The Mandela Effect? – The Truth of Work, Meaning, and Purpose - Purity 468

 The Mandela Effect? – The Truth of Work, Meaning, and Purpose

Purity 468 07/12/2021   Purity 468 Podcast

Good morning  

Today’s photo of this Ship Builder’s Memorial under a heavenly blue sky on the shores of the Long Island Sound comes to us from a friend’s recent visit to Port Jefferson NY on Independence Day.  I love the contrast of the statue against that blue sky. It gives the impression that these ship builders are seeking to make a vessel that will allow them to take a celestial voyage to heaven.      

It's Monday so I also share it to point to the paradox of having to live and work on the earth and hoping for life beyond this mortal coil. In our Christian walk of discipleship we teach the need for balance that comes from being in harmony with the Lord our God and by being at peace with ourselves and others here on earth. 

While man’s penchant is to choose one thing over another in most things, the word of God encourages us not only to love God but to also love our neighbors as ourselves. The Bible also indicates that there are various functions to be performed by the members of the body of Christ, with the example of the Apostles having the task of studying and teaching God’s word, while other saints’ purpose was to essentially work in the kitchen to provide for the early church’s physical needs.  But the Apostle Paul also showed that while He was all about expanding the kingdom of God with His missionary and church building efforts, he provided for himself through working as a tent maker.  He famously said:

2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 (NKJV)
¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
¹¹ For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.
¹² Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.  

So we just can’t focus on our spiritual lives to the exclusion of our physical lives, nor can we just focus on our physical lives with no consideration of our spiritual lives.   In this world we must provide for the physical needs of ourselves and for our families, so for most of us that means we must work.  

When we become overly focused on the physical world, we can use our intelligence and ability to work to strive for all the best things this world has to offer. We can amass wealth and live in the lap of luxury.  However, no matter what empire we may build up around us, if we don’t have a relationship with God through Christ, our efforts to enter God’s kingdom are as hopeless as the ship builders in today’s photo’s chances of taking a voyage to the sky.  

If we overly focus on our spiritual lives in a selfish manner where we only seek to commune to God by ourselves, we may neglect our physical needs but more importantly we would actually become disobedient to God’s will for our lives to go out into all the world and to make disciples and to love our neighbors as ourselves.   

The state of the world demands that we provide for our physical needs, but ultimate reality demands that we acknowledge that our time on earth is limited and that we must seek to be reconciled with the One who created us, who defines meaning and truth, and who determines the course of existence and our entrance into eternity.  

Yesterday I watched a film, The Mandela Effect, that pondered the concepts of false memories, multiverse theories, the possibility that reality is some sort of simulation, and that things in our universe blink in and out of existence with or without the presence of an observer.  

In the film, a man has suffered a tragic loss and seeks the advice of a “Christian” liturgical minister who holds deist views apparently and doesn’t contradict the man’s belief that God made the universe but then just left mankind to do what they please without His interaction or presence.  The minister merely offers that God gave us some guidelines to live by in the Bible but states that we can never know the meaning of life, but he sought to encourage the man that he could know the purpose of his individual life. 

That was it. That was all the minister had to offer.  He basically stated that the meaning of life was an unknowable mystery, but we individually could know our purpose.

I guess knowing our purpose would entail what job you have, what personal relationships you have, and what hobbies you enjoy, which could describe the complete content of our lives on earth.     

But in this script, the “Christian” minister fails to address the spiritual realities that are revealed in the person of Jesus Christ or the big question of what happens when you die!  The man came to get answers or at least some comfort for his loss and the minister fails to provide either. 

So the man, a video game designer, seeks to build a program to upload to a supercomputer, to “crash the system” of existence in order “to reboot” it and reclaim his lost loved one because computers fix everything! The film was entertaining and interesting but the premises of all these super intellectual ponderings made the same mistake that the minster made.   

They either don’t know, don’t care, or forgot about God and His plan for humanity that is fulfilled through Jesus Christ.  

God is the ever-present observer over all things in time and space, so nothing is blinking out of existence when no one is there to observer it.  

If there are multiverses, God is present in al of them and the trinity demands that Christ would be Savior in all of them.  

