Bible Study with the Cincotti's - An Issue of Authority - 01/23/22

 Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 01/23/2022

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: The Issue of Authority Podcast

An Issue of Authority

 

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,

  And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” I Sam, 15:23

 

The three irrefutable qualities of God are:

         He is omnipresent; everywhere at the same time.

         He is omnipotent; all powerful, no force can resist.

         He is omniscient; all knowing.

Ps. 94:10, “He knows everything – doesn’t He also know what you are doing?”   NLT

I Jn. 3:20, “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things,”

Mat. 10:29, “But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground       without your Father knowing it.”  NLT

 

Let’s just agree that He knows everything.

 

It’s not enough to say that He knows all things, but under the umbrella of knowing all things, He is actually right about all things.

 

Deut. 32:4, “A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and    upright is He.”

Gen. 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

 

This is important to settle in our hearts and understanding before we are tempted to question and/or shake our fist at God.

 

When God responds to Job (I was tempted to say, “finally responds”) He lists over thirty questions that Job was speechless to  answer.

 

Some titles that help to establish God’s authority include: King, Judge, Father, Lord, Almighty (El Shaddai)

It is easy to comprehend that God is righteous, and not to be resisted, or questioned, but it can be difficult to distinguish the people that God has placed in authority over us, especially in this cultural moment.

 

Rom. 13:1 says, “there is no authority except from God”

 

The dynamics of earthly authority is often times a type, or pattern directing us how we should walk in obedience to God.

          I Co. 15:46 reminds us, “the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.”

 

At the time when Paul wrote Romans 13, Nero was emperor of Rome.

 

David understood this regarding his relationship with Saul.

In I Sam. 24:10, David says to Saul, “Some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm the king – he is the LORD’S anointed one.”’

 

As Americans, steeped in our cultural experiment of Democracy (more accurately Constitutional Republic) it is difficult for us to understand monarchies, and absolute authority.

 

          There are three types of government.

1) Theonomy; subject to God

2) Heteronomy; subject to a law or standard external to self (other)

3) Autonomy; make it up as you go along Jg. 21:25 (Auto = self)

 

The word “authority” is used 32 times in the gospels.

          It is the Greek word “exousia” and can be translated power.

Jesus was praised for His authority and challenged for His authority, but He always delegated His authority to the Father. See Jn 5:19

Jesus praised the centurian, in Mat. 8 because he understood authority.

He has given us (the church) a sphere of authority; see Tit 2:15

And there is authority within the church; see I Th. 2:6; Heb. 13:17 NASB

 

Our awkward instruction is to submit to authority, until or unless it violates    righteousness. This is difficult for us, because of the afore mentioned culture, and mostly because of our fallen nature.

We must recognize this tendency in us to resist authority, and always be          circumspect and prayerful when we feel it welling up!!

---------------------------Join  Us for another 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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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - Repentance - 01/16/2022

 Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 01/16/2022

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: Repentance Podcast

Repentance

 

Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet,     but is completely clean; and you are clean…” Jn. 13:10

 

Interestingly, the first mention of foot washing in the Bible is all the way back in Gen. 18:4 where Abraham, startled by three unexpected visitors, quickly offers to serve them by washing Their feet and preparing a meal. In our above passage, One of those visitors would wash the disciples feet hours before His passion.

 

Feet washing was a common practice among Bedouin’s who wore sandals as they traveled across a dusty landscape. It was typically done by a servant, or the lowliest member of a household, or at the very least water was provided that one may wash their own feet.

 

In Lk. 7:44 Jesus rebukes a Pharisee named Simon by pointing out, “you gave Me no water tor My feet…”

 

Note: It is important to say that, with the exception of some     Orthodox communities, feet washing in not invoked as an        ordinance of the Church.

 

So, what does this have to do with repentance?

         Much I think. Jesus never wastes a teachable moment by         simply performing nice rituals.

 

Recalling the Jn. 13 passage, Jesus engages with Peter who first who proclaims, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus responds, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

                  So we know that Jesus is not talking about hygiene

Peter continues, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

                                    Peter still doesn’t get it.

Our first act of repentance is in turning to Christ. This is an act of God. Notice how Jesus says, in Jn. 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you”. “By grace...not of yourselves” Eph. 2:8 That's the bath!

