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Sunday, October 2, 2022

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - Something's Wrong with my Mirror? - 10/02/2022


 

Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 10/2/2022

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: Something's Wrong with My Mirror? Podcast

Or watch the Video Zoom Session of our Study on YouTube: Something's Wrong with My Mirror? om YouTube



Something’s Wrong with my Mirror??

 

The Christian faith is replete with paradoxes.

         You have to die in order to truly live

         In order to be greatest you must become servant to all

         We only love God because He first loved us.

         Get out of financial bondage, give more.

         Seek first the kingdom of God… all else will be added to you

 

Perhaps the biggest paradoxical notion is that, as if it were some sort of self help program, when we become a Christian we will get better.

 

First and foremost this submits the idea that “better” is the goal.

The truth is that holiness is the goal. I Pet. 1:15

 

Indeed, the surrounding verses in I Pet. 1 encourage us toward repentance and good works, but Gods’ standard for fellowship with Him is holiness.

         This understanding perpetuates the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We could never strive to be good enough to merit fellowship with God.

 

The problem is that, with careful, and honest self observation, we seem to get worse.

As we seek to “bring every thought into captivity,” (II Cor. 10:5)      we realize the monumental need to.

As we seek to do, “good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in,” (Eph 2:10) they seem fewer and far       between.

As we aim to live for Christ, (Gal. 2:20) the need to daily pray, “forgive me my trespasses” and “lead me not into temptation      becomes more pressing.

 

The apostle Paul likewise seemed to express this backward regress.

In Gal. 1:1, his earliest known letter, he calls himself, “an apostle...”

In I Cor. 15:9 he is suddenly, “the least of the apostles, who am not worthy        to be called an apostle.”

In Eph. 3:8 he has slipped to, “less than the least of all the saints.”

By I Tim 1:15 he considers himself, “chief of sinners”.

 

Did he get worse???

 

The truth is that as we draw nearer to Christ, and glimpse His holiness, we are undone, and sense that even our greatest works are as filthy rags. Is. 64:6

 

Yet, in I Cor. 4:4, Paul says, “For I know of nothing against myself”. Has he forgotten that he persecuted the church, (Phil. 3:6) or that “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man…”?

No, because, as he goes on to say, “but I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of out Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” I Tim. 1:13,14

 

“We see now in a mirror, dimly” I Cor. 13:12. I liken this, sometimes, to glimpsing an image in a kaleidoscope, but then it vanishes. We sense for a moment that we know God, as if we have touched the hem of His garment, but then that moment is gone.

 

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” II Cor. 3:18. This is a process. As we hold our lives up to the mirror of Gods’ word we may feel convicted. That’s a good thing. We may feel as though we haven’t changed much, but His promise is that, “we are being transformed…”

 

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror: for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was” Js. 1:23 We mustn’t depart from the mirror of God’s word in fear or neglect, but we should write it on the tablet of our hearts.

 

                     “Your word, I have hidden in my heart,

                     That I might not sin against You. Ps. 119:11

-----Join us for another Bible Study Next Week -------

or

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

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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


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