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Showing posts with label 2 Timothy. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

The Insanity of God - Purity 925

The Insanity of God  -   Purity 925

Purity 925 12/27/2022 Purity 925 Podcast

Purity 925 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of sunset from the vantage point of Pelican Point at Crystal Cove State Park in New Port Beach, CA comes to us from a friend who enjoyed this scene on Christmas Eve with his family and shared it with his friends on social media.  

Well, it is Tuesday and for the vast majority of the working population of my friends, the sun of the Christmas holiday – actual or observed – will have set last night as they will be rising this morning and returning to work.  

As for me? I will continue to enjoy an extended holiday vacation this week in the “bliss bubble” of my countryside home which I only left briefly yesterday for a couple of walks down Waite Rd with the dog.  Although I may be prone to “cabin fever” because I am usually on the go 6 if not 7 days of the week, and enjoy getting out to stretch my legs, the cold temperatures with highs in the 20’s, has made the walks brisk ones and fewer in number if the environment was more hospitable.    

As for the accommodations inside, I have no complaints as my wife has created an atmosphere of warmth and love where I feel cared for and carefree as she provides for my every need while simultaneously giving me the space to not feel smothered as we each have individual projects and activities to occupy our time and interest independent of one another. 

I have been reading through “Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You”, a text by Jim Wilder & company that I will be required to study as part of Deeper Walk International’s School of Prayer Ministry that begins in a few weeks. To familiarize myself with the content of the book, I decided to dictate it’s contents into a word document, creating my own e-version of the book.  The book creates a “Life Model” for individuals and churches to follow that encourages recovery from trauma and maturing in one’s faith through community, essentially developing a spiritual family from the body of Christ that helps us overcome the things in our pasts that shouldn’t have happened (Type B traumas) and providing us with the good things we never received (Type A traumas). The testimonies presented in the book demonstrate how our faith and the church, when operating properly, gives us everything we need to become the people God created us to be.    I all but finished the dictation of this book yesterday, with just a few last sections to complete today or tomorrow as I have been working on “getting ‘er done for a week or two, here and there.  

Dictating can be a draining process and as I have made great progress to all but complete this project over the last few days, I have often hit a wall of exhaustion of frustration that needed to be allieviated by taking the dog for a walk, lying down and taking a nap, or taking a break and listening to an audiobook that I started just before Christmas.  

As the impending yuletide splendor of secular Christmas was upon us I decided to listen to “The Insanity of God” as a way to not only keep Christ in Christmas but to remind me of the reality of the costs of Christian discipleship.  I heard about the “Insanity of God” back when I was in my undergraduate days of Bible College and had put it on my “wish list” years ago but I didn’t actually purchase it until shortly before Christmas, admittedly as part of an out of control spending spree where I was making some final purchases to take care of my Christmas shopping and decided to “treat myself” as well.  

Anyway, perhaps out of guilt or a true desire to draw close to God in repentance, I started listening to “The Insanity of God” on Christmas Eve Eve or the day before and have been listening to it here and there ever since.  Although I had heard it was a “good book” I didn’t recall exactly what it was supposed to be about.  Having listened to all but a few hours of the totality of the book, I can report that “The Insanity of God” chronicles a Christian missionary’s life and his and his family’s experiences in Somaliland in the 1990s and the author’s search for the answers to the hard questions that come when one takes Christ’s direction to go out into all the world to make disciples seriously.  Tragic, frustrating, and almost unimaginable things happen in the mission field which causes to author to seek the answer to his questions from others who have experienced persecution for their Christian faith leading him to conduct interviews of persecuted Christians I the former USSR, the Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and China where persecution was a normal and expected part of life as the “sun rising in the east”.  I’m not through the book yet but the heart wrenching testimonies of faithful Christians who suffered emotional, mental, and physical torture and the amazing things that they experienced to maintain their faith makes me thankful to be a  Christians and relatively free of any persecution and almost unworthy to be mentioned as being a part of the same body of Christ of these Christian saints and martyrs.  If my resolve to remain faithful to the call God put on my life to encourage others to be disciples ever wavered before, the testimonies of these other brothers and sisters in Christ encourages me to continue walking and talking with God and to pursue this “crazy” course that the Lord has called me to.  

Considering all that I have received and considering all that other Christians have suffered for their faith and intention to live and share the gospel of Jesus Christ, I consider that my efforts are the very least I can do for the Lord.   

I was a little puzzled by the title of the book can understand why it is called that.  In this world broken by sin and that actively seeks to silence the gospel, it is considered “crazy” to follow the Lord, and positively insane to have to suffer for our faith.  