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus imperative was consistently  “repent”

         “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Mt. 4:17

         “Repent, and believe the gospel” Mk. 1:15

         “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will likewise perish.”                                                                                   Lk. 13:5

         “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” Jn. 5:14

         “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more: Jn. 8:11

         “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to                                 repentance.” Mt. 9:13

So we see that repentance is an act of faith by turning to Jesus for the remission of sins; see Acts. 2:38, 10:43; Heb. 10:18

 

But we also understand that repentance is an ongoing imperative;

                             a lifestyle so to speak!

Paul says, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on…” Phil. 3:12-15

That word is “dioko” meaning: to pursue, follow, press forward.

The Greek word for repent is: “metanoeo”.

Notice, the word change, from II Cor. 3:18 is “metamorphoo”

This change is both a process and a pursuit that we engage in.

We, as believers should always have a sense, in our understanding of self, of what we need to change, or repent of. God is always bringing us in deeper, and as we glimpse His holiness we are, and should be shocked and humbled by the comparison.

J. I Packer: “Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.”

---------------------------Join  Us for another 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

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, Audible.com, and many others.  

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

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - New Wine - 01/09/2022

 

Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 12/26/2021

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: New Wine Podcast

New Wine

 

The first glimpse of “new wine” theology, in the NT, is at the wedding, at Cana of Galilee, told in Jn. 2:1-11. How appropriate! Though the term “new wine” is not used, it doesn’t get newer than just created.

 

In the OT, “new wine” is typically mentioned as an offering, in combination with, “your grain”, and “your oil”.

 

In Hag. 1:9-11 however, the Lord withheld the “new wine” and brought “drought”, “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. (This is postexilic)

 

What is new wine?

         New wine is simply grape juice straight from the cluster.          Non-fermented, and therefor non-alcoholic juice from the       grape is called new wine in the Bible. New wine is not       intoxicating.

 

Rabbit trail: It remains controversial whether believers should drink fermented beverage. In Biblical times fermentation had a practical aspect of preserving a beverage. In the modern Jewish Seder wine is used. Why is wine permitted since it is fermented with yeast? The complicated answer is; of the hundreds of species of yeast, the Passover prohibition only applies to yeast which is a product of one of the following five grains: wheat, barley, oat, spelt, or rye. Yeast which is the product of grapes, or its sugars, is not considered chametz (leavened food). Sounds like the Pharisees to me.

Did Jesus drink wine? On one hand, Jesus says, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber... “ (Matt. 11:18,19) On the other hand, Matt. 2:23 says, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

 

Do your own math!

Back to the wedding.

         In vrs. 9&10, the “master of the feast” proclaims, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!

 

Sounds like the “latter rain” to me.

 

Hag. 2:9 says, ‘“The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace.’ says the LORD of hosts”’

It was obvious to the Jews returning from Babylonian captivity that the new temple that they had constructed was in no way more glorious than Solomon’s temple.

So this is a forward prophecy. But is it also a principle???

 

Joel 2:23&24 link these types of the “latter rain” and “new wine”.

This thought also leads to vr. 28 which brings us crashing into Pentecost of Acts 2:17-21

Is Acts the full expression of Joel 2:28. Well, obviously not since we have yet to see, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood.” Peter is casting this prophecy forward also.

 

 The term “latter rain” was first used early in the history of Pentecostalism, when David Wesley Myland wrote a book called Latter Rain Songs in 1907. The Latter Rain Movement, which emerged in the 1940’s contained obvious heresies, and was denounced by the Assemblies of God in April of 1949. But does that make is correct to throw out all its theological precepts.

Certainly not.

Latter rain doctrine includes much of what we embrace as Pentecostals today; Spiritual gifts, deliverances, offices of prophets and apostles, healings, presence in worship.

 

Without making any predictions, only observation, God may withhold “new wine” today because of sin, disobedience, and heresy. But the Bible and church history teach us that is for a season. When we move closer to the End Times, and darkness rages, He will “pour out My Spirit on all flesh” again, because it is a principle and not a one time event.

---------------------------Join  Us for another 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

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, Audible.com, and many others.  

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

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

I’ve Got to Get A Message to You – Look inside the Word to Find it! - Purity 622

 

I’ve Got to Get A Message to You – Look inside the Word to Find it!  -  Purity 622

Purity 622 01/07/2022    Purity 622 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a foamy surf under blue cloud dotted skies at Sea Colony, Palm Coast Florida comes to us from a friend who shared this pic to wish all of his friends a Happy 2022 while on a mini-vacation to visit family and to see the new year in away from home.    

