Discipleship - Accountability,
Personal Responsibility, and Boundaries - Purity 1154
Purity 1154 09/23/2023 Purity 1154 Podcast
Purity 1154 on YouTube: Coming Soon!
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a fiery sunset over the shores of
an unknown beach comes to a currently unknown friend who shared this photo on
or around August 29th of this year.
Yup, my memory and efforts to discover our “mystery photographer” have
failed me this morning but I felt compelled to share it all the same because of
its beauty and hope that my “unknown friend” will forgive me and give me a
heads up so I can give credit to where credit is due and possibly find out
where this scene was captured. Wherever it is, it looks nice, and I wouldn’t mind
seeing it in person. So if this is your
photo and would like to enlighten us, let me know and I will update the blog.
Anyway, It’s Saturday and as much as I was looking
forward to getting to my countryside home last night, my joy had to be tempered
by the fact that my wife TammyLyn is very much on the mend. Although her pain
has decreased, she has to be gentle with herself because the sights of her
wounds from dental surgery are delicate and healing and if she overly exerts
herself she could inadvertently open up her wounds.
My enthusiasm for Friday night was also tempered by
the fact that I had a frustrating day at work as equipment failures,
inexperience, assumptions, and well-meaning interference caused what should
have been a relatively simple task to be complicated, turning a 3 hour job into
a 7 hour learning experience.
When your equipment fails to work after multiple
replacements, you have to realize that the equipment isn’t the problem and the
variable that “surely can’t be the problem” is the problem”. In troubleshooting,
sometimes you encounter the mystery of things that work in some ways but
mysteriously don’t work overtime or in the ways they should. In those instances you are confronted with
the “it works – but it doesn’t work” paradox – and even though you have
evidence that “it works” – that fact that it inexplicably “falls apart and doesn’t
“stay working” forces you to accept that what “looks good is actually bad”.
But I eventually “got ‘er done” and now see the
error of my ways and how I could have avoided spinning my wheels for so long. But
the effect of the learning experience of my “no good, very bad, terrible day”
at work was that I was exhausted and went to sleep around 8:30 pm last night,
causing me to “fail to be accountable” by not reporting my “food plan success” to
my accountability partner as I am in my 5th week of overcoming my
food addiction.
I fell asleep and forgot to text and when I awoke
this morning I realized my failure because my accountability partner sent me a
message after the time I normally check in stating “ALEXA HELLOOOOO” – because I
had failed to remember before and have actually set a routine to have my
electronic personal assistant to help me be accountable – to tell me to “text
Scott” at 9pm each day– but that doesn’t help when Alexa is down at River house
in Stuyvesant and I am asleep at TammyLyn’s Countryside Home in Easton.
So I texted Scott to let him know that the food plan
was a success, and I appreciated his faithfulness in keeping me accountable. I
will have to set a reminder on my phone for the weekends, I guess.
Anyway, although I like to report what is happening
in my life sometimes it can be a mouthful to write out and I can veer off course
from where I wanted to go in terms of writing the blog.
I sat down initially to write about accountability,
responsibility, family, boundaries, and discipleship because of something else
that happened yesterday!
I am currently in a discipleship/friendship relationship
with a man that I met through the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group that I lead on
Wednesday nights. “Sam” is an older gentleman
and has sought my counsel and prayer on a few occasions, and because I am training
to be a Deeper Walk certified prayer minister, we have agreed in principle to
enter into a discipleship/prayer ministry relationship where I intend to lead Sam
through the Freedom in Christ Course material to prepare him to go through the
Steps to Freedom in Christ and possibly other forms of “freedom prayer” or “healing
prayer” ministry.
As he attempts to walk by faith, Sam is encountering
difficulty in his interpersonal relationships and has come to me for support,
advice, and prayer. Yesterday, acting on
my advice, he had a discussion with his significant other that turned contentious
and afterward, while I was struggling through my workday, Sam sent me a text
asking if we could pray about it. I didn’t
see the text until the workday was done and responded that I was sorry to hear
that his “talk” didn’t go well as I got in my car to head north to TammyLyn’s
house. While I drove, Sam texted back. asking
if we could talk. When I got to countryside I decided that I could call Sam
while I took Harley for a walk down Waite Rd – something we do when I arrive at
my countryside home. But when I called
Sam to check in he didn’t pick up and there was no room to leave a message in
his voicemail. At that moment, I made
the decision that I had to set a boundary on my personal with my wife, and
texted Sam back telling him to “lean on the Lord” and wouldn’t be able to speak
to him until Monday because I was with
my wife for the weekend.
In that short walk down Waite Road, I came to the realization
that now that I am going to move into the phase of my life where I begin to
establish myself as a “life coach” – I was going to have to make some clear
limits on my time in terms of when I can provide ministry. I have to value my “family” time and encourage
those I counsel to be personally responsible for their walk by realizing that
there will be times that they will have to “practice” what I am encouraging
them to do.
