Prophets of Doom or the Good News? – Purity 695
Purity 695 04/02/2022 Purity 695 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a blazing sun and it’s shimmering reflection on
what appears to be Tampa Bay in Florida comes to us from a friend who left their
northeast home back in December and January and took twelve days to explore
various beach locations near the Tampa Area and to celebrate the post-Christmas
holiday season and to bridge the gap from 2021 to 2022 in the Florida sunshine.
Well it’s Saturday and I am overcome with the joy of having arrived
to a place of peace as I am enjoying the company of my wife in our countryside
home and I am enjoying the realization that in Christ we have “arrived” and we
need not fear.
With the considerations of the current events and the
implications of what this all means in terms of the end times we can wonder what
will happen next and what it is we should be doing for the kingdom of God and
how we should be preparing for the possibility of persecution and tribulations.
I was commenting to my wife last night about how some of these “prophetic preachers and teachers” may
unwittingly be participating in the ministry of the enemy by being harbingers
of fear as they “prophesy” about the possibility of war, super pandemics, and natural
disasters.
News flash: In this world broken by sin, there will be war,
disease, disasters, and death. These
things have come and will come in every generation since Christ ascended to
heaven and will continue until He returns.
I understand the desire to be prepared for disasters. That’s why
I spent money for a generator after experiencing 3 power outages in the first
few months of living at my riverside home.
But in terms of the “end times”, I honestly don’t think there will be
much we will be able to do to be fully prepared for the return of Christ. Scripture paints a picture of supernatural events
of a magnitude that we will not be able to handle by stock pilling supplies or
battening down the hatches.
Add to this the fact that there have been people in generations
past that were positively convinced that the end was nigh but who were wrong in
their predictions, and it makes me think that those who are convinced that
Christ will return within our lifetimes may be equally mistaken.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe that Christ could return at any moment,
but I also know that there is no way that I can know when He will come back and
I am pretty sure that He will catch us all by surprise when He does, because
that is what the word of God indicates. He will come unexpectedly and
suddenly.
Can I imagine some of these “prophecies” of World War II,
societal chaos, disease, and natural disasters?
Sure, but I can also imagine that today will be a good day and quite
frankly I would rather think on that.
The word says in
Psalm 118:24
(NKJV) that
24
This
is the day the LORD has
made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
So I think I will do that.
I will rejoice. I will praise the Lord for who He is and what He has
done. I will take comfort and be humbled
by the fact that apart from God I can do nothing, and I will rest in the peace
that comes from knowing that there will be nothing that can separate me from
His love.
So I won’t take the prophets of doom too seriously. The Bible says God has not given us a Spirit
of fear and word encourages not to fear.
So as well informed as these “end times prophets” or “conspiracy
minded Christians” would like to appear, I think that if they suggest anything
other than sharing the gospel with the world that desperately needs it, they
may be working for the enemy as they drive people to isolate themselves in
bunkers and selfishly stockpile provisions for them and their kin rather than
reaching out to the world that needs the truth and love of Christ.
Only Christ saves. And He said:
Mark 8:35-36 (NKJV)
35 For
whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
My sake and the gospel's will save it.
36 For
what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
So yeah, what are we trying so
desperately to hold on to in this world? Christ gives us life and saves our
souls and He directs us to boldly go into the world and share the gospel and
make disciples, not to build bunkers and cower in fear of the things that may
come.
Reacting to fear usually leads to regrettable actions, whereas
responding in love usually results in good works that glorify the Lord.
So let’s relax this weekend and enjoy the rest that God has
given us in Christ.
It is my prayer that my friends not fear this weekend and
instead be content with what they have and enjoy the company of their friends
and family and to thank and praise the Lord for providing it. To quote the song “The Blessing” by Cody
Carnes, Elevation Worship, and Kari Jobe:
“May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children
May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, He is with you
In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you”
Amen!
Good has not given us a spirit of fear and He works all things
together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His
purposes.
So keep walking and talking with God. Love Him and answer the call to do His purposes here on earth. Share the truth and love of Christ with those around you and rejoice that there is nothing and no one that can stop you from being the person that God wants you to be and that there is nothing that will ever separate us from His love.
______________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verse is :
Matthew 26:28 (NLT2)
28 for
this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is
poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.
