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Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - Communion and Resurrection - 04/09/2023


 Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 04/09/2023

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: Communion and Resurrection Podcast

Or watch the Video Zoom Session of our Study on YouTube: 


Communion and the Resurrection

 

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?  I Cor. 10:16

 

I love the word “communion.” We see two words, “common” and “union” therein. Consider; unity, community, communication.

 

When we enter “Holy Week” we find two bookends of new                institutions; the supper, and the resurrection.

 

On what we call “Maundy Thursday” Jesus instituted the practice that we continue in, as a church.

         The last supper is more appropriately the last Passover.

         Jesus breaks the unleavened bread and calls it His body.

                  This is not incidental. The broken bread symbolizes His broken body. He passes a piece of it to each of the disciples. They eat it, and a piece of the whole is in each of them. But we mustn’t misunderstand the analogy. When we receive Christ, we don’t receive a small piece of Him, but all of Him.

         SS. 6:3, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”

The question should never arise, “how much of Jesus did I receive?” but we should always ask ourselves, “how much am I willing to submit?”

 

        Jesus calls “the cup” (the new wine) His blood, and establishes a, “new covenant.” Lk. 22:20, “This cup is the new covenant in My                                                blood, which is shed for you,

Lev. 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.”...And...

Gen. 4:10,The voice of you brother’s blood cries out to Me”

 

We are instructed by Jesus to remember these things as               often as we celebrate this meal.

The resurrection is something new. The people Jesus rose up from the dead were more accurately resuscitations. They all died again.

Rom. 8:29 calls Jesus, “the firstborn among many brethren.”

Rom. 6:10 says, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

 

On the first day of the week Jesus instituted, by example, the resurrection which was a controversial subject in Judaism.

 

Rom. 6:5, For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

 

         I wanted so much for the phrase “united together” to mean       communion. For the sake of accuracy, it means: planted together, closely united to; planted together.

If you’ve ever seen a corn field; that’s communion.

 

Every aspect of God’s economy is to draw us, and sometimes drive us, and even bind us together in unity with Christ and one another.

 

God’s aim is, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.                                                                                          Jer. 31:33

 

Jesus expressed it this way, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us…Jn. 17:20

 

Three meals mentioned in Scripture of covenant grace are:

         1) The Passover, which points ahead to Christ, the redeemer

         2) The Lord’s Supper, a bloodless meal that points to the cross

         3) The marriage supper of the Lamb, Rev. 19:9 anticipated.

 

Happy Resurrection Day! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!Rev. 22:20


-----Join us for another Bible Study Next Week -------

or

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

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

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube 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)

“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

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Who Christ Really is for Us Today - Lent with Bonhoeffer Day 40 – Purity 1012

(Photo credit: Paulette Hodges) 

Who Christ Really is for Us Today - Lent with Bonhoeffer Day 40  – Purity 1012

Purity 1012 04/08/2023 Purity 1012 Podcast

Purity 1012 on YouTube: Coming Soon!

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the last night’s post sunset twilight time comes to us from a FB friend who captured this scene near presumably near their home in Germantown NY and shared it on social media last evening , commenting that there was “no filter needed”. 

Well, It’s Holy Saturday and I am sharing a link to gotquestions.org’s biblical answer to the question of “What is Holy Saturday?” (https://www.gotquestions.org/Holy-Saturday.html ) to let the curious, like I was, know what happened on the day in between Christ’s death and resurrection.  

Spoiler alert, while Christ’s disciples mourned his loss, the Pharisees, remembering Jesus’ claim that He would rise from the dead, were asking Pontius Pilate for a guard to put on Christ’s tomb to keep anyone from breaking in.  

However, as we all know, the Resurrection was an “inside job” and no amount of Roman soldiers was going to stop Jesus from breaking out of that tomb to show the world that He was who He said He was, the Messiah – The Son of God and God the Son – and that even the grave could not hold Him down!

But on Saturday, the pharisees, the Romans, and may even some of the disciples, believed that Jesus was dead and gone – but just in case his enemies put a guard on him.  So “Holy Saturday” became a day of waiting  even those who didn’t believe in Him and some Christians will observe today in somber reflection remembering Christ’s death, and the death of other Christians who have gone into eternity before us, to acknowledge the loss but it will an acknowledgement and remembrance that will be tempered with a hope and a promise.  

We can mourn the loss of Christ and the departed saints today, but we will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection tomorrow and still have the hope and the promise of Christ’s return to earth to rule and reign forever and the resurrection of all His faithful followers still to come.   