Walking in the Spirit – which is the remedy to all
life’s problems that I prescribe – requires you to “lean on the Lord” by:
· reminding yourself what God’s word says
· agreeing that it is true and applies to you ‘
· going to the Lord in prayer to seek His presence and
help.
· and making the decision to not enter into sin or to linger
in negative mind states that contradict God’s word.
So when your accountability partner, sponsor, mentor,
discipler, family, or friends are not available when you encounter a crisis,
you “practice” being a disciple by going to God in prayer to find the comfort,
strength, and guidance to overcome. You turn from the world and its problems
and fleshly solutions, and you turn to the Lord for his wisdom, love, and pathway
to peace.
The pathway of Christian discipleship can and will
be a lonely road at times but with the Lord you are never alone and have to
accept that we don’t base our success on some other person’s presence or faithfulness,
we rely on the faithfulness and presence of the Lord to lead us to freedom and
victory.
While other people may not be there for you when you
need them, the Lord is with us always and it is from Him where we receive the
help we need.
Early on in this latest chapter of the Celebrate
Freedom ministry at Starpoint Church one of the people shared a testimony of
how in the past they relied on their sponsor to maintain their sobriety and confessed
how their sponsor relapsed and was unavailable when they began to struggle.
Rather than standing on his own or going to his “higher power” for support,
this person took his sponsor’s absence as an excuse to relapse himself!
“They weren’t
there, so I relapsed” may sound like an understandable excuse but it reveals a
real immaturity in that person and exposes a lack of personal responsibility that
will invariably lead to failure.
Another participant, in talking about his alcoholism
and decision to come to a recovery meeting, said “Now that I’m not allowed to drink
anymore…” which caused me to respond that unless they were going to choose
sobriety for themselves, they would invariably fail to stay sober. No one can force you to clean up your life and
as far as I am concerned unless you decide to surrender your life to the Lord
and pursue progressive sanctification, there really is no point in even trying
to change.
Without God’s peace through faith in Jesus Christ,
whether you succeed in getting sober or not, it won’t make much difference when
you end up in hell. Without God you
might as well stay a drunk or addict because although your addiction may cause
you to suffer here on earth, it will pale in comparison to the anguish you
condemn yourself to in eternity.
I encourage Christian discipleship not just because it
“makes you a better person”, I encourage people to follow Jesus because it
saves your life and gives you meaning and purpose. If you fall short of following Jesus, it doesn’t
matter what you do, you are doomed.
Personal responsibility and a commitment to follow
the Lord is a fundamental aspect of a life lived in the Spirit. So as much as I
want to “be there” to support and encourage others in their faith walk and struggles,
there has to be an understanding that while I will do my best to encourage others
in their walk, it is their walk – not mine – and they will have to walk it out
for themselves.
So yesterday, I made the decision to make my time
with my wife on the weekends sacred – to put up a hedge that will protect my relationship
with my wife and demand that those I seek to help be responsible to put into
practice what I teach and to develop a deeper relationship with the Lord for
support.
Walking in the Spirit isn’t a list of rules and
principles to follow – it is a living relationship with God Himself – who is
always present and always faithful to help those who rely on Him.
So enjoy the weekend and be sure to put up
appropriate boundaries to keep your life balanced and to encourage others to “lean
on the Lord” rather than just “leaning on me”.
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For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Anger, Hot Temper.
Proverbs 15:1 (NIV2011)
1 A gentle answer turns away
wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Today’s
verss fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Anger,
Hot Temper
6. Hot words stir up strife.
Today’s verse points to a fundamental truth on de-escalation and keeping contentious exchanges from becoming volatile or violent. God’s word encourages us to “answer” in a gentle manner when confronted with anger and warns us that if we speak harshly we can cause others to be angry.
As disciples of the Prince of Peace, we are, as much as it depends on us, to walk in peace with others. So we don’t “fight fire with fire” or return “evil with evil”, instead we respond to evil with good and respond with a gentle word rather than a harsh response when we encounter someone else’s wrath.
A gentle word could calm someone down and establish a ground where peace can be negotiated and found. So be wise and follow God’s word to move from anger to peace.
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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 The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3)
A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit
26 -The Spirit Interceding
How the
Spirit Intercedes
First, when the believer
is most oppressed by outward trials and is most depressed by a sense of his
inward vileness, when he is at his wit’s end and ready to wring his hands in
despair, or is most conscious of his spiritual deadness and inability to
express the sinfulness of his case, the Spirit stirs him in the depths of his
being: “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered.” There has been some difference of opinion as to whether
this refers directly to groanings of the Spirit Himself, or indirectly to the
spiritual groanings of the Christian, which are prompted and produced by Him.
But surely there is no room for uncertainty: the words “cannot be uttered” could not apply to a Divine Person. That which
He produces in and through the
believer, is ascribed to the
Spirit—the “fruit” of Galatians 5:22, and Galatians 4:6 compared with Romans
8:15!
As it is the Spirit
who illumines and gives us to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the
depravity of our hearts, so He is the One who causes us to groan over the same.
The conscience is pierced, the heart is searched, the soul is made to feel something of its fearful state.
