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Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Worst Case Scenarios and the End of the World as You Know it– Purity 644


 Worst Case Scenarios and the End of the World as You Know it–  Purity 644

Purity 644 02/02/2022   Purity 644 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a bridge stretching over the Oahu countryside under blue skies  along the journey up the Haiku Stairs, aka the Stairway to Heaven, comes to us from friend’s trip to the Islands back in July of 2021. Their trip was truly epic as it was part vacation, part family obligation, and part vision quest as they enjoyed new sights, new accomplishments, and new insights into who they are.   

Life is all about learning who we are and enjoying the things that God has provided for us to experience that includes people, places, and things.   You get out of life what you put into it and when you invest in your relationship with God the returns you receive are simply divine as a life of “walking in the Spirit” puts you in the context of a grand design where every moment has meaning and where you are never alone in your journey, no matter the ups and downs.  

It's Wednesday and even though today’s photo seems to have us in a valley between two peaks, I feel that its implied upward direction was an adequate way of expressing the fact that we will ascend over the “hump” of midweek one way or another and the atmosphere I get from it of “a journey” makes me want to encourage you to be intentional and hopeful as you walk through today and into the future beyond.    

As I shared yesterday, those in Christ are victorious.  We have “won” the unbelievable gift of God’s grace that revealed to us the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ which caused us to “make a decision” to make Jesus our Lord and Savior: a decision that made us spiritually alive and delivers a new and everlasting life for us to enjoy and experience in the here and now as well as in eternity forevermore.    

Salvation messages tend to point to heaven and life beyond death but my purpose in life is to encourage everyone I know that the gift of our salvation is to be enjoyed now and the journey of being conformed to the image of Christ brings the freedom and abundant life that the scriptures speak of.   

However, there are several obstacles that can hinder Christiasn from experiencing the freedom they have in Christ.  We have to contend with the world and the devil who would tell you that our “religion” doesn’t change anything, and I would agree that the empty practices of a “religion” won’t change much but a dynamic interactive relationship with God certainly will.   

As bad as we have to resist the devil and reject the lies of the world, we also have to deal with what is probably our biggest barrier to experiencing the fruit of the Spirit: ourselves.    

Our closed minds, our cold hearts, and our unwillingness to trust the Lord can keep us in abject misery.  This condition of miserable Christianity usually is defined with proclamations of “I try but…”, “I can’t do that”, “do you expect me to…” “I’m not going to do that…” “I’m only human…”  “I don’t have time for that…” “I need to sleep…” “I’m tired…” “I don’t have the strength”,  “I don’t have the faith…”  and several other statements that speak of our insufficiency and that proclaim a destiny of doom.  

I recently counseled a friend who is seeking their freedom in Christ and who is experiencing a “day of reckoning” as they are surrounded by financial problems, relationship problems, sin problems, and work problems.  They are in a situation that is simply unbearable.  They are wallowing in a situation where there seems to be no answers in sight and whose consequences seem to be leading to a complete disaster.  They are under a mountain and everything they think to do seems hopeless.   

In my early attempts to gauge the situation I tried to simplify matter as offer some simple solutions to try to turn things around.  For every bit of advice I gave there was an excuse for how that wouldn’t work or how they were unable to follow it.  To be honest, I felt a little hopeless and powerless because I wanted to give them advice to turn things around and I wasn’t getting anywhere.  It reminded me of a line from an R.E.M. song:  

 

Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline

It's the end of the world as we know it….”

Men tend to want to fix things, I think we all do and when  all my advice seemed to be rejected instead of getting upset and to challenging my friend, I decided to agree with them.    

“Yeah, it’s the end of the world as you know it.”  You have made a huge mess and it looks like there are no solutions. It looks like we are going to live out our worst case scenario.   So what does that mean? And what do we do then?

I then reminded my friend that they forgot something, they are not alone in their struggles and that with God they always have a source of hope, power, love, and strength that they can lean on.   

A great deal of the consequences of the mess they are in are the result of poor choices. So in order to turn around they had to make a smart choice to follow the Lord and start living according to His wisdom and ways and to accept whatever might come knowing that the Lord will never leave them and will walk with them through whatever trials and tribulations that their “worst case scenario” may bring.   

I reminded them that the “worst case scenario” would be their death, which would result with them being with the Lord and His kingdom forever.  So not so bad a result after all.   

But let me be clear here, I was not encouraging suicide. I was encouraging my friend to live His life by faith that would accept even his death as being something not to fear.  

When we face our biggest fear and realize that God has the answer for it we can face everything this world, the devil, or our poor choices may cause us to suffer.   

I then pointed out that bankruptcy would probably suck as a consequence too, but I reminded my friend that even that “worst case scenario” didn’t have to destroy them and that even if they suffered that they would still live in the love of the Lord and they would have reason to have peace and joy.       

When we are in Christ, there is simply no “worst case scenario” that we can not survive.  When we live in the Lord’s presence we can receive His love, strength, and wisdom to carry on to the next day and if we keep walking and talking with God we will one day find ourselves beyond “the valley of the shadow of death” and out from underneath the “weight of the world” that we have been carrying.   

Oh but let’s keep this real.  I’m not talking about instant deliverance here! “Oh I need money, so I pray and get a check in the mail!”  While anything is possible with God, there is no learning or maturation in instant blessings and the Lord wants you to learn from the mistakes that you have made in life and wants you to lean on Him and follow Him out of your messes.  That means accepting responsibility for the mess you made. That’s means repenting which means to change our minds and our behaviors to align with God’s ways rather than our own.  That means going continually into God’s presence to be filled with the Holy Spirit to empower our walk and our convictions of who we are in Christ.  That’s means changing the way we think and the way we have lived.  That means being open to the solutions and alternatives that may be unthinkable.   

