Tomorrow May Rain, So I’ll Follow the Son – Purity 759
Purity 759 06/16/2022 Purity 759 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a pathway leading to the shores of the
Atlantic and the setting sun comes to us from a friend living temporarily in Sebastian
Florida who shared this photo on social media back on May 16th with the
comment: “Tomorrow may rain, So I’ll follow the sun.”
Well it is Thursday again and as is my habit I am sharing my
friend’s photo of this “pathway to the sun” because it is an awesome photo and
to encourage my friends to get on, or keep walking on, the pathway to The Son
of God, and God the Son, Jesus Christ, to make the daily decision to live by
faith on the pathway of Christian Discipleship. When we live as a disciple of Christ we do so
by not only believing in Jesus but by being a follower of Jesus, by living
according to the wisdom of the word of God and by “doing what Jesus would do” in
the ways we behave and interact with others.
Tonight I am facilitating a Men’s Freedom in Christ
Discipleship Course on Zoom and as our study draws to a close next week, the
lessons are geared toward the application of our faith. While the course has taught us about who we
are in Christ and how we could resolve our personal and spiritual conflicts
through a process of proclamation, renunciation, and repentance to help us to
experience our freedom in Christ, the focus of the remainder of the course turns
to growing in and maintaining our freedom and applying what we have learned to
the rest of our lives. The path that the
course lays out is that of Christian Discipleship, and tonight we will discuss
how we are to “walk that walk” in our relationships and how we are to relate to
others.
Christ’s second commandment to His disciples is to love our
neighbors as we love our selves, The Freedom in Christ course in teaching us
about who we are in Christ and how we are loved by God shows us that we are
lovable and thus when we try to follow the call to love our neighbors as
ourselves, we are to show them the love of God by loving them the way God loved
us.
Like God loved us, we are to love our neighbors by we are to
assume responsibility for our own characters, not theirs, and seek to meet
their needs, rather than the other way around.
Instead of demanding “our rights”, we are to be concerned to meet that
responsibility to love and serve others.
Well how do you do that?
First, God accepted us as we were, and served us by saving
us, and seeks to serve us by encouraging that we follow His Way for
living.
So likewise we are to accept people as they are, where they
are, but seek to serve them by leading them to Christ and teaching them the Way
to go. But we have to be wise, patient, kind, and faithful in how we do
that.
Mostly, we love others as ourselves by obeying the Way that
God would have us live. If we are being good,
kind, faithful, patient, loving, gentle, and using self-control in our
interactions with others, we will truly be meeting that injunction to love our
neighbors as ourselves.
Notice this is not dependent on their reactions or
responses. This is how we concern
ourselves with meeting our responsibility to God and serve others, by living
according to what God would have us do. The
word tells us that as far as it depends on us, we are to live at peace with everyone
(Romans 12:18) so we are to do our “piece”, meet our responsibility, by bringing
our “peace”, that we have with God and within ourselves as disciples who know we
are accepted, secure, and significant in Christ, to our interactions with
others to bring peace by seeking to meet there needs.
When I say meet their needs, that doesn’t mean we necessarily
give them a bunch of stuff or give them whatever they want especially if it
will harm them.
The other night the Mobile Crisis Team that I am a part of
was called out to a man’s house at the request of his family. The man was fresh out of recovery and was in
a bad place making thinly veiled threats that he would do whatever it would
take to get the drugs that would make him feel better.
If we were not wise, we could think we should accept him for
what he was and give him the drugs that so desperately wanted.
But instead we loved our neighbor as ourselves and suggested
alternatives to relapse and offered services and help and declared the love and
concern that this man’s friends and family had for him that caused us to show
up at his doorstep.
Christian love is a tough love, meaning it is hard but compassionate.
We accept the people we encounter as they are but we stand on the truth and
standards revealed to us in the word of God and attempt to help and serve
others by meeting immediate and legitimate needs and by encouraging “those others”
to take their responsibility to follow the Way that leads to life and life more
abundantly. We try to solve problems where we can but encourage others to solve
their own problems with God’s help by turning from the darkness of the world’s
sinful and selfish ways and instead decide to follow the light of God’s pure,
good, righteous, and holy Way.
As my friend said about his sunset photo, tomorrow may rain,
so I’ll follow the sun. I would encourage you to follow The Son, Jesus Christ,
and His Way. Christ is the Truth the Way and the Life and
when we meet our responsibility to follow His way the fruit of the Spirit will
grow in our lives.
This morning I started studying Psalm 119, and its wisdom
beckons us to follow. It says:
Psalm
119:1-8 (NKJV)
1
Blessed
are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the LORD!
2
Blessed
are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!
3
They
also do no iniquity; They walk in His ways.
4
You
have commanded us To keep Your precepts diligently.
5
Oh,
that my ways were directed To keep Your statutes!
6
Then
I would not be ashamed, When I look into all Your commandments.