So whether you choose to use Holy Saturday to remember the loss or to rejoice over the resurrection and the hope of Christ’s promised return, I hope you enjoy this day of waiting and have a wonderful Easter or Resurrection Sunday tomorrow.

But speaking of mourning our losses, it may be hard to believe but we have officially arrived at the last day of Lent, and the last day of our current series, the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, with Day 40.

As a final reminder, and as we have said each day of this journey, we took this path to mark the season of Lent and to draw closer to God in anticipation of the celebration of Easter, knowing that if we took this journey of repentance seriously, we would not only see the days and seasons change, the Lord would use it to change us too. 

And the Lord did use this walk to change us. We are at the very least were well over 40 days older (no Lent days on Sundays remember?), but if your walk has been similar to mine, the last 40 plus days has helped to deliver you from some of the darkness and chaos of winter and into a new life of spring.  It was February 24th when I started doing this devotion on the blog, on DAY 3 of Lent, yup started late and didn’t know I was going to walk this out officially until Day 5, but it gave me a rest I desperately needed and gave me wisdom and encouragement that I didn’t have before.  This lent I have been a little more disciplined with my health and have seen some major moves of God with the Freedom in Christ course and some new insights and personal revelations through the study material, cohort community, and prayer minister that the Deeper Walk School of Prayer Ministry’s curriculum required me to see to “experience being a client.  This season of Lent just proves to me again the reason why I do this blog – share the knowledge that we are to continually lean on and learn from the Lord and if we keep “waking and talking with God” we will continue to grow and mature as we experience the grand adventure of the new life the Lord has given us to live.   

So if you are coming in late, you can walk out this 40 day journey with Bonhoeffer for yourself, at your own pace.

You can sign up to get this devotional yourself by going to the Biblegateway link on the blog ((https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-Day-Journey-Dietrich-Bonhoeffer/today)) . 

Day 40

Near the end of his life, Bonhoeffer was reported to have said the following:

“What bothers me incessantly is the question…who Christ really is for us today?”

Biblical Wisdom

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the son of Man is?” and they said, “some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets?” he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the messiah, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:13-16

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? Luke 6:46

Questions to Ponder

  • What is the relationship between who Jesus was two thousand years ago and “who Christ really is for us today”?

M.T. Clark: Well, We are going to have to go with Scripture on this one and proclaim that:

Hebrews 13:8 (NKJV)
8  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And that just as Jesus was close and personal to his disciples two thousand years ago, He is close and personal to His disciples today.  To be with Jesus back then, you had to follow Him. He had places to go and people to see and if you wanted to know Him you had to follow Him. Likewise today, if we want to know Him we have to follow Him and we shouldn’t be surprised to discover that He has places for us to go and people for us to see.  The presence of the Christ in our lives is a tangible reality that requires our “asking, seeking, and knocking” for His wisdom, guidance, love, and strength but the good news is that if we seek Him, we will find Him. So if you don’t know Him or have experienced His presence, keep seeking Him – in His word, in prayer, and by walking and talking with Him – and surrendering yourself to His will for your life.

  • Is there a difference between asking who Christ is for us and who Christ is for me? Explain.

M.T. Clark: While Jesus is the same for all of us – our Lord and Savior, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Our God and Brother, who Christ is “for me” will be a little different for each of us because He will heal our individual hurts and empower us with individual talents for our individual purpose for the body of Christ and the kingdom of God.  We are one body, but we are not all the same, and Christ will be “different” to each of us as our relationship with Him will be highly personal.  

  • How do we go about answering the question about “who Christ really is for us today”?

M.T. Clark:  Again, I would point to Christ being who He said He was and the fact that He doesn’t change and that if we want an answer to the question of “who Christ really is for us today?”, we have to consider who we “really are” for Christ today.

If Christ is someone you only visit a couple of times a year, or just on Sundays, at a church service, He really isn’t going to be much for you. But if we are continually seeking to know Him more through consulting His word and seeking His guidance in prayer and conforming ourselves to His image in the way we live our lives, He is “really” going to be “really real” to us and He is going to really be the answer to everything in our lives. So if you want to know “who Christ really is for us today?”, you might want to ask yourself \:

“Do I really “believe this” (John 11:25-26)? Do I really believe that He is the resurrection and the life? Am I really following Him? Am I for real, in my faith?”

Psalm Fragment

“Be still, and know that I am God!
   I am exalted among the nations,
   I am exalted in the earth.” 
Psalm 46:10

Journal Reflections

  • If someone asked you who Christ really is for you today, how would you answer?

