Forgiven for the Things We Did Not Know – Purity 683

Forgiven for the Things We Did Not Know – Purity 683

Purity 683 03/19/2022  

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the sun breaking through the clouds over Waite Rd in Easton NY comes to us from yours truly as I stopped to capture this moment just before reaching my countryside home last evening.  

The sun shining through those thick clouds last evening provided an even more glorious view from Route 40 when I first noticed the setting sun and decided to stop and take a photo. To be honest I was somewhat disappointed that my vantage point on Waite Rd didn’t provide the horizontal aspect of this sight that the angle on Route 40 provided but I grabbed the photo anyway thinking something like “Oh well, I guess that’s what the Lord has for me now. I guess I missed my chance, but this is still good.”

After getting to my countryside home, although I was ready to relax, my canine friend, Harley enthusiastically greeted me causing me to surrender to his unspoken request for a walk. On our return trek back to the house, I realized that I didn’t miss a thing with the afternoon sunset because as we turned to go back to the house, the sun pushed through these clouds in a dramatic fashion, completely revealing it’s glowing magnificence.

So why don’t I have a picture of that? In my haste to be a good steward to the pet that the Lord provide us with, I left the house without my phone.  As much as I regretted not having my phone to capture this “second coming” of the sun, I had peace about it and commented to Harley: “ Oh well, Harley, I guess this sunset was just for us. God had this one for just us two. Thank You Lord.”   

Yeah, I don’t say keep “walking and talking with God” as just a clever phrase to encourage others to follow the path of Christian Discipleship. I practice what I profess by continually returning to enjoy the presence of the Lord, to contemplate my relationship with Him and this world that He has created, and to speak to Him about it.   

After a short reminiscence about my spiritual walk though the years with my wife last night, I found myself “called” to revisit the OT book of Hosea this morning in lieu of my current study in the scriptures. 

For those who don’t know Hosea’s book is mostly a warning to the northern kingdom of Israel that foretells of their eventual doom at the hands of the nation of Assyria and how it will be a judgement against them for their worshipping other gods and for living in rebellion to the Lord’s precepts.  The overall message is clear: repent, return to the Lord, or you will suffer greatly.  

Unfortunately, they didn’t listen and the Assyrian army captured the Israelite capital at Samaria and carried away the citizens of the northern Kingdom of Israel into captivity in 721 BC to fulfill Hosea’s dire prophecies of God’s judgement.  

What’s that got to do with me?  Well it shows us there are consequences for not following the Lord and those consequences can affect us here on earth.  While we may not have to suffer the loss of our nation to an outside power as a judgement from God, although historically every empire that has risen to power has a tendency to get knocked off eventually, we could learn something from the general principles in the book of Hosea and it’s last verse that says: 

Hosea 14:9 (NKJV)
⁹  Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.

As we walk through life we aren’t always wise. We don’t always understand that the ways of the Lord are right and that we should walk in them.  But when we follow the general advice that is presented in Hosea, to turn to the Lord in repentance, the Lord will forgive us. 

God wanted us to know that message. Hosea’s prophetic predecessor, Amos put it clearly too. God’s message through him was to “Seek Me and live” (Amos 5:4).

The prophets weren’t enough for the nation of Israel so the both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah were judged for their idolatry and sin and fell.  

But God so loved the nation of Israel, and the world that He sent Jesus Christ to deliver the same message again, but this time He made it even more specific. For John 3:16-18 tells us that Christ said:

John 3:16-18 (NLT2)
¹⁶  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
¹⁷  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
¹⁸  “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.

So to have the assurance of eternal life, we are to put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  If we seek Him, we will live, forevermore.  

But as Hosea warned us about the possibility of stumbling when we transgress the ways on the Lord, we should also seek to turn to the Lord’s ways and walk in them to avoid the negative consequences that come with sin and to prevent any need for the Lord to chastise us.

Since coming to Christ, I have made many mistakes because of my willful disobedience, not doing what I should, and because of my ignorance, not knowing the way I should go.  

As we walk on the path that leads us closer to the Lord, we learn as we go.  What we first thought  or understood about how we are to live as Christians isn’t always correct or we struggle to obey the wisdom of His ways.

So even after we follow the Lord we can still struggle, make mistakes, or fall down, 

But the good news is that God has forgiven us because of our faith in Christ and He will keep on forgiving us until we see Him face to face.  