7
I
will praise You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your righteous
judgments.
8
I
will keep Your statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly!
The heart of Christian discipleship would have us meet our responsibility by obeying the Lord’ precepts, statutes, and judgements and Christ commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, So let’s meet that responsibility by making the daily decision to walk and talk with God and to let His wisdom influence the way we treat the other people in our lives.
______________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
1 John 4:18 (NLT2)
18 Such love has no fear,
because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of
punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
Today’s
Bible verse encourages us that if we understand the love of God, we will not
fear.
The
fundamentals of our faith is based on our faith in Jesus Christ that provides
us with our forgiveness of our sins, our acceptance into God’s kingdom by
adoption into His royal family, and the reception of a new and eternal life to
be spent in His presence forever.
The
fact of God’s love for us and our new life in Christ, when fully accepted by
faith expels all fear.
Today’s
verse says if we are afraid it is because we fear punishment and this shows
that we have not fully experienced God’s perfect love.
This
means either we have not accepted God’s perfect love, by making Christ our Lord
and Savior or that we doubt that we have received it in someway, or don’t understand
who we are in Christ.
To
receive God’s perfect love, to be free from the fear of punishment, we need to
receive Jesus.
When
we make Christ the Lord and Savior of our Lives, we should fear nothing.
Christ
took our punishment on the cross. We are
forgiven and free. So do not fear, our
debt has been paid. If you are fearful because you are still living in sin, do
two things.
1. Understand
that all your sins have been forgiven, your past, present, and current sins
have been covered by the blood of Jesus.
Knowing this will make you feel
safe and loved, because you are safe and loved.
2. Turn from your
sins. Lean on the Lord’s strength, accept your new identiy as a Child of God,
and repent by seeking help to turn from your sins. Be responsible, Be
accountable, Confess and be healed. The
only reason why we would be fearful of punishment is that we know that we are
doing wrong. So repent and do what is right.
When you do that your fear will disappear and peace will take its
place. It may seem like are hard road,
but its worth walking because it leads to peace, love, and joy!
But
that’s just the fear of punishment, in Christ we are free of all fear.
The
fact of our eternal life and acceptance by God, when rightly understood and
accepted in our minds and hearts, agree with the truth of who you are in Christ:
it also frees you from:
The
fear of death – You do have eternal life remember? To be absent from the body
is to be present with the Lord. Our new life in Christ supersedes the biggest
fear we can have. The worst case scenario is that we die, but in Christ we will
never die, because He is the resurrection in the life. Do you believe this? You
should because, if you are in Christ, it is true!
The
fear of man – whether its rejection or violence – our life in Christ answers
these fears too. Who cares about man’s
rejection when we are accept by God? As for the pain or harm man can inflict,
God will either protect us, heal us, or give us the strength to endure and live
with it, so don’t fear the evil that man can do because no matter what he has
to dish out it is only a light affliction compared to the glory that we will
know for all eternity.
The
fear of disease, want, or suffeing – these light afflictions could kill us,
which would send us to the Lord, or they will be used by God to strengthen our
faith in Him. One of the “rules” from my
past was “Above all learn to take it.”
Well, in Christ, we have the strength to take anything and we know the
One who can deliver us from anything our give us the supernatural strength to
endure things we would have thought impossible. While I take exception to the general encouragement
that we are “stronger than you know”, really, I know that in Christ we are more
than conquerors and can “take it” until we make it to where the Lord will bring
us, on earth as well as in heaven.
So
don’t fear, anything, because the Lord has shown His perfect love for you by
revealing who Christ is and by welcoming you into His family when you made
Jesus your Lord and Savior. Enjoy the
perfect love, by casing off all fears and anxieties in this life and rejoice in
all that the Lord has given you through His love.
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 Clinton E. Arnold’s “Powers of Darkness”
As always, I share this
information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Clinton
Arnold’s books for your own private study and to support his
work. This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.
2
Greco-Roman and Oriental Religions
Today when tourists walk through the
remains of the ancient acropolis of Athens, a feeling of awe overwhelms the
senses as they experience the grandeur and beauty of the Parthenon and the
adjacent structures—the Temple of Athena Nike, the theater of Dionysus, the
nearby Olympeion and the many other magnificent edifices. Nearly two
millenniums ago, when Paul strolled the Athenian streets for the first time,
surely an aesthetic appreciation for this center of Greek civilization gripped
him as well. Luke, however, reveals that Paul was greatly distressed. Why?
Because “the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16).
Athens was certainly not the only city
“full of idols.” Every city, including Tarsus, the city of Paul’s childhood,
contained temples and altars dedicated to a wide assortment of deities.
Although Paul wrote letters to people living in Asia, Greece and Italy, many of
the same gods were worshiped in each place. More importantly, the pre-Christian
religious experiences of those people converted from paganism were quite
similar in many fundamental respects.