The Mandela Effect which is the phenomenon of confusion over remembering things that didn’t actually take place or are not true is a combination of the product of a fallen world that is changing and falling apart moment to moment, influence from the evil forces of darkness that deal in confusion and deception, and the pride and infallibility of man.  Just because you and many others are wrong or misremember something doesn’t mean that there is a conspiracy or that life isn’t real!

The idea that our reality is a simulation is a nihilistic lie from pit of hell because who else would try to convince you that out life isn’t real leading to the conclusion that the consequences of our actions don’t matter or that life is meaningless. Satan would.

These ponderings are the flip side of being too spiritual. These ponderings of philosophy and science are man’s desperate attempts to explain life without God.    

So if you are overly materialistic or have an intellectual view that dismisses God, you are out of balance.  

The truth is that life does have a meaning. The question of existence for anyone living in the last two thousand years is answered in the person of Jesus Christ.   All that we do or think about during our lives on earth will come to nothing if we fail to be reconciled with the God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

So as we walk in this world we must find Christ and make Him our Lord and Savior. 

After that we can enjoy the assurance of a life of meaning and purpose as we receive the Truth, the Way, and The Life that God wants us to experience.

So stand in your faith in Christ and enjoy the freedom that comes from knowing that you are in harmony with God and that your faith gives you the capacity to know peace as you face the challenges of another day.             

This morning’s meditation verse is:

1 Thessalonians 1:10 (NKJV)
¹⁰ and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Today’s verse speaks about our future hope and the protection that we have in Christ.

Verses like 1 Thessalonians 1:10 are a great comfort to us because they assure us of our safety from the wrath of God and that the universe will not just run down like an old watch and fade to black.  

Our faith in Christ gives us forgiveness of our sins and exempts us from our rightful reception of God’s wrath.  God shows us mercy and grace because of our faith in His beloved Son.   

As this verse tells us, Christ not only died for us, but He was also raised to life.  The Jesus story isn’t over.  Christ is alive in the heavenly realms and will one day return for those who have faith in Him and then pour out the wrath of God on the unbelieving world.  

While the idea of God’s wrath and judgement could scare us, we should be motivated to speak the truth of the gospel to help others be reconciled with God through faith in Christ.    

For the Christian, our destiny of eternal life is sealed the moment we put our faith in Christ, and we need never fear death or God’s wrath.  Our salvation and the future hope of the return of Christ should carry us through our lives with peace, joy, and purpose.  

 

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 7, with the section on our emotions being God’s red flags of warning.

 

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:

Anxiety Signals an Uncertain Goal

When you feel anxious in a task or a relationship, your anxiety may be signaling that achieving your goal may be uncertain. You are hoping something will happen, but you have no guarantee it will. You can control some of the factors but not all of them.

For example, a teenager may believe her happiness at school depends on her parents' allowing her to attend a school dance. Not knowing how they will respond, she is anxious. If they say no, she will be angry because her goal was blocked. If she knows all along that there was no possible chance of their saying yes, she will be depressed because her goal will not be achieved.

Depression Signals an Impossible Goal

When you base your future success on something that can never happen, you have an impossible, hopeless goal. Your depression is a signal that your goal, no matter how spiritual or noble, may never be reached. We can be depressed for biochemical reasons, but if there is no physical cause, then depression is often rooted in a sense of hopelessness or helplessness.

I was speaking at a church conference on depression when a woman who was attending invited my wife and me to her home for dinner with her family. The woman had been a Christian for 20 years, but her husband was not a Christian. After I arrived, I quickly realized that the real reason this woman had invited me to dinner was to win her husband to Christ.

I discovered later that the woman had been severely depressed for many years. Her psychiatrist insisted that her depression was endogenous and she staunchly agreed. I believe, however, her depression stemmed from an impossible goal. For 20 years she had based her success as a Christian on winning her husband and children to Christ. She had prayed for them, witnessed to them and invited guest preachers home for dinner. She had said everything she could say and done everything she could do, but to no avail. As the futility of her efforts loomed larger, her faith faltered, her hope dimmed and her depression grew.

We had a nice dinner and I had an enjoyable conversation with her husband. He was a decent man who adequately provided for the physical needs of his family. He simply didn't see any need for God in his life. I shared my testimony and tried to be a positive example of a Christian. The last time I saw the woman, she was holding on to slim threads of hope. Her depression affected her positive attitude in the home, and her witness to her husband only weakened, further obliterating her goal.

