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Saturday, December 10, 2022

Into His Light - Calling For Life Beyond the Manger - Purity 911


Into His Light - Calling For Life Beyond the Manger -  Purity 911         

Purity 911 12/10/2022  Purity 911 Podcast

Purity 911 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of the Allen Waite Farm at Twilight comes to us from yours truly as I was positively awestruck of the magic of “twilight time” as I descended down Waite Rd in Easton NY to see that the while the land below was shrouded in darkness the last night of day was on the rims of the horizon creating this magnificent silhouette effect when from the ground when you looked up.    I’m sharing two other, out of focus, shots that I grabbed while driving down to my countryside home last night on the blog today if you want to see more.  



I hate to admit that they are blurry as all get out but I share them to demonstrate just how distinct that rim of light on the horizon was and as a warning to us amateur photographers out there to STOP and get out of the car when you see something worth capturing. 

Part of the beauty of the moment was the stark clarity of the silhouettes of the objects from ground view against the twilight sky and because I didn’t actually stop when I took these photos, like I did with the photo of the day, these additional pictures’ beauty pales in comparison to what they were in reality.   But the one with the utility pole looks like a cross, so I figured I would share it and so decided to share the other blurry one as well.  Even though they are both blurry they still show the contrast of the light and the darkness.  

Well, it is Saturday and I am rejoicing this morning because I have reunited with my beloved wife at our countryside home and while there isn’t much on the agenda for this morning and the early part of the day, TammyLyn has planned our late afternoon and “twilight time” hours to be filled with experiences that will continue to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas as we have plans to go to a live Nativity Display and to drive through Washington County’s holiday lights display. 

As to where these events are, you will have to Google them or message my wife, although I have been weekending in the Great White North for over a year now, I am still a Hudson Valley-er and am still learning the lay of the land up here.  

But you know what, that doesn’t matter, because in my wife I have an experienced guide that I trust and can have faith that when she tells me to take a turn that appears to be going further into the middle of nowhere, I don’t question her, well as not as much as I did anyway, and know that she will get us where we need to get to even if I can’t clearly see the final destination or the reasoning behind her “process”. 

Through my relationship and experiences with TammyLyn, I know that she has my best interests at heart and that she would never purposely lead me astray.  She loves me and not only wants to make sure that I have everything that I need, she also wants to give me more than the bare necessities of a dutiful wife, and continually does and says things that makes me fell loved and fills my heart with joy.   When I consider all that TammyLyn and I  have in our marriage, I know that God has brought us together.  

And because of what God has done in our lives individually, and because He has brought us together, we are intentional in keeping Him at the heart of our relationship through simple things like saying grace, going to church together, and for praying for one another daily. 

And this December, to keep Christ in Christmas and to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season, TammyLyn and I decided to use the first 21 days of the last month of the year to read through the gospel of John, one chapter a day, together.  I have done this “21 days in John” Bible study in December before by myself in the past, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to draw close to the Lord, in any season, but feel it is an especially good study to do if the December chill or the secular expressions of holiday cheer has your heart  running cold and your lips whispering “Bah Humbug!”

As much as I absolutely love Christmas and the Biblical narrative of Jesus’s birth, the Christian focus in December on “BABY JESUS”,  away in the manager, the angels, the shepherds, THE VIRGIN MARY, and the other aspects of  “The Nativity” can cause me to want to remind people that “Jesus isn’t a baby anymore!”

As truly awe inspiring and awesome it is to ponder the fact that God became flesh, in the incarnation, and the fact that the divine literally pushed beyond the veil of eternity and broke into our physical reality, I feel that the focus on this one scene of Jesus’ life at Christmas time can perpetually keep immature nominal Christians to be forever “the Babes in Christ” who are more enamored with the glitz and gifts of “Toyland” than the wonders of God’s love that can be experienced through a life of following the Man and Lord, that that precious little baby boy wrapped in swaddling cloths grew up to be.   

As things wrap up on another year, I remember well that the “silent night” of the Christmas Eve church service can be a magnificent moment where we join in the company of family and friends to simply declare that God is good, but just like the way our happiness can fade after opening up our Christmas presents, that magic moment of remembering Christ’s birth can fade as “Christmas is Over” and It’s time to get back to normal.  

Well, Like the born again Ebeneezer Scrooge, yeah Dicken’s Christmas Carol is a SALAVATION STORY, DUH,- ran the streets with the hope that his neighbors know the joy of Christmas every day, I too want to make a case for experiencing the joy of the Lord every day in our lives by encouraging all of us to go beyond the manger, past the shepherds, past the three wise men or kings (not sure if they could be both), and definitely past the virgin Mary, to stand on our own two feet and to walk beyond our “childlike faith” of nominal infancy to pursue the path of Christian Discipleship that THE MAN & LORD JESUS commanded us to walk.       