The author, as a young man, was a few weeks away from pursuing his dream to become a veterinarian, when he suddenly heard a “voice” from the Lord calling him to abandon his planned out course to follow the Lord. Even though his faith and knowledge about Christianity or Christian service was minimal, the author answered the call and he has been answering it ever since and despite the pain and suffering his journey has led him through, his encounters have confirmed the goodness and presence of God here on the earth.  

Similarly, I have experienced loss and suffering as I have answered the Lord’s call to follow Him and even though I sometimes wonder about this path of Christian Discipleship and how positively insane some of it has been, I too am convinced of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and God’s ever present goodness, presence, and love.   

So, let me encourage you to ignore those who would call you “crazy” and to instead seek the Lord and His purpose for your life.  As those who have received the new life in Christ will agree, God’s love and life make ANYTHING we have to go through worth it all.  

If you feel anything like I do after this Christmas of  over indulging and over spending, you feel ripe and ready for repentance. We might not have gone far from Him but it is so easy to take a few steps in the wrong direction when we seek to “treat ourselves” but that’s okay because the Lord is still calling us to come on home with open arms and to start walking in His wisdom and ways again.     

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I’m taking a vacation from sharing the “Bible Verse of the Day from the “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”, again, well frankly because I think I left that book back at Riverhouse! But I did grab the “Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Krus and will share the first Bible verse listed, right in the introduction, to impress upon you the importance of reading God’s word: 

 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT2)
16  All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
17  God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

Today’s verse tells us that ALL Scripture is useful to teach us what is true and what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us and teaches us to do what is right. God uses the Bible to prepare and equip us to do every good work.  

So read the Bible, every day. Start with the New Testament to learn about Jesus and to learn how we as members of the body of Christ, the church – the saints, are supposed to live.  

It might seem “crazy” to live according to the Bible in this post Christian age, but the author of  The Insanity of God, countless numbers of Christians who have experienced the new life and Christ, and myself would tell you to “be crazy” and to answer God’s call and obey His word because His life and His love make it worth it all!  

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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 Thirteen

The Image of Christ

Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family” (Rom. 8:29). To those who have heard the call to be disciples of Jesus Christ is given the incomprehensibly great promise that they are to become like Christ. They are to bear his image as the brothers and sisters of the firstborn Son of God. To become “like Christ”—that is what disciples are ultimately destined to become. The image of Jesus Christ, which is always before the disciples’ eyes, and before which all other images fade away, enters, permeates, and transforms them,[2] so that the disciples resemble, indeed become like, their master. The image of Jesus Christ shapes the image of the disciples in daily community. For disciples, it is not possible to look at the image of the Son of God in aloof, detached contemplation; this image exerts a transforming power. All those who submit themselves completely to Jesus Christ will, indeed must, bear his image. They become sons and daughters of God; they stand next to Christ, their invisible brother, who bears the same form as they do, the image of God.

God once created Adam in God’s own image. In Adam, God sought to observe this image with joy, as the culmination of God’s creation, “and indeed, it was very good.”[4] In Adam, God recognized the divine self. Thus, from the beginning, it is our unfathomable mystery as human beings that we are creatures and yet are called to be like the Creator. As created human beings, we are called to bear the image of the uncreated God. Adam is “like God.” In gratitude and obedience, Adam now ought to bear his secret of being creature and yet God-like. The lie of the serpent was to suggest to Adam that he would still have to become like God, and to do so by his own deed and decision. That was when Adam rejected grace and instead chose his own deed. The mystery of his nature, of being creature and yet God-like, was what Adam wanted to solve by himself. He wanted to become what, from God’s perspective, he already was. That was the fall. Adam became “like God”—sicut deus[6]—in his own way. Having made himself into a god, he now no longer had a God. He now ruled alone as creator-god in a world bereft of God and subdued.

But the puzzle of human existence remains unresolved. Human beings have lost their own, God-like essence, which they had from God. They live now without their essential purpose, that of being the image of God. Human beings live without being truly human. They must live without being able to live. That is the paradox of our existence and the source of all our woes. Since then, the proud children of Adam have sought to restore this lost image of God in themselves by means of their own efforts. But the more seriously and devotedly they strive to regain what was lost, and however convinced and proud they are of their apparent victory in achieving this, the deeper the contradiction to God grows. Their distorted form, which they modeled after the image of the god of their own imaginative projections, resembles more and more the image of Satan, even though they may be unaware of this. The image of God, as the Creator’s gracious gift, has been lost on this earth.

