  He is waiting for you to be “real” with Him and to walk with Him into the relationship that will give you peace, love, and joy for all eternity.    

So as we move into another weekend, seek to invest time into the relationships that make you feel loved and give you peace. 

God put other people in our lives to love them so we should enjoy our relationships, but we should also remember the One who made all things and show our gratitude for all the God has done by making peace with Him by putting our faith in Christ and sharing the love of God with those who don’t know it.

 

Today’s Bible verse come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Hebrews 12:1 (NLT2)
1  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Today’s Bible verse encourages that we are not alone in our walk of faith and that we should endure in the journey God puts before us.  

Today’s verse reminds us to remember the other members of the body of Christ to motivate us to keep following the Lord and to forsake the things that will get in the way of our purpose in Christ. 

All the saints in history stand in heaven as witnesses to our walk of faith and they are encouraging us to continue as they did to be faithful.  Knowing all the good works that faithful men and women of God performed and knowing that many sacrificed their very lives in the service in the Lord should encourage us to perform similar works and to make personal sacrifices to be true to the call of Christ on our lives.  

Christ bids all His disciples to follow Him and we should be motivated by His example and the example of other brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, to endure in our faith until the end.  

Christians have the promise of eternal life and all the possible costs that will have to be paid in our lives of faith pale in comparison to the inestimable value of all that God will give us.  

So remember the saints, and press on to the upward call of Christ by laying aside every weight that would hold you down from faithfully fulfilling your purpose in His kingdom,

 

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 sharing from June Hunt’s Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.

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 his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

C. What Is the Most Dangerous Dependency?

If you live your life with a misplaced dependency on others, you will miss the extraordinary relationship God planned for you to have with Him—you may even miss salvation and heaven.

When God created you, He planned for you to enter into a tender, trusting relationship with Him, for He is so trustworthy that you can totally depend on Him to meet all of your needs. He designed you to live in dependence on Him—not on anyone else—to complete you, to fulfill you.

How to Begin Depending on God Alone

If you have struggled with codependency, God has a solution for you—a solution that can be spelled out in four points.

#1 God's Purpose for You... is Salvation.

  • —What was God's motive in sending Christ to earth? To condemn you? No... to express His love for you by saving you!
    "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17)
  • —What was Jesus' purpose in coming to earth? To make everything perfect and to remove all sin? No... to forgive your sins, empower you to have victory over sin, and enable you to live a fulfilled life!
    "I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)

#2 Your Problem... is Sin.

  • —What exactly is sin? Sin is living independently of God's standard—knowing what is right, but choosing wrong.
    "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." (James 4:17)
  • —What is the major consequence of sin? Spiritual death, spiritual separation from God.
    "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

#3 God's Provision for You... is the Savior.

  • —Can anything remove the penalty for sin? Yes. Jesus died on the cross to personally pay the penalty for your sins.
    "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
  • —What is the solution to being separated from God? Belief in Jesus Christ as the only way to God the Father.
    "Jesus answered, lam the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. '" (John 14:6)

#4 Your Part... is Surrender.

  • —Place your faith in (rely on) Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and reject your "good works" as a means of gaining God's approval.
    "It is by grace you have been saved, through faithand this not from yourselves, it is the gift of Godnot by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
  • —Give Christ control of your life, entrusting yourself to Him.
    "Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?'" (Matthew 16:24-26)

The moment you choose to believe in Him—entrusting your life to Christ—He gives you His Spirit to live inside you. Then the Spirit of Christ gives you His power to live the life that God has planned for you. If you want to be fully forgiven by God and become the person He created you to be, you can tell Him in a simple, heartfelt prayer like this:

Prayer of Salvation

"God, I want a real relationship with You. I admit that many times

I've chosen to go my own way instead of Your way. Please forgive me for my sins.

Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. Come into

my life to be my Lord and my Savior. Help me to depend on You alone to meet

my needs. Through Your power, make me the person You created me to be.

In Your holy name I pray. Amen."

What Can You Expect Now?

If you sincerely prayed this prayer, look at what God's Word says that He will do for you!

"The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." (Isaiah 58:11)


Biblical Counseling Keys: Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.

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

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship