“Tell Me More! Tell Me More!” – The Goodness of God – Purity 675
Purity
675 03/10/2022 Purity 675 Podcast
Good
morning,
Today’s photo of a pathway to
an observation platform at Picnic Island Park comes to us from yours truly as I
kept looking to see as many sights as possible on my recent honeymoon vacation,
even on what was our last day in Tampa Florida back on February 24th.
I may have only been to Picnic Island Park
once in my life, but we will probably be revisiting it again as the weather was
wonderful that day and I took a bunch of photos while we were there that
highlight the beauty of God’s creation and that could represent the pathway of
Christian Discipleship.
It’s Thursday again, and I share photos of
various pathways today as an encouragement to my friends to take the path less
traveled by making the daily decision to seek and follow the Lord.
Walking in the Spirit is simply living in
the context of God, or being God conscious , which means we consider the “big
picture” in that everything was created by God and for His purposes, and that
we attempt to be in harmony with God in the ways we think and behave.
But don’t get it twisted, the only way that
we can have any hope of harmony with God is by being first reconciled to Him by
putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is only after we
do that and are given new life in Christ, and the indwelling presence of the
Holy Spirit, that are we given the capability of grasping the profound
implications of God’s creation, His redemptive plan for mankind, and our
purpose in His kingdom.
This morning I was a little stiff in my
back, possibly from sleeping too much (like 7 ½ hours!), and as I was gingerly making
my way down the narrow stairway to my basement to work out, I was hit by a realization
of just how blessed I have been.
It might sound stupid but as I was going
down those stairs to drag myself to my morning work out I remembered how I had first
come down these stairs in 2020 and had thought that this tiny basement would be
the perfect spot to do my morning work outs.
At the time, because I was still living
with a “basement mindset”, I had even admired the small room down there and
thought it would be a good place to do my morning prayers and Bible study.
Only after I had closed on the house and
moved in did I realize that I didn’t have to live in the basement anymore.
Brother, sometimes we live in traumatic
situations of abuse without even realizing it at the time and just get used to living
that way because “that’s just the way we do things around here”. Families of alcoholics and other abusers deal
with that a lot. Things may not always be out of control or unpleasant, but on occasion
or pretty regularly, the dysfunctional behaviors will come, and the messes will
have to be cleaned up.
But this morning as I went down the stairs,
I didn’t even think about that small room, I was overwhelmed with emotion at
just the fact that God had brought me to a house with a space where I could
work out.
And after that the flood gates of joy and
gratefulness just pour over me as I was filled with realizations of just how
much I love my house and I once again reflected on how the Lord delivered me
from the darkness of my past and how we had worked together cooperatively to
get me here.
I know some may doubt that statement and
may want to put all of the credit for my getting a new house on my efforts but
I assure you that although I can’t claim audible voices telling me what to do,
I will testify that from December of 2019 to June of 2020 The Holy Spirit
repeatedly “told me what to do” on my journey to a new home. Just as He has
prior and after that specific time frame.
I was overcome this morning by the remembrance
of my victory and swore to God that I would never cease to be grateful for
bringing me to my home “down by the River” and that I would continually testify
to His goodness and to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ until He calls
me home.
As I was reflecting on my relationship with
God, I thought of the “Summer Lovin’” scene from the movie Grease” and how the
young lovers testify about there summer romance and are accosted by there
respective entourages to “Tell Me More! Tell Me More!”
Well stick around, because although I may
tell you about the interactions of how God has led me through my life in the recent
and distant past, I will tell you more.
This path of Christian Discipleship doesn’t
end. So I will tell you more about how God loves us. I will tell you more about
how much He cares. I will tell you more about how He can solve all your
problems. I will tell you more about how He can deliver you from darkness.
And if I forget about how good God is, He
will remind me!
And I will tell you more of the goodness of
God.
As the song, says:
“And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
'Cause Your goodness is running after
It's running after me
Your goodness is running after
It's running after me
With my life laid down
I'm surrendered now
I give You everything
'Cause Your goodness is running after
It's running after me!”
His
goodness is running after you, so keep walking and talking with God because His
goodness will catch up to you and when it does, you will sing of the goodness
of God.
And you
will be more that able to “Tell Me More!” about how good He has been to you.
Today’s Bible verse come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is :
Romans 5:5 (NLT2)
5 And this hope will not lead
to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us
the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Today’s verse speaks of God’s great love for us and how He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with He love.
God loves us dearly and He wants us to know it.
He wants us to know it so much that He gives us the Holy Spirit to show us the truth and to lead us in His ways. But we have to open our hearts and renew our minds with thewisdom of God’s word and make a commitment to follow Him to experience it.
This hope that we have in Christ will not disappoint. If we have faith and seek the Lord we will know His love experientially and see His goodness manifest in our lives.
Hebrews 11:6
(NKJV)
6 But without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He
is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Our faith pleases God and when we seek Him, He rewards us.
He rewards us with His presence. He rewards us with His guidance. And He rewards us by allowing the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.
So seek Him.
This hope does not disappoint. Our faith is rewarded by
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who can help us to renew our minds
by revealing the truth to us and can confirm that we are God’s children by giving
us Spirit filled hearts of flesh that love more deeply because they have been
touched by the love of God.
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 Envy & Jealousy: Taming the Terrible Twins.
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. The
Difference between Envy and Jealousy
• Envy
— burning
desire to have
— coveting
what another
has
— empty
hands that crave to be filled
— usually
involves two people
• Jealousy
— burning
desire to keep
— possessive
of what one has
— full
hands that fear being emptied
— usually
involves three people
I. CHARACTERISTICS
A. Surface Symptoms
Envious
“A
heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”
(Proverbs
14:30)
Encourages envy in others
—boastful
Needs to put down others
—critical
Vengeful feelings toward others
—resentful
Internal pain over the success of others
—begrudging
Overachiever
—competitive
Unfulfilled desires or cravings
—greedy
Self-exalting
—demanding
Jealous
“Anger
is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?”
(Proverbs
27:4)
Judgmental of others
—performance-based
acceptance
Exclusive expectations
—not
allowing outside relationships
Anxiety/anger over potential loss
—threat
of losing relationship
Leaning on the identity of others
—emotionally
dependent
Overly possessive of others
—controlling
spirit
Unable to trust God
—insecure
Suspicious of the normal behavior of others
—distrustful[1]
B. Disguises for Masking Envy or Jealousy
• Making an issue of the unfairness of life
• Pretending apathy or indifference to people or situations
• Feeling self-pity
• Avoiding problems or people that could produce envy or provoke jealousy
• Idolizing certain people by placing them on an unreachable pedestal
• Offering false praise and congratulations
• Dropping unnecessary, negative information about another
• Projecting jealousy or envy onto another
• Developing a superior attitude toward another
• Becoming a martyr
“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”
(James 3:16)
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Envy & Jealousy: Taming the Terrible Twins (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 5.
---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook
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(https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian
Discipleship
[1]
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Envy &
Jealousy: Taming the Terrible Twins (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart,
2008), 3–4.
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