I know the prospect of actually living everyday like a Christian may be unknown territory for most us. I know when I first got saved, I asked the Lord: “So how do you do that? How do you live as a Christian? Is that even possible in this day and age? Do I want to do that?  

Well, just like deciding to trust a travelling companion’s directions for the first time, it requires faith. We have to believe that the person calling us to follow them has our best interests at heart and that they won’t lead us astray. 

But the good news is that we can trust the Lord. Christ’s coming to earth is evidence of His love for us as:

John 3:16 (NLT2) tells us that:
16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

“The world” includes you and me and when we put our faith in Jesus Christ we are given eternal life and when we follow Him, when we obey His commands, when we walk in the Spirit, we experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. That means love, peace, joy, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, patience, and self-control will define our lives the more we follow the Lord’s lead.  

So just like the farm, trees, and utility poles on Waite Rd were lost in the darkness of twilight time last night but were revealed when we decided to “look up” and see them in the last light of day,  the Lord wants us to be found by looking at ourselves according to His light. He wants our beauty to be revealed through our faith in the Light of the World, Jesus Christ,  and He wants us to experience the abundant life that He has for us when we decide to “grow up” beyond “baby Christians” and  to walk like the men and women that God created us and called us to be.  

So keep Christ in Christmas, but let’s keep walking and talking with God before then and let’s keep on walking into the sanctified life of a mature Christian disciple into the new year and beyond.  

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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:

Acts 13:38 (NLT2)
38  “Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins.

Today’s verse is an exhortation and a proclamation that forgiveness of sins is possible through Christ alone.  

This is the GOOD NEWS that many simply can’t believe or won’t believe, or are spiritually blind to.  

Scripture paints a simple yet complicated, another paradox, of salvation. 

It tells us that it is through faith alone that we are saved but that true faith will be shown by the fruit of good works and good character  It tells us that anyone who turns to the Lord in repentance and calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But it also tells us that people are spiritually blinded and that none come to the Father other than those that are drawn by Him.  Paul states that nothing can separate us from the love of God but yet Christ’s parable of the sowing of the seeds and the tares and the wheat seem to indicate that some will believe but will not endure and that there will be real and false believers in the assembly of the saints. Christ warned us about the separation of the sheep and the goats to highlight this and even indicated that these false converts could even be elevated to leadership positions as Jesus warned us about false teachers too!

No one knows the hearts of man but God and when we consider all of these seeming conflicts about “simple faith” we could wonder, like the Christ’s first disciples themselves wondered in

Matthew 19:25 (NLT2) where the word tells us that:
25  The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.

Who can be saved? Who can be forgiven? 

Well while pointing out the different aspects of salvation can cause us to see that there may be more to salvation that just saying the words of a “sinners prayer” or believing in a person name Jesus once existed and we sort of like some of the things he said and we like the cozy picture of the manger at Christmas, the preponderance of evidence of scripture clearly confirms that it is through Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven and given eternal life.   

And today’s verse really cuts to the heart of the matter for me. As someone raised in a liturgical church tradition that twisted the gospel to be a combination of faith and works, I knew I was a sinner but I highly doubted that I could be forgiven. I thought I had to ear it some how or I had to be “good” to go to heaven.  

But when I heard, in the message that saved my soul, that forgiveness came because of Jesus only, that my faith in Him would give me the forgiveness that I thought I could never earn,  I finally saw the light of the truth behind all of Christianity: the love of God that sent Jesus to pay for our sins, to die for us, so that we could be forgiven and be accepted and live with God forever.   I rejoiced then and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior through tears of  the grief of repentance and the joy of a new life and am continually reminded of the miracle that happened in my life: I was drawn by the Creator of the universe to be in His royal family forever and ever. – through Christ alone!

So rejoice over your forgiveness that Jesus made possible and keep sharing the good news because this world desperately needs to know that they are loved and forgiven by God and can be accepted into His kingdom when they surrender to the Lordship of Christ.  

We are forgiven. We are free. And We will live with the LORD our God forever and ever, Amen!

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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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship

Chapter Ten

The Body of Christ, continues

 

Through the Holy Spirit, the crucified and risen Christ exists as the church-community [Gemeinde], as the “new human being.” For Christ truly is and eternally remains the incarnate one, and the new humanity truly is his body. Just as the fullness of the godhead became incarnate in him and dwelled in him, so are Christian believers filled with Christ (Col. 2:9; Eph. 3:19). Indeed, they themselves are that divine fullness by being his body, and yet it is Christ alone who fills all in all.