M.T. Clark: If someone asked me who Christ really is for me today, I would tell them that, Jesus is:

·       My Lord and Savior

·       My reason for Hope

·       The One who Recued me

·       The One who gave me life

·       The One who paid for my sins

·       The One who forgives me

·       ‘The One who loves me

·       The One who has answered all my questions

·       The One who has never left me of forsaken me’

·       The One who walks with me every day

·       The Other in the Fire

·       My Brother, My Lord, and My Friend

And that’s not all, but that’s some of who Christ really is for me, today, and every day.

  • You have finished a 40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. How was the journey? What did you learn from Bonhoeffer? Has your understanding of what it means to be a Christian to follow Jesus changed? If so, how? What will be different in your life of faith for having taken this 40-day journey?

M.T. Clark: The Journey was great! I am a huge Bonhoeffer fan and admirer. If you didn’t know, I am so zealous about his book, Discipleship (The Cost of Discipleship) that I did a rather amateurish walk through it on YouTube (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYr9n4D1yfkpmfKHjeP5auLNK4e27Y8AX)! So doing the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a “no brainer” when I discovered it on Biblegateway. 

My understanding of what it means to be a Christian and to follow Jesus is always changing as the Lord blesses those who seek to learn from Him and that surrender themselves to His will for their life.  I was blessed every day through this study with Bonhoeffer’s writings, the scriptures, prayers, and these questions.

What will be different because of the study? Well, it’s now on the blog, the podcast, and YouTube now so I pray that others find it and decided to be inspired by it to follow the Lord and I am sure that the Holy Spirit will reserve the right to glean from the things I have learned from it to encourage myself and others in the future. 

As for me, I was on the path of Christian discipleship before I found the study and will just keep going the way the Lord directs me. Every ending on this path is merely a new beginning, and so come Monday I will see what is next but I will always remember that the season of Lent in 2023 was spent with the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  

Intercessions

Pray for all those who will read this book, that their journey with Bonhoeffer might lead them closer to Christ.

M.T. Clark:

Lord,

I thank you for the writings and faithful example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and pray for all who have walked out this devotional through the blog and the podcast with us, and to all who will go on to do the devotional on Biblegateway or who will read the book, that their journey with Bonhoeffer might lead them closer to Christ and to inspire to live out their Christian faith for all to see the abundant life that comes to all who learn from and follow Jesus.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!

Prayer for Today

Loving God, for where I have been and for where I am going on my journey with Jesus, I give you thanks and praise.

In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

 

(40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Copyright © 2007 Augsburg Books, imprint of Augsburg Fortress.)

***As we are being provided with Bible verses from the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we will are taking a break from sharing a verse of the day from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”. We plan on resuming that normal installment of the blog following Easter.*** 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 A.W. Pink’s “The Sovereignty of God.”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

By  ARTHUR W. PINK

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE VALUE OF THIS DOCTRINE continues

 

We shall now consider the Value of the doctrine in detail.

8. It evokes a song of praise

It could not be otherwise. Why should I, who am by nature no different from the careless and godless throngs all around, have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and now blest with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Him! Why was I, that once was an alien and a rebel, singled out for such wondrous favors! Ah! that is something I cannot fathom. Such grace, such love, “passeth knowledge.” But if my mind is unable to discern a reason my heart can express its gratitude in praise and adoration. But not only should I be grateful to God for His grace toward me in the past, His present dealings will fill me with thanksgivings. What is the force of that word “Rejoice in the Lord alway” (Phil. 4:4)? Mark it is not “Rejoice in the Saviour,” but we are to “Rejoice in the Lord” as “Lord,” as the Master of every circumstance. Need we remind the reader that when the apostle penned these words he was himself a prisoner in the hands of the Roman government. A long course of affliction and suffering lay behind him. Perils on land and perils on sea, hunger and thirst, scourging and stoning, had all been experienced. He had been persecuted by those within the church as well as by those without: the very ones who ought to have stood by him had forsaken him. And still he writes, “Rejoice in the Lord alway”! What was the secret of his peace and happiness? Ah! had not this same apostle written “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). But how did he, and how do we, “know” that all things work together for good? The answer is, Because all things are under the control of and are being regulated by the Supreme Sovereign, and because He has naught but thoughts of love toward His own, then “all things” are so ordered by Him that they are made to minister to our ultimate good. It is for this cause we are to give “thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20). Yes, give thanks for “all things” for, as it has been well said “Our disappointments are but His appointments.” To the one who delights in the sovereignty of God the clouds not only have a ‘silver lining’ but they are silvern all through, the darkness only serving to offset the light—

“Ye fearful saints fresh courage take

The clouds ye so much dread,

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings o’er your head.”[1]

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

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 You Tube 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)

“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 W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 233–235.