But God keeps on looking at God’s lost creature. For the second time, God seeks to create the divine image in us. God wants to be pleased with the creature once again. God seeks the divine image in us, in order to love it. But God cannot find it except by assuming, out of sheer mercy, the image and form of the lost human being. God must conform to the human image, since we are no longer able to conform to the image of God.

The image of God should be restored in us once again. This task encompasses our whole existence. The aim and objective is not to renew human thoughts about God so that they are correct, or that we would subject our individual deeds to the word of God again, but that we, with our whole existence and as living creatures, are the image of God. Body, soul, and spirit, that is, the form of being human in its totality, is to bear the image of God on earth. God is well pleased with nothing less than God’s own perfect image.

The image springs from real life, the living primordial form. Form is thus being shaped by form. The prototype from which the human form takes its shape is either the imaginative form of God based on human projection, or it is the true and living form of God which molds the human form into the image of God. A reshaping, a ‘metamorphosis’ (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), a transformation has to take place if, as fallen human beings, we are to become again the image of God. The question is how it can become possible that human beings could be transformed into the image of God.[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)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

 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), 281–283.

 

Saturday, May 14, 2022

The Love and the Path of Freedom – Purity 731


 The Love and the Path of Freedom – Purity 731

Purity 731 05/14/2022  Purity 731 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a memorial tree on the shores of the Hudson River at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park comes to us from a friend who honors the memory of her father, who’s favorite saying was “One Day at a Time”, by planting flowers around its base.  It’s been nine years since my friend started doing this labor of love in remembrance of her departed father. The memorial was established at Riverfront Park because my friend’s father loved the river and the lighthouse there. She includes American flags in the display because her father loved this country and the freedom we all enjoy.   

This year my friend used the occasion of remembering and honoring her father to think of others and their desire for freedom by asking her friends on social media if anyone had miniature Ukrainian flags that she could add to her father’s display to show her family’s support for their struggle. It’s amazing. On the occasion where my friend could have just been thinking of her loss, or the love of her father, she thought about others and how they should be free. 

The true love of freedom goes beyond us. When you are set free, the joy you receive makes you want to share it, by telling others about it and by hoping others experience it too. Like love, when you experience freedom, you want everyone to know it and to keep it.

Well, its Saturday and Jesus said

John 8:36 (NKJV)
36  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Jesus Christ was true to His words because He has set me free and just like my friend desires that the people of the Ukraine be able to enjoy their freedom, it is my sincerest wish that all my friends not only enjoy their personal freedom to enjoy this weekend in whatever ways that would give them the most peace, but it is my wish that they would experience the “freedom indeed” that comes from not only making Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior but that is enjoyed all the more when we make the daily decision to live as one of His disciples by “walking in the Spirit”.  

My “Spirit Walk” with Christ has led me through the darkness of addictions, bad relationships, and negative mind states to a place where I not only enjoy the light of freedom in Christ for myself but feel utterly compelled to share the “good news: and continually bear witness of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to save, but to also transform the lives of, all who come to Him.   

Today my love of life and freedom in Christ is leading me to try the new experience of white water rafting today as my wife, TammyLyn, and I  will be traveling to Warrensburg to navigate the “17 mile Hudson River Gorge” with friends and a Wild Waters Outdoor Center certified guide. 

I signed us up when a friend offered me the opportunity months ago without fully realizing what I was signing up for.  I imagined a somewhat leisurely trip down the Hudson, but I got a wake up call the other night when the rafting company required my wife and I to sign liability wavers, as in, so we don’t sue them if we should be injured or should die on today’s trip!  In looking at what we signed ourselves up for, my wife informed me that life vests, wetsuits with booties, and helmets are provided.  

Helmets? Life vests? Wet suits?  Okay, so apparently, we are doing the “real deal” today!  

So to be honest, I am excited by the prospect of today’s adventure, but I am also hoping our experienced certified white water rafting guide will bring us safely through without injury, or death! 

But as much as I may trust our guide today, I won’t just trust in them to keep me safe.  I pray everyday for the Lord to lead me through whatever I face and today will be no different.  I know the Lord loves me and that He has protected me in the past and I trust Him to do so in the future but even if some unforeseen mishap should befall me, I know that the Lord will be there to give me strength and peace, come what may.  

So keep walking and talking with God. It’s the weekend so let’s enjoy our freedom to try something new, or to do the familiar activities that enjoy, or to just rest and relax. The Lord wants us to enjoy our lives but He also calls us to be “free indeed” through His Son. And brother and sister, I can tell you as a “Holy Spirit certified guide in walking the path of Christian Discipleship”, the going may not always be easy, and no two trips are the same but the path is true and the destinations along the way may not always be what you expect but the journey is worth taking and somehow always leads to good.

