Do What You Can! Challenge Accepted. - Purity 826
Purity 826 09/02/2022
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a “rocky sunset” on Lake Ontario
comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography and from the depts of my phone’s
photo archive as they must have originally shared this scene on or around June
6th 2021. To the best of my knowledge, I never highlighted it on the
blog since and am glad that I have decided to look back to see what was left
behind.
Well it’s Friday again, so thank God, and as the
sunsets on another work week it is my prayer that we all enjoy this Labor Day
weekend to enjoy the last days before the new “back to school” season begins.
The extended weekend could also give us the
opportunity to either take care, or to take a rest, from unfinished business from the previous months. Seasonally it’s a good time to consider starting
to pack up our summer accessories and to consider transitioning to Autumn. Or we can use this weekend to make some
summer memories that we were too busy to get to in the last few months.
I shared yesterday how I have recently been
convicted to confront the one thing that remains that keeps me chained to my
past: my former home. Although our divorce agreement states that my ex and I
agreed to sell it “as soon as possible”, she refuses to sell it and lives there
still. I had previously decided to just
let things lie but now that she is renting out a room to someone to help with
costs, I see that my hopes that she would sell it eventually were naïve.
So I have made the hard decision to pursue legal
action to compel my ex to honor our divorce agreement and to sell the house but
I decided yesterday to reach out to her and ask her about it instead of just
having some attorney serve her papers without any warning. And as you may have guess, that conversation
didn’t go well but it did assure me of the need to pursue legal action to try
to resolve this final tie that binds me to my ex.
My ex basically stated that she wasn’t selling the
house and maliciously invited me to get an attorney and to “Do what you can!”
So here we go and honestly, I don’t even know what
can be done with this situation but I am going to find out and I will pursue
what ever course I need to take to either sell the home or to get my name off
of the mortgage.
Sometimes people jokingly refer to their spouse as
the “old ball and chain” and while I have severed the “old ball and chain” from
my life, my name on the mortgage is sort of the manacle that is still attached
to my ankle to remind me that I still have this one thing from our previous
life that I need to get rid of to be completely free.
Since 2019, I have run free and worked hard to get a
new home for my children and I and have overcome massive debts and legal bills
to get to enjoy my new life. I have
ignored my “anklet” and I guess I had hoped it would just fall off by itself
some day but now I know that to be free of it I am going to have to get some
help, there may be some suffering and pain involved in getting it off, and it
may take some time before it is finally off.
My ex seemed pretty confident that there is nothing I
can do to make her sell. “Do what you can!”
I don’t know what I can do but I know that I won’t
do nothing any longer.
There is a quote that is attributed to Edmund Burke,
but whose origins are disputed, that says: “The only thing necessary for the triumph
of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
While I wouldn’t to call my ex evil, or myself good
for that matter, I know this situation is wrong. It’s not just and it’s not fair.
It’s a breach of contract. It’s contempt of court. And I know that allowing this to continue isn’t
right.
James 4:17 (ESV) says
17 … whoever knows the right
thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Sin isn’t just doing what is wrong,
it is also not doing what is right: to know what you should do but failing to
do it.
Out of fear of confrontation, out of
fear of the costs of time, money, and effort, and out of fear of the possible
negative opinion of others, I have allowed a situation that isn’t right to
continue and according to the word of God and my spirit and heart’s conviction,
I know that it is sin. And I believe
that the Lord has convicted my conscience to take this difficult road to take
that “manacle” off my ankle and to be completely free of ties that bind me to
my former life and to forsake this sin, to give my life completely to Him.
This isn’t the first time the Lord
has called me to take difficult road as He has encouraged me to follow Him out
of the darkness of addictions, negative mind states and attitudes, and to
sacrifice much for the freedom I have today and as much as the idea of having
to do this causes me pain, I know that it is necessary to pursue it until this
matter is resolved.
When my ex challenges me to “Do what
you can!”, she doesn’t know who I know,
and I’m not talking about some attorney.
You see, like in the story of Daniel”, I have been “cast into the fire”
before and I wasn’t alone then and I am not alone now.
As we walk through this life we will have
trouble but when we walk with the Lord we can have peace as we walk through
them.
In
John 16:33 (NKJV) Christ said:
33 These
things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you
will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Because I have peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ, I
know something about overcoming adversity, I know something about walking into
the dessert without knowing if or when the journey will end. And even though some things can seem
impossible for us. Christ said:
Matthew
19:26 (NKJV)
26 …
with God all things are possible."
And I know that word of God is true and even though it may
take time and effort, I know that it is the Lord’s will that I not sin anymore
by letting this wrong thing to continue so I will “Do what I can” and pray for
the Lord to what He can and I will continue until it is finished.
I counsel people on this path of Christian discipleship all
the time and I hear horrible stories of difficult situations that people are in
but I share my stories of overcoming and I advise them that in order to solve our
problems we have to “DO SOMETHING!”, we have to be responsible for our own
messes and take steps to get out of them.
We can’t go back to undo the mistakes of the past but we can start today
on the road to resolve them.
When we have huge problems that have no end in sight we have
to do what we can each day to get closer to the solution and because we are
Christian, we know that God will work all things together for our good, we just
don’t know His timing. If we are
faithful to follow the Lord, He will be faithful to help us.
So we do our part and we for God to do His with the hope and assurance
that one day our problems will be behind us and we can look back and know that
we walked through the fire with the Lord God Almighty Himself to set us
free.
