Asking for “Thoughts
and Prayers” – Purity 787
Purity 787 7/18/2022 Purity 787 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a backyard towering inferno comes to us
from a friend who shared this “first fire of the season” on social media back
on June 15th and I share it today as an encouragement to my friends
to take advantage of the summertime season to safely enjoy the comforts of a
campfire or bonfire, preferably in company of friends and family.
I have several friends and family members who enjoy
camping and backyard bonfires and have been know to enjoy them myself. There is
something strange peaceful and primitive about making a fire and just watching
the flames consume the wood as they illuminate the night and provide comfort
from the cooler temperatures at night.
And quite often it is in the solemn darkness that surrounds the campfire
where stories are shared, burdens are confessed, answers are sought, and advice
is given.
In our modern world the light of social media can also be
a place where we share our burdens and ask for support. As friends face loss of employment, work
problems, financial problems, things falling apart problems, and health problems, I see requests for “your thoughts and prayers”
and sometimes I see someone suggest occultic practices as general spiritual
remedies!
Although I would point out that general spiritual
practices directed to “the universe” or other entities other that God, – of the dead, or local or cultural “spirit”s
or whoever -is witchcraft and that is specifically prohibited in the word of
God and should be avoided at all costs.
In appealing to the general spiritual realm, at best nothing will happen,
at worst you will conjure a demon. There
aren’t 50 shades of grey in the spiritual realm guys. Repeat after me: If it’s
not Christ… It’s anti-Christ. And no matter how wise, good, kind, cuddly, or
cute other spirits, religions, or philosophies of life may be if they don’t lead
you to Christ, they will lead you to destruction.
As someone who followed an alternate faith stream for
years of my life, I can sympathize with those who have an axe to grind when it
comes to organized religion and bad experiences in the church, but when it
comes to Spiritual Truth the Word of God is clear that Jesus is the Way the
Truth and the Life and that No One comes to the Father except through Him. Jesus proved He was the Son of God and God
the Sone through His life, His miracles, His teachings, and His resurrection. His is the Way to go. His is the path to
follow.
So as for advice that’s mine: Seek the Lord, Accept Jesus
as Lord and Savior, and Live your life according to His ways and stay in
constant communication with Him through prayer, worship, Bible study, and just
talking with HIm.
Experientially, I have followed, repented of many of my
former ways of living, my sin, and have no regrets. I have a peace that goes beyond understanding
and have learned to live by faith, living in the presence of the Lord by
continuously “walking and talking with God.”
When days are good, I thank God and rejoice over the
blessing I am enjoying. When times are
not so good, I thank God and am comforted that no matter how bad or confusing
the times may be, I have the assurance that He is with me and will never leave
me or forsake me.
And that is why it pains to see my friends suffer. In my opinion, I am not special. I don’t think
of myself as particularly wise or skilled in any areas of my life. I am a klutz.
I even got that wrong intially… apparently it is spelled with a “k” and means a
“clumsy, awkward, or foolish person”. I
forget things. I get frustrated. I get stressed.
But the good news is that this klutz just so happened to
stumble his way into the kingdom of God… Not really, I ran from God like
Jonah. I looked for love in all the
wrong places. When the going got tough,
I denied God and looked anywhere else for help… And in the midst of all that,
God reached me through a radio message to show me the truth that obscure by
religion, my ignorance, and my pride. God
allowed me to stumble through life but when He decided enough was enough, He opened
my eyes and pulled me out of the darkness.
I don’t know how God’s illumination comes… I guess I do
actually, through the Holy Spirit, of course. Get it? Yeah…
But in my experience, in my hurting I sought a spiritual
answer to the big questions of life and death and existence itself. Although my searching was a prolonged process
of stumbling through the dark in which I persisted in going the wrong way for
years, the Lord rewarded my searching with His love and wisdom.
Although I refused to even consider His way as an option,
He was gracious to reveal to me that the answer I refused to consider, the one
that was in plain sight, was the One that leads to meaning, purpose, and eternal
life.
So if you are hurting or in a situation where you are asking
for “thoughts and prayers”, let me encourage you to think and pray for yourself
and to purse the One who answers prayers.
Turn to God by placing your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, and take a
look at your life and examine the way you are living to see if you are living
in a way that contrary to God’s way.