You should, of course, desire that your loved ones come to Christ, and pray and work to that end. When you base your sense of worth as a Christian friend, parent or child on the salvation of your loved ones, however, realize that this goal may be beyond your ability or right to control. Witnessing is sharing our faith in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God. We can't save anyone. Depression often signals that you are desperately clinging to a goal you have little or no chance of achieving, which is not a healthy goal.

Sometimes depression reveals a faulty concept of God. David wrote: "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?...How long will my enemy triumph over me?" (Psalm 13:1, 2, NIV). Had God really forgotten David? Was He actually hiding from David? Of course not. David had a wrong concept of God, feeling that He had abandoned him to the enemy. David's wrong concept led him to an impossible goal: victory over his enemies without God's help. No wonder he felt depressed!

The remarkable thing about David is that he didn't stay in the dumps. He evaluated his situation and realized, "Hey, I'm a child of God. I'm going to focus on what I know about Him, not on my negative feelings." From the pit of his depression he wrote: "I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation" (Psalm 13:5). Then he decided to make a positive expression of his will: "I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me" (Psalm 13:6). He willfully moved away from his wrong concept and its accompanying depression and returned to the source of his hope.

With God all things are possible. He is the God of all hope. Turn to God when you are feeling down, as David did. "Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God" (Psalm 43:5).

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, 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

Running with the Devil: Purity 447

Purity 446 06/16/2021   Purity 447 Podcast

Good morning.

Today’s photo of blue skies and a winding wooden pathway comes to us from our friend who is traveling out West. This scene is presumably somewhere in Yellowstone National Park but could be anywhere in between Yellow Stone or Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and destinations unknown in Montana as our friend isn’t staying in one place.        

I share it because it’s Thursday and I use photos of pathways to remind people to join me on the pathway of Christian discipleship by either attending tonight’s discipleship class, or by listening to the classes via the mt4christ247 podcast, or by just deciding to continue, or to begin anew, the journey of walking and talking with God.  

Just like our friend who isn’t staying in one place on their trip out west, we shouldn’t stay in one place in terms of our faith. Life is a journey that moves on regardless of what we do and if we are not progressing in our relationship with God through the way we live, we are not enjoying the abundant life the Christ died to bring us.  

Our life in Christ is a dynamic journey of self-discovery and kingdom purpose as we go to God to transform us and to impact the world around us by finding our purpose for God and by sharing His truth and love with others.

While we look to provide for ourselves and our families and seek to do good works for the glory of God, it doesn’t mean that we stop developing ourselves.   Part of God’s purpose for us is to enjoy the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and the good news is that there is always room for each of us to grow in these areas.  

For example, just because I am teaching a class on discipleship doesn’t mean I have stopped learning. And just because I have had victory over certain struggles in my life doesn’t mean that the work is done.   

Today, I begin a food plan that involves monitoring what I eat, developing a healthier and more intentional mindset in terms of what I consume, and that has a community aspect that will provide accountability and support.   

You see, two years ago, I read Sweet Surrender, a Christian book on Food Addiction, and recognized that I had an unhealthy relationship with food.  I had the intention of following the food plan detailed in the book and even announced on FB that I was finally going to overcome my food addiction, but I failed to follow through. 

I have several great excuses why I failed to do so. I mean really great ones like I was getting divorced; I was working on my master’s degree, I was working two jobs, I had to find a place to live, and oh yeah, during all this stuff, there was a global pandemic.  So excuse me for losing my focus about diet and exercise!   - See I told you, great excuses.  

Well all those excuses are gone now, and although I have been good in terms of working out 6 days a week since last November, my efforts were being sabotaged by some insidious evil: me!  By eating mindlessly, I was my own worst enemy.

This isn’t my first rodeo with weight loss, before coming to Christ, in my 30’s I had a season where I got disciplined, started running and was working out twice a day.  I was also taking diet pills to boost my metabolism.  I went from my worst, at over 300 pounds all the way down to my fittest, at 215 pounds. 