So we keep going, and even if we stumble, or even if we discover we had huge blind spots in our understanding or what we believed about different aspects of our faith walk were just incorrect, the Lord will continue to forgive us and encourage us to keep walking in His ways.   

The further we go the more we will know of the Lord’s wisdom and be able to apply it to our lives.   God forgives us when we are willfully disobedient, and He even forgives us for the things we don’t know.  

So keep walking and talking with God. Enjoy some rest and relaxation this weekend and try to have some fun as the Lord wants you to experience some joy in your life. He has given us the whole world to explore and there are lots of things to experience. There are lots of things to know. He wants us to grow and know His peace.

He loves us and encourages to follow Him and we never have to worry about doing everything perfectly because He has already forgiven us for all the mistakes we will ever make and even for those things we don’t know.      

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If you are interested in taking an online course with Freedom in Christ Ministries below you will find the course options for our Spring Session. The classes will meet for 1.5-2 hours once a week for 12 weeks starting the first full week of April. Our prayer is that you will be able to set aside time for one of these wonderful courses. They truly are life changing!

 

Spring registration is now open! We are offering these times.

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4.     Men's Group, Starting Thursday, April 7 at 6:30 PM EDT.

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

This morning’s meditation verse is :

2 Timothy 2:11-12 (NKJV)
¹¹  This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.
¹²  If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.

Today’s Bible verse points to our new lives in Christ and the need for endurance in our relationship with Him .   

Paul’s letter to Timothy speaks of the spiritual reality of how we die with Christ when we put our faith in Him.

The way Christ pays for our sins and brings us into the kingdom of God is explained as a spiritual bond that never breaks, for nothing can separate us from of the love of God, right? 

So in effect, when we place our faith in Christ, we spiritually die with Him as if we were crucified with Him on the cross. But don’t worry, we are also raised to new life through His resurrection. 

When we put our faith in Christ we are given a new spiritual life as the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us, “quickening our spirit”.  Before our faith in Christ we were spiritually dead,  after we put our faith in Christ we are spiritually alive. Thus if “we die with Him, We shall also live with Him.” 

Now that is a spiritual reality, we are new creations, we are born again, we are forgiven, we are set free from sin and death when we are in Christ.  When we put our faith in Christ, it is a “done deal”.  Once saved, always saved. Nothing can separate us from His love.   

But are you in Christ?  

How do we know that we are delivered into God’s kingdom?  

There are many proof texts for Christians in the Bible, like today’s second verse which says:

“If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.”  

So if we are in Christ, we will endure in our faith. We will not walk away from it and one day we will reign with Him.

If someone does walk away, it either indicates a major bump in their Christian life that will eventually result in their turning back to God again (they will endure),  or it indicates that they never were a Christian in the first place!   Which is it? God knows. 

But I wouldn’t recommend that anyone walk away from the Lord to find out if we are truly His because if we have a desire to leave the Lord we may discover that we are one of the ones that Christ never knew. 

If that is a fear of yours, make your faith in Christ sure by proclaiming with your mouth  Jesus as your Lord and Savior in spirit and in truth, and by making the decision to continually follow Him and to live for Him.

Because, as today’s verse tells us, if we are not in Christ, we will eventually deny Jesus as our Lord and:

“If we deny Him, He also will deny us”

So this is why  it important to have an authentic living relationship with Jesus.  

The world offers a plethora of different beliefs that deny Christ.  If we are in a different faith stream or worldly philosophy that doesn’t have Jesus has the only option, as Lord and Savior, we deny Christ and He will deny us.   

 Only true faith in Jesus will give us the strength to endure in this world. When we know the Truth, the Way, and the Life, we will boldly proclaim Jesus to be the Lord of our lives and we will endeavor to represent Him in the earth and to make Him known.

And we will look forward to His second coming where we shall one day reign with Him forever and ever, Amen.   

 

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 Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation.  

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.

E. What Is the Body Mass Index?

Body weight is an important indicator of overall body health. Our bodies were designed to consume, store, and use the fuel provided by food on a daily basis. They were not meant to hoard unneeded and unused fuel. Overeating overfills the body and stresses and strains it just as the weight of too much ice or snow can burden and even break the strong limbs of a mighty oak tree.

In making our bodies to require nourishment on a daily basis, God made us dependent on His daily provision. The writer of Proverbs shares this wisdom …

“Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.”

(Proverbs 30:8)

The Body Mass Index (BMI) number is calculated based on a person’s height and weight and is a useful tool to measure body fat. Although BMI doesn’t specifically measure body fat, the BMI is regarded as an acceptable, inexpensive alternative for weight category screening.