When we turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to the Lord’s
wisdom and choose to live according to our own desires or the world’s
standards, we may be free to live that way but we are never free from the
consequences of living in sin or from the ultimate judgement and wrath of God
that will come upon us if we don’t make peace with God and decide to follow
Him.
Last Sunday, we did a Bible study on “The Silence of God”
and we highlighted scriptures that indicated that when we don’t have a
relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, when you are an “unbeliever”
the Lord doesn’t hear or honor your requests for “thoughts and prayers”. It may sound mean but it makes sense. If you
have nothing to do with God normally, it is not surprising that He may choose
to let you suffer because of your sin.
But as a “sinner saved by grace”, let me assure you that doesn’t have to be
your fate. God loves you and His word also is full of verses that highlight
that He accepts and helps those who turn from their sins and ask for His help
and mercy.
My advice is that rather than just seeking His help during
a crisis that you establish a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ that
will provide you with His help on a continual basis. Recognize your and the
world’s failure to have the answer to life and death and seek to meaning,
peace, and purpose by making peace with God and surrendering your ways for His.
“Life sucks, right?” Well, it can. Suffering is not cool
man. But when you turn to the Lord, you don’t have to be alone in it and He
will help you through it, one way or the other.
So “give up the ghost” – stop working so hard to find peace through the
world – die to it, by placing your life, hope, and trust into the hands of the
One who made it and longs to redeem it.
Instead of asking for “thoughts and prayers” or burning
some mixture of spices and herbs to chase away the bad vibes… start walking and
talking with God. He will see you through.
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
1 Timothy 6:18-19 (NLT2)
18 Tell them to use their
money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in
need, always being ready to share with others.
19 By doing this they will be
storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may
experience true life.
In today’s verse, we are encouraged to tell people who trust in their riches to use their money to do good, to share it, and to store up their treasure as a good foundation for the future that they will experience true life.
“True life” is “eternal life” in the NKJV and this points to the ultimate meaning to our lives. While we could use our money for all kinds of things while we are here on earth, the word encourages us to us eit to do good things and to share it.
I recently heard someone say that we never have to teach a child to be selfish, but we do have to teach them to share. And similarly, the word of God is teaching us to mature in our faith with the way we use our money. So as a part of our faith we should consider what we are spending our money on and examine our spending to see if we could make some changes to make our money be used for good.
When “we put our money where our mouth” is as Christians, there will be evidence – financial records that will show that some of our funds went to good things. Personally, I could stand to examine my ways but even I could point to my giving to my local church, the money I spend on my ministry needs, and the money I give to a child I sponsor in Haiti as evidence that a small part of my money is used for good. And unlike some of my other purchases, those expenditures are expenses that I do not regret because they are spent by me for God’s kingdom or as a response to do good.
So look at your financial statements and in your heart and see if there is more money available to do good things. We can’t take our money with us but our funds can be used to do good things that will be remembered in heaven and help us to transform our hearts to be more generous like our God who freely gives us all we need.
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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.
Dead, Resurrected and Exalted
While
the powers rule over a domain of death, all who know Christ have been given
life. God can bestow life on his people only through their identification with
Christ’s work—especially his death and resurrection. Baptism symbolizes this
unity with Christ, as Paul explains, “We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom 6:4).
True freedom comes
from identification with Jesus’ death—freedom from sin, freedom from death, and
freedom from the grip of the principalities and powers. While this freedom is
final and absolute insofar as we exist for the age to come, it needs to be
appropriated as long as we still live in this present age and possess
corruptible bodies. For this reason Paul found it necessary to admonish his
readers by attempting to convince them that they are dead to sin. He urged the
Roman Christians to “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus” (Rom 6:11) because “the death he [Christ] died, he died to sin once for
all; but the life he lives, he lives to God” (Rom 6:10). As believers, sin no
longer has a compelling influence over us. Therefore, we can refuse to engage
in it.
In a similar way with
regard to the demonic powers Christians need to believe they truly do not have
to succumb to their influence. Paul has to remind the Colossian Christians that
they had died to the demonic powers, arguing, “If with Christ you died to the
elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to
the world?” (Col 2:20 RSV). The Colossians believers were tempted to follow the
tenets of a false teaching that Paul believed to be inspired by the evil powers
themselves. In whatever way the hostile powers might make their influence felt,
believers have the strength to resist. The strength comes from identification
with Christ’s death. On the cross he defeated sin, death and the powers of
darkness.
