Beyond Broken Resolutions - Return to Freedom - Purity 954
Purity 954 01/31/2023 Purity 954 Podcast
Purity 954 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the fading light of day reflected
on the Hudson River comes to us from yours truly as I felt moved to capture
this “down River” view as I pulled into the driveway of River House on the last
Friday of January in 2023.
Well, it’s Tuesday and the last day of January and
although it is the end of the first month of the new year I am looking forward
to new beginnings. Yesterday, I was
offline for a sick day and although I took a day off from blogging and
podcasting as well, I do feel better today because of the rest for my body and
the restoration of my soul I experienced because although I skipped my physical
exercise regimen, I took the time in the early morning hours to do The Steps to
Freedom in Christ. So now I am rested and
restored and ready to begin again!
Not only am I ready to resume my regular work
responsibilities, I am also ready to do what I can to help and encourage other
Christians to discover who they are in Christ and to either establish or deepen
their freedom in Christ. Tonight, I
begin leading a new Freedom in Christ course on Zoom and am looking forward to
teach, and to remember, what I have come to know about our new lives in Christ
and how the acceptance of our new identities as children of God is the key to
our freedom and victory.
Quite frankly, I look forward to the new course for
myself as much as for the men that have signed up for the course! The last few
months of 2022 and the first month of the new year has been a mixed bag of
inconsistencies as I have compromised my health goals with holiday fleshly indulgences
and I fell victim to an episode of wishful thinking that led to discontent and a
momentary loss of reason. So tonight, it’s
back to basics and a return to sanity as I am choosing to take the momentum of
the new course as a launching pad to get back on the path of Christian
Discipleship with the enthusiasm of one who knows what works. When I deny myself, pick up my cross, and
just abide in the Lord’s presence and follow His lead, my life is filled with
the simple peace and joy that comes from just doing what is “right”.
To get as basic as we can see that this was one of
God’s first instructions to man as He said to Cain in:
Genesis 4:6-7 (NLT2) where He said:
6 “Why are you so angry?” the
LORD asked Cain. “Why do you look
so dejected?
7 You will be accepted if you
do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is
crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its
master.”
Now, don’t get me wrong I wasn’t living in a
licentious life of sin like my old man over the last few months but I did seek
comfort from the things of the world here and there and I “wished-prayed” for God
to be genie with the hope that He would deliver me from my secular day job and
bless my socks off with a new home and comparable salary, just like that!
I had forgotten to be disciplined in my approach to
life by seeking comfort from the world in food and entertainment and was hoping
to be “transported” to a better place rather than focusing on my walk day to
day and trusting the Lord to lead me in the things that I have already planned
for this year.
So I am declaring today to be the start of a new
chapter of this ongoing journey of pursuing the Lord and His plan for my life
by keeping it simple.
Yesterday, I did my periodic housecleaning by going through
the Steps to Freedom in Christ so I am feeling light as a bird as I have
dropped any and all baggage I may have been carrying since the last time I did
the steps. Through the Steps and coming
before the Lord in prayer, I have dealt with some rather recent
disappointments, losses, and bitterness from the slights and unjust treatments
I felt I had received as I walked from the Fall of 2022 to now.
As if to confirm the new beginning, as I returned to
my regular exercise routine Amazon Music offered up Sia’s Bird Set Free which
ends with the victorious declrartion:
“And
I don't care if I sing off key
I find myself in my melodies
I sing for love, I sing for me
I shout it out like a bird set free
No, I don't care if I sing off key
I find myself in my melodies
I sing for love, I sing for me
I'll shout it out like a bird set free
I'll
shout it out like a bird set free
I'll shout it out like a bird set free”
That song always lifts my
spirits, as I remember walking through the fire with the Lord to my new life in
Christ, to my new place down to by the River, and to the love I have with my wife,
TammyLyn.
Our freedom and our
victory is found in Christ alone and it is never lost. If we forget who we are
and wander off the Lord is always there to restore us and to encourage us to follow
Him in the way that leads to peace.