The conscious realization of “the plague of our hearts” (1 Kings 8:38) and its
“putrefying sores” (Isa. 1:6), produces unutterable anguish. The painful
realization of our remaining enmity against God, the rebellion of our wills,
the woeful lack of heart-conformity to His holy Law, so casts down the soul
that it is temporarily paralyzed. Then it is that the Spirit puts forth His
quickening operations, and we “groan” so deeply that we cannot express our
feelings, articulate our woe, or unburden our hearts. All that we can do is to
sigh and sob inwardly. But such tears of the heart are precious in the sight of
God (Ps. 56:8) because they are produced by His blessed Spirit.
Second, when the soul is so sorely oppressed and
deeply distressed, the Spirit reveals to the mind what should be prayed for. He it is who pours oil on the troubled
waters, quiets in some measure the storm within, spiritualizes the mind, and
enables us to perceive the nature of our particular need. It is the Spirit who
makes us conscious of our lack of
faith, submissiveness, obedience, courage, or whatever it may be. He it is who
gives us to see and feel our spiritual wants, and then to make them known
before the Throne of Grace. The Spirit helps our infirmities by subduing our
fears, increasing our faith, strengthening our hope, and drawing out our hearts
unto God. He grants us a renewed sense of the greatness of God’s mercy, the
changelessness of His love, and the infinite merits of Christ’s sacrifice
before Him on our behalf.
Third, the Spirit reveals to cast-down saints that the supplies of grace for their varied needs
are all expressed in the promises of
God. It is those promises which are the measures of prayer, and contain the
matter of it; for what God has promised, all that He has promised, but nothing
else are we to ask for. “There is nothing that we really stand in need of, but
God hath promised the supply of it, in such a way and under such limitations as
may make it good and useful unto us. And there is nothing that God hath
promised but we stand in need of it, or are some way or other concerned in it
as members of the mystical body of Christ” (John Owen). But at this point also
the help of the Spirit is imperative, “that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12).
It is thus that the Spirit bears up the
distressed minds of Christians: by
directing their thoughts to those promises most suited to their present case,
by impressing a sense of them upon their hearts, by giving them to discern that
those precious promises contain in them the fruits of Christ’s mediation, by
renewing their faith so that they are enabled to lay hold of and plead them
before God. Real prayer is in faith: faith necessarily respects God’s promises:
therefore if we understand not the spiritual
import of the promises, the suitability of them to our varied cases, and reverently
urge the actual fulfillment of them to us, then we have not prayed at all. But for that sight and sense of the promises,
and the appropriation of them, we are entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
Fourth, the Spirit helps the Christian to direct
his petitions unto right ends. Many
prayers remain unanswered because of our failure at this point: “Ye ask, and
receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts”
(Jas. 4:3). The “ask amiss” in that passage means to ask for something with a
wrong end in view, and were we left entirely to ourselves, this would always be the case with us. Only three
ends are permissible: that God may be glorified, that our spirituality may be
promoted, that our brethren may be blessed. Now none but the Spirit can enable
us to subordinate all our desires and petitions unto God’s glory. None but the
Spirit can bring us to make our advancement
in holiness our end—the reason why we ask God to grant our requests. This He does by putting into our minds a high
valuation of conformity to God, a deep longing in the heart that His image may
be more manifestly stamped upon us, a strong inclination of will to diligently
seek the same by the use of all appointed means.
It is by the Spirit
the sin-troubled Christian is helped to apprehend God as his Father, and his
heart is emboldened to approach Him as such. It is by the Spirit we are granted
a conscious access to the Throne of Grace. He it is who moves us to plead the
infinite merits of Christ. He it is who strengthens us to pray in a holy
manner, rather than from carnal motives and sentiments. He it is who imparts
any measure of fervor to our hearts so that we “cry” unto God—which respects
not the loudness of our voices, but the earnestness of our supplications. He it
is who gives us a spirit of importunity, so that we are enabled (at times) to
say with Jacob, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me” (Gen. 32:26).
And He it is who prepares the heart
to receive God’s answer, so that what is bestowed is a real blessing to us and
not a curse.
In conclusion let it
be pointed out that the motions of the Spirit in the saint are a “help” to prayer, but not the rule or reason of prayer. There are some who say that they
never attempt to pray unless conscious that he Spirit moves them to do so. But
this is wrong: the Spirit is given to help
us in the performance of duty, and not in the neglect of it! God commands us to
pray: that is our “rule”—“always to
pray” (Luke 18:1), “in everything by prayer and supplication” (Phil. 4:6). For
many years past, the editor had made it a practice of beginning his prayers by
definitely and trustfully seeking the
Spirit’s aid: see Luke 11:13. Do not conclude that lack of words and suitable
expressions is a proof that the Spirit is withholding His help. Finally,
remember that He is Sovereign: “the wind bloweth were it listeth” (John 3:8).[1]
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 YouTube 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 Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“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]
Arthur Walkington Pink, The Holy Spirit
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, n.d.).