Some of the
difficulty comes in unmasking the influence of the evil powers. It is possible
that the Colossian Christians were uncritically accepting the false teaching
that was being presented to them, thinking it to be helpful for their
spirituality. Paul, however, revealed to them the true demonic nature of the
teaching in his epistle to them. We, too, need God’s wisdom to enable us to
discern critically the nature of all teachings.
Believers’ authority
over the evil powers is rooted in their identification with the resurrection
and exaltation of Christ. This authority is explained most dearly in Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians, a letter in which Paul was concerned with the issue of
the evil powers. In Ephesians 1, Paul extolled God’s incomparably great power
by which he raised and exalted Christ to a position “far above” every rank in
the order of the powers of darkness (Eph 1:19–22). In Ephesians 2, he applied
this exalted Christology directly to the believer, saying, “And God raised us
up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”
(Eph 2:6). The implication for believers with regard to the powers is clear
from the informing context. Just as Christ holds a position of superiority to
the powers, so too do believers have a position of superiority and authority
over the devil’s forces. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same
power now available to believers. Thus Paul can pray that the Ephesians will
grow increasingly aware of this divine resource. He appealed to the Ephesians,
saying, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order
that you may know … his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph
1:18–19). This truth is especially significant in the larger context of Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians, since this truth becomes the doctrinal basis for his
later discussion of spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:10–20.
Paul also affirmed
the same truth to the Colossians—people who were struggling with the influence
of the powers of darkness. He reminded them that they were buried with Christ
and raised with him through their faith in God’s power (Col 2:12). Based on
their identification with Christ’s work, Paul could admonish them to regard
themselves as dead to the evil powers (Col 2:20) and alive to Christ because
they had been raised with him (Col 3:1). To these believers Paul gave one of
the most comforting promises found in the New Testament: “For you died, and
your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). In practical terms,
Paul’s teaching about their relationship to Christ meant that the Colossian
Christians had the power to resist the influence of unhealthy false teaching
and align their conduct more closely with God’s desires. Neither should they
continue to fear the influence of the demonic powers, which they dreaded prior
to conversion and which their non-Christian friends and neighbors continued to
dread.
Identification with
Christ in his death and resurrection is an incredibly important truth for all
who are struggling with the influence of the demonic in their lives. Becoming a
Christian means being linked to a powerful Lord who wields overpowering
authority over the realm of darkness.
Filled—Endowed with
Power and Authority
Paul
taught the Colossians that God had endowed Christ with all of his “fullness” (plērōma; Col 1:19). He reaffirmed this
thought in his letter to them, saying, “For in Christ all the fullness of the
Deity lives in bodily form” (Col 2:9). Paul made this statement here because he
wanted to relate it to the Colossian church—it is not merely another laudable
truth about the omnipotent Christ, but is something that has great significance
for the day-to-day lives of believers. Paul continued by saying, “and you have
been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority”
(Col 2:10).
Notice that Paul
connected the Colossians’ possession of divine “fullness” (plērōma) with Christ’s supremacy to the demonic powers. Why? Paul
was trying to convince the Colossians that they have been endowed with Christ’s
power and authority over the demonic realm. Paul could just as easily have left
the statement out. It appears that he was specifically applying the
significance of their filling with God’s resources to their struggle with the
powers.
The verb Paul used
here is in the Greek perfect tense and is translated “you have been given
fullness.” In this instance Paul wanted to convey to these believers that when
they became Christians they received this endowment, but more importantly, this
divine “fullness” continues to be available to them as God’s provision for them
in their ongoing conflict with Satan’s realm.
The word fullness indicates far more than just
power and authority over the forces of darkness. Most scholars believe it refers
to a number of things related to God, including his power, essence, glory,
presence and love. It probably has as its background the idea of the Old
Testament Shekinah: “I looked and saw the glory of the Lord filling the temple of the Lord” (Ezek 44:4). It comes very close to overlapping with
the work of the Holy Spirit who fills the believer.
The believer must
appropriate this “fullness.” Paul found it necessary to pray that the Ephesians
would “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19). While
God’s fullness is available to the believer, it must be received and used.
Belief and prayer become highly important factors in appropriating these
resources.[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), 114–117.
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