Why Does It Do That? The Science of Walking in the Spirit – Purity 747
Purity 747 06/02/2022 Purity 747 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a tree in the middle of the pathway on the Redwood
Sky Walk comes to us from a friend who
visited the Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka California back on April 15th as
part of a full day that included hiking along the California coastline at
Patrick’s Point that is accessible at Sue-Meg State Park. My friend’s original
post showed several scenes from the last full day of their family vacation and
I love their adventurous spirit that sought to see as much as they could see
with the time they had.
Well, it’s Thursday again, and after taking a week off, I am
happy to report that I will once again be facilitating the Freedom in Christ
Discipleship Course Men’s Group on Zoom tonight where the participant’s have
made the decision to see all they could see with the time they have by seeking
to grow in their relationship with God by experiencing or maintaining their
freedom in Christ.
Full disclosure and a humble confession, although I facilitate
this online course and have experienced my freedom in Christ, I am not a
perfect person! Just yesterday, I made the mistake of sharing the same section
of text from John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life”, that I am sharing bit by bit
on the blog, that I shared the previous day.
Whoops. Instead of rewriting
history and editing yesterday’s post, I
am going to “let it be”.
Perhaps there was something in that particular excerpt that
needed to be shared two days in a row or perhaps my faux pas (and yes spell
check saved me from another mistake on the use of that phrase!) was intended to
be another reminder on my fallibility.
No, I am not perfect and the reminders to that fact come very
regularly. My mistakes help me to learn
as I go and also serve to remind me that it is in Christ Alone that I trust to
save me because there is simply no way that I, or anyone else, could earn their
salvation. Our sinful condition is
something we can’t pay back and leads us to seek a Savior in Jesus.
But Christ does call us to pick up our cross and to follow
Him. By the way, picking up our cross does
not bearing burdens. Like “Oh my
_________, that’s my cross to bear”. No, no, no, Christ didn’t walk around with
His cross complaining about its weight, nor does He have to bear it as He walks
through eternity.
No, Christ died on His cross.
So when He is directing us to “pick up our cross and follow Him”, He is
in effect telling us to die! When we put our faith in Christ, scripture tells
us that we are crucified, die, and are raised to life with Him.
So when Christ tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him,
He is telling us to die to our old life and to live our new life by following
His example, because in reality we are new creations, we are given a new and
eternal life when we make Jesus our Lord and Savior.
The process of turning from our old worldly ways and deciding
to live according to God’s wisdom and ways that are reveal to us in the Bible is
the process of repentance and sanctification that is described as “walking in
the Spirit”. I refer to making the
decision and living according to Biblical principles “walking on the path of
Christian discipleship” because we are disciples, students, of Jesus and we are
seeking to not only know Christ taught but we are “practicing” our faith by
trying to apply the Word of God’s wisdom to all the areas of our lives, or to
at least to as many areas as we are made aware of.
I subtitled today’s encouragement the “science of walking in
the Spirit”, to encourage people to get on the path of Christian discipleship,
to become the subject in your personal experiment of faith.
Oh by the way this is a case study, not just a trial run, although
there will be trials. When we honestly
sincerely place our faith in Christ, we are in this thing for life, as in
forever, because in Christ our lives extend beyond this mortal coil into
eternity. So we might as well, see what this new life in Christ is all about
and see if it is true that if we walk in the Spirit, we can experience the
growth of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
The question “why does it do that?” Is one I employ, or
wonder about, in all the problem solving areas of my life. As a field technician and as a troubleshooter
of life in general, I have learned the perplexing anomaly that although we can
discover solutions by isolating variables and by testing what remains to
develop processes that “work” to “fix stuff”, sometimes we can discover
situations where we fail or succeed and are left positively confused over why
something work or something does it.
The practice of medicine is considered a field of science but
the truth that no one really advertises is that the practice of medicine is
based on making hypotheses and by isolating variables and testing solutions. Sounds pretty good huh? What’s wrong with
that?
Well, as scientific as it sounds, the truth of ignorance and
mystery lies in the first link of the chain of the scientific method: the hypothesis.