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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:

2 Timothy 2:21 (NLT2)
21  If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.

Today’s Bible verse encourages a life of purity, and it indicates that if our lives are clean we will be prepared for the good works that the Lord would have us walk into.   

A life of purity is about as counter cultural as you can get in the strange new world of our society.  With fornication and living together as a “normal” option for heterosexuals, the legalization of homosexual marriage, and the popularization of every conceivable sexual bent and perversion out there for the offering, the idea of purity is a foreign concept for not only the world at large but also within the professed body of Christ. 

I was “born again” when I was 38 so with outgoing into detail I have to admit that I sowed my “wild sexual oats” outside of the approved area of a committed marriage relationship at times.  It was only well after I was saved, and repented of my addictions to alcohol and drugs, that I was given a revelation of the importance of a pure life.  

After I got “clean and sober”, I realized just how dirty I still was and how what I had always thought of as “sexual liberation” was actually bondage to the flesh and honestly a sex addiction.  What I thought of as my exercising my rights to meet my sexual needs (in whatever way I could think of, or negotiate), was not only a fleshly habit that turned into addiction, it was also a sin!

As I became increasingly free in Christ, my heart was convicted by the truth of God’s word that repeatedly commands us to forsake fornication, adultery, and sexual immorality.  Those three terms basically cover all the outlets for sexual expression other than the sex between a husband and wife in marriage. To be clear, that is one man and one woman in marriage with one another, only, that is the only form of sexual expression or practice that is acceptable, and blessed, by the Lord.  

That’s the principle that is drawn from the Bible and it’s the principle that Christians should live by.  

I know. I used to think that because we are forgiven we can do whatever we like. “

“The blood of Jesus covers our sins, so He will just have to accept my sexual sin and welcome me into His kingdom like it our not!”

That’s not what scripture says. 

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NLT2) says
9  Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality,
10  or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.

I know what you might be thinking. “Wait a minute! I thought I was forgiven of those sins! Past, present, and future, right? 

While we are forgiven for all of our sins, the call on us, as Christians, is to repent and to turn from our sin.  Christ told the woman caught adultery:

John 8:11 (NLT2)
11  “…. Go and sin no more.”

In response to the question of whether, as Christians, we should just go on sinning so grace could abound all the more, The Apostle Paul emphatically says:

Romans 6:2 (NKJV)
2  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

So, we are supposed to change.  Although we once sinned, we are not supposed to keep on living in our sin.  In regard to that list of sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 , the Apostle Paul demonstrates that Christians forsake those sins by saying in:

1 Corinthians 6:11 (NLT2)
11  Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

So right there, we are told that we can overcome these signs by calling on the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. With their help we can be free, we can be pure.

Ask me how I know.  

So today’s verse that encourages us to live a pure and clean life, so that we can be ready for the good works God has for us, is not an isolated instance of the call on our lives to be pure.   

Who the Son sets free is free indeed, and that freedom includes the freedom to forsake sexual sin and lead a life of purity.   It may seem impossible, but all things the God commands us to do are possible with His help.   

So think about your sex life? Is there any activity that falls outside of the boundaries of heterosexual sex between one man and one woman in marriage going on?  If so, that activity is not only sin, it is bondage to the flesh, and the Lord would have you to be free of it by turning from it to a pure life.  

It’s not a popular message I know, but a pure life that is clean is God’s will for every man and woman.  Sex is a beautiful gift that God wants us to enjoy in a committed marriage relationship where the emphasis is on love more and not satisfying needs or feeding selfish desires.  

So seek a pure life in Christ, and not just in the area of sex but in all the areas of our lives.  God wants us to be holy as He is holy and our efforts to live a pure life will be rewarded by Him and prepare us to be used for His purposes. 

 

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 John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life”.  

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase John Pipers’ books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

Why I Use the Phrase “Wartime Lifestyle”

Sometimes I use the phrase “wartime lifestyle” or “wartime mind-set.” The phrase is helpful—but also lopsided. For me it is mainly helpful. It tells me that there is a war going on in the world between Christ and Satan, truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief. It tells me that there are weapons to be funded and used, but that these weapons are not swords or guns or bombs but the Gospel and prayer and self-sacrificing love (2 Corinthians 10:3–5). And it tells me that the stakes of this conflict are higher than any other war in history; they are eternal and infinite: heaven or hell, eternal joy or eternal torment (Matthew 25:46).

I need to hear this message again and again, because I drift into a peacetime mind-set as certainly as rain falls down and flames go up. I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth “home.” Before you know it, I am calling luxuries “needs” and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don’t think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached peoples drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mind-set that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness. And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set.