As those lyrics faded
away, my spirit was raised ever higher as The Holy Spirit caused me to remember
John 8:36 (NKJV) where Jesus told us:
36 Therefore if the Son makes
you free, you shall be free indeed.
Because of Jesus, I am
free and it’s a fine time to remember that and to walk in it.
So if your new year’s resolution
has been blown, like many have been, celebrate the last day of the month of
broken resolutions, by choosing to begin again based on who you are in Christ. Jesus
has set us free and sometimes we just need to remember that to walk into the new
life we already have. So keep walking and talking with God by keeping things
simple and just taking care of what is a head of you and trusting Him to guide
you the rest of the way into the thing unseen.
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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:
Isaiah 49:13 (NKJV)
13 Sing, O heavens! Be
joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will
have mercy on His afflicted.
Today’s Bible verse reminds us how the Lord comforts His
people and has mercy on His afflicted.
“His afflicted?” – Say What?
I thought that walking with the Lord would be a continual journey into
Eden like gardens of happiness and peace!
While we can enjoy mountain top heights of joy as we
experience moments of accomplishments and victory, today’s verse reminds us that we will also
experience the reality of the “joy of the Lord being our strength” when we
receive His mercy while being afflicted.
When we seek happiness or comfort from the world and forget about who we are in
Christ, it doesn’t take long for us to long for the comfort to our souls that
only the Lord can bring.
If we are not careful, we can easily be tempted to take a
rest from seeking the Lord and go back to old patterns of seeking happiness
from the things of this world. But it doesn’t take long for us to remember that
the things of the world never satisfied us in the first place and we soon see
the errors of our ways and may even condemn ourselves of not being worthy of
restoration from the Lord and may even persist in going the wrong way for a while
which only make our condition worse. When you experience the goodness of God in
your life, nothing else will work and we can feel the affliction that comes
from forsaking His path.
Like the prodigal son, our brokenness – our affliction- will
show us that we are far from home and the goodness that we once knew. But when we turn back to our Heavenkly
Father, we learn that He has been waiting for us to return to Him and He
graciously showers us with the comfort and the mercy we desperately need and
our joy and our peace is restored.
So return to the Lord and know He is good! And when you
rejoice you too can shout it out for the world to hear:
“Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And
break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD
has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted.” ___________________________________________
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 A.W. Pink’s “The
Sovereignty of God.”
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’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
SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
By ARTHUR W. PINK
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN REPROBATION continues
In Romans 9 the
doctrine of God’s sovereignty in its application to both the elect and the
reprobate is treated of it length. A detailed exposition of this important
chapter would be beyond our present scope; all that we can essay is to dwell
upon the part of it which most clearly bears upon the aspect of the subject
which we are now considering.
V. 17: “For the Scripture saith unto Pharoah, Even
for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in
thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.” These
words refer us back to vv. 13 and 14. In v. 13 God’s love to Jacob and His
hatred to Esau are declared. In v. 14 it is asked “Is there unrighteousness
with God?” and here in v. 17 the apostle continues
his reply to the objection. We cannot do better now than quote from Calvin’s
comments upon this verse. “There are here two things to be considered—the
predestination of Pharaoh to ruin, which is to be referred to the past and yet
the hidden counsel of God—and then, the design of this, which was to make known
the name of God. As many interpreters, striving to modify this passage, pervert
it, we must observe, that for the word ‘I have raised thee up,’ or stirred up,
in the Hebrew is, ‘I have appointed,’ by which it appears, that God, designing
to show that the contumacy of Pharaoh would not prevent Him to deliver His
people, not only affirms that his fury had been foreseen by Him, and that He
had prepared means for restraining it, but that He had also thus designedly ordained it and indeed for
this end,—that He might exhibit a more illustrious evidence of His own power.”
It will be observed that Calvin gives as the force of the Hebrew word which
Paul renders “For this purpose have I
raised thee up,”—“I have appointed.”