Saturday, April 16, 2022

A Firm But Supernatural Foundation - Happy Easter - Purity 707

A Firm But Supernatural Foundation - Happy Easter  - Purity 707                                      

Purity 707  04/16/2022 - Purity 707 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of  bare earth and a concrete slab underneath a blue and cirrus cloud filled sky comes to us from a friend who not too long ago dreamed of and made the decision to build a new home in Florida for their retirement. Dreaming about and deciding things is one thing, purchasing the land and laying a foundation is quite another.   Generally, when we make statements to others about what we want to do with our lives that seem to be out of the norm, our friends and loved ones will ask  “are you serious?” 

Well our friend put their money where their mouth was, and their spade to ground, to show that they were indeed very serious about their dream and decision, and they shared this photo of the firmly planted foundation of their future home on social media back on April 7th

That sky is brilliant but the thing of beauty in this photo are the things unseen.  This photo’s beauty is the beauty of hope, and potential. This photo’s beauty lies in the things not seen, that seemingly came out of nothing, but with determined effort will materialize in the manifestation of our friend’s vision in which they will actually, physically live.   This photo conveys the wonder of the world that God has made for us.

God made a world in which we could envision and create almost anything we put our minds to.  I almost said that we could create or do anything we put our minds to but the truth is that God gave us such a wonderful faculty of imagination that it is possible to envision things that we can’t actually create physically.

But as a I think about it, even among the physically impossible dreams we have, we could create works of art to reflect our vision. Whether it’s a drawing, a painting, a sculptor, a novel, a blueprint, or a motion picture, God gives us a means of expressing even the wildest visions of our imagination. It just may not be something we can hold in our hands or “live in”.

So I guess we can create anything we put our minds to but the finished product of our imagination may need to be tempered with how our dreams manifest. 

Creative works of art aside, when it comes to real life, I have come to have less patience with and don’t invest my thoughts and imaginations on plans for my life that I can’t work towards and accomplish.  

Back in my drug using days, I would spend time with people who would endlessly talk about their future hopes and plans for their lives that had little or no chance of actually happening, especially considering all they did was do drugs and talk about the future as if things would just magically appear.  

“Some day I going to live there. I’m going to get me one of those one day. I’m going to live in a mansion with, a swimming pool, a four car garage, and never have to work a day in my life.”

Unfortunately, saying it doesn’t make it happen and the dreams that we have for “one day” or “some day” will never happen if we don’t plan for and work toward today.  

Some people feel that they can pray and God will provide things miraculously.  While that is possible, I feel that God’s moving in the miraculous is a rare occasion and tends to have a higher purpose than meeting our personal desires.    People with this view of the Lord have Him confused with a genie. 

Unfortunately, our misunderstandings about God and our unanswered prayers can cause us to decide that He doesn’t exist or that He either doesn’t care about us or can’t help us.    

So how do we know God cares and how can we experience His help in our lives?  

Well, the evidence for God, the manifestation of His vision to help us and to reconcile us to Him, was born in a manger in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ is the culmination of God’s plan of redemption for mankind that was first prophesied about in the third chapter of Genesis and continues throughout the Old Testament scriptures.  God used men to speak about the coming Messiah and to envision a day when He would come to save us. 

Unfortunately, men’s imaginations aren’t perfect and the majority opinion that the Messiah would come as a conqueror didn’t quite play out like they thought it would. Although there are scriptures that describe the Messiah as one who would rule and reign (Isaiah 32:1) there are others that describe him as a suffering servant (Isaiah 53). 

With the advent of Christ, we now understand that these seemingly contradictory prophesies are both true. They describe Christ’s first appearance on the earth, when He suffered, died, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven, and his eventual second coming that was promised in the Book of Acts, right on the heels of the moment of his heavenly departure by an angelic messenger.   Jesus is coming back.    

So God had a plan for mankind and although it hasn’t been completed yet and it is working out more and more each day as people continually see the truth and put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior and decided to stand on the firm foundation of the Rock by following Him.  

As we will celebrate Christ’s resurrection tomorrow, I can remember before I was born again, how I was always troubled and confused about Easter. I just didn’t get it. All the weird symbolism, the traditions of men, and the confounding truth of Christ’s death and resurrection, was an offense to my logical mind and, now that I have some clarity on the matter, I realize that it was an offense to my conscience. 

