Friends – A Blessing That Reflects and Can Lead to
God
Purity 494 08/11 /2021 Purity 494 Podcast
Good morning
Today’s photo of a red bard symmetrically located in this autumnal
valley under a positively heavenly blue sky comes to us from our dear friend,
Arthur Cincotti, who frankly covets having his photos featured on the mt4christ
blog. So when I got this submission I
wasn’t really sure when I would use it, but as it is Wednesday and this photo
features mountainous “humps” of Autumn on both sides and an inverted celestial “hump”
in the middle, and the fact that it is a great photo, made its selection easy.
Considering the current weather, with a high of 90 degrees in the forecast
for today, many of us may be longing for the cooler temperatures of Fall,
although I have seen memes on display already jokingly telling people to keep
their “pumpkin spice” longings to themselves as the local Walmart has already
gone beyond the “back to school” season and is currently displaying candy corn
and our Autumn products.
Regarding the fall, we often rediscover friends in the Autumn as the school
season can bring people back into our lives that were absent in the summer
months. Regarding friendship, I recently I attended a small group gathering of
Christians where we shared a meal and our testimony’s regarding the effect our “best
friends” from when we were growing up had in our lives.
Unfortunately like myself, about half the people there told stories of
how their childhood friendships either diminished or evaporated over the years
and of these situations, many attributed their estrangements or lack of depth
of friendship to more than just the passage of time or physical separation. Of
the childhood friendships that didn’t endure or were less close, differences in
faith were a common factor.
The other testimonies in group spoke about a deep love between friends
that have endured through years regardless of physical distances or even
differences in faith. In some cases, the
reason why the friendships endured was because of the intentional choice that
these Christians made to stay friends even though their friends didn’t share
their faith.
One example was of “John” who’s “best friend”, “Bill” openly denied any
faith in God, but this unbeliever was impacted by John’s faithful friendship. John
had grown up a loner so when He became friends with “Bill”, he was extremely
loyal. After John came to Christ, Bill
was confused and troubled by his friend’s newfound faith. The two often debated
and argued about Christianity until they eventually agreed to disagree and not
talk about it, but their friendship endured.
Bill was somewhat of a wild guy and suffered some negative consequences
from his poor choices over the years, but John was always there to help him and
even provided financial support at times, specifically paying for Bill’s car
insurance for a year at one point, never accepting reimbursement. John’s generosity was periodically recalled and
appreciated by Bill who was simply amazed by it. As time progressed, John moved away from Bill,
but they stayed in regular contact via the telephone once or twice a week.
Recently, Bill’s wife fell ill and was hospitalized. There were grave concerns that Bill’s wife
was not going to live, and Bill was told to prepare himself for that possibility.
In contemplating the potential loss of his wife, Bill called John and asked him
to pray for his wife to be healed, saying that he didn’t have any sway with God,
but he knew that if anyone did, John did.
So John and his wife prayed for Bill’s wife, and shortly afterwards her
situation improved, she was healed, and went home from the hospital.
Bill hasn’t placed his faith in Christ according to John, but John says
that the fact that Bill would ever ask anyone to “pray” for anything tells him
that his friend is closer to faith than he has ever been and that he will
continue to be Bill’s friend and pray for the Lord to finish the work that He
has begun in Bill’s heart.
Like John, I had few close friendship growing up but one of my first friends in the
faith was Arthur Cincotti”. He was one
of the first men to greet me at Rock Solid Church when I went there for the first
time. I was impressed that Arthur, although far from perfect, was authenticate
in his faith, was a regular attender of church service, and a faithful servant
in the church. We got to know each other
through the early morning Men’s Bible Study through the years and I consider
him one of my dearest friends.
Arthur now leads the Study and even though it eventually dwindled to the
two of us, we decided to be faithful to it and to one another. When it dwindled to the two of us, his wife
Suzanna eventually joined us, and she was impressed by our discussions and
suggested we podcast it because it could encourage others to really ponder the
word of God and how it applies to their lives.
So, earlier this year we did that. Amazingly some people are actually
listening to it, and we are greatly humbled and encouraged by that fact.
Our friends can make a big impact in our lives. But the reality that God
is over and above all creation means that, whether we realize it or not, He is the
third party in every relationship.
How we relate to God can have a lot to do with how we relate to
others. When we seek to please the Lord,
we will be kind, loving, and generous to the people in or lives.
Our relationship to God through faith in Jesus Christ gives us an infinite
capacity to love because God is love and He pours His love into us when we come
to Him. When we live by faith, loving
our friends, family, and neighbors becomes a natural expression of who we are
in Christ. Because of our faith, our friendships
can really bless people as we share the love we have been given and God can use
us to bring others into His kingdom.
So keep walking and talking with God. Be a faithful friend to those in your life and
tell them the truth in love. As Christians, we have been given the gift of life
and love everlasting. It is our purpose to bring that love and life to as many
as we can.