As this is the word on which the doctrine and argument of the verse turns we
would further point out that in making this quotation from Exodus 9:16 the
apostle significantly departs from the Septuagint—the version then in common
use, and from which he most frequently quotes—and substitutes a clause for the
first that is given by the Septuagint: instead of “On this account thou hast
been preserved,” he gives “For this very end have I raised thee up!”
But we must now
consider in more detail the case of Pharaoh which sums up in concrete example
the great controversy between man and his Maker. “For now I will stretch out My
hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be
cut off from the earth. And in every deed
for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and
that My name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Ex. 9:15, 16). Upon
these words we offer the following comments:
First, we know from
Exodus 14 and 15 that Pharaoh was
“cut off,” that he was cut off by God, that he was cut off in the very midst of
his wickedness, that he was cut off not by sickness nor by the infirmities
which are incident to old age, nor by what men term an accident, but cut off by
the immediate hand of God in judgment.
Second, it is clear
that God raised up Pharaoh for this
very end—to “cut him off,” which in
the language of the New Testament means “destroyed.” God never does anything
without a previous design. In giving him being, in preserving him through
infancy and childhood, in raising him to the throne of Egypt, God had one end
in view. That such was God’s purpose
is clear from His words to Moses before he went down to Egypt to demand of
Pharaoh that Jehovah’s people should be allowed to go a three days’ journey
into the wilderness to worship Him—“And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou
goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh,
which I have put in thine hand: but I
will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go” (Ex. 4:21). But
not only so, God’s design and purpose was declared long before this. Four
hundred years previously God had said to Abraham, “Know of a surety that thy
seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them:
and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they
shall serve, will I judge” (Gen. 15:13, 14). From these words it is evident (a
nation and its king being looked at as one in the O. T.) that God’s purpose was
formed long before He gave Pharaoh being.
Third, an examination
of God’s dealings with Pharaoh makes it clear that Egypt’s king was indeed a
“vessel of wrath fitted to destruction.” Placed on Egypt’s throne, with the
reins of government in his hands, he sat as head of the nation which occupied
the first rank among the peoples of the world. There was no other monarch on
earth able to control or dictate to Pharaoh. To such a dizzy height did God
raise this reprobate, and such a course was a natural and necessary step to
prepare him for his final fate, for it is a Divine axiom that “pride goeth
before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Further—and this is
deeply important to note and highly significant—God removed from Pharaoh the
one outward restraint which was calculated to act as a check upon him. The
bestowing upon Pharoah of the unlimited powers of a king was setting him above
all legal influence and control. But besides this, God removed Moses from his presence and kingdom. Had Moses, who not
only was skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians but also had been reared in
Pharaoh’s household, been suffered to remain in close proximity to the throne,
there can be no doubt but that his example and influence had been a powerful
check upon the king’s wickedness and tyranny. This, though not the only cause,
was plainly one reason why God sent Moses into Midian, for it was during his absence that Egypt’s inhuman king framed
his most cruel edicts. God designed, by removing this restraint, to give
Pharaoh full opportunity to fill up the full measure of his sins, and ripen
himself for his fully-deserved but predestined ruin.
Fourth, God
“hardened” his heart as He declared He would (Ex. 4:21). This is in full accord
with the declarations of Holy Scripture—“The preparations of the heart in man,
and the answer of the tongue, is from the
Lord” (Prov. 16:1); “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the
rivers of water, He turneth it whithersoever
He will” (Prov. 21:1). Like all other kings, Pharaoh’s heart was in the
hand of the Lord; and God had both the right and the power to turn it
whithersoever He pleased. And it pleased Him to turn it against all good. God determined to hinder Pharaoh from granting his
request through Moses to let Israel go until He had fully prepared him for his
final overthrow, and because nothing short of this would fully fit him, God hardened his heart.[1]
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tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”,
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at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), 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)
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