I managed to accomplish that feat as a means of overcoming the depression and grief caused from the death of my infant son, Holden in 2002.  Crawling out of the shadows of that depression caused me to be at my worst and it took years to see daylight. 

My weight loss most have been in the 2005-2007 window somewhere as I adopted a view of life that told me there was no God, life was suffering, and happiness all depended upon my efforts. 

My weight loss journey at that time was fueled by self-loathing and a desire to achieve some personal state of bliss where there was no God. There was no reason in it either because as much as I worked out I didn’t change the way I thought about food in my heart and I was drinking, smoking weed, and taking any psychedelic drugs I could get my hands on in some attempt to escape and find a higher state of consciousness. Back then it would be accurate to say I was literally “running with the Devil”.

But in 2010 God called me to faith in Jesus Christ and since then has pulled me completely out of the darkness of depression and addiction and has made me realize that anything is possible with Him. 

But that doesn’t mean, we don’t need help. I tried to do the food thing on my own but I feel I need  “the program” I signed up for to provide a system to follow and the support of others to help me to avoid “going blank” and losing my focus only to discover another bought of binge eating has occurred, a binge that I just opened the door to and felt powerless to stop and justified in doing but that was counter productive to what I really want. 

That’s the spiritual warfare aspect of what we face.  Our flesh or the enemy gives us thoughts and impulses that go against what we want for ourselves.   The enemy tells us that our goals are impossible and usually we agree and just give up.  

But with God personal goals, like good health, are possible.  We just have to believe we are free in Christ, humble ourselves before God, and others, by asking for help, continue to stay connected to God through prayer and His word, and to resist and challenge any thoughts that oppose our goals and God’s will for our lives.         

So don’t stay in one place, God has called us to life, and He wants you to know a life that is filled with the fruit of the Spirit, but it may mean that you have to leave the chains and comforts of the past behind to find it.  

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Luke 2:12 (NKJV)
¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."

Today’s verse is a message from an Angel as the context of this verse is the Christmas account of the shepherds of the field being invited to go and see that the Messiah has been born.  If the appearance of the angelic hosts of heaven weren’t enough for the shepherds, the babe lying in the manger would be the evidence that the course of human history was forever changed as God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ.   

We can usually take great comfort and joy when we hear verses like Luke 2:12 in the month of December as we are drawn together in the fellowship of our yearly Christmas celebrations but if we aren’t seeking the Lord continually verses like this may seem to be out of place in the month of June.   

But they shouldn’t, the joy of our salvation should carry us every day of the year. While I understand that we didn’t get to see angels or the Christ child lying in the manger, our life of faith does have “signs” from God that are just for us and prove that He is with us.

One of the things that will keep us in the faith is the continuing signs of God in our lives. As Christians, we should remember the moment that God welcomed us into His kingdom and all the moments where His presence has impacted our lives ever since. 

The gathering of believers at church, the fellowship of the saints, is one place where we can continually see the signs of Christ’s appearing as each person there has been drawn there by God and each one has their own testimony of God’s goodness.    As we walk in faith, we see God in our interactions as He guides our path. 

There is a signpost up ahead and it is telling you that God is with you. 

So keep the faith by keeping your eyes, hearts, and minds open to the things of God. The signs of God’s presence are all around us.  So if you see something, say something because the people around you might not know how good God is and we may be the hand that points them to the sign that leads them right into His kingdom and to life forever more.

 

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 3.

 

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:

The Fallout from God's Grace

The following list supplements the "Who Am I?" list in chapter 2. These statements further describe your identity in Christ. Read this list aloud to yourself repeatedly until it becomes a part of you. Pray through the list occasionally, asking God to cement these truths in your heart:

Since I am in Christ, by the grace of God . . .

I have been justified—completely forgiven and made righteous (Romans 5:1).

I died with Christ and died to the power of sin's rule over my life (Romans 6:1-6).

I am free forever from condemnation (Romans 8:1).

I have been placed into Christ by God's doing (1 Cor. 1:30).

I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might know the things freely given to me by God (1 Cor. 2:12).

I have been given the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).

I have been bought with a price; I am not my own; I belong to God (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).

I have been established, anointed and sealed by God in Christ, and I have been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing our inheritance to come (2 Cor. 1:21; Ephes. 1:13, 14).

