A Rock Steady Purpose – One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus! -Purity 718
Purity 718 04/29/2022
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a spectacular
sunset in the distance and reflected in the waters of Portsmouth Harbor comes
to us from a pastor friend in the United Kingdom who combines paddling and
prayer to enjoy the magnificence of God’s creation and to bask in the peace of
the Lord in what he has called his “happy place”.
And as the sun sets on another work week it is my prayer that
all my friends will likewise seek the Lord in similar ways and find their own “happy
place” this weekend.
Since coming to faith in Christ 12 years ago, I discovered that my
“happy place” was anywhere I decided to commune with the Lord. While on
vacation mission trips, both foreign and domestic, I learned that God wasn’t
contained by geographical boundaries and no matter where I went, as long as I
sought His presence, there He was. One of the greatest promises of our Christian
faith is that God will never leave us or forsake us. God is always available to
us and is the one relationship that is guaranteed to endure because He is
faithful.
In the ebb and flow of 12 years of being “born again”, many
relationships have come and gone as our life journey is progressive and subject
to circumstantial changes. People will come and go in our lives but if we have
God in common although circumstances may separate us from one another and even
though our relationships can change, brothers and sisters in the body of Christ
are all joined together through the Lord’s family of saints and His will, and
you never know when your paths will converge again.
The purpose of the body of Christ is to represent the kingdom of
God by serving one another, learning from one another, and loving one another.
Our interactions with the body of Christ allows us to grow and to meet our
purpose in Christ.
And that’s the million dollar question isn’t it: What exactly is
my purpose in Christ?
I refer to our life of faith as a walk on the path of Christian
Discipleship and the thing about a walk is that it is defined by progressive
movement and a certain course, a direction.
Invariably in our “walk”, we discover that as we progress
through time and space, the people we were walking with changes as the Lord
directs our path. The Lord may set our course to be simple and steady: to “just
keep doing what your doing” where you find yourself to be called to “walk in
place”, to just remain faithful to where God has you in your job, your family,
or your local church. Our faith and our purpose don’t have to be complicated
and it doesn’t necessarily have to take you to a wide variety of different
locations. Just being faithful to
represent the kingdom of God where you are, to be “Rock Steady”, in the maelstrom
of our post Christian society in your current environment could be your
purpose.
Maintaining that “Rock Steady” faith, whether you are called to
serve in the local church, called to develop ministries, called to volunteer,
called to serve in represent God at work by whatever means necessary, or called
to represent the Lord among your family or friends is really one of the goals
of being a disciple of Christ.
Our primary purpose as a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be
faithful to represent our Lord no matter where we are called to go or no matter
what we are called to do. Just like the Lord is Our Constant Companion, our
unchanging purpose regardless of where we are called to “walk” or what we are called to do is to represent
the Lord by lovingly serving others and by sharing the truth of the lifegiving
gospel of Jesus Christ.
So while we can vary in the certainty of our direction and
establish goals to get us to where we are going, we should all have the short
term goal to be faithful to represent the Lord by what we think, say, and do “one
day at a time”.
Our daily decision to walk with the Lord and to be faithful disciples
of Christ reminds me of the song “One Day at a Time: where the lyrics say:
“One day at a time sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking of You
Just give me the strength
To do everyday what I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Lord help me today, show me the way
One day at a time”
It’s Friday the 29th of April, and if your schedule
is anything like mine, at the beginning of the week you probably weren’t too
concerned with what you would do today because you had to get through Monday,
Tuesday, and the rest of the days of the week before you got here.
A walk is one step at a time and our lives are lived one day at a time. We can only do what we can do for today. So stay “Rock Steady” while you walk about the earth and move towards or seek to find the purpose that the Lord has for you in your life. Even if we are not sure “where all this is going”, we can be certain that the Lord will be pleased with us when we seek to do His will and stay in His presence by walking and talking with God.
______________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Psalm 138:6 (NLT2)
6
Though
the LORD is great, he cares for
the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud.
Today’s Bible verse reminds us of the greatness of our God and how His
care cares for the humble but keeps his distance from the proud.