This morning’s meditation
verse is:
1 Thessalonians 4:1 (NLT2)
1 Finally, dear brothers and
sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that
pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage
you to do so even more.
Today’s verse gives us the simple encouragement to live in a
way that pleases God and to stay faithful to continue.
Yesterday, I heard a message that included 2 Corinthians 5:9
that states:
2 Corinthians 5:9 (NKJV)
9 Therefore we make it our
aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
That verse follows the one that tells us that to be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, telling us that when we leave
our bodies, when we die, we will be with the Lord. And either way, if we live or die, we should
be well pleasing to God. Wow.
I didn’t really catch that implication yesterday, I
just heard that our goal, or our purpose as Christians, is to follow the simple
but profound advice to live in a manner to please God. That means turning from our ways and actively
and continuously seeking to live our lives according to our desire to please
God by living as He would want us to live.
That’s a heart thing, not a commandment thing. That’s a love thing, not
a law thing. That’s a relationship, not
a rule to follow.
So when I saw today’s verse, I’m like: “That’s it, guys.”
The Holy Spirit wants us to know this very simple but profound thing. Don’t blow it off or just say “Yup” and move
along business as usual. God brings up
things repeatedly to get our attention.
This is when we need to stop and grasp this truth experientially, with
our hearts as well as with our minds.
Our love needs to burn for God here. Our passionate
love for God needs to become our motivation for everything we do. Our desire, beyond pleasing ourselves,
should rightly be to please God.
Some would look at this idea, as living as a slave
under a tyrannical ruler. And although
we should recognize that we have been bought by the blood of Jesus and we
really are slaves to Christ, we should recognize that we have a kind and benevolent
Master, that works all things for our good. So when we live our lives to please
God, not only are our lives infused with meaning and purpose, but it also
becomes well pleasing to us and we become the person we always wanted to be but
never thought we could be.
The two biggest lies of the enemy are that:
1.
We need
to live for ourselves.
2.
Some things
are just impossible.
But with God all things are possible, and only way
we will discover that is when we decide to live our lives with our hearts and
minds set on the intention to live for God and to be well pleasing to Him.
This goes way beyond “doing the right thing”. This
path, of Christian Discipleship, walking in the Spirit, or living by faith is
quite simply the meaning and purpose for which we were created: to be well
pleasing to God and to discover who we become when we do that.
As
always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from
prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with
their walk.
Today we continue with Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory
Over the Darkness, continuing Chapter 11.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase Dr. Anderson’s books for your own private study
and to support his work. If you need this title you can find it online at several sites
for less than $15.00:
Learning
to Resolve Primary Emotions
You have no control over a primary emotion when it is
triggered in the present, because it is rooted in the past. Therefore, it
doesn't do any good to feel guilty about something you can't control. You can,
however, stabilize the primary emotion by evaluating it in light of present
circumstances. For example, suppose you meet a man named Bill. He looks like
the Bill who used to beat you up as a child. Although he is not the same
person, your primary emotion will be triggered. So you quickly tell yourself,
"This is not the same Bill; give him the benefit of the doubt." This
mental evaluation produces a secondary emotion that is a combination
of the past and the present.
You have done this thousands of times,
and you have also helped others do the same. When people fly off the handle,
you try to help them cool down by talking to them. You are helping them gain
control of themselves by making them think, by putting the present situation in
perspective.
Notice how this works the next time
you are watching a football game and tempers explode on the field. One player
grabs an enraged teammate and says, "Listen, Meathead, you're going to
cost us a 15-yard penalty and perhaps the game if you don't simmer down."
He wants his teammate to play under control.
Some Christians assert that the past
doesn't have any effect on them because they are new creations in Christ. I
would have to disagree. Either they are extremely fortunate to have a
conflict-free past or they are living in denial. Those who have had major
traumas and have learned to resolve them in Christ know how devastating past
experiences can be.
Most people I counsel have had major
traumas in their past. Some have been abused to such an extent that they have
no conscious memory of their experiences. Others constantly avoid anything that
will stimulate those painful memories. Most don't know how to resolve those
past experiences, so they have developed myriad defense mechanisms to cope.
Some live in denial, others rationalize their problems or try to suppress the pain
by an excess of food, drugs, or sex.
A major role of psychotherapy is to
determine the root of primary emotions. Sometimes psychotherapists resort to
hypnosis or drug therapy to get at the sources of their clients' problems. I am
personally against drug-induced programs or the use of hypnosis to restore a
repressed memory. Such methods bypass the mind of the client and ignore the
presence of God. Only God can set a captive free and bind up the brokenhearted.
He is the Wonderful Counselor.
The answer for repressed memories is
found in Psalm
139:23, 24: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my
anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the
everlasting way." God knows about the hidden hurts within you that you may
not be able to see. When you ask God to search your heart, He will expose those
dark areas of your past and bring them to light at the right time. The Holy
Spirit "will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13), and
that truth will set you free (see John 8:31, 32).
Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.
---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------
God bless
you all!
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,
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Email me
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian
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