Since I have died, I no longer live for myself, but for Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

I have been made righteous (2 Cor. 5:21).

I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am now living is Christ's life (Galatians 2:20).

I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephes. 1:3).

I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and am without blame before Him (Ephes. 1:4).

I was predestined—determined by God—to be adopted as God's son (Ephes. 1:5).

I have been redeemed and forgiven, and I am a recipient of His lavish grace (Ephes. 1:17).

I have been made alive together with Christ (Ephes. 2:5).

I have been raised up and seated with Christ in heaven (Ephes. 2:6).

I have direct access to God through the Spirit (Ephes. 2:18).

I may approach God with boldness, freedom and confidence (Ephes. 3:12).

I have been rescued from the domain of Satan's rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13).

I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. The debt against me has been canceled (Col. 1:14).

Christ Himself is in me (Col. 1:27).

I am firmly rooted in Christ and am now being built in Him (Col. 2:7).

I have been made complete in Christ (Col. 2:10).

I have been spiritually circumcised (Col. 2:11).

I have been buried, raised and made alive with Christ (Col. 2:12, 13).

I died with Christ and I have been raised up with Christ. My life is now hidden with Christ in God. Christ is now my life (Col. 3:1-4).

I have been given a spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Tim. 1:7).

I have been saved and set apart according to God's doing (2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5).

Because I am sanctified and am one with the Sanctifier, He is not ashamed to call me brother (Hebrews 2:11).

I have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

I have been given exceedingly great and precious promises by God by which I am a partaker of God's divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Recently, a pastor who was attending one of my conferences on resolving spiritual conflicts pulled me aside after a session. His comments to me reaffirmed my conviction that understanding our spiritual inheritance is the key to resolving our daily conflicts.

"A lady in our church dropped by for counseling this week," he began. "She has been struggling in her relationship with her alcoholic husband. She was at her wit's end, feeling terribly defeated. She came to tell me she was calling it quits on their marriage.

"I pulled out the list of statements you shared with us declaring who we are in Christ. I said, 'Here, read this aloud.' She read about halfway through the list and began to cry. She said, 'I never realized all this was true of me. I feel that maybe there is hope for me after all.'"

Isn't that incredible? The truth about who you are in Christ makes such a big difference in your success at handling the challenges and conflicts of life. It is imperative to your growth and maturity that you believe God's truth about who you are.

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, Amazon Podcasts, 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

When a White Witch calls upon a Christian: Purity 436

 When a White Witch calls upon a Christian: Purity 436 06/04/2021

Purity 436 Podcast

Good morning.

Today’s photo of a sunrise over Dewey Beach, Delaware’s come from a friend who went away for a short trip to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend with their family. The weather was hit and miss with rain, but they managed to catch this great shot, have some family fun at Rehoboth Funland, and take a few moments to fondly remember their departed father who was a veteran of Korea and Viet Nam.    

I’m currently teaching a class about the spiritual realities in which we live and how things either align with what Jesus taught and God’s redemptive plan for mankind or are of a spirit that will lead to the road of perdition.  

One of the things that has been impressed upon me in this series is the importance of being a light in the darkness and establishing a spiritual heritage with our lives.  As Christians, we need to be people that others turn to when they need hope.  

It’s not always easy to keep a positive outlook and to be a beacon of hope as we are just as vulnerable to troubles in this world as our non-Christian friends and family.   

I have Christian friend who knows all too well how easy it can be to lose our hope due to the cares and concern of the world.   They recently recovered from an extended depressive episode that was caused by fears and anxieties about their ability to provide for their families.  The enemy filled their minds with lies feeding on our friend’s insecurities about their job performance and the fact that they were the sole provider for their family.  The enemy set up a domino effect of fears telling our friend that they would lose their job, become destitute and lose their medical benefits, which would in turn cause their loved ones to get sick and die.   These fears weighed heavy on our friend. They were depressed and anxiety ridden. So bad were their symptoms that their co-workers noticed and ended up suspended from their job so they could seek help.   

The good news is that this person was surrounded by friends and family in the faith who supported them and helped them find their way out of the darkness.  Although they are out of the woods of their dark episode, they are on medical leave and are waiting for the process to move that will allow them to go back to work.  