Well it’s Friday and I am thanking the Lord God Almighty for the end of the work week more today than I have in the recent past because today I will be leaving work to be reunited with my loving wife immediately following my “9 to 5”.  In a world complicated by divorce and its consequences, and just the demands on some people’s lives for other situations, some couples are married are but are separated from each other physically because they are required to, or choose, to maintain two households or are taken away from each other because for work reasons. 

I knew of a couple who had a home in Columbia County where the wife kept house and took care of the kids but whose husband maintained an apartment in New York City and would be in the city that never sleeps from Monday to Friday and then head upstate to be with his family on the weekends.  Word has it they lived this way for decades and were a stable couple and pillars of their community.  

So although our families are wondering when TammyLyn and I will be living under one roof on a permanent basis, our situation is not as complicated or uncommon as many would think.  The difficulties of having a blended family and trying to put all the pieces together caused me to doubt if TammyLyn and I would ever get together and had me thinking that in about 10 to 15 years things would settle in our lives where we could talk about marrying and living together, but the love we have for one another was greater than my doubts and we both decided to marry and deal with our respective situations united as man and wife.  

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and I can tell you that for me and TammyLyn that is true.  But we are in daily communications with each other via Facebook messenger and Zoom and are there for one another each day even though we are separated by 45 miles of upstate NY real estate.  

Our situation reminds me of how some people feel about God. Deists believe that God exists but doesn’t interact with His creation. In their view God just made the universe and walked away. Deists can point to the suffering around us and say that it is obvious that God is not involved because of all pain and evil in the world.  They may believe in judgement day, the day of the Lord, the day Christ returns, but believe that until than we are separated from God.

A view like this can make us doubt if God does in fact love us. It can make us doubt that God cares. God isn’t sending us texts on FB messenger.  He is not sending us any Zoom invitations. And sometimes when we pray, Deists and non-Deists alike, we don’t always see results for our petitions and sometimes we can feel that we are just speaking into thin air.   Our prayer life can be discouraged if we don’t think that anyone is hearing us.  It makes me wonder if a Deist would even bother to pray.  

But I was reminded last night that God does provide a means to communicate with Him that gives us encouragement, hope, and direction on how we should live our lives.  The Bible is God’s message to the people He created: that’s all of us.  

The question is: Are you receiving His message, by reading the Bible?  

Bible illiteracy is a huge issue in America.  

Amy Watson shared the following about Bible reading statistics stating:

“A survey from 2021 found that 11 percent of Americans read the Bible daily. Trends in reading habits over four years showed that the majority of Americans never read the Bible, however in 2021 this number dropped to 29 percent of respondents.

Bible readership varies across each demographic, with Millennials most likely to have never read the Bible, whereas the most frequent readers were those aged over 70 years old. …

Although figures show that fewer people are reading the Bible, there is still a genuine desire to read the Bible amongst the American population, with 56 percent of those asked in 2019 expressing a wish to read it.” (https://www.statista.com/statistics/299433/bible-readership-in-the-usa/)

The statistics tell us that people aren’t receiving God’s message. They aren’t reading the Bible although 56% percent of Americans indicated that they would wish to.      

The Bible is the inerrant word of God and one of the pieces of evidence for its truth is the lives that are transformed by the people who read it.  

So I would encourage those 56% of Americans that wish to read the Bible to decide that 2022 is the year that you will do it and I would encourage you to read with an open heart and open mind, as your attempt to communicate with God.  

God wants you to know Him more and the Bible is the way we can hear His voice and know His will for our lives. By the way, the Bible will also assure you that God hears us when we pray.  

Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) says
¹²  For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The word of God is living and powerful and it discerns the thoughts and intents of the hearts of those who read it.  That tells me that when we read the Word, the Word is reading us.  That’s two way communication!  Not only is God sending His message to us through the words in the Bible, but He is also receiving what we are thinking when we read it.  

So as we go into the weekend, if you are not reading the Bible already, consider getting a Bible app, an audio Bible, or just a plain old paper version to learn what God’s word says and to get to know  the Lord.  

For new readers I recommend and easier to read versions of the Bible like the New Living Translation (NLT), New King James Version (NKJV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), the English Standard Version (ESV) , or the New International Version (NIV).  

I also recommend that you read the New Testament first, staring with John’s gospel, and then going back to read the rest of the New Testament in order.  The New Testament tells us all about Jesus and what we need to know as Christians in terms of who we are in Christ, how to live our lives, and where all this is going.  

