The “R” Word and Living
in the State of Grace- Purity 806
Purity 806 08/10/2022 Purity 806 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo a clear blue sky and blazing sun over the “hump
of a tree” and the “peak” of my neighbor’s house comes to us today from yours
truly as I captured this spontaneous shot back on July 9th when
leaving my countryside home to walk the dog.
Well, it’s Wednesday again and today’s pictural offering
may be lacking the mountain’s majesty that I usually share to represent the midweek
hump but I think it can serve as a simple reminder to see the beauty that is right
outside your front door and to appreciate the simple things in life.
Also, I had some technical difficulties in this photo
being delivered to my laptop and while I was waiting I was a little bit overwhelmed
by the lag and the fact that I had other photo’s I could share but had no idea of
their origin as I will just grab lots of photos off of social media to possibly
use and with time, I forget where they came from! I have confessed that
weakness before and unfortunately I haven’t instituted any measures to change
it!
And thus we have stumbled upon today’s topic I guess: breaking
the sin-confess cycle.
Have you ever heard some one say, perhaps to you: “You say
you are sorry, but if you were really sorry, you wouldn’t do that anymore!”
Duck! Because if you are anything like me, those are shots
fired in your direction and those slugs hurt!
If anyone ever tells you that the Christian faith is
simple, they are failing to tell you about the “R” word: repentance. Just so you can see I am not legalistically making
the need to change up out of thin air, I share the following verses from the
New Testament:
From the Apostle Peter:
Acts 3:19 (NKJV)
19 Repent therefore and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may
come from the presence of the Lord,
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)
9 The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance.
From the Apostle Paul,
Acts 17:30 (NKJV)
30 Truly, these times of
ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
From Jesus:
Matthew 4:17 (NKJV)
17 … Jesus began to preach
and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Mark 1:15 (NKJV)
15 … "The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the
gospel."
Luke 13:3 (NKJV)
3 I
tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
Revelation 3:19 (NKJV)
19 As
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Okay, I hope that is sufficient to demonstrate that “repentance”
is a fundamental part of our faith.
Christians are called to believe in Christ, to put their faith in Him as
Lord and Savior, and to repent: to change our minds and to decide to exchange
our ways of thinking and living for God’s wisdom and ways.
I’m pretty sure most of us know that and it is perhaps the
number one reason why people resist becoming a Christian. Change is hard and
they don’t want to change.
Even those of us who do want to change, know what a
difficult thing that can be. And that’s
we needed and will continually need God’s grace: His divine favor.
God’s grace shined upon us of course when we first came to
Christ. It was God’s grace that revealed to us the truth of the gospel of Jesus
Christ and caused us to put our faith in Him.
But God’s grace, His divine favor, doesn’t leave us at
salvation. Some Christians refer to a “state
of Grace”, and although the systems that usually use that particular phrase
indicate that this “state” is something we can move in and out of based on our
behavior, the word indicates that nothing can separate us from the love of God,
so I would encourage you to know that grace is a state that you have taken up
permanent residency in the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ and
nothing can change that.
However, our attitudes and behaviors are subject to
change. That’s good news and bad news.
The bad news is that we can be walking well in our new
found faith but then through temptation and deception, we can decide to forget
who we are in Christ and make poor sinful choices. We have formed selfish fleshly habits of
living and they are difficult to change over night. However, because of who we are in Christ, no
matter what we do we are forgiven – when we came to Christ all our sins, past,
present, and future sins, have been forgiven.
That’s grace and that’s why it is called “Amazing grace”
because we simply can’t believe it is true! And because we have been raised in a world
system that has taught us that WE HAVE TO WORK to be approved, many will reject
God’s grace because they believe it is too good to be true, but it is.
Anyway, the good news about our attitudes and behaviors being
subject to change is that we can change them! Thus repentance. In fact, the best evidence for the truth of
Christianity are people who have come to Christ and changed the way they
lived.
So, those new in Christ will try to “be good” now that
they have “said the prayer” but unless they develop their love for God, repentance
will just be a process of frustrating work that will be marked by failures and
confessions. We will say we are sorry
but will feel powerless to change.