Pretty straight forward interpretation of that verse, huh? Sometimes the word of God is simple and clear
and we don’t need to read a lot into it.
So what are the implications from this verse?
God is great. He cares for the humble but keeps His distance from the
proud . So let’s receive His care and be
humble. A correct view of who we are in Christ would show us that we have done
nothing to make ourselves approved of by God or we haven’t been able to perform
anything that God didn’t bless us with. Our looks, our temperament, and our
capacity to develop skills and increase our intelligence were all given to us
by our Creator.
We may have done a great deal to become skillful, intelligent, or cared
for our bodies to maximize our attractiveness and physical fitness but the raw
materials and potentials all come from the Lord.
SO here is the trap, shouldn’t be proud of what we’ve done? Shouldn’t we
be proud of what we have learned, and accomplished. Shouldn’t we be proud of how we have cared
for and strengthened our bodies? I mean
we read the books, we took the classes, we practiced the skills, we exercised our
bodies, we worked hard to get here. Shouldn’t I be proud of all I have
done?
I’m not sure if I revealed the error we are making here or just
re-emphasized our penchant for pride so let me tell you.
No, as the word of God indicates, we shouldn’t be proud.
Jeremiah
9:23-24 (NKJV) says
23
Thus
says the LORD: "Let not the
wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his
might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
24
But
let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am
the LORD, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I
delight," says the LORD.
It sort of stinks we can’t be proud, right? No, because if we know the Lord, we wouldn’t be proud – thinking we “created” our wisdom, wealth, or might. If we know the Lord we know we have been blessed to be given the ability and favorable circumstance to achieve these positive results by a loving and Sovereign God that created us, our drive, and all the people and things that we have utilized to achieve what we have.
We are not to be prideful. We are to be thankful. So yeah you can recognize the progress you have made in life, but instead of glorying in our awesome you are, give credit where credit is due and give the glory to God for establishing this world and for giving you the life you have, all the blessings you enjoy, and the power and abilities He has given you.
We can do some pretty amazing things but when we are proud of ourselves or what we have done, without recognizing God, we idolize ourselves and the way we did it “our way” or “all by myself”, when fundamentally that is a lie.
We didn’t do anything by ourselves. God gave us the life we have and all the people and things that helped us along the way.
Which takes us to the first part of today’s verse: God is great and when we recognize just how great He is and what He has done for us, we rightly will be humble and we won’t distance ourselves from God by believing that lie that we are self sufficient and being prideful.
So rejoice over the Lord, how He has blessed you, and give Him the glory by recognizing the truth of just how great He is by humbly, and continuously, giving Him thanks and praise.
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 John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life”.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase John Pipers’ books for your own private
study and to support his work. This resource is available on many
websites for less than $5.00.
Paul’s Discovery of
Peter’s Secret
First, “For me … to die is
gain.” I wonder if Paul in his conversations with Peter in Jerusalem had talked
about dying? I wonder if Peter told him about that experience recorded in John
21 when Jesus, after his resurrection, said to Peter, “When you were young, you
used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you
will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you
do not want to go” (John 21:18). Then John adds this explanation in his Gospel:
“This [Jesus] said to showby what kind of
death [Peter] was to glorify God” (John 21:19). God had decreed that Peter
would make God look great in his dying. I don’t doubt that when Peter and Paul
gave each other the right hand of fellowship, the manly grip of their hands and
the meeting of their eyes communicated this one common passion: to magnify
Christ crucified—the blazing center of the glory of God—even in death.
But
how are we to magnify Christ in death? Or to put it another way: How can we die
so that in our dying the surpassing value of Christ, the magnitude of his
worth, becomes visible? Paul’s answer here in Philippians 1 is found first in
the connection between verse 20 and verse 21. These verses are connected by the
word “for” or “because.” Boil it down to the words about death: “My eager
expectation is that Christ be honored in my body by death, for to me to die is
gain.” In other words, if you experience death as gain, you magnify Christ in
death.
How Is Dying Gain?