After you are done with the New Testament, you can read the “Prequel” The Old Testament, and see how God revealed Himself to man from the beginning of our existence and how He had a plan to redeem us that worked its way throughout history and culminated in Christ.  

God wants you to know that He loves you and that He cares about you.  That’s why He sent Jesus!  And He also wants you to talk to Him and hear what He has to say to you by reading His word.  

So pick up the Bible and read it and keep walking and talking to God.

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Romans 8:1-2 (NLT2)
¹  So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
²  And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

I love these verses. Verse 1 is my life verse and Verse 2 tells us that we have indeed been set free from sin and death.  But I do prefer the NKJV that says:

Romans 8:1-2 (NKJV)
¹  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
²  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. How can the NLT leave that out?!?!?    That’s why I advise people to read the NLT and then move on to the NKJV, our use the NKJV as guide to see what the “easier to read” NLT may be rewording. 

No condemnation means that all the negative thoughts that we put on ourselves or are being whispered into our ears by Satan are no longer true about us if we are in Christ and are walking according to the Spirit, A.K.A following Jesus.  

So if you are beating yourself up as someone who disappoints God or is incapable of leaving your besetting sins behind, read Romans 8:1 & 2 believe what it says about you.

If you are in Christ, you are God’s child and not only do you have freedom over death because of the eternal life that faith in Jesus provides, you also have the power over sin and have already been forever changed. 

The battle is to believe these verses and to show our faith in God’s word by dismissing any condemnation that is brought to your doorstep as a lie of the enemy and by choosing to believe that you have your freedom and just need to lean on the Lord to walk it out day by day.  

So fight the good fight of faith by just believing in what the Lord has done for you that is described in these verses and know the joy that comes from knowing there is no condemnation for you and that you have been set free.  

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 to share from Dr. Neil Anderson’s . “Restored: Experience Life with Jesus”. Today, we continue sharing from Chapter 3.   

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Neil Anderson’s books for your own private study and to support his work.

EXPOSING LIES AND AFFIRMING TRUTH

A lady wrote, “Going through The Steps to Freedom has been the most exciting part of my Christian walk.” She had struggled with voices and screaming in her head, nightmares and apparitions in her room, and strong deception through lies and condemnation. She said, “I have been unwilling to take responsibility for my own thoughts. I have wanted some kind of help from the outside without being willing to do the necessary work myself.” In a letter she wrote to Jesus, she said, “I confess my unbelief, my selfishness, my obsessive thoughts. I renounce the lies that would destroy and incapacitate me. I ask Your forgiveness and forsake all thinking that would destroy the truth that is in me.” Attached to her letter were six typewritten pages of lies she had believed, accompanied by Scripture verses she found that exposed those lies and affirmed the truth.

The same woman wrote this letter after going through The Steps to Freedom in Christ:

As I’ve thought about and weighed what happened in God’s presence in your office, I am awestruck at the reality that not only has Christ completely severed the spiritual bond between myself and all the others I was involved with, but that He also touched the deeper issue—a place where I have held the belief that I actually became the slut, whore, adulterer, the “evil one,” the “witch” that mom and dad had always said I was.

Facing the reality of that truth—or rather the lies that I have believed about myself—has been more than I ever believed God could make clean or redeem. I could not escape the embarrassment, nor could I forgive my willing participation. The violations were easier to renounce because I was not choosing them for myself.

Is it possible that as I’ve continued to renounce both the sexual acts themselves and the beliefs that I became the embodiment of the evil I participated in, that the Lord would expunge the record...and change my life...that I am no longer identified by the names my earthly father gave me, but I am truly a new person in Christ...that I am as you said, “clean as a hound’s tooth?” I have always thought of myself as a slut and an adulteress who was just taking up space in the Church, but who could never take a position of responsibility or ministry because my past is so evil. It’s like God has taken a giant sponge to the battered and bloody portion of my life that has been a major stronghold, absorbed all the blood, all the pain, all the lies. And as He took all this away, He left me new and free and clean in Him. I don’t have to contend with the weight of that sin because it’s forgiven, nailed to the cross through the blood of Jesus.

I have known all the lies in my head and have wanted to believe that God’s Word was true; today I know it in my heart and spirit. As I renounced these things, I thought, How can these words set me free? Yet how could they not? They are the power of God.