Today’s Bible verse contains the words of Jesus as He established the
new covenant that would be celebrated with a remembrance of the sacrifice of His body and blood that was given for the
forgiveness of our sins.
The sacrament of communion is celebrated all over the world by
Christians to celebrate Christ’s work on the cross that redeemed us.
I grew up in the Catholic Church and my first exposure to the content of
today’s verse was in my first communion class. I specifically remember that of all the
children in our class I was selected to read the part of the priest who read
the words of Jesus Christ that spoke of His body and blood.
I was only in the second grade at the time, but I remember having the
feeling that I was saying “holy words” and I wondered if my being called to
read the part of the priest was some “divine call” on my life. Although I quickly dismissed it at the time,
all these years later, I know that the Lord was calling me to follow and to
serve Him.
I have had a lot of crazy experiences in my life. From the depths of
depravity and despair where I felt
utterly alone to the heights of joy and the summit of some real supernatural
moments where I have encountered what I believe was the manifest presence of
the Lord. In recent days I have thought
about some of these experiences and wondered how often the enemy led me astray
and how often the Lord corrected my course since that first communion
class.
I have made some big mistakes in my life and experienced some things
that I am no longer sure were what I thought they were, but I know beyond a
shadow of a doubt that the day I heard the gospel message about the love of God
and forgiveness of sins that was paid for by the blood of Christ that cause me
to make Jesus my Lord and Savior, that the Lord was with me and He was calling
me back to the truth and the purpose that He first revealed to me all those
years ago.
The presence of the Lord at my salvation experience was palpable and
while I may wonder about some of the twists and turns of my winding journey of
faith since then I know that Christ’s blood washed my sins away and the Holy Spirit
brought me to life that day.
We are no longer “sinners saved by grace”. That did happen on the day of
our salvation, we were sinners saved by grace, but since the blood of Christ
was applied to us and our sins were washed away, we became saints, holy ones,
who are set apart for God’s purposes.
While we aren’t holy supermen of sinless perfection just yet the new
life in Christ does give us the power to say no to sin and distance ourselves
from the darkness that enshrouded us before we were born again. So renew your mind to know who are in Christ
and ask the Lord to help you be who He made you to be.
And the next time you celebrate communion, remember the cost that was
paid for you but also remember the joy that you and the Lord had when you were
forgiven and adopted into His royal family forever and ever.
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. How to Benefit from the Best Beverages
It’s
been said that nothing quenches the thirst better than a glass of water.
It’s calorie- and additive-free and
has a host of health benefits, including delivering nutrients and oxygen to
cells, regulating body temperature, removing toxins from organs, cushioning
joints, and maintaining moisture in skin.
The cleansing benefits of water are
best illustrated in the ceremonial cleansing of the priestly tribe of Levi when
the Lord tells Moses …
“Take the Levites from
among all the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. To purify them, do
this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole
bodies and wash their clothes. And so they will purify themselves.”
(Numbers 8:5–7)
• Drink water, water, water.
— Avoid carbonated beverages that have no
nutritional value.
• Drink 100% natural fruit juices.
— Avoid juices with added sugar and corn
syrup. Many healthy juices are made from grapes, oranges, grapefruit,
blueberries, and cranberries.
• Drink Skim or 1% milk.
— Avoid whole milk, which is high in fat
and is never necessary for adults or teenagers.
• Drink vegetable juices.
— Tomato
juice is a source of nutrients, including vitamin C, folate, and potassium.
Tomato juice and other tomato products contain large amounts of lycopene.
— Carrot
juice is an “… excellent source of antioxidant compounds and the richest
vegetable source of the pro-vitamin A carotenes.”
— Beet
juice contains “… powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart
disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.”
But
when it comes to our spiritual needs, the only thing that will truly satisfy is
“… living water” (John 4:10). Jesus communicated this truth to a
lonely Samaritan woman who came to draw water at a well. He offered her the
gift of salvation—Himself—and said
the water He provides quenches thirst, not just temporarily but also for
eternity. Read Jesus’ words.…
“Everyone who drinks
this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will
never thirst.”
(John 4:13–14)[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
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Email
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My
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Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling
Keys on Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation (Dallas, TX: Hope
For The Heart, 2008), 33–34.
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