What It Looks Like in Wartime

I thank God for Ralph Winter, for example, who not only wrote powerfully about a wartime lifestyle, but has lived it as a missionary, professor, founder of the U. S. Center for World Mission, and tireless advocate for the unreached peoples of the world. He gave the following vivid illustration of the difference between a wartime and a peacetime mentality about the use of our possessions.

The Queen Mary, lying in repose in the harbor at Long Beach, California, is a fascinating museum of the past. Used both as a luxury liner in peacetime and a troop transport during the Second World War, its present status as a museum the length of three football fields affords a stunning contrast between the lifestyles appropriate in peace and war. On one side of a partition you see the dining room reconstructed to depict the peacetime table setting that was appropriate to the wealthy patrons of high culture for whom a dazzling array of knives and forks and spoons held no mysteries. On the other side of the partition the evidences of wartime austerities are in sharp contrast. One metal tray with indentations replaces fifteen plates and saucers. Bunks, not just double but eight tiers high, explain why the peace-time complement of 3000 gave way to 15,000 people on board in wartime. How repugnant to the peacetime masters this transformation must have been! To do it took a national emergency, of course. The survival of a nation depended on it. The essence of the Great Commission today is that the survival of many millions of people depends on its fulfillment.

Given the vulnerability of my heart to the seduction of the peacetime mind-set, which is pushed into my mind every day by media and entertainment, I need these images and these reminders. We are at war, whether the stocks are falling or climbing, whether the terrorists are hitting or hiding, whether we are healthy or sick. Both pleasure and pain are laced with poison, ready to kill us with the diseases of pride or despair. The repeated biblical warning to “be alert” fits the wartime image. And I need this warning every day.

Why Not Speak of a “Simple Lifestyle”?

It is more helpful to think of a wartime lifestyle than a merely simple lifestyle. Simplicity may have a romantic ring and a certain aesthetic appeal that is foreign to the dirty business of mercy in the dangerous places of the world. Simplicity may also overlook the fact that, in wartime, major expenses for complex weapons and troop training are needed. These may not look simple, and may be very expensive, but the whole country sacrifices to make them happen. Simplicity may be inwardly directed and may benefit no one else. A wartime lifestyle implies that there is a great and worthy cause for which to spend and be spent (2 Corinthians 12:15).[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] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), 111–114.



Saturday, March 19, 2022

Forgiven for the Things We Did Not Know – Purity 683


Forgiven for the Things We Did Not Know – Purity 683

Purity 683 03/19/2022  

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the sun breaking through the clouds over Waite Rd in Easton NY comes to us from yours truly as I stopped to capture this moment just before reaching my countryside home last evening.  

The sun shining through those thick clouds last evening provided an even more glorious view from Route 40 when I first noticed the setting sun and decided to stop and take a photo. To be honest I was somewhat disappointed that my vantage point on Waite Rd didn’t provide the horizontal aspect of this sight that the angle on Route 40 provided but I grabbed the photo anyway thinking something like “Oh well, I guess that’s what the Lord has for me now. I guess I missed my chance, but this is still good.”

After getting to my countryside home, although I was ready to relax, my canine friend, Harley enthusiastically greeted me causing me to surrender to his unspoken request for a walk. On our return trek back to the house, I realized that I didn’t miss a thing with the afternoon sunset because as we turned to go back to the house, the sun pushed through these clouds in a dramatic fashion, completely revealing it’s glowing magnificence.

So why don’t I have a picture of that? In my haste to be a good steward to the pet that the Lord provide us with, I left the house without my phone.  As much as I regretted not having my phone to capture this “second coming” of the sun, I had peace about it and commented to Harley: “ Oh well, Harley, I guess this sunset was just for us. God had this one for just us two. Thank You Lord.”   

Yeah, I don’t say keep “walking and talking with God” as just a clever phrase to encourage others to follow the path of Christian Discipleship. I practice what I profess by continually returning to enjoy the presence of the Lord, to contemplate my relationship with Him and this world that He has created, and to speak to Him about it.   

After a short reminiscence about my spiritual walk though the years with my wife last night, I found myself “called” to revisit the OT book of Hosea this morning in lieu of my current study in the scriptures. 

For those who don’t know Hosea’s book is mostly a warning to the northern kingdom of Israel that foretells of their eventual doom at the hands of the nation of Assyria and how it will be a judgement against them for their worshipping other gods and for living in rebellion to the Lord’s precepts.  The overall message is clear: repent, return to the Lord, or you will suffer greatly.  

