On the Road Again - Purity 829
Purity 829 09/06/2022 Purity 829 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the blazing sun and a blue cumulus
cloud filled sky over Waite Rd in Easton NY comes to us from yours truly as I
captured this scene while out walking the dog back on August 13th.
Well, it is the Tuesday after Labor Day and for many
it is “back to school time” and I for one am super excited at the prospect of
the new season because tonight I begin facilitating the Freedom in Christ
Discipleship Course for a new group of participants on Zoom this evening! So as I enter into a new season of
encouraging others on the path of Christian Discipleship, I couldn’t help but
share a photo that visually represents the fact that we are “on the road again”
to help others to experience, maintain, or deepen their freedom in Christ!
I am by far not a country fan but when I consider
the fact that the Lord has brought me to a place where I can regularly
encourage others to discover the abundant life of meaning and purpose that He
has for them I almost want to sing that Willie Nelson Classic who’s lyrics say
that we are:
“On
the road again
Like
a band of gypsies, we go down the highway
We're
the best of friends
Insisting
that the world be turnin' our way
And
our way
Is on
the road again
Just
can't wait to get on the road again
The
life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I
can't wait to get on the road again”
(https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/willienelson/ontheroadagain.html)
But seriously,
while the participants to tonight’s course and I are not the “best of
friends”, in fact with a couple of exceptions we are complete strangers, and while we won’t be literally heading out to
“make music”, I know that if they are
faithful to follow the road that the Freedom in Christ course and the Lord
would have them travel they have the potential to experience a sense of freedom
and victory that may cause them to all want to sing a hearty round of “Free
Bird” like they never have before except they will be forced to change the
lyrics to: “Lord knows I CAN change!
Lord, help me, I CAN change!!”
Because our way is not “on the road again to make
music with our friends”, our way is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE. Our way is Jesus Christ and I know that if we
are just faithful in our pursuit to follow Him there is absolutely nothing and
no one that can stop us from being the people that God created us to be….
except us.
If we believe and follow Him, our faith in Jesus
Christ and His word will reveal to us the truth of who we are in Christ and
will help these men to resolve their personal and spiritual conflicts to
experience their freedom like they never imagined they could.
Christ is the answer. Christ is the way. I know this
personally simply because I followed Him and experienced the new life that He
has given me. As far as I am concerned, I don’t have a choice but to give Him
honor and glory by telling others about what I have come to know.
Regardless of my day job, this is my purpose in
life: to encourage others to seek the Lord and to follow Jesus. The life I love is to encourage people to
know that God is alive and He will help them to know the truth that will set
them free.
So, if need encouragement and aren’t enrolled in
tonight’s course, check out the teachings I have on the podcast and YouTube and
start following the road that will lead you to your freedom in Christ where you
will leave behind the troubles of your past and find the peace, joy, and love
that comes from walking and talking with 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:
1 Peter 3:12 (NLT2)
12 The eyes of the Lord watch
over those who do right, and his ears are open to their
prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.”
Today’s verse encourages us to do what is right with the assurance
that the Lord is open to our prayers when we do, and His face is turned against
those who do evil.
Here the Apostle Peter explains a spiritual reality of prayer and
our relationship with God. While God’s
unconditional love for us caused Him to send Christ to die for us so that we
could have peace with Him and a new life,
it doesn’t mean that our relationship with God is unaffected by our
thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.
Here scripture tells us that if we do evil, the Lord turns away
from us. If we do what is right the
Lord’s ears are open to our prayers, indicating He is listening and may be
receptive to answering our petitions of prayer.
So this is a “prayer principle” for sure. If you want your prayers
to be heard, you should do what’s right.
But this verse reveals much more than that. It points to our
relationship with God and how the harmony of that relationship can be
positively or negatively affected by our “doing what is right”.
In my immaturity as a new believer, I thought that now that I was
forgiven after I put my faith in Christ, I wrongly assumed that what ever I
did, if I sinned, it didn’t matter!
And that’s partially true, when I put my faith in Christ,
genuinely, God’s forgiveness is unconditional.
I am forgiven for my past, present, and future sins. Nothing I can do
can separate me for the love of God, I am His warts and all.
But when I am not acting like a child of God, I separate myself
from who I am in Christ and from a harmonious relationship with God. It’s been said that the most miserable person
is a Christian who is locked in sin, because they are not only acting out of
character but they are denying God’s power and truth by giving them to the sin
that they have been set free from.
So a Christian should avoid the misery and endeavor to “do what’s
right”. When we start living a righteous life based on God’s word, we not only
avoid the negative consequences of sinful choices, we also establish and
maintain our harmony with God where He is listening to our prayers and possibly
granting them.
So do what is right and pray to know the peace of a harmonious
relationship with God and the joy that comes from knowing that God Himself is
listening to you.
______________________________________________________________________
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.
Know Who You Are in Christ
Christians
have truly been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and have been made members
of Christ’s kingdom. The person who has come to know Christ has also been
forgiven, acquitted by God of all guilt, reconciled to God, and will experience
no condemnation either now or after death. All of these things—and so many
more—are true of Christians, but they are so often disbelieved in practice.
Many Christians have
a difficult time internalizing their forgiveness, and their new freedom and
liberty in Christ. At my church I have found this difficulty to be true in my
ministry to new Christians. Nevertheless, the simple meaning of Christ’s work
on the cross and the nature of new life in Christ bring refreshing experiences
of freedom and release. These experiences often result in times of joyous tears
as the weight of guilt and Satan’s exploitation are broken. Satan surely wants
to deceive Christians into believing lies about themselves—“God cannot really
forgive you for that,” “you will never be able to overcome that habit,” “you
couldn’t possibly ever love that person,” and on and on. Christ has broken the
power of Satan and evil over his people. Not only are they capable of change, but
also Christ calls them to change.
In his classes and
seminars on spiritual conflicts and counseling, my colleague at Talbot School
of Theology, Dr. Neil Anderson, regularly encounters Christians struggling with
problems often related to some kind of demonic influence. Almost invariably, he
finds that for Christians facing direct demonic opposition, they have a
profoundly inadequate understanding of who they are in Christ. Based upon
Paul’s teaching that Christians are called to appropriate God’s power and
resist the devil, Anderson helps these troubled Christians discover who they
really are in terms of their new nature and new life in Christ. As a caring
facilitator, Anderson prepares them to deal with the hostile influence of the
powers through their own volition and their own appropriation of the power and
authority available to them in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is hard to fathom,
but Christ wants us to think of ourselves as so closely united to him that we
can consider ourselves as having already died to sin and having been
resurrected and exalted. We share in his authority over the principalities and
powers. Not only that, we are his dearly loved adopted children whom he has
made his heirs!
We cannot forget that
our new identity as Christians is not only individual but also corporate. We
have been joined to fellow Christians in the solidarity of a corporate body.
Christ has created the church as the primary vehicle for his grace to resist
and overcome the powers of darkness.[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), 212–213.
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