So keep walking and talking with God. “Do what you can!” and
leave the rest up to God.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT2)
6 Don’t worry about anything;
instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all
he has done.
7 Then you will experience
God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard
your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Today’s verses encourage us to not to worry about anything but to
keep praying about everything, telling God what we need and thanking Him for
all He has done with the assurance that if we do this we will have peace. As we live in Christ Jesus, His peace will
guard our hearts and minds.
Enough said? I mean, wow, if you need a prescription for the path
of Christian Discipleship, here it is! This is walking in the Spirit!
You want peace? Live in Christ Jesus. Pray about everything. Tell God what you
need. Thank Him for what He has done.
What happens when you live your life this way? His peace will guard your heart and mind.
This is walking and talking with God. This is life more abundantly. Live in Christ
Jesus, everyday.
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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.
Structural Evil: One First-Century Case Example
In
many ways Paul’s demonology reflects the common early Jewish understanding of
evil spirits. In particular Paul apparently believed that pagan religions have
close ties with the work of demons (see especially 1 Cor 10:19–20). We
concluded earlier that the various non-Christian religions represent a special
manifestation of the powers of darkness to deceive people and turn their
attention away from the one true God.
According to Luke,
Paul spent more time in Ephesus than anywhere else during his missionary
journeys, which is understandable since Ephesus held strategic importance for
reaching Asia Minor with the gospel. Some of Paul’s correspondence was written
either from Ephesus (1 Corinthians) to Ephesus (Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy) or
to nearby cities (Colossians and Philemon).
In some ways it is
surprising that Paul never explicitly referred to one of the principal
opponents of Christianity in Ephesus—the cult of the Ephesian Artemis. Artemis
was the patron deity of Ephesus, and her cult wielded significant influence
over the social, religious, economic and political lives of people throughout
Asia Minor. Artemis, however, was not the only deity worshiped at Ephesus; up
to fifty other gods and goddesses are also known to have had their cults in
Ephesus during Paul’s time.
It appears Paul had
not completely by-passed an issue of major importance to first-century
Christians in Ephesus, that is, how to respond to the cult and the opposition
it presented. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul provided a framework for a
Christian response to the root issue: how to respond to the invisible realm of
principalities and powers that stand behind it. The principles would therefore
apply not only to the cult of Artemis, but also to any other pagan cult.
In chapter eleven, we
discussed Paul’s concept of spiritual warfare. Here we will consider the cult
of the Ephesian Artemis itself. An understanding of this cult provides one
example of the multiplicity of ways that the powers exercised their hostile
influence on people in Asia Minor as opponents of Christianity. This
examination, in turn, may provide a model of the variety of levels of influence
the powers exert on us today.
1. Through the Occult: The magical
substructure of the Artemis cult brought individuals into direct contact with
what we would call the occult. (I have documented and illustrated this point
elsewhere.) The powers of darkness appear to gain direct access into the lives
of people through involvement in magic, witchcraft and sorcery. It is little
wonder the roaming Jewish exorcist Sceva found plenty of business in Ephesus
(Acts 19:13–17).
Evangelical ministers
today are giving numerous accounts of counseling severely demonized people who
have had a background of involvement in the occult. Such people need the wise
help of mature Christians to lead them to freedom from the bondage they
experienced at the hands of the powers of darkness.
2. Through Counterfeit Religion: The term counterfeit implies a standard. For the
early Christians there was only one true God—the God of Israel who is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Throughout the biblical revelation of both the Old and the New
Testament, all other so-called gods are called “false gods.”
In the Artemis cult
much evidence points to the celebration of mystery rites. A common trait of
many religions throughout the Hellenistic world, the mystery rite normally
involved a ritual that culminated in symbolic union with the deity. Satan might
very well have used the worship of Artemis to satisfy the spiritual yearnings
of people and their longing for “salvation” through counterfeit experiences.
There is still only
one God and one way of approaching him—through the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s
writings give no precedent for a positive view of obtaining salvation through
any of the non-Christian religions.
3. Through Political, Economic and Civic
Structures: The Artemis cult controlled major economic and civic structures
of western Asia Minor. The cult was the major savings and loan institution for
the entire region. Athletic contests were held in her honor, and even one of
the months of the year was named after her. Christians would have been forced
to decide on such questions as whether they should refuse to borrow money from
the cult and whether they should decline from participation in the “Artemisian
games.” The eyes of Christians would certainly have seen the pervasiveness of
her influence on their society.
The demonic is able
to influence any existing human structure. The cult of Artemis is merely one
example of a first-century structure that Satan used to delude people and lead
them away from devotion to the one true God.
Through all of these
means, which the principalities and powers inspire and maintain, the Christian
gospel faced an all-pervasive and supernaturally powerful opponent. In his
letter to the Ephesians Paul gave stressed that the principal opponent is not
“blood and flesh”: it is not something material and tangible, perhaps like the
cultic paraphernalia, the temple of the goddess, the banking structure or the
Ar-. temisian games. The opponent is what stands behind the Artemis cult and
all structures, institutions, traditions and values that keep people from
responding to the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. The
opponent is Satan and his powers of darkness.
We too need to
develop the ability to discern the true nature of the opposition and respond
accordingly. Satan and his powers are still alive and use many of the same
methods to deceive, oppress, destroy and, ultimately, blind people to the
redemptive message of the gospel.[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
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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), 207–209.
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