Unfortunately, they didn’t listen and the Assyrian army captured the Israelite capital at Samaria and carried away the citizens of the northern Kingdom of Israel into captivity in 721 BC to fulfill Hosea’s dire prophecies of God’s judgement.  

What’s that got to do with me?  Well it shows us there are consequences for not following the Lord and those consequences can affect us here on earth.  While we may not have to suffer the loss of our nation to an outside power as a judgement from God, although historically every empire that has risen to power has a tendency to get knocked off eventually, we could learn something from the general principles in the book of Hosea and it’s last verse that says: 

Hosea 14:9 (NKJV)
9  Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.

As we walk through life we aren’t always wise. We don’t always understand that the ways of the Lord are right and that we should walk in them.  But when we follow the general advice that is presented in Hosea, to turn to the Lord in repentance, the Lord will forgive us. 

God wanted us to know that message. Hosea’s prophetic predecessor, Amos put it clearly too. God’s message through him was to “Seek Me and live” (Amos 5:4).

The prophets weren’t enough for the nation of Israel so the both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah were judged for their idolatry and sin and fell.  

But God so loved the nation of Israel, and the world that He sent Jesus Christ to deliver the same message again, but this time He made it even more specific. For John 3:16-18 tells us that Christ said:

John 3:16-18 (NLT2)
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.
17  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18  “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.

So to have the assurance of eternal life, we are to put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  If we seek Him, we will live, forevermore.  

But as Hosea warned us about the possibility of stumbling when we transgress the ways on the Lord, we should also seek to turn to the Lord’s ways and walk in them to avoid the negative consequences that come with sin and to prevent any need for the Lord to chastise us.

Since coming to Christ, I have made many mistakes because of my willful disobedience, not doing what I should, and because of my ignorance, not knowing the way I should go.  

As we walk on the path that leads us closer to the Lord, we learn as we go.  What we first thought  or understood about how we are to live as Christians isn’t always correct or we struggle to obey the wisdom of His ways.

So even after we follow the Lord we can still struggle, make mistakes, or fall down, 

But the good news is that God has forgiven us because of our faith in Christ and He will keep on forgiving us until we see Him face to face.  

So we keep going, and even if we stumble, or even if we discover we had huge blind spots in our understanding or what we believed about different aspects of our faith walk were just incorrect, the Lord will continue to forgive us and encourage us to keep walking in His ways.   

The further we go the more we will know of the Lord’s wisdom and be able to apply it to our lives.   God forgives us when we are willfully disobedient, and He even forgives us for the things we don’t know.  

So keep walking and talking with God. Enjoy some rest and relaxation this weekend and try to have some fun as the Lord wants you to experience some joy in your life. He has given us the whole world to explore and there are lots of things to experience. There are lots of things to know. He wants us to grow and know His peace.

He loves us and encourages to follow Him and we never have to worry about doing everything perfectly because He has already forgiven us for all the mistakes we will ever make and even for those things we don’t know.      

______________________________________________________________________

If you are interested in taking an online course with Freedom in Christ Ministries below you will find the course options for our Spring Session. The classes will meet for 1.5-2 hours once a week for 12 weeks starting the first full week of April. Our prayer is that you will be able to set aside time for one of these wonderful courses. They truly are life changing!

 

Spring registration is now open! We are offering these times.

1.     Women’s Group, Starting Wednesday, April 6 at 10:00 AM EDT.

2.     Women’s Group, Starting Friday, April 8 at 10:30 AM EDT.

3.     Men’s Group, Starting Tuesday, April 5 at 7:00 PM EDT.

4.     Men's Group, Starting Thursday, April 7 at 6:30 PM EDT.

5.     CO-ED SPANISH SPEAKING Group, Starting Tuesday, April 5 at 7:00 PM EDT.

6.     CO-ED Group, Starting Thursday, April 7 at 7:00 PM EDT.

 

If you are interested in taking the Freedom in Christ Course, please click the Sign-up Form link below to register for your desired course time.

Sign-up Form

 

We encourage you to order your books now through the FICM online Bookstore at Freedominchrist.com. You will need the Freedom in Christ Course Participant’s Guide and The Steps to Freedom in Christ booklet. 

 

For the SPANISH participant's book click here. For the SPANISH Steps to Freedom click here or search SPG004-1 in the bookstore search bar.

                       

All materials and shipping should cost you no more than $25.

 

Once registration has closed, you will receive an introduction email confirming your course time and giving you additional information about your instructor and how the course works.

  

Sign up and order your books today! Class registration will close on Sunday, March 27

______________________________________________________________________


Today’s Bible verse come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is :

2 Timothy 2:11-12 (NKJV)
11  This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him.
12  If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.