When I made that suggestion, my friend started to think of some underhanded way of hiding finances to relieve his burden.  

I reminded them that as Christian we don’t do that. We accept responsibility and take our lumps for the dumb decisions we have made. We work toward solutions with honesty and integrity, and we prepare ourselves for a long journey to freedom and deliverance.   

When we decide to follow the Lord, we align ourselves with the eternal One and our commitment should be forever.  That means going His way and trusting that He will lead us out of the desert and that we will remain faithful to follow Him no matter how long it takes.   

Seems impossible, where’s the quick fix?    

Our relationship with God is the quick fix as He gives us eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and the power to overcome the moment we say yes to Jesus but in order to experience it all we must humbly submit to the Lord  and resist the devil, the world, and our old ways.  

God will see us through even our “worst case scenario”  but we won’t have any peace if we refuse to trust Him and follow Him in the way we should go.   So trust the Lord to see you through today.  His mercies are new every morning, so enjoy them and then trust the Lord to see you through to the next day.  The journey out of the darkness is a collection of steps that bring you closer to the light a little bit each day.  So keep going with God and one day you discover that your situations will change and that you have the ability to find peace and joy even in “your worst case scenario.”  

It may be the “end of the world as you know it” but God has a new life and a new world for you to live in. So open your heart, open you mind, and follow the Lord to know it.

 

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 147:3 (NLT2)
3  He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

Today’s verse speaks of the Lord’s healing of the broken hearted and who He will bandage up our wounds.   

Our God is not just the God of the good times and season of prosperity. One of the greatest promises of God is that He will never leave us or forsake us, and it is most evident in the dark seasons of our lives where we are broken hearted.   

When we suffer loss and heartache we are often woken up from the world of illusion to see the harsh realities of death and of how people can be selfish and uncaring.  We can feel utterly alone and enter into a state where everything seems unreal because our innocence is lost and the way we thought of the world as a “nice place” is shattered.       

But the Lord never wanted us to find peace and meaning from this broken world of sin and death, the peace that goes beyond all understanding comes from Him and Him alone.   

I encourage people to pray to the Lord every day as a spiritual practice because I know of the great comfort that comes from being in His presence and the benefits of receiving His love, strength and wisdom.   But you have to go to Him to experience it.  And when you are broken hearted or hurting or wounded, the Lord is waiting with open arms to take comfort you and take your pain away.   

Healing might not come in an instant, but the Lord will patiently abide with you and restore you when you lean on Him.  The old adage that “everything is going to be okay” is only true when you are in relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.   

So press into your relationship with the One who caused the blind to see, and the lame to walk. If he can do those things, you can trust Him to heal you’re your broken heart too.  

 

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 begin sharing from Chapter 7.   

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.

THE EFFECTS OF ADDICTION

People caught in addictive and immoral patterns of behavior are subjected to some of the cruelest harassment of the enemy. First, Satan tempts them to sin, then he mercilessly condemns them for sinning, and then he attacks their sense of worth. If they believe the lies, they will start thinking that they are nothing more than a hopeless sinner, alcoholic, or addict.

You do not have a chemical problem, or sex problem, or drug problem, you have a life problem. You will not be successful just trying to eliminate bad behavior; telling you that what you are doing is wrong does not give you the power to stop doing it. You need to get right with God, and then the life of Christ will be manifested in you, and you will have the power of God to overcome the sin. If you are filled (controlled) by the Holy Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.143 You don’t need condemnation! You want to be free from sin, because nobody likes to live in bondage to sin.

GOING THROUGH STEP SIX

Overcoming habitual sin may require help from a trusted brother or sister in Christ. James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” Sometimes the assurance of 1 John 1:9 is enough: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Confession is not saying, I’m sorry. It is openly admitting, I did it. Whether you need help from other people or just the accountability of walking in the light before God, pray the following prayer aloud:

Dear Heavenly Father, You have told me to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust. I confess that I have given in to fleshly lusts that wage war against my soul. I thank You that in Christ my sins are already forgiven, but I have broken Your holy law and I have allowed sin to wage war in my body. I come to You now to confess and renounce these sins of the flesh so that I might be cleansed and set free from the bondage of sin.

Please reveal to my mind all the sins of the flesh I have committed and the ways I have grieved the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ holy name, I pray. Amen.144

The following list contains many sins of the flesh, but a prayerful examination of Mark 7:20-23, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:25-31, and other Scripture passages will help you to be even more thorough. Look over the list below and the Scriptures just listed and ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind the ones you need to confess. He may reveal others to you as well. For each one the Lord shows you, pray a prayer of confession from your heart. There is a sample prayer following the list. (Note: Sexual sins, eating disorders, substance abuse, abortion, suicidal tendencies, and perfectionism will be dealt with later in this step.)  Note: If you are struggling with habitual sin, read Overcoming Addictive Behavior (Bethany House, 2003).

For each item that you checked above, confess to the Lord as follows:


·       Quarreling/Fighting

·       Complaining/Criticism

·       Lustful Actions

·       Swearing

·       Lying

·       Anger

·       Drunkenness

·       Procrastination

·       Stealing

·       Jealousy/Envy

·       Sarcasm

·       Gossip/Slander

·       Apathy/Laziness

·       Hatred

·       Lustful Thoughts

·       Cheating

·       Greed/Materialism

·       Others


 

 

Lord Jesus, I confess that I have sinned against You by (name the sins). Thank You for Your forgiveness and cleansing. I now turn away from these expressions of sin and turn to You, Lord. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I will not carry out the desires of the flesh. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

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

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

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