The calculation of BMI is based on the following formula: Weight (pounds)/[height (inches)] × 703.

BMI	Normal						Overweight					Obese
	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31
Height	Weight (pounds)
4′10″	91	96	100	105	110	115	119	124	129	134	138	143	148
4′11″	94	99	104	109	114	119	124	128	133	138	143	148	153
5′0″	97	102	107	112	118	123	128	133	138	143	148	153	158
5′1″	100	106	111	116	122	127	132	137	143	148	153	158	164
5′2″	104	109	115	120	126	131	136	142	147	153	158	164	169
5′3″	107	113	118	124	130	135	141	146	152	158	163	169	175
5′4″	110	116	122	128	134	140	145	151	157	163	169	174	180
5′5″	114	120	126	132	138	144	150	156	162	168	174	180	186
5′6″	118	124	130	136	142	148	155	161	167	173	179	186	192
5′7″	121	127	134	140	146	153	159	166	172	178	185	191	198
5′8″	125	131	138	144	151	158	164	171	177	184	190	197	203
5′9″	128	135	142	149	155	162	169	176	182	189	196	203	209
5′10″	132	139	146	153	160	167	174	181	188	195	202	209	216
5′11″	136	143	150	157	165	172	179	186	193	200	208	215	222
6′0″	140	147	154	162	169	177	184	191	199	206	213	221	228
6′1″	144	151	159	166	174	182	189	197	204	212	219	227	235
6′2″	148	155	163	171	179	186	194	202	210	218	225	233	241
6′3″	152	160	168	176	184	192	200	208	216	224	232	240	248
6′4″	156	164	172	180	189	197	205	213	221	230	238	246	254

It is always wise to use the means available to us to identify unneeded fat and to assist us in getting rid of it in a healthy way. Scripture offers this wise counsel …

“Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.”

(Proverbs 1:5)

While the Body Mass Index is accurate and useful for the majority of men and women, it may …

•     Overestimate body fat in trained athletes and others with muscular bodies

•     Underestimate body fat in elderly individuals and others with diminished muscles

Waist Circumference

Along with BMI, knowing a person’s waist circumference can prove helpful in determining possible health risks that accompany being overweight and obese.

To obtain an accurate waist measurement …

•     Encircle the body with a tape measure placed just above the hip bones.

•     Take the measurement while standing up and after breathing out.

Once the waist circumference is obtained, consider the following information …

•     If most of the person’s fat is around the waist rather than at the hips, the person is at a higher risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

•     If the person’s waist size is greater than 35 inches (for women) or greater than 40 inches (for men) the risk goes up.

Applying a person’s BMI and waist circumference to the chart below can determine the implications of the BMI score with regard to the person’s weight category. It is also helpful in assessing the overall risk for developing obesity-associated diseases or conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Classification of Overweight and Obesity by BMI, Waist Circumference, and Associated Disease Risks

			Disease Risk* Relative to Normal Weight and Waist Circumference
	BMI (kg/m2)	Obesity Class	Men 102 cm (40 in) or less Women 88 cm (35 in) or less	Men > 102 cm (40 in) Women > 88 cm (35 in)
Underweight	< 18.5		—	—
Normal	18.5–24.9		—	—
Overweight	25.0–29.9		Increased	High
Obesity	30.0–34.9	I	High	Very High
	35.0–39.9	II	Very High	Very High
Extreme Obesity	40.0 +	III	Extremely High	Extremely High

Persons who are overweight or obese and who have any of the following conditions are at even greater risk for developing heart disease and other health problems:

Risk Factors

•     High blood pressure (hypertension)

•     High LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol)

•     Low HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol)

•     High triglycerides

•     High blood glucose (sugar)

•     Family history of premature heart disease

•     Physical inactivity

•     Cigarette smoking

Losing between 5% and 10% of a person’s current weight helps lower the risk of developing diseases associated with obesity. This is true even of those who are overweight or obese and have two or more of the above risk factors.

If you believe you may have a health risk, talk to your doctor to see whether you are at an increased risk and whether you need to lose weight.…

•     Ask your doctor to evaluate your BMI, waist measurement, and other risk factors for heart disease.

•     Ask someone to go with you and support you in your efforts to follow any medical instructions you are given.

Remember God’s admonition to …

“Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.”

(Proverbs 23:12)^[1]

 

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

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^[1] June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 11–14.