Today’s Bible verse points to our new lives in Christ and the need for endurance in our relationship with Him .   

Paul’s letter to Timothy speaks of the spiritual reality of how we die with Christ when we put our faith in Him.

The way Christ pays for our sins and brings us into the kingdom of God is explained as a spiritual bond that never breaks, for nothing can separate us from of the love of God, right? 

So in effect, when we place our faith in Christ, we spiritually die with Him as if we were crucified with Him on the cross. But don’t worry, we are also raised to new life through His resurrection. 

When we put our faith in Christ we are given a new spiritual life as the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us, “quickening our spirit”.  Before our faith in Christ we were spiritually dead,  after we put our faith in Christ we are spiritually alive. Thus if “we die with Him, We shall also live with Him.” 

Now that is a spiritual reality, we are new creations, we are born again, we are forgiven, we are set free from sin and death when we are in Christ.  When we put our faith in Christ, it is a “done deal”.  Once saved, always saved. Nothing can separate us from His love.   

But are you in Christ?  

How do we know that we are delivered into God’s kingdom?  

There are many proof texts for Christians in the Bible, like today’s second verse which says:

“If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.”  

So if we are in Christ, we will endure in our faith. We will not walk away from it and one day we will reign with Him.

If someone does walk away, it either indicates a major bump in their Christian life that will eventually result in their turning back to God again (they will endure),  or it indicates that they never were a Christian in the first place!   Which is it? God knows. 

But I wouldn’t recommend that anyone walk away from the Lord to find out if we are truly His because if we have a desire to leave the Lord we may discover that we are one of the ones that Christ never knew. 

If that is a fear of yours, make your faith in Christ sure by proclaiming with your mouth  Jesus as your Lord and Savior in spirit and in truth, and by making the decision to continually follow Him and to live for Him.

Because, as today’s verse tells us, if we are not in Christ, we will eventually deny Jesus as our Lord and:

“If we deny Him, He also will deny us”

So this is why  it important to have an authentic living relationship with Jesus.  

The world offers a plethora of different beliefs that deny Christ.  If we are in a different faith stream or worldly philosophy that doesn’t have Jesus has the only option, as Lord and Savior, we deny Christ and He will deny us.   

 Only true faith in Jesus will give us the strength to endure in this world. When we know the Truth, the Way, and the Life, we will boldly proclaim Jesus to be the Lord of our lives and we will endeavor to represent Him in the earth and to make Him known.

And we will look forward to His second coming where we shall one day reign with Him forever and ever, Amen.   

 

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 June Hunt’s Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation.  

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s  books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

E. What Is the Body Mass Index?

Body weight is an important indicator of overall body health. Our bodies were designed to consume, store, and use the fuel provided by food on a daily basis. They were not meant to hoard unneeded and unused fuel. Overeating overfills the body and stresses and strains it just as the weight of too much ice or snow can burden and even break the strong limbs of a mighty oak tree.

In making our bodies to require nourishment on a daily basis, God made us dependent on His daily provision. The writer of Proverbs shares this wisdom …

“Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.”

(Proverbs 30:8)

The Body Mass Index (BMI) number is calculated based on a person’s height and weight and is a useful tool to measure body fat. Although BMI doesn’t specifically measure body fat, the BMI is regarded as an acceptable, inexpensive alternative for weight category screening.

The calculation of BMI is based on the following formula: Weight (pounds)/[height (inches)] × 703.

BMI

 

Normal

 

Overweight

 

Obese

 

19

 

20

 

21

 

22

 

23

 

24

 

25

 

26

 

27

 

28

 

29

 

30

 

31

 

Height

 

Weight (pounds)

 

4′10″

 

91

 

96

 

100

 

105

 

110

 

115

 

119

 

124

 

129

 

134

 

138

 

143

 

148

 

4′11″

 

94

 

99

 

104

 

109

 

114

 

119

 

124

 

128

 

133

 

138

 

143

 

148

 

153

 

5′0″

 

97

 

102

 

107

 

112

 

118

 

123

 

128

 

133

 

138

 

143

 

148

 

153

 

158

 

5′1″

 

100

 

106

 

111

 

116

 

122

 

127

 

132

 

137

 

143

 

148

 

153

 

158

 

164

 

5′2″

 

104

 

109

 

115

 

120

 

126

 

131

 

136

 

142

 

147

 

153

 

158

 

164

 

169

 

5′3″

 

107

 

113

 

118

 

124

 

130

 

135

 

141

 

146

 

152

 

158

 

163

 

169

 

175

 

5′4″

 

110

 

116

 

122

 

128

 

134

 

140

 

145

 

151

 

157

 

163

 

169

 