So why is that? I’m trying hard here! What’s the
deal!?!
Well the deal is that you are trying to establish your
freedom and victory over your besetting sins in your own strength according to the
world’s ways rather than “turning” to God’s strength, wisdom, and ways. Also
you are probably, subtly separating yourself from God by feeling condemned and
by trying to “do it yourself”.
Our Christian faith is a relationship with God and that’s
not how it’s supposed to be. We have to love
God, get to know God, and dedicate ourselves to our relationship with Him and
know the peace that comes from living in the “state of grace”. We have to know that even if we fail, God
still loves us.
That realization should be liberating. As His adopted children
through faith in Jesus, God will never leave us or forsake us and will pour His
grace upon us throughout our lives. His divine favor is ours and it can be the
catalyst for change. When we live in God’s
grace, we live in the peace of knowing that we can do no wrong in God’s
eyes.
Now don’t get it twisted, just because we haceGod’s grace
doesn’t mean that we won’t suffer from acting like a fool but it does mean that
when we humble ourselves and decide to live according to God’s ways He will
give us the power to overcome.
Some people in your past may have said: “If you loved me,
you would change.” But they were only human, may have had a selfish agenda, and
certainly didn’t have the power of God’s grace to help you.
People try to change one another through manipulation,
through positive or negative reinforcement. While these methods can be
effective in changing outside behaviors, they generally don’t effect the
heart. We can do what you say, whether
we “like it or not” but it doesn’t mean that we are convinced. It doesn’t mean
we are changed.
However, love can sometimes motivate us to change. Love
will cause us to do all kinds of things that we didn’t think we are capable
of. Many a human relationship has been
saved because the consequence of the loss of love was hanging in the balance,
and in some instances, those changes were “taken to heart”.
With God on our side, our ability to change has been
greatly increased because in reality He has made us new. He doesn’t have to
change our heart because He will give us a new one.
The prophet Ezekiel prophesied about the thing that God
would do through Christ:
Ezekiel 36:26 (NKJV) 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I
will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
When we received Christ as Lord and Savior, we received
the Holy Spirit and the process to change our hearts of stone to a heart of
flesh has happened. Ever wonder why your
emotions are all over the place since coming to Christ, you have a new heart!
So let that new heart beat with the love for the God who
saved you and made you new. Use your love for God as your motivation to know Him
more and to repent, to “take to heart” His truth found in the word of God and
to apply it to your life.
The good news is that we don’t have to be perfect in this
process of change. We just have to keep
following the Lord. His grace will work
in our lives the more we seek Him and follow His lead.
So keep walking and talking with God. You tried to change and failed, your failure
probably caused you to stop talking to Him and made you want to run away. But stop running, there is nothing to be
ashamed of or afraid of any more. God is with you, no matter what. So don’t run and hide, instead stay with Him,
ask Him for His strength and you will receive it, renew your mind with His word
and you will receive His wisdom and if you apply it, it will transform your
life.
But above all remember that repentance is the process of becoming who you were made to be and the God of all creation is encouraging you every step of the way. Like a Father teaching His children to walk, He will cheer you on, He will steady you as you go, and He will pick you up when you fall. So reach out to Him, take His hand and go with Him to the new life of freedom and victory that is yours for the taking.
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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:
1 Peter 5:7 (NLT2)
7 Give all your worries and
cares to God, for he cares about you.
Today’s verse encourages us that we can give all of our worries and cares to God because of the simple fact of His love for us. He cares for us.
He cares!
Have you ever met someone new and come to the realization that they liked you? Have you ever had someone express their fondness for you by helping you out in some way?
If you have, you probably have had a moment where inside your mind or heart you said to yourself: He cares! or She cares! And on earth, there isn’t really many feelings that beat that feeling. To feel loved, to feel cared for. And God loves us. God cares about us.
Now sometimes in human relationships we can discover that some people’s care for us was conditional. There are heartbreaking true stories of people leaving others in relationships when “the going got tough”. “Fair weather friends” are perhaps the mildest form of this but even the deepest bonds or relationships like marriage or family can suffer or be broken because people are limited and can seek escape from “your problems”.
