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Monday, July 11, 2022

A Wonderful Life on Monday? - Purity 780


A Wonderful Life on Monday? - Purity 780

Purity 780 7/11/2022  Purity 780 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of my canine pal, Harley, leading the way up Waite Rd underneath a positively cloudless sky and bright morning sun comes to us from yours truly as I capture this scene this past Saturday.  

Well, it’s Monday again and let’s face it, if you keep moving forward through time and space, and who doesn’t, eventually you leave the weekend behind and find yourself at the beginning of a new work week.   As we go through this repetition and continually face the truth that we simply must work to support ourselves we may set our hopes on the future and the day we can finally retire and be “done” with all this work and just rest and relax.

While it’s good to plan for the future and make plans to be secure in our latter days, looking to forward to a future happiness can have some subtle and unexpected negative side effects.  

if we are looking forward to a future happiness, we may fall victim to feelings of frustration and discontentment that will steal away our present joy.  

In the holiday classic film, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey, played wonderfully by Jimmy Stewart, is in a crisis that is no fault of his own but if left unresolved threatens to destroy all that he has worked for and could very well take away his freedom.   The problem is financial. The money is gone and if he doesn’t think of someway to get it poverty and prison are real and present dangers.  The crisis is so real and present that in his desperate moment his nemesis suggests that because his only significant financial asset is a life insurance policy, he is “worth more dead than alive” and because George loves his family, the business he built, and the people it supports, George contemplates suicide to get the money that will solve the problem.  

But God….  Yup, although this “Christmas” move is light on the gospel and biblical accuracy, because George’s plight is soon spread by word of mouth throughout his local community, his many friends and family pray for the Lord to help George and in his most desperate hour.  And Lord comes through by sending an angel to intervene and stop George’s suicide and to show George that His life is worthy living. The angel then reveals to George just how wonderful his life has been by showing him what life would have been without him in the world.   

The movie is a “slow burn” as in it takes a while to build to the crisis and the climax but the slow build up is masterful in that it documents the ups and downs of a regular life of struggle where George Bailey tried to of the right thing by raising his family and working, putting his youthful dreams of world travel permanently on hold.  The goodness of George’s life is forgotten in the crisis and it is only through showing the affects of his part in the life of his family, friends, and local community that George is able to see just how wonderful his life has been, resulting in his moment of clarity when he tearfully begs the angel to live again, fully accepting whatever negative consequences may come as long as the goodness of his life is not erased.   

When he is brought back to reality George rejoices! Although all the nagging little problems of his life are still in place and the huge crisis still has not been resolved, Bailey rejoices because he has the faith that comes from knowing that he can face whatever tomorrow brings because of the goodness of today.  Although today is far from perfect, George has no regrets because his life of love has been restored.  

And sure enough, God works through other people and the crisis, that wasn’t fair, and was caused by the mistakes of another and the evil of other men, is resolved when the community of friends that George made through his life of sacrifice and struggle come together in dramatic fashion to save the day.   

I rehash that Hollywood Christmas classic today, in the middle of July, because with the problems of this current economy and the changing circumstances of life that included death, disease, and personal struggles some of us may be feeling “the heat” this summer that has nothing to do with the daily temperature.    Some of us may be facing an acute crisis or we may be in the midst of an ongoing problem that may take weeks, months, or years to walk through. Or we might just be bother by our status quo and look forward to the better days of retirement.  

But I wanted to remind myself and all my friends that, to get to today, we have made it through a lot. We have overcome struggles that may be well documented or may be completely unknown to most of the people in our lives but we have made it!

And even if things aren’t perfect today, I can assure you that you are not alone in your struggles.  God loves you and cares about you and when you trust in Him by placing your faith in Jesus, He will hear your cries, walk with you, and work all things together for your good.  

So that sounds good, God is working for your ultimate good!  

But guess what, the truth is that He has been with us all along and has blessed us right up to today.  So count your blessings. Count the good things you have in your life: your health, your family, your things, and of course the past that you have walked through that made you the person you are today.  

You don’t necessarily have to be a George Bailey to know you have had a wonderful life.  If you even have one aspect of your life that is good, that can be enough to hold onto to remind yourself that you have something to be thankful for.

And if you know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have to realize that you have a hope that lasts from here to eternity, but at the same time you should see God’s hand in your life right now.  If you go to Him for strength, guidance, and love, you will receive it.  If you remember what He has done for others and what He has done for you, you can see that you really have a wonderful life, even on a Monday morning.  

So don’t look to some future happiness, your retirement, or even heaven when the goodness of God can be seen by looking at the present through the reflection of the past that brought you here. 

We’ve made it to another Monday and another work week, Thank God.  We get to go out and work to support the good things we want to do with our lives, and we get to love those around us as we do it. 

So keep walking and talking with God and know that in Christ, your past is wonderful, even if it just means that you are no longer there, your present is wonderful, and your future is going to be simply magnificent as one day we will see the God who loved us all long and we live with Him forever and ever, Amen.

 

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Titus 3:4-7 (NLT2)
4  But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love,
5  he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
6  He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.
7  Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”

Today’s Bible verses speaks of the confidence we can have in Christ: that we have been forgiven, declared righteous, and given a new eternal life.  