In the meantime, they have distant family members who they don’t see often that are suffering from cancer, a mother in her 80’s and a daughter in her 60’s.  The mother is an Episcopalian, but the daughter holds occultic beliefs and considers herself a “white witch”.  

Recently, the mother’s condition took a turn for the worse and it became clear that she was in the process of dying.   In her pain and suffering, the mother requested to be comforted with prayer and some of the old hymns she remembered from church. Her faith may have not been active in the past few years but as she faced her death she sought to affirm her faith in Christ through worship. 

The daughter, the white witch, and other family members didn’t feel comfortable or didn’t know what to say to their dying mother.  But they remembered that my friend was a faithful Christian and a nurse so they asked her if she could help their mother with her “church things”.  

Because my friend was on medical leave from her job, she was available, and she agreed to come.  My friend sat with the mother, prayed with her, and together they sang the old church hymns that the mother so fondly remembered.  In the midst of her dying, the mother was comforted and was given peace and hope for what was on the other side of this life.    The mother passed away, but she entered the kingdom of God praising the Lord.   

So, even when we are overcome by the world and the enemy comes into steal our hope and drive us into confusion, the Lord can use it for good.  You wouldn’t think any good would have come from my friend’s depression and troubles at work but because of it she was able to care for someone else in their final moments of life and be a testimony of the hope and peace that is available though faith in Christ.

This world needs the hope of Christ. People are hurting and are turning to other things to find comfort because they don’t feel like the church is the place to find it.  The problem is that they are looking for love, hope, and meaning in all wrong places. People need to know what a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ means beyond the misconceptions drawn from a view from outside of the church and Christian stereotypes.

We must be vocal and active enough in our faith so that people will know that we are Christians, but we also must treat those who don’t understand what faith in Christ really means with compassion and grace so that when the times are desperate or a crisis comes, they think of us. 

We are not perfect people, but we know the One who is.  We don’t know everything, but we know the One who does.  We are passing away, but we know the One who can give us eternal life. 

So regardless of our pains or present sufferings, keep your head up because we know the One who has over come the world, sin, and death. He can heal us and can use us to heal others. The hope we have in Christ can give us strength to persevere and can usher others into the kingdom of God.  We are the hope for the world because of Christ in us.  So let your light shine, people will it, and some will be comforted and saved through it.  

 

This morning’s meditation verse is:

1 Peter 1:3 (NKJV)
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Today’s verse makes some basic truth claims of our faith and echoes the sentiment of Christ as our living hope.  

In Peter’s salutation, he states that Christ is the Son of God and that He was resurrected from the dead.  These basic truths must be accepted for someone to find the living hope that comes from faith in Christ.  

As difficult as God’s redemptive plan may be for some to accept, it does have an underlying rationale behind it that makes it reasonable. Redemption through faith in Christ makes sense but you have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son.  

The paradoxes of the Trinity and Jesus’ full divinity and full humanity are stumbling blocks that can keep people out of the kingdom of God. 

Now remember, the definition of paradox is “a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.”  That’s why I call these doctrines of our faith paradoxes because when they are investigated you discover that they are true.

So the seeming contradiction of Jesus being fully God and fully man is proven through his words of wisdom, his miraculous works, and His resurrection.  For 30 years, Jesus probably was considered a nice but odd character, but no one thought of Him as special. 

The scriptures indicate that when Jesus started His earthly ministry of teaching he wasn’t accepted because He was just seen as “the carpenter’s son”, nobody special.  This criticism shows that Jesus was a man just like us but His mighty miraculous works and resurrection from the dead show He wasn’t. He is fully man and fully God.

As for the sonship of Christ, the gospels reveal that God spoke from heaven above declaring Christ to be His Son on more than one occasion.  

Jesus needed to be fully God and fully man because He had to be. To pay for an infinite number of sins and to impute his righteousness to a potentially infinite amount of people, Jesus had to be God and He is. 

On our own there is no hope for us.  But through the power of God in Christ, we have the hope of eternal life.   So share the truth of who Jesus is and let people know that through Him they have the hope of a new life now and for evermore.