Why is that? Verse 23
shows why dying is gain for Paul: “My desire is to depart [that is, to die] and
be with Christ, for that is far better.” That is what death does: It takes us
into more intimacy with Christ. We depart, and we are with Christ, and that,
Paul says, is gain. And when you experience death this way, Paul says, you
exalt Christ. Experiencing Christ as gain in your dying magnifies Christ. It is
“far better” than living here.
Really?
Better than all the friends at school? Better than falling in love? Better than
hugging your children? Better than professional success? Better than retirement
and grandchildren? Yes. A thousand times better. When I preached my candidating
sermon for the pastoral position I hold now, this passage of Scripture was my
text. That was January 27, 1980. I wanted to show the people from Scripture the
single, all-embracing passion of my life—to magnify Christ in all things
whether by life or death.
At
this point in the message, the question arose: Is death better than life? Is
departing to be with Christ better than staying here? I said to them:
If I didn’t believe that, how could I dare to
aspire to the role of pastor—anywhere—not to mention at Bethlehem Baptist Church
where 108 members are over 80 years old and another 171 over 65? But I do
believe it, and say to every gray-haired believer in this church, with all the
authority of Christ’s apostle, the best is yet to come! And I don’t mean a fat
pension and a luxury condominium. I mean Christ.
I
averaged one funeral every three weeks for the first year and a half of my
ministry. And many more after that. It was a sobering and sweetening season for
a young pastor. It knit my heart together with many families as we bade farewell to friend after friend. And faring well is exactly what we believed
they did.
If We Learn to Die Well, We Will Live Well
What we have learned from
Philippians 1 so far is that death (whether by natural causes or by
persecution) is a means of making much of Christ. If we suffer or die on the
Calvary road of obedience with Christ, the cost of following him is not just a result of making much of him, but a means. Death makes visible where our
treasure is. The way we die reveals the worth of Christ in our hearts. Christ
is magnified in my death when I am satisfied with him in my dying—when I
experience death as gain because I gain him. Or to say it another way: The
essence of praising Christ is prizing Christ. Christ will be praised in my
death, if in my death he is prized above life.
Jesus
said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and
whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew
10:37). When the hour comes for everything to be taken from us but Christ, we
will magnify him by saying, “In him I have everything and more. To die is
gain.”
If
we learn to die like this, we will be ready to live. And if we don’t, we will
waste our lives. Most of us have some years to live before we go to be with
Christ. Even the oldest among us must ask the question, “If we love Christ, how
can he be magnified in my behavior this afternoon, this evening, this week?” So
we turn to the other half of Philippians 1:21: “To me to live is Christ.”
To Live Is Christ
What does Paul mean: “To
live is Christ”? He begins his explanation in verse 22: “If I am to live in the
flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” But that is a strange explanation:
“To live is Christ” becomes “To live is fruitful labor for me.” What is the
fruit that comes from Paul’s work? And how is “to live … Christ”? The answers
come in verses 24–26.
In
verse 22 Paul has said, “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful
labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.” Now in verse 24 he says,
“To remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” So evidently the
fruit that Paul’s life produces is not only for himself but is very needful for
the sake of the Philippian believers. So the phrase, “For me to live is Christ”
now becomes “For me to live is to produce fruit that you all need very much.”
Then verse 25 tells us what this fruit is that the church needs and that Paul’s
life will produce: “I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for
your progress and joy in the faith.” So we can see Paul gradually clarifying
what he means by “For me to live is Christ.”
First,
it means: My life is dedicated to producing fruit (verse 22). Second, it means:
My life is devoted to producing a fruit that is very necessary for you to have
(verse 24). Third, it means: My life is devoted to increasing your faith and
helping it to overflow with joy (verse 25).
Now
the crucial question is: Why in Paul’s mind is it one and the same thing to say
on the one hand, “For me to live is Christ,” and to say on the other hand, “My
life is devoted to your progress and joy in the faith”? I think those two
statements are virtually synonymous for Paul in this context.[1]
---------------------------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
[1]
John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway Books, 2003), 66–70.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.