Pagans believed their gods were alive
and could help them in practical ways for their earthly needs and, in many
instances, bring them a blissful afterlife. The early Christians, including
Paul, saw these gods as alive too, but in a different sense. They believed
demons, the powers of Satan, inspired and perpetuated these pagan gods. These
idols greatly distressed Paul because they represented a supernaturally
inspired opposition to the gospel which Paul came to proclaim.
The Melting Pot
Over
three centuries before the time of Christ, a Greek named Alexander the Great
won a series of unprecedented military victories and expanded his reign
eastward to include Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, the
Middle East and parts of India. He effectively inaugurated a world community
that would forever alter the course of history. In fact, historians commonly
refer to the next three centuries following his reign as the Hellenistic age.
Not only did Greek become the
universal language, but Greek culture was also spread throughout these
countries. The influence worked both ways, however, especially with regard to
religion. Gods and goddesses worshiped in the Orient were transplanted into
Greek and Roman lands. The spiritual and religious ideas from the East proved
exceedingly attractive to the West. By the New Testament era an incredible
mixture of deities were worshiped in the cities of the Mediterranean world.
Corinth is a good example. There is
literary and archeological evidence for the worship of many of the traditional
Greek deities—Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Asclepius, Demeter, Kore,
Poseidon and Zeus—dating to the time of Paul’s ministry in that city. In
addition, there is evidence that two originally Egyptian deities, Isis and
Sarapis, had become quite popular among the Corinthians. The Asia Minor goddess
known as the Great Mother received veneration in a sanctuary dedicated to her
at Corinth. There was even a Jewish contingent who had erected a synagogue in
the city during Paul’s life. In Corinth the Roman gods were also worshiped
insofar as they were identified with many of the Greek gods. They would have
been known by either their Roman or Greek names, such as the Roman god Jupiter
and the Greek god Zeus.
During Paul’s ministry, syncretism was
reaching new heights. Hellenistic Greeks were not compelled to render exclusive
allegiance to their ancestral gods. They could now also worship Persian,
Syrian, Egyptian or Asian gods. Nor did they feel obligated to worship only one
god. In fact, quite the contrary was the case. Numerous gods could be
worshiped, although it should be noted that there was an increasing tendency
toward a belief in one supreme god, with the rest seen as less powerful gods,
or daimones.
The Rise of
Personal Spiritual Concern
Although
the traditional Greek and Roman gods were still being worshiped, they were now
viewed differently than during the classical age. Most scholars agree the old
cults were fundamentally transformed during the Hellenistic age. This change
was due, in part, to their spread throughout the Hellenistic world. The old
gods were often reinterpreted in their new settings, which ultimately
influenced how they were understood in their original settings. A traditional
Greek god often was assimilated with a local deity. When the first Greeks
settled in Ephesus, for instance, they apparently renamed a local female
fertility goddess, calling her Artemis (or Diana, her Roman name). While these
two deities may have shared the common motifs of being goddesses over
childbirth, wildlife and hunting, their cultic images bear virtually no resemblance.
The Greek Artemis is typically portrayed as a beautiful female figure in
flowing robes, whereas the Ephesian Artemis is depicted in richly ornamented
vestments standing in a rigid upright position.
While the mythology of Homer still
provided a basic framework for understanding the nature of some of the
traditional Greek deities, they were increasingly perceived as less remote and
more interested in the concerns of the common people. Jonathan Z. Smith
explains the change of perception in this way:
Rather
than a god who dwelt in his temple, the diasporic traditions evolved
complicated techniques for achieving visions, epiphanies (manifestations of a
god), or heavenly journeys to a transcendent god. This led to a change from
concern for a religion of national prosperity to one for individual salvation,
from focus on a particular ethnic group to concern for every man.
Scholars
frequently describe the Hellenistic period in terms of a rise in “personal
religion.” Many accounts and testimonies abound regarding the importance of
gods to individuals in their respective conditions. Conversely this period was
also characterized as an age of “anxiety” because people seemed more desirous
of personal communion with a deity, securing life after death, and averting the
influence of fate and malevolent spirits.
During the Hellenistic period,
relationship and union with a deity would most commonly occur through a ritual
act described by ancient writers as initiation into the mystery of the deity.
Although not all of the gods and goddesses had mysteries, the popularity of
these rites grew throughout the Hellenistic age and continued to increase in
Roman times. A number of the cults probably practiced these mystery initiation
rites in all the cities in which Paul preached and planted churches.
Actually, what we know about the form
and content of these mysteries is rather sketchy. Initiates into the mysteries
were sworn to secrecy with strict penalties for violating the trust. There was
no written liturgy. The mysteries were performed with an emphasis on visual
symbols and ritual enactment. The priests and priestesses might even lead
initiates into a visionary descent into the underworld or even a visionary
ascent into heaven. Two examples of well-known mystery religions will give a
clearer picture of the meaning of these rites.[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]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 35–38.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.