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 in Chapter 1, with the section on “The Effects of the Fall”

 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:

Figure 1-B

The Effects of the Fall

Unfortunately, the idyllic setting in the Garden of Eden was shattered. Genesis 3 tells the sad story of Adam and Eve's lost relationship with God through sin. The effects of their fall were dramatic, immediate and far reaching, infecting every subsequent member of the human race.

Spiritual Death

What happened to Adam and Eve spiritually because of the Fall? They died. Their union with God was severed and they were separated from God. God had specifically said, "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17, NIV). They ate and they died.

Did they die physically? Not immediately, although physical death would be a consequence of the Fall as well. They died spiritually; they were separated from God's presence. They were physically cast out of the Garden of Eden and a cherubim waving a flaming sword was stationed at the entrance "to guard the way to the tree of life" (Genesis 3:24). Some believe this act preserved a way back as God's plan of redemption unfolded.

Just as we inherited physical life from our first parents, so we have inherited spiritual death from them (see Romans 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22). Consequently, every human being who comes into the world is born physically alive but spiritually dead, separated from God (see Ephes. 2:1).

Lost Knowledge of God

What effect did the Fall produce in Adam's mind? He and Eve lost their true perception of reality and the idea of knowing was no longer relational. We read in Genesis 3:7, 8 that they tried to hide from God. Doesn't that reveal a faulty understanding of who God is? How can you hide from an omnipresent God? Their distorted perception of reality reflects Paul's description of the futile thinking of those who don't know God: "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts" (Ephes. 4:18, NIV).

In essence, when Adam and Eve sinned they lost a true knowledge of God. In God's original design, knowledge was relational. The Hebrew concept of knowledge implied an intimate personal relationship. For instance, "Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived" (Genesis 4:1, KJV). Yet we don't generally equate a knowledge of someone with personal intimacy. When they sinned and were banished from the garden, Adam and Eve lost their relationship with God and the knowledge of God, which was intrinsic to that relationship.

In our unregenerate state, we may have known something about God, but we didn't know God because we had no relationship with Him. "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised" (1 Cor. 2:14).

The necessity of being in relationship to God to know God comes into sharp focus in John's announcement: "And the Word [logos in the Greek] became flesh" (John 1:14). That was an incredibly significant statement in a world heavily influenced by ancient Greek philosophy. To the Greek philosopher, logos represented the highest form of philosophical knowledge. To say that the Word became flesh meant that the logos was incarnated, that ultimate knowledge became personal and relational. Jesus embodied the truth because He is the truth. You couldn't separate His words from who He is. The Hebrew dabar, translated as "word," also conveyed the ultimate wisdom of God.

The Gospel of John brings these two cultures and dominant concepts together in Christ. God was announcing to the world through John that the true knowledge of God, which can only be discovered in an intimate relationship with God, is now available to the world through God who came in the flesh—Jesus Christ. In Christ we are able to know God personally because we have received the "mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16) in our inner selves at salvation.

This truth has profound implications for Christian education. Knowledge to the western world has become nothing more than the collection of data. That kind of knowledge makes us arrogant, but love edifies (see 1 Cor. 8:1). Paul says, "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 1:5). The truth (Christ and His Word) should set us free and enable us to conform to the image of God. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

Dominant Negative Emotions

Adam and Eve were not only darkened in their understanding, but they also became fearful and anxious. The first emotion expressed by fallen humankind was fear (see Genesis 3:10). Fear of anything other than God is mutually exclusive to faith in God. Why is the fear of God the beginning of wisdom (see Proverbs 9:10) and how does it expel all other fears?

As I was writing the book Freedom From Fear with my colleague Rich Miller, I became aware that we are living in an age of anxiety. People around the world are paralyzed by fear of anything and everything but God. Chuck Colson said, "For the church in the West to come alive, it needs to resolve its identity crisis, to stand on truth, to renew its vision . . . and more than anything else, it needs to recover the fear of the Lord."

Another emotional by-product of sin is shame and guilt. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God they were naked and unashamed (see Genesis 2:25). God created them as sexual beings. Their sex organs and sexual activity were holy. When they sinned, however, they were ashamed to be naked and they had to cover up (see Genesis 3:7). Many people mask the inner self for fear that others may find out what is really going on inside. When dominated by guilt and shame, self-disclosure is not likely to happen.