A hypothesis is basically an “educated”
guess. That’s why they are tested. Researchers “predict” – or guess- that
certain outcomes will happen when variables are brought together but they don’t
know if they will happen like they think they will. But they keep plugging
along until they discover what works, at least for the most part. Because they have
not discovered “medicinal laws” yet.
Some treatments work for many people but they don’t work for all people
all the time. Thus the practice of
medicine.
So what about our faith walk? What about the science of
walking in the Spirit?
Well, God invites you to put His word to the test. Christ
invites you to die to the old ways of doing things and to follow Him.
The variables of Bible study, prayer, and other principles drawn
from the word of God are available to us to apply to our lives and to test. Developing
a walk of faith that leads to the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in
our lives will come from our testing and practicing our faith.
Whoever says that Christianity is boring has never attempted
to apply the wisdom of God’s word to their life.
In our walk, we can discover the benefits of Christian
spiritual practices to our experience but we can only do that by actually
practicing them.
So, keep walking and talking with God. Put on your lab coat and put God’s word and your faith to the test by knowing what it says and by doing it, by agreeing with God’s wisdom and by eliminating the worldly variables in our lives that don’t line up with it. If you do this, you may experience trial and error as you try to figure out “Why it Does that!?” but if you persevere in your experiment of Christian living, one day you will scream “Eureka!” and probably “Hallelujah”, when you discover that God’s word is completely true and trustworthy because you will see the positive results of peace, love, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, self- control, and joy grow out of your decision to test and practice what the Bible has contained all along.
______________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Matthew 5:6
(NLT2)
6
God
blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
Today’s Bible verse assures us that if we hunger and thirst for justice
we will be satisfied.
I love the NLT but its translation of Matthew 5:6 makes me think of various
action movies where the hero protagonists goes on a mission to seek justice,
usually by taking it in their own hands in the form of revenge, But that is not what the Bible would direct
us to.
When we consider that it is a Bible verse we are reading, we have to
remember that the concepts are in relation to God. So when today’s us that God blesses those who
hunger and thirst for justice, we have to consider what justice would mean to
God.
We understand that God is just and will pour out His wrath on those who
sin. So justice for the sinner, would be
hell! I am not sure if I would be in a hurry to rush after that justice? To hunger and thirst for that justice, doesn’t
sound like it would bless us!
So what is the justice of God that would bless us?
Luckily, God is not only just but is also merciful and loving. God knew that sinful man was incapable of
being holy on his own. So as John 3:16 tells us, because of His love for us God
sent Jesus Christ to pay the penalty of our sins so we can be saved and not
perish. Jesus’s death on the cross satisfies
justice. He pays for our sins. Justice is done.
So those who hunger and thirst for “this justice” are the ones who
would be blessed. Those who hunger and
seek for the justice that Jesus provides, are blessed with eternal life, and
that more than satisfies.
So Matthew 5:6, is Christ’s promise to man, that if they seek God’s redemptive
plan of justice, by seeking Christ, they will be satisfied.
Instead of picturing someone who is “out for justice”, like Steven Segal.
We should envision someone seeking to be right with God, pursuing God’s
justice, pursuing God’s righteousness: which just so happens to be the One who
is speaking this verse: Jesus Christ.
In a way this verse is parallel to
Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV)
13 And you will seek Me and
find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Christ is standing there telling the people, and us, that they will be
blessed and satisfied if they seek Him.
So hunger and thirst for justice, or righteousness, as most other Bible translations put it, through Jesus Christ and be assured that you will be satisfied.
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.
The Inadequacy of the
Batboy’s Perspective
Someone might say, “But
isn’t the Gospel about finding forgiveness of my sins and getting the hope of
eternal life and being filled with the Spirit of holiness and being changed
into the image of Jesus so that I am a better mom or dad or son or daughter or
friend or employer or citizen?” The answer, of course, is yes. But if that is
all we focus on in our walk with God, we miss the big picture. We miss the
bigger point of it all. We are like batboys at Yankee Stadium who think the
great point of the World Series is to hand the players a bat.
So
I urge you in the name of Jesus to wake up, and enlarge your heart, and stretch
your mind, and spread your wings. Mount up above your limited life—yes, a very
important life, which God does not diminish—and see the great and thrilling big
picture of God’s global purposes for the history of the world that cannot fail.