If Christ died for my sins and was raised from the dead it meant: 

·       I was a sinner.  There were things I was doing that were wrong. That I should not do. That I should stop doing.  And that need to be forgiven of and paid for.  

It also meant that:

·       Christ was God

And that meant that, I didn’t really have a choice:

If Jesus was the Truth, the Way, and the Life, I had to choose to follow Him or I was going to have to pay for my sins and have God’s wrath poured out on me, that I would be separated from God’s kingdom, and consigned to eternal suffering in Hell.  

And I didn’t like that! I didn’t want to “be good”.  I didn’t want to change!  

So I used my snarky wit and disdain for the cute and cuddly symbols of Easter, to basically reject it all. 

But at various times, I would also try to claim a place in heaven through nothing more than the fact of my infant baptism. That somehow I could just be forgiven because of a ceremony that was done on my behalf when I was too young and unaware that I was being promised to be a part of God’s kingdom. 

I didn’t want to go to hell but was too rebellious to make anyone “my Lord”.  

But thanks be to God, the Lord never let me go and during the 38th year of my life, He arranged for me to hear the gospel message that saved my life. The message told me that I didn’t have to earn my salvation, like I thought I had. 

The message told me of God’s plan that began in antiquity and moved through the ages until Christ was born and died for us. It also told me that for me to be forgiven of my sins, and to be a part of God’s plan for all eternity, all I had to do was say “Yes” to Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  

The message told me that God did exist, He did care for me, and He could help me if I would only come to Him.  And I did.  

But like I said, I don’t like ethereal dreams or spiritual wishes.  If I was going to be a part of God’s vision for me, I wanted to make it real.     

If I was going to be a Christian, I wanted it to be real and even though I was still in bondage to the besetting sins that I would one day be freed from, I was drawn to read the Bible to get to know God more.  

I figured I was hopeless in terms of sinning. God took on a big burden with me because He was going to have to forgive all my sins  and I wasn’t done yet.  But I knew He saved me anyway and the love I had for Him drew me to read His word and to begin to try to live out the plan He had for me.   

Even though I was a rebel and a big sinner, I wanted to change but I didn’t think I could.  In our heart of hearts, we know when we are doing wrong and a part of us desperately wants to change, because God wrote His law on our hearts, our consciences come from Him.  

But for me the idea, or the dreams that: 

·       Someday I’ll stop doing drugs. 

·       Someday I’ll stop drinking.

·       Someday I’ll be pure, and be loyal in thought and in deed, to one woman.

Seemed as crazy as some of the drug fueled fantasies that I had heard from some of ghosts in my pasts. 

But the Lord had a vision and plan for me and when I realized that I wanted it too and started walking and working towards it, God’s creative work that He began in my heart became manifest in the world of the living, and just like the work of the creation of the universe, the work that He began in me keeps going and going and going as I allow His word and Spirit to expand my horizons and to take me to places physically, emotionally, and spiritually that I would have never dreamed possible.  

But what man thinks is impossible is possible with God. The Lord is the Creator of Life and that what He wants all of us to have through Jesus Christ, Life and life more abundantly. 

So as we enjoy Saturday today and celebrate Easter tomorrow, lets remember all that Christ done for us and let’s decide to let God work out the plan that He has for our lives.   Our life of faith is no pipe dream. If we decide to follow God’s wisdom and ways, we can discover just how real God is. We can discover just how much he can help us. And we can discover just how much He cares.

God loves us. So keep walking and talking with Him. All His plans are good and right now we are living in the beauty of the potential of the unseen. We don’t know where He is leading us but if we keep going we will be amazed at all the things we see that will “come out of nowhere” as we walk with Him from here to eternity.  

______________________________________________________________

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

This morning’s meditation verses are:

1 John 2:24-25 (NLT2)
24  So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.
25  And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.

Today’s Bible verses encourages us to keep first things first!

As I stated the fact of the resurrection of Christ can be confounding but it is true and the implications of it are far reaching for us personally and for all mankind.  That gospel truth of the atonement of our sins and the new spiritual life we receive when we put our faith in Christ is the first lesson we learn as Christians.  