174

 

180

 

5′5″

 

114

 

120

 

126

 

132

 

138

 

144

 

150

 

156

 

162

 

168

 

174

 

180

 

186

 

5′6″

 

118

 

124

 

130

 

136

 

142

 

148

 

155

 

161

 

167

 

173

 

179

 

186

 

192

 

5′7″

 

121

 

127

 

134

 

140

 

146

 

153

 

159

 

166

 

172

 

178

 

185

 

191

 

198

 

5′8″

 

125

 

131

 

138

 

144

 

151

 

158

 

164

 

171

 

177

 

184

 

190

 

197

 

203

 

5′9″

 

128

 

135

 

142

 

149

 

155

 

162

 

169

 

176

 

182

 

189

 

196

 

203

 

209

 

5′10″

 

132

 

139

 

146

 

153

 

160

 

167

 

174

 

181

 

188

 

195

 

202

 

209

 

216

 

5′11″

 

136

 

143

 

150

 

157

 

165

 

172

 

179

 

186

 

193

 

200

 

208

 

215

 

222

 

6′0″

 

140

 

147

 

154

 

162

 

169

 

177

 

184

 

191

 

199

 

206

 

213

 

221

 

228

 

6′1″

 

144

 

151

 

159

 

166

 

174

 

182

 

189

 

197

 

204

 

212

 

219

 

227

 

235

 

6′2″

 

148

 

155

 

163

 

171

 

179

 

186

 

194

 

202

 

210

 

218

 

225

 

233

 

241

 

6′3″

 

152

 

160

 

168

 

176

 

184

 

192

 

200

 

208

 

216

 

224

 

232

 

240

 

248

 

6′4″

 

156

 

164

 

172

 

180

 

189

 

197

 

205

 

213

 

221

 

230

 

238

 

246

 

254

 

It is always wise to use the means available to us to identify unneeded fat and to assist us in getting rid of it in a healthy way. Scripture offers this wise counsel …

“Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.”

(Proverbs 1:5)

While the Body Mass Index is accurate and useful for the majority of men and women, it may …

     Overestimate body fat in trained athletes and others with muscular bodies

     Underestimate body fat in elderly individuals and others with diminished muscles

Waist Circumference

Along with BMI, knowing a person’s waist circumference can prove helpful in determining possible health risks that accompany being overweight and obese.

To obtain an accurate waist measurement …

     Encircle the body with a tape measure placed just above the hip bones.

     Take the measurement while standing up and after breathing out.

Once the waist circumference is obtained, consider the following information …

     If most of the person’s fat is around the waist rather than at the hips, the person is at a higher risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

     If the person’s waist size is greater than 35 inches (for women) or greater than 40 inches (for men) the risk goes up.

Applying a person’s BMI and waist circumference to the chart below can determine the implications of the BMI score with regard to the person’s weight category. It is also helpful in assessing the overall risk for developing obesity-associated diseases or conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Classification of Overweight and Obesity by BMI, Waist Circumference, and Associated Disease Risks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disease Risk* Relative to Normal Weight and Waist Circumference

 

 

 

BMI

(kg/m2)

 

Obesity

Class

 

Men 102 cm (40 in) or less

Women 88 cm (35 in) or less

 

Men > 102 cm (40 in)

Women > 88 cm (35 in)

 

Underweight

 

< 18.5

 

 

 

 

 

Normal

 

18.5–24.9

 

 

 

 

 

Overweight

 

25.0–29.9

 

 

 

Increased

 

High

 

Obesity

 

30.0–34.9

 

I

 

High

 

Very High

 

 

 

35.0–39.9

 

II

 

Very High

 

Very High

 

Extreme Obesity

 

40.0 +

 

III

 

Extremely High

 

Extremely High

 

Persons who are overweight or obese and who have any of the following conditions are at even greater risk for developing heart disease and other health problems:

Risk Factors

     High blood pressure (hypertension)

     High LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol)

     Low HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol)

     High triglycerides

     High blood glucose (sugar)

     Family history of premature heart disease

     Physical inactivity

     Cigarette smoking

Losing between 5% and 10% of a person’s current weight helps lower the risk of developing diseases associated with obesity. This is true even of those who are overweight or obese and have two or more of the above risk factors.

If you believe you may have a health risk, talk to your doctor to see whether you are at an increased risk and whether you need to lose weight.…

     Ask your doctor to evaluate your BMI, waist measurement, and other risk factors for heart disease.

     Ask someone to go with you and support you in your efforts to follow any medical instructions you are given.

Remember God’s admonition to …

“Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.”

(Proverbs 23:12)[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

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Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 11–14.