“My counsel shall stand,” says the Lord, “and I will accomplish all my purpose”
(Isaiah 46:10). “At the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11). “This gospel of the
kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all
nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).
Don’t Take Offense—Join the Joyful Partnership
And as God gives you wings
to rise up and see the world the way he sees it, many of you, I pray, will be
loosened from your present situation—job, neighborhood, state, nation, plan—and
be called to a direct engagement in this great historic, global purpose of God
as a goer and not only a sender. Let no one who is devoted to local ministry or
to crucial secular engagement take offense at this plea. Rather rejoice. You
are free to stay or free to go. Many of you must stay. Your staying is crucial
for God’s purposes where you are, and it is crucial for his purposes where you
are not, but where others may go. There is no need for guilt or resentment.
There is great need for joyful partnership.
Those
of you who stay—the senders—should keep this remarkable fact in mind: Foreign
missions is a validation of all ministries
of mercy at home because it exports them abroad. Planting the church in an
unreached people means planting the base of operations for all the mercy Jesus
commanded for the poor. If we don’t let our light shine before the people at
home “so that they may see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who
is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16), what kind of obedience will we export to the
nations? The Great Commission includes the words, “teaching them to observe all
that I [Jesus] have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). And what did he command? He
told the story of the desperate wounded man and the good Samaritan who “showed
him mercy,” and then said to all of us, “You go, and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).
Mercy at Home Makes Missions Credible
The people who stay in the
homeland are surrounded by need. We only need eyes to see and hearts that can’t
walk by on the other side. This challenge is not separate from the challenge of
missions. Showing practical mercy to the poor displays the beauty of Christ at
home and makes the exportation of the Christian faith credible. We are
hypocrites to pretend enthusiasm for overseas ministry while neglecting the
miseries at home. There was something wrong with the priest and the Levite in
the story of the good Samaritan, who had their distant religious aims but were
not moved by suffering close at hand where they would have to get their own
hands dirty. Ministries of mercy close at hand validate the authenticity of our
distant concerns.
Foreign
missions and hometown mercy are linked in the very nature of the Gospel that we
are to send to the nations. The heart of the Gospel is this: “Though [Christ]
was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might
become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The salvation we savor for ourselves and send
to others is a ministry of God’s mercy to the poor, which includes all of us.
We owe our lives to God’s commitment to missions and mercy. He came a long way
to help us, and his help includes every kind of help we need. And he got dirty
doing it. In fact he got killed. This merciful suffering is the purchase and the path of our salvation. “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example,
so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Missions and mercy are
inextricable because the very Gospel we take to the nations models and mandates
mercy to the poor at home.
Warfield’s Devastating Comparison
I have never read a better
statement of this connection than the following quote from B. B. Warfield, a
teacher at Princeton Seminary who died in 1921. He answers some of the niggling
questions about ministry to the poor by comparing it to Christ’s ministry to
us.
Now dear Christians, some of you pray night
and day to be branches of the true Vine; you pray to be made all over in the image
of Christ. If so, you must be like him in giving … “though he was rich, yet for
our sakes he became poor” … Objection 1. “My money is my own.” Answer: Christ
might have said, “My blood is my own, my life is my own” … then where should we
have been? Objection 2. “The poor are undeserving.” Answer: Christ might have
said, “They are wicked rebels … shall I lay down my life for these? I will give
to the good angels.” But no, he left the ninety-nine, and came after the lost.
He gave his blood for the undeserving. Objection 3. “The poor may abuse it.”
Answer: Christ might have said the same; yea, with far greater truth. Christ
knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would
despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his
own blood. Oh, my dear Christians! If you would be like Christ, give much, give
often, give freely, to the vile and poor, the thankless and the undeserving.
Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want,
but your happiness. Remember his own word, “It is more blessed to give than to
receive.”
Just
as there is a partnership between the Gospel itself and mercy to the nearby
poor, so there is a wonderful partnership between Christians being the merciful church at home and
Christians planting the merciful
church abroad. Neither is a wasted life. Indeed the authenticity of each
depends much on the authenticity of the other. It is inauthentic to presume to
send what we don’t have. And it is inauthentic to have a treasure and not send
it.[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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