If we don’t believe the fact and implications of Christ’s death and resurrection and make a personal commitment to put our faith in Him, we aren’t Christians. The Apostle Paul was known for His scholarship of the Old Testament Scriptures but He proclaimed

1 Corinthians 2:2 (NKJV)
2  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

1 Corinthians 6:14 (NKJV)
14  And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

Verse like these show us that Christ’s death and Resurrection matters. They are the cornerstone doctrines of our faith. They prove Christ was God and that His words are true. 

So as today’s Bible verses tell us, we nee to be faithful to what we have been taught from the beginning: Christ crucified and raised to life again. 

And today’s verse also indicate that our faith is not “just believing:.  We are to remain in the fellowship with the Son and the Father. That points to a steadfast commitment to be in a living continuous relationship with God.  We don’t just believe the gospel one time and go about our business.  We are to remain in fellowship with God by living a lifestyle of Christian Discipleship. Far more than just a “worldview”, we are to remain in fellowship with the Son and the Father by living our lives according to their commandments and by sharing their love with others.  

When we doe this we prove who we are in Christ for all the world to see and it will be no surprise to us when we “enjoy the eternal life He promised us.”  So “remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning” and teach it to others by proclaiming it and by living it every day.

 

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 John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life” .  

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase John Pipers’  books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

An Eighteenth-Century Preacher Sealed the Breakthrough

Jonathan Edwards came into my life at this time with the most powerful confirmation of this truth I have ever seen outside the Bible. It was powerful because he showed that it was in the Bible. As I write in the year 2003, we are marking his 300th birthday. He was a pastor and theologian in New England. For me he has become the most important dead teacher outside the Bible. No one outside Scripture has shaped my vision of God and the Christian life more than Jonathan Edwards.

I thank God that Edwards did not waste his life. It ended abruptly from a failed smallpox vaccination when he was fifty-four. But he had lived well. His life is inspiring because of his zeal not to waste it, and because of his passion for the supremacy of God. Consider some of the resolutions he wrote in his early twenties to intensify his life for the glory of God.

• Resolution #5: “Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.”

• Resolution #6: “Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.”

• Resolution #17: “Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”

• Resolution #22: “Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

This last resolution (#22) may strike us as blatantly self-centered, even dangerous, if we do not understand the deep connection in Edwards’s mind between the glory of God and the happiness of Christians. The violence he had in mind was what Jesus meant when he said in essence, “Better to gouge out your eye to kill lust and go to heaven than to make peace with sin and go to hell” (Matthew 5:29). And with regard to seeking his own happiness, keep in mind that Edwards was absolutely convinced that being happy in God was the way we glorify him. This was the reason we were created. Delighting in God was not a mere preference or option in life; it was our joyful duty and should be the single passion of our lives. Therefore to resolve to maximize his happiness in God was to resolve to show him more glorious than all other sources of happiness. Seeking happiness in God and glorifying God were the same.

The Great Coming Together for Me

Here is how Edwards explained it. He preached a sermon when he was still in his early twenties with this main point: “The godly are designed for unknown and inconceivable happiness.” His text was 1 John 3:2, “And it doth not yet appear what we shall be” (kjv).

[The] glory of God [does not] consist merely in the creature’s perceiving his perfections: for the creature may perceive the power and wisdom of God, and yet take no delight in it, but abhor it. Those creatures that so do, don’t glorify God. Nor doth the glory of God consist especially in speaking of his perfections: for words avail not any otherwise than as they express the sentiment of the mind. This glory of God, therefore, [consists] in the creature’s admiring and rejoicing [and] exulting in the manifestation of his beauty and excellency.… The essence of glorifying … God consists, therefore, in the creature’s rejoicing in God’s manifestations of his beauty, which is the joy and happiness we speak of. So we see it comes to this at last: that the end of the creation is that God may communicate happiness to the creature; for if God created the world that he may be glorified in the creature, he created it that they might rejoice in his glory: for we have shown that they are the same.

This was the great coming together for me—the breakthrough. What was life about? What was it for? Why do I exist? Why am I here? To be happy? Or to glorify God? Unspoken for years, there was in me the feeling that these two were at odds. Either you glorify God or you pursue happiness. One seemed absolutely right; the other seemed absolutely inevitable. And that is why I was confused and frustrated for so long.

Compounding the problem was that many who seemed to emphasize the glory of God in their thinking did not seem to enjoy him much. And many who seemed to enjoy God most were defective in their thinking about his glory. But now here was the greatest mind of early America, Jonathan Edwards, saying that God’s purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion.

When I saw this, I knew, at last, what a wasted life would be and how to avoid it.

God created me—and you—to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion—namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God-enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.[1]

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

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


[1] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), 29–31.