Hey, I got to admit it. It has been a while since I have been in Titus.  It’s a short epistle and I honestly don’t recall anything about it! Talk about honest and transparent huh?

The Bible is a big book filled with things we need to know and need to apply to our life to experience the renewing of our mind and a life in the Spirit.   So we need to study it because awesome spiritual truths about who we are in Christ like the ones contained in today’s verses are in there.  

This short section of scripture says a mouthful:  Like:

·       God is our savior

·       He saved us

·       We are saved Not because of the righteous things we have done

·       God is merciful

·       Our sins are washed away

·       We have a new birth, a new life through the Holy Spirit

·       The Holy Spirit has been poured upon us through Jesus Christ, our Savior

·       We are declared righteous because of God’s grace

·       We can have confidence of our eternal life!

In these few verses is the summation of the spiritual realities of our faith.  God’s grace, God’s mercy, Our forgiveness, our righteousness, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and Christ as Savior are all here.  

So take note of these verses, Titus 3:4-7, that  reveal so much of what happens when we make Jesus our Lord and Savior. We need to know this, believe it, and receive it: by applying it to the way we look at ourselves and the way we live, so that we will display the confidence of someone who knows they have been forgiven, are righteous, and has the guarantee of eternal life.  

In Christ, we receive God’s grace, and this knowledge should be applied to our experience to give us joy and confidence for today and every day, from here to eternity. 

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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.

What Paul Does Not Say

While Paul has much to say about the powers of darkness, there is a lot that he does not say, particularly when we read his letters against the background of the Judaism of his day. It would certainly be helpful for us to pin Paul down on a few of the issues regarding the powers; however, we will have to be content with not knowing the full extent of his thinking about evil spirits. Here are a few of the areas where Paul is silent:

1. An explanation of the angelic rebellion and fall. Many traditions point to God’s judgment on the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28 and on the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14 as texts that go beyond a mere description of the historical circumstances of those particular kings and impart to us insight into the rebellion of Satan and a host of angels. Much of Judaism during the Greco-Roman period pointed to Genesis 6 and the account of “the sons of God” (interpreted as angels) sleeping with mortal women and giving birth to creatures who became demonic spirits as the origin of the powers of darkness (see, for example, 1 Enoch 6–11). Paul never endorsed or alluded to either of these traditions (or any others) regarding the origin of evil spirits. He merely assumed the presence of evil supernatural beings in the world who are hostile to God and to the church. Why? “The reason is that these problems of origin are thrown into the background by most pressing and realistic questions about the wiles of the devil in actual life.”

2. The names of the angelic powers. We have seen that much of the Jewish literature current at the time of Paul (especially the apocalyptic literature) focused on identifying the powers by name, such as Ruax, Barsafael, Artosael and Belbel. Apart from a single reference to Satan as Belial (2 Cor 6:15), Paul has no concern to name the spirits. For him this would likely be a worthless undertaking, since they would all respond to Christ’s authority.

3. The order within the angelic hierarchy. While Paul used many of the categories for angelic beings found within Jewish apocalyptic texts, he never gave any insight into the relative ranks of the principalities, powers and authorities. The Jewish Testament of Adam lists the angelic powers according to their various orders—from the lowest to the highest—giving their respective functions. The Testament gives the lowest order as the angels, followed by archangels, archons, authorities, powers, dominions, and then the highest orders, thrones, seraphim and cherubim. Paul’s varied references to the powers shows no concern at all with the respective ranks or orders. Again, Paul’s concern was primarily functional; that is, he wanted his churches to know that there are powerful angelic beings who assail Christians, and they should be prepared to respond to them.

4. The activities of certain demons and how they are thwarted. Some forms of Judaism considered it important to know the precise authority that evil spirits had over people and the manner in which they could be overcome. For instance, an evil spirit named “Lix Tetrax” was believed to promote disunity and start fires. Only through the work and authority of the good archangel Azael could the evil activity of Lix Tetrax be thwarted (Testament of Solomon 7:1–8). In contrast the apostle Paul pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ alone as the source of the believers’ authority over the powers of darkness. He never alluded to the need for invoking angels or possessing special knowledge about the function of the various evil spirits.

5. Territories ruled by evil angels. The book of Daniel reveals that good and evil angels have been set over certain countries. Specifically, Daniel spoke of evil angels who exercise influence over Persia and Greece, whereas the good angel Michael fights against these angels on behalf of Israel Although. Paul showed a great deal of dependence on the book of Daniel for some of his terms and concepts (including the term archōn), Paul himself never connected the powers of darkness with any specific country or territory. For instance, he never entreated God to thwart the angelic prince over Rome or to bind the demonic ruler over Corinth. This may be explained in part by the fact that he normally spoke in rather comprehensive terms when he referred to the powers; for example, he lumped them all together and spoke of Christ’s supremacy or the believer’s authority over them. It is likely that, for Paul, it was not a matter of great importance for a believer to identify precisely the evil angel wielding the supreme authority over a territory in the demonic hierarchy. What Paul stressed is the recognition that there are powerful demonic emissaries who attack the church and hinder its mission and that they can be overcome only through reliance on the power of God.[1]

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

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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), 98–99.

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