Today, I don’t just believe God is cleansing me; I know I’m clean! I don’t just believe God will free me from my past; I know I’m free! I am no longer my father’s daughter, his sex toy. I am no longer another man’s mistress. I am no longer the embodiment of the evil I participated in. I am a child of the King, called and chosen by Him. Cleansed, forgiven, made new to live in His family forever. Free to love and give and enter into relationship with Him and the Church, to be the person He has called me to be. Praise His name!₆₃

CHAPTER THREE:

OVERCOMING DECEPTION

56. John 8:31, 32 (NKJV)

57. Ephesians 6:14

58. Psalm 51:6

59. Psalm 32:2

60. 1 John 1:6, 7

61. John 8:44

62. 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9

63. 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5

64. 1 Timothy 4:1

 ---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” 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. 

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

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Bible Reading Plans for 2022 and the Overcomer's Covenant

 

 Bible Study Reading Plans for 2022 and the Overcomer’s Covenant

Podcast

 

Today’s somewhat blurry photo of my beautiful bride and I taking our first few steps together as man and wife comes to us from Susanna Cincotti who was kind enough to attend our wedding and to pass this candid shot along to us yesterday.    

Good morning, 

Due to the fact that I am on my honeymoon, The Cincotti’s and I agreed to take a week off from our “Bible Study with the Cincotti’s” podcast  but wouldn’t you know it, it turns I still felt led in the Spirit to share something on the blog and podcast this morning. And my wife, TammyLyn, encouraged me to share whatever the Spirit was leading me to share because she understands the call on our lives to encourage others to pursue a life of seeking the Lord on the path of Christian Discipleship.  

 

So today, even though I don’t have anything prepared in terms of a Bible Study I am sharing a link to Ligonier Ministries Bible Reading Plans for 2022 on the mt4christ.org as an encouragement to make an New Year’s resolution to read the Bible. (https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans)

 

I have read through the Bible, in a few different versions, many times and I know that it was God’s word that led me to move out of the darkness of the world’s ways and into the abundant life of walking in the Spirit that I enjoy today.  

So, it is my hope that my testimony encourages others to read the word.  

I also am sharing the “Overcomer’s Covenant” and “A Daily Prayer” that come from Freedom in Christ Ministries as I use them as a part of my daily prayers each morning and have wanted to share them on several occasions in the past but haven’t gotten around to it. 

So here they are, the podcast may be different from the text as I modify it to personalize it in my prayers. 

 

The Overcomer's Covenant in Christ

1.  I place all my trust and confidence in the Lord, I put no confidence in the flesh and I declare myself to be dependent upon God.

2.  I consciously and deliberately choose to submit to God and resist the devil by denying myself, picking up my cross daily and following Jesus.

3.  I choose to humble myself before the mighty hand of God in order that He may exalt me at the proper time.

4.  I declare the truth that I am dead to sin, freed from it and alive to God in Christ Jesus, since I have died with Christ and was raised with Him.

5.  I gladly embrace the truth that I am now a child of God who is unconditionally loved and accepted. I reject the lie that I have to perform to be accepted, and I reject my fallen and natural identity which was derived from the world.

6.  I declare that sin shall no longer be master over me because I am not under the law, but under grace, and there is no more guilt or condemnation because I am spiritually alive in Christ Jesus.

7.  I renounce every unrighteous use of my body and I commit myself to no longer be conformed to this world, but rather to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I choose to believe the truth and walk in it, regardless of my feelings or circumstances.

8.  I commit myself to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and choose to think upon that which is true, honorable, right, pure and lovely.

9.  I commit myself to God's great goal for my life to conform to His image. I know that I will face many trials, but God has given me the victory and I am not a victim, but an overcomer in Christ.

10. I choose to adopt the attitude of Christ, which was to do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind. I will regard others as more important than myself; and not merely look out for my own personal interests but also the interests of others. I know that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

 

Dear heavenly Father,

 

I submit myself to You as Your child, and I declare myself to be totally dependent upon You. I yield my body to You as a living sacrifice, and I ask You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I renounce the lies of the evil one and I choose to believe the truth as You have revealed it to us in Your holy Word. Give me the grace and the wisdom to resist the devil so that he will flee from me. I now commit myself to You, including my body as an instrument of righteousness. In Jesus' precious name I pray.

Amen.

Okay, That’s it for today. I encourage all who may be listening or reading this to keep walking and talking with God and get to a local church today to worship the Lord. 

The Mrs. and I will be praising and thanking the Lord for all He has done in our lives at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park.  A honeymoon wasn’t any reason for missing church in our book and we know the blessing that the corporate gathering of believers is in our walk of faith.  

Thank you for your support and God bless you all!