The unity between Christ and his body, the church, demands that we at the same time recognize Christ’s lordship over his body. This is why Paul, in developing further the concept of the body, calls Christ the head of the body (Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18; 2:19). The distinction is clearly preserved; Christ is the Lord. There are two events in salvation history, namely, Christ’s ascension and his second coming, which make this distinction necessary; these events categorically rule out any idea of a mystical fusion between church-community and Christ. The same Christ who is present in his church-community will return from heaven. In both cases it is the same Lord and it is the same church; in both cases it is the very same body of the one who is present here and now, and the one who will return in the clouds. However, it makes a serious difference whether we are here or there. Thus, both the unity and the distinction are necessary aspects of the same truth.

The church is one; it is the body of Christ. At the same time it is the multiplicity [Vielheit] and community [Gemeinschaft] of its members (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12ff.). The body has many members, and each member, whether it be eye, hand, or foot, remains what it is. That is the very point of Paul’s analogy! A hand does not become an eye, nor does an eye change into an ear. Each retains its own identity. Nevertheless, they all have an identity of their own only as members of the one body, as a community that serves in unity. The unity of the church-community gives identity and meaning to each individual and to the community as a whole, just as Christ and his body give identity and meaning to the church-community. It is at this point that the office of the Holy Spirit is thrown into sharp relief. It is the Holy Spirit who brings Christ to the individuals (Eph. 3:17; 1 Cor. 12:3). It is the Spirit who builds up the church by gathering the individuals, even though in Christ the whole building is already complete (Eph. 2:22; 4:12; Col. 2:7). The Holy Spirit creates the community (2 Cor. 13:13) of the members of the body (Rom. 15:30; 5:5; Col. 1:8; Eph. 4:3). The Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The church of Christ is Christ present through the Holy Spirit. The life of the body of Christ has thus become our life. In Christ we no longer live our own lives, but Christ lives his life in us. The life of believers in the church-community is truly the life of Jesus Christ in them (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 4:15).

In the community of the crucified and transfigured body of Jesus Christ, we take part in Christ’s suffering and glory. Christ’s cross is laid upon the body of the church-community. All sufferings under this cross are Christ’s sufferings. This suffering first takes the form of dying the death upon the cross in baptism; it then is Christians’ “daily dying” (1 Cor. 15:31) by virtue of their baptism. It is, in addition, a suffering that bears an indescribable promise. True, it is only Christ’s own suffering which has atoning power; he suffered “for us” and won the victory “for us.” Yet to those who are not ashamed to belong to the community of his body, Christ, in the power of his suffering, grants in turn the immeasurable grace to suffer “for him.” No greater glory could Christ have granted to his own; no honor could be more astonishing for Christians than to be granted the privilege of suffering “for Christ.” What actually takes place here runs totally counter to the law. For according to the law, we are only capable of suffering the punishment for our own sins. According to the law, we cannot do or suffer anything that would benefit us,[30] let alone another, and least of all Christ! The body of Christ, which was given for us, which suffered the punishment for our sins, frees us to exist “for Christ” in death and in suffering. Now we are able to work and suffer for Christ, for the sake of him who did everything for us! That is the miracle and grace we enjoy in the community of the body of Christ (Phil. 1:29; 2:17; Rom. 8:35ff.; 1 Cor. 4:10; 2 Cor. 4:10; 5:20; 13:9). Even though Jesus Christ has already accomplished all the vicarious suffering necessary for our redemption, his sufferings in this world are not finished yet. In his grace, he has left something unfinished (ὑστερήμταια) in his suffering, which his church-community is to complete in this last period before his second coming. This suffering will benefit the body of Christ, the church. Whether this suffering of Christians also has power to atone for sin (1 Peter 4:1) remains an open question. What is clear, however, is that those suffering in the power of the body of Christ suffer in a vicariously representative [stellvertretend] action “for” the church-community, “for” the body of Christ. They are permitted to bear what others are spared. “We always carry in the body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of the Lord Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:10–12; see also 1:5–7; 13:9; Phil. 2:17). There is a specific amount of suffering which has been allotted to the body of Christ. To one person God grants the grace to bear a special suffering on behalf of another person. The suffering must indeed be completed, borne, and overcome. Blessed are those to whom God grants the privilege of suffering for the body of Christ. Such suffering is joy (Col. 1:24; Phil. 2:17). In such suffering, believers may boast that they bear the dying of Jesus Christ and Christ’s wounds on their bodies (2 Cor. 4:10; Gal. 6:17). Now a believer is privileged to become the means by which “Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20). Such vicariously representative action and suffering, which is carried out by the members of the body of Christ, is itself the very life of Christ who seeks to take shape in his members (Gal. 4:19).

In all this, we are in the community of the first disciples and followers of Jesus.[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/@MT4Christ247

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] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 220–222.

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