But God’s not like that. Today’s verse tells us of the truth of God’s tenacious and loyal love for us. It tells us that we can give all of our worries and carries to Him.
So no
matter what you are facing, or no matter how many people decide to cut and run
or just don’t want to hear about your problems anymore, remember that God care
for you and will not only listen to your worries and cares, but will also give
you the strength, wisdom, and guidance to endure them and overcome them.
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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 Clinton E. Arnold’s
“Powers of Darkness”
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and
encourage all to purchase Clinton Arnold’s books for your own private
study and to support his work. This resource is available on many
websites for less than $20.00.
Prayer As the Primary Weapon
If
Paul were to summarize the primary way of gaining access to the power of God
for waging successful spiritual warfare, he would unwaveringly affirm that it
is through prayer. Prayer is given much greater prominence in the spiritual
warfare passage than any of the other implements. Prayer is also the only
spiritual piece of armor that is not given a corresponding physical weapon
(like a breastplate or a shield).
When Paul spoke of
prayer, it was closely related to his concept of faith. He also mentioned faith
for its role in engaging in spiritual warfare. He associated it with the
shield. It is mentioned explicitly as the means of overcoming intense diabolic
attack: “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph 6:16). Prayer became for Paul the
practical manifestation of faith. By these means, Satan is effectively
resisted.
Throughout Ephesians,
Paul stressed the role of faith in appropriating the power of God. The faith he
called for is based on the objective fact of Christ’s resurrection and
exaltation over the supernatural powers. God’s power is not imparted to
Christians by wearing a magical amulet or even a crucifix. Neither does one
gain access to it by performing a rite or by chanting certain words. God’s
power is given through simple trust in him.
This trust finds
expression most commonly in the act of prayer. Paul consequently summoned
believers to pray “at all times” and “for all the saints” (Eph 6:18). Paul
himself modeled this to the readers in this letter, telling them the essence of
what he has prayed for them—their increased awareness of God’s power and for
God to strengthen them with his power (Eph 1:15–23; 3:14–19).
The spiritual warfare
passage is often viewed in individual terms; that is, each individual Christian
should pray and ask God for strength to do battle. Paul actually depicted the
arming in corporate terms. The whole church is involved in the process of
arming. In fact, each believer is responsible for arming other believers. All
of Paul’s admonitions in this passage are in the plural. More important,
however, is the fact that Paul urged believers to pray “for all the saints”
(Eph 6:18). Since this exhortation is part of Paul’s explanation of prayer as
the final piece of armor, it is most natural to understand it as his
recommendation as to the prerequisite and means of acquiring divine enablement.
This fact is supported when he requested prayer for himself in the verses
immediately following. In essence, he is asking his readers to arm him for
spiritual warfare, particularly in his offensive act of proclaiming the gospel.
Certainly the two prayers of Ephesians 1 and 3 model this fact. Through those
two prayers, Paul deployed God’s armor for the protection and use of his
readers. By leaving aside the metaphorical language of spiritual warfare and
putting it into the simplest terms, one could say Paul prayed that God would
endow them with his power so they could successfully resist Satan’s temptations
and be divinely enabled to proclaim the gospel fearlessly in spite of demonic
hindrance and hostility.
Spiritual warfare,
therefore, is more proactive than reactive. It is the preparation before the
storm. In practical terms it involves praying for “the healthy” in addition to
praying for “the sick”; that is, praying specifically for individuals to resist
temptation in their personal areas of vulnerability. It involves praying for
the progress of the gospel in light of localized and intense demonic hostility
to the ongoing mission of the church. This concept has the potential of
rejuvenating prayer groups and prayer meetings in the church today.
Today’s church needs
a stronger sense of the mutuality of the body of Christ. The Western church, in
particular, is guilty of an “individualistic Christianity.” Instead of
condemning the brother or sister who falls into sin, we need to look first to
ourselves. Did we pray for God’s grace to enable that person to resist Satan’s
solicitations to evil? Spiritual warfare is a call to corporate prayer.[1]
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tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 158–159.