Humankind also became depressed and angry after the Fall. Cain brought his offering to God and, for some reason, God was displeased with it. "So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it'" (Genesis 4:5-7, NIV).

Why was Cain angry and depressed? Because he didn't do what was right. In other words, God is saying, "You don't feel your way into good behavior; you behave your way into good feelings." Jesus said, "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them" (John 13:17).

While researching and writing the book Finding Hope Again, I discovered we are also experiencing a blues epidemic in this age of anxiety. Depression is so prevalent it is called the "common cold" of mental illness. Visits to the doctor that resulted in a diagnosis of depression almost doubled from 1985 to 1995 in the United States, and overall there was a tenfold increase in the twentieth century.

Too Many Choices

Adam and Eve's sin also affected their will to choose. Do you realize that in the Garden of Eden they could make only one wrong choice? Everything they wanted to do was okay except eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (see Genesis 2:16, 17). They had the possibility of making myriad good choices and only one bad choice—only one!

Eventually, however, they made that one bad choice. As a result, you and I are confronted every day with myriad good and bad choices. Apart from the Holy Spirit in your life, the greatest power you possess is the power to choose. You can choose to pray or not pray, read your Bible or not read your Bible, go to church or not go to church. You can choose to walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit.

Attributes Become Needs

Another long-term effect of sin is that humankind's attributes before the Fall became glaring needs after the Fall. This sad transition occurs in three areas. Each of these three needs is continuous in our lives.

1. Acceptance was replaced by rejection; therefore we have a need to belong. Even before the Fall, Adam had a need to belong. His need to belong to God was filled in the intimacy of his fellowship with God in the garden. Of all the things that were good in the garden, the only thing that was "not good" was that Adam was alone (see Genesis 2:18). God filled that need by creating Eve.

Ever since Adam and Eve's sin alienated them from God and introduced strife into human relationships, we have experienced a deep need to belong. Even when people come to Christ and fill their need to belong to God, they still need to belong to the community of God's people.

If your church doesn't provide opportunities for legitimate Christian fellowship for its members, they will seek it someplace else. Those who study church-growth trends have discovered that a church can give people Christ, but if it doesn't also give them friends, after a few months the church will lose them. The spiritual union of Christian fellowship—called koinonia in the New Testament—is not just a nice thing the church ought to provide; it is a necessary thing the church must provide.

You will never understand the power of peer pressure in our culture until you understand the legitimate need to belong and the fear of rejection we all share.

2. Innocence was replaced by guilt and shame; therefore the need for a legitimate sense of worth has to be restored. Those who work with people recognize that a suffering humankind struggles with a poor sense of worth. An identity crisis and a negative self-image have been human problems since the Fall. The secular advice of stroking one another's ego and picking ourselves up by our own bootstraps is not a sufficient answer. Our sense of worth is not a question of giftedness, talent, intelligence or beauty. Your sense of personal worth comes from knowing who you are as a child of God and your growth in character. We will talk more about the dimensions of our identity in Christ and how it contributes to our sense of worth in the chapters ahead.

3. Dominion was replaced by weakness and helplessness; therefore we have a need for strength and self-control. People attempt to meet this need by learning to discipline themselves or by seeking to control and manipulate others. Nobody is more insecure or sick than controllers. They wrongly believe they can establish themselves by trying to control and manipulate other people or circumstances in life. In other words, they are trying to play God. The fruit of the Spirit is not spouse control or staff control or environmental control; it is self-control (see Galatians 5:23).

On the other hand, extreme efforts at self-discipline without the grace of God often lead to legalism or perfectionism and result in self-destruction. The world would have us think we are the masters of our fates and the captains of our souls, but we really aren't. The human soul was not designed to function as a master. We cannot serve God and wealth, but we will serve one or the other (see Matthew 6:24), being deceived into thinking we are serving ourselves.

Every temptation is an attempt by the devil to get us to live our lives independently of God. Satan tempts us just as he did Jesus by appealing to our most basic and legitimate needs. The question is: Are these needs going to be met by the world, the flesh and the devil, or are they going to be met by God who promises to meet all our needs "according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19)? The most critical needs are the being needs and they are the ones most wonderfully met in Christ.

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, Amazon Podcasts, and Audible.com. 

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship