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Showing posts with label Free Will. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Will. Show all posts

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Moving Forward – Remedies for Past, Present, and Future with the Lord - Purity 915


Moving Forward – Remedies for Past, Present, and Future with the Lord -  Purity 915

Purity 915 12/15/2022 

Purity 915 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of a former train track pathway running through the treetops under a pleasant blue sky comes to us from a friend who shared this scene from their outing with a group of friends on, what I believe to be, the Hadley Rail biking Ride back in September of last year.   According to the Revolution Rail Company’s website (https://www.revrail.com/railbiking-rides/hadley-railbiking/), in “just minutes into the ride,” riders will “cross a spectacular 500′ foot long and 90′ high bridge that crosses over the confluence of the Hudson and Sacandaga Rivers. The bridge overlooks a beautiful historic parabolic bridge and a great set of rapids. If you are not a fan of heights, this may not be the trip for you. The trip continues through the pine canopy, where you’ll likely see chipmunks, squirrels, and sometimes deer and fox.”  I share this photo with a sense of regret and anticipation as I may have missed my chance to do the Hadley rail Trail back in 2021, and 2022, but there is always 2023 to consider and possibly experience this high ride among the treetops.  

Well, its’ Thursday again, and as is my habit I am sharing this railway pathway as a visual reminder to all who read this message to get, or to stay on, and to keep moving forward on the path of Christian Discipleship.  

This photo was taken by a friend I met as part of a divorce support group I was a part of back in 2021, who really came together as a community and who decided to “move on” with their lives with joy by coming together, not just for the regular meetings, but in planning fun activities where they could socialize and enjoy their freedom in spite of the pain past or challenges they were currently going through as they adjusted to the “new normal” in their post-divorce lives. Although I don’t attend the meetings any longer now that I am remarried, the Divorce Care group still exists at Star Point church and continues to socialize and help its members with emotional support, practical and legal advice, and with fun social activities.  So if you are a Christian in the capital district who have divorced or are going through a divorce, I would recommend that you get connected with this group by going to the Starpoint Church website and joining this “growth group” (https://starpoint.churchcenter.com/groups/growth-groups/divorce-care-group-with-nancy).  It really helped me to process some of the trauma from divorce and to boldly go out on the social scene in the safety of like minded Christians.  

Divorce Care is national ministry, and I am included the link to their website on the blog today so anyone who needs support can possibly find a group near you or online: https://www.divorcecare.org/.  

In the last couple of days I have had to deal with grief and criticism, and as a way to get past the negative emotions I have gone through in the last 48 hours I decide to look back, for today’s photo and to remind myself of the joy of the journey and where I am today.  

If you didn’t know it, you can get “stuck in the present” as well as stuck in the past, so while we have to take care of the here and now, if we are overwhelmed with conflicting emotions, we might decide to resolve to leave those present problems of the heart behind by “moving on”,  However, if you are anything like me, with an somewhat obsessive ideation that can cycle back to the same considerations by dwelling on the same things over and over again, you might be well served to remind yourself of all you have been through in the past, to put aside “this present drama” and to “move on”, knowing that you are in fact an overcomer and no matter what has happened in your very recent past that may have been troubling or exposed a weakness in the idea of you making progress, your history will remind you that you are not perfect but by God you are not the person you once were and if you are walking and talking with God, you are doing the best you can. 

So look back. Realize you have made GREAT strides on this path. Forgive those who have offended you. And forgive yourself for not being perfect.  Stop thinking about the things you said or did that you can not change. If you were wrong, apologize and seek forgiveness. However, if the drama that you have been dragged into is just “drama”, recognize that and move on. Keep doing what you are doing: keep walking and taking with God.   

I am someone who may think too much or care too much at times and who can easily become overwhelmed when I have too much on my plate.  At work, I normally get 4 jobs assigned to me every day.  When I started being a full time maintenance tech, I would get overwhelmed by thoughts of having to get all four jobs completed in a days’ time and I put pressure on myself because I wanted to “do a good job” and “get ‘er done” in each instance.  I was filled with fear and anxiety about being able to perform and when I looked at the four jobs in front of me I would feel burden. 

“Oh I got this one here and that one there. That sounds like a real mess. Oh that looks easy. How am I supposed to get all these done when they are all over the place!”  

If this little drama wasn’t enough, occasionally, dispatch would change my assignments in the middle of the day, adding new work or taking away jobs as the day progressed.  So because I had anticipated how my day would go, I would go through the day like I was riding a rollercoaster of reactivity, becoming anxious or angry at every twist and turn of the day.  

But I now have learned to “only do what is before me” and to accept the things I can’t do and to face the day without expectations, and knowing that my value is determined by God, who loves me for who I am, and not my performance at work.  

So now I don’t even really look at the other jobs assigned to me. I try to only look at the job I am going to dispatch on.   All of these enlightened responses have helped me keep my peace and patience.  

·       So if you are dwelling on the past. Look at now and look at the future.  

·       If you are stuck in the present, “stuck in the middle with me”,  look to the past to remind yourself that you survived this far and look to moving on by dealing with this “clear and present danger” to your mental health by doing those steps: offering forgiveness, seeking forgiveness and making a  plan and going ahead.

·       And if you are worried about the big dark future or “what MAY happen”, if this and that happen or don’t happen etc., SLOW YOUR ROLL, stand firm in the present with the determination that you will do everything you can do, in your power, and by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN FAITH, TODAY to set a course for the future where when THAT DAY comes, you will be ready for it, and assured that you did all you could, regardless of the results.  

Oh, and by the way, in all of these scenarios, we walk and talk with God and consider HIS WAYS and HIS WISDOM, for how we live our lives and WE DO THEM, to the best of our abilities.   We tell the truth, we live in the truth, and if we discover we have made a mistake, we correct our course, but we don’t live in condemnation and we don’t change the direction of our path of following the road that the Lord has put us on because of bumps along the way, unless the LORD is directing us to.  

So hey, God’s mercies are new every morning and if you were upset yesterday, that’s no reason to be upset today. Take time to connect with the Lord in Bible study and prayer and by thanking Him for all He is and for all He has done in, and will do, in your life.  

Sure a little rain will fall, and occasionally there will be some major storms to walk through in this life, but when we remember who we are in Christ and that fact that we never walk alone when we follow the Lord, we can have peace, and amazingly joy when we apply His wisdom to our lives.  

So figure out God’s remedy for your situation today, if you need to, or just continue in the way of peace that you have discovered when you walk and talk with God.

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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:

Hebrews 6:11-12 (NLT2)
11  Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
12  Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.

Today’s verses encourage us to keep loving others with the expectation that it will make you spiritually sharp and caring, and thus proving that you are in God’s kingdom and due to inherit His precious promises.   

Loving others is easy when you don’t have to deal with them.  Loving people from a far on the safe confines of a meditation cushion may work for the Buddhists but the Lord calls Christians to get our hands dirty and occasionally wash some feet! 

God calls us to care for people and help them. God calls us to love our enemies.  

Before Christ, it was so much easier to just “hate people” who disappointed you.  

“Oh he said something I don’t like?  I hate him. He’s dead to me.” 

But now as Christians, we are called to make peace, as much as it depends on us, with all men.  Yikes! 

So instead of just knee jerk reacting to people and consigning them to the realm of the “hated” people that we don’t interact with, God compels us to consider what it is like to walk a mile in their shoes and to actually listen and try to understand where they are coming from.  And EVEN IF, they are WRONG and WAY OFF BASE, we are called to forgive them and love them anyway!

Iron sharpening iron isn’t always a “buddy-buddy” situation.  We become “spiritually sharp” by learning to reject our worldly “knee jerk responses” for the Lord’s wisdom and by being patient in suffering, to be kind in the face of adversity.  

So as much as we may feel righteous by rejecting people that disagree with us, we should consider travelling the path of humility that Jesus walked. He knew everything and had to deal with untold levels of ignorance and sin when he came to earth. He was misunderstood and hated but He responded with love forgiveness, and He showed us the way to inherit the promises of God.  

So keep loving people, try to show them the way, but understand that even if they reject it, we are to still be kind and loving towards them to sharpen our resolve to be like Christ.   

 

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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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’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 Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship

 

Chapter Eleven

The Visible Church-Community, continues

 

Jesus’ community with his disciples was all-encompassing, extending to all areas of life. The individual’s entire life was lived within this community of the disciples. And this community is a living witness to the bodily humanity of the Son of God. The bodily presence of the Son of God demands the bodily commitment to him and with him throughout one’s daily life. With all our bodily living existence, we belong to him who took on a human body for our sake. In following him, the disciple is inseparably linked to the body of Jesus.

The first report about the young church-community in Acts (2:42ff.; 4:32ff.) testifies to this same fact: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the community, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” “All who believed were together and had all things in common.”[28] It is instructive to note that in this passage community (κοινωνία) finds its place between the word of proclamation and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. To define the nature of this community in such a way is not by accident, since this community springs ever anew from the word of proclamation, and continues to find its goal and fulfillment in the Lord’s Supper. All Christian community exists between word and sacrament. It begins and ends in worship. It awaits the final banquet with the Lord in the kingdom of God. A community with such an origin and such a goal is a perfect community, in which even the material things and goods of this life are assigned their proper priority. Here a perfect community is established freely, joyfully, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, a community in which “there was not a needy person,” in which possessions were distributed “as any had need,” and in which “no one claimed private ownership of any possessions.” The fact that this practice was commonplace reveals the community’s complete freedom, a freedom grounded in the gospel, and which requires no coercion. They were indeed “of one heart and soul.”[30]

This young church-community was visible to all and, strangely enough, had “the goodwill of all the people” (Acts 2:47). Was this fact due to the blindness of the people of Israel, who no longer perceived the cross of Jesus as the foundation of this perfect communal bond? Or was it perhaps an anticipation of the day in which all the world shall honor God’s people? Was it an expression of God’s loving-kindness which, particularly in times of growth, serious struggle, or separation between believers and their enemies, will surround the church-community with ordinary human goodwill and concern for what happens to it? Or was it simply that the church found favor with those who had cried “Hosanna” but not “crucify him”?[32] “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” This visible church-community whose reality fully extends to all areas of life [Lebensgemeinschaft] invades the world and snatches its children. The daily growth of the church-community demonstrates the power of the Lord who dwells in its midst.

The first disciples are inseparable from their Lord: wherever he is, there they must also be, and wherever they will be, there their Lord will also be until the end of time. Whatever the disciples do, they do it within the communal bond of the community of Jesus and as its members. Even the most secular act now takes place within the bounds of the church-community. This then is valid for the body of Christ: where one member is, there is also the whole body, and where the body is, there is also the member. There is no area of life where the member would be allowed or would even want to be separated from the body. Wherever one member happens to be, whatever one member happens to do, it always takes place “within the body,” within the church-community, “in Christ.” Life as a whole is taken up “into Christ.” Whether weak or strong, Christians are in Christ (Phil. 4:13; 2 Cor. 13:4). They work and toil or they rejoice “in the Lord” (Rom. 16:9, 12; 1 Cor. 15:58; Phil. 4:4); they speak and admonish in Christ (2 Cor. 2:17; Phil. 2:1), they show hospitality in Christ (Rom. 16:2), they marry in Christ (1 Cor. 7:39), they are imprisoned in the Lord (Phil. 1:13, 23), they are slaves in Christ (1 Cor. 7:22). The whole breadth of human relationships among Christians is encompassed by Christ, by the church-community.

The full life in Christ, in the church-community, is granted to every Christian through being baptized into the body of Christ. It is a terrible distortion of the New Testament view to reduce the gift of baptism to the right to participate in the sermon and the Lord’s Supper, that is, in the means of grace, and in addition, perhaps, to the right to hold office and to share in the ministries of the church-community. Rather, any baptized person receives an unrestricted privilege to participate in all areas of the communal life of the members of the body of Christ. To allow other baptized Christians to participate in worship but to refuse to have community with them in everyday life, and to abuse them and treat them with contempt, is to become guilty against the body of Christ itself. To acknowledge that other baptized Christians have received the gifts of salvation, and then to deny them the provisions necessary for this earthly life, or to leave them knowingly in affliction and distress, is to make a mockery of the gift of salvation and to behave like a liar. When the Holy Spirit has spoken, but we still continue to listen to the voice of our race, our nature, or our sympathies and antipathies, we are profaning the sacrament. Baptism into the body of Christ changes not only a person’s personal status with regard to salvation, but also their relationships throughout all of life.[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 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)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 232–235.


Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Held by Him – Called to Speak and Follow - Purity 914

 

Held by Him – Called to Speak and Follow -  Purity 914

Purity 914 12/14/2022 Purity 914 Podcast

Purity 914 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s original work of art of a shack-like tower and an old dead tree in the foreground of what appears to be the fading light of day over a lake comes to us from the artistic imaginations of our brother and friend in the UK, Philip Hand.    Philip sent me this back on November 30th via FB messenger, and I was surprised to see that He didn’t share it on his FB page. So I hope he will forgive me for sharing what he sent to me privately in such a public forum.   However, I’m sure he will and on contrary, I believe he will be pleased that I share his work on the blog today as he has expressed to me that I have the freedom to do so in the past.  

Well, It’s Wednesday again and as we approach the midpoint of another work week, I felt that Philip’s “fishing tower” situated in the middle of this landscape was “good enough” to visually represent our arrival at hump day. Also my using Philip’s work today is a way to draw close to the safety of a friend who understands the pain of loss and feeling low,.  I am in reflective mood this morning as a part of me feels burdened because I have a heavy heart over the  sudden and tragic death of a friend, which I wrote about yesterday, but I also have the pain of being rebuked by someone I respect for the manner in which I wrote about it.  

I stand by what I wrote, and always will, but I was reminded that my words could cause additional pain to others grieving the loss, because I reflected on the not so wholesome circumstances surrounding my friend’s death.  If I caused additional pain or offense by what I wrote yesterday, I humbly apologize and ask you for your forgiveness.  

Just last night in my presentation of Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship, Lesson 18, I made comments about how in our modern age, church discipline seems to be a thing of the past, only to discover that while I was making those comments, a friend in the body of Christ was privately reaching out to me via text to rebuke me for being thoughtless of the pain that my words could possibly cause to my departed friend’s family.  In truth, I didn’t consider how my musings over different aspects of my friend’s death could hurt his loved ones and my intention in discussing them was to point out the duality of man, the way we are perceived by others, and the importance of a continued walk of faith and having a good testimony.

I feel the sting of the rebuke because I respect the messenger and it challenged me with the basic principles of wise speaking. In essence the message asked me if I asked the three questions we must ask ourselves before we speak:

·       Does this need to be said?

·       Does this need to be said by me?

·       Does this need to be said by me now?

And as much as I am pained in my spirit at the thought that my writing could have caused additional pain to the grieving, I have to honestly say that the answer to all three of these questions would be: yes.  

The messages I produce on a semi daily basis to share my experience of life and to encourage others to live a life of faith are not planned out in advance, I share what’s on my heart and what I feel will encourage others to put their faith in Christ and to follow Him.  

Does any of what I say “need” to be said?   By me? Ever?  - You could easily make a case that, little old me with my track record of a broken life of 38 prior to coming to Christ, shouldn’t say ANYTHING, TO ANYONE? EVER?   

Who am I to speak on matters of faith? Who I am to speak about other people’s lives? Who am I to “judge” people?  

I am an imperfect person who found hope, freedom, love, peace, and victory over the darkness because of my faith in Jesus Christ and because of Him never letting me go.  I am held by Him.  And I am sharing on the blog, another drawing of Philip Hand’s that highlights the fact that we need to be held by Christ:



In His Hands, we are loved. Because of Christ alone, we are forgiven and free.  Because of Him, and the desperate need that the world has for Jesus Christ, I speak, and I will continue to speak.  

When you produce a semi daily message on the fly like I do, you don’t always know what you will say from one day to the next, and because I try to base my writings on the wisdom of God’s word, I often cringe over the things I write because I know that the truths that I am pointing out exposes our failures to follow God’s word.  

I don’t like to be rebuked. I don’t like to be thought of in a negative light. I want to be loved and accepted by all.  So when I get criticism, it hurts.  I don’t like confrontation and I never want to feel that I have done anything to cause someone pain or offense.  

However, everything I produce is intended to encourage others to follow the Lord and unfortunately because of the brokenness of this world corrupted by sin and shrouded in darkness, the light of God’s word is not welcomed and even Christians will encourage us not to shine a light on the dark places because they are too ugly or too painful to consider.  

But this is the message, I believe the Lord has directed me to continue to share: follow the Lord, repent of your worldly ways, and follow Him.  

So, do I “need to say all this”, nearly every day?, really?,  I believe I have been called to encourage people to “keep walking and talking with God”.  I don’t know how long this “calling” will last but until I am convinced by scripture or the Holy Spirit that I should stop, I will persist in trying to be a voice to encourage people to follow the Lord in Spirit and in truth, even if what I see and report on, isn’t something that you want to share in the polite society of the corporate gathering on Sunday morning.  

So, if I haven’t offended you thus far, let me encourage you to follow the Lord only, and to develop a daily spiritual practice of “walking and talking with Him” via prayer, Bible study, and trying to do what God’s word says.  

Also, I would encourage you to consider those three questions before you speak, but if you read the New Testament, you might be shocked at the things that Jesus said to the polite society of his day.  I can only imagine the pain and offense that He caused when he called respected members of the community “vipers”, but He said it anyway because He wanted to expose the darkness that was hidden in the systems that looked good on the outside but were sick, corrupted, and dead on the inside.  

So try to be kind and compassionate in your dealings, but if you feel lead to speak, speak, but know that you may be rebuked, you may be hated, and you may be persecuted for saying it:  all of which, Christ said would happen to you if you follow Him.  

So, while I appreciate the care and concerns of others over what I say and, am sensitive to the possibility of causing offense in my messages,  I am still going to say them because I feel that the Lord has called me to do so. And I would rather obey God than remain silent.  Because I have been set free by Jesus and am held by Him, I can do no other but to be faithful to encourage others to seek Him. 

He has led me through the fire and out of the darkness, and so I will follow Him, come what may.

 

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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:

Isaiah 58:10-11 (NLT2)
10  Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
11  The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.

Today’s verses encourage us to help others and to let our light shine, knowing that the Lord will guide us and restore us when we are drained.  

So, there is our call to action! Feed the hungry and help others in trouble and to let our light shine out from the darkness.  So out of the intention to help others, to learn from my own and others mistakes from walking in darkness, I shine a light to expose our deeds and to illuminate the word of God to encourage people in the way that God’s word tells us to go.  

As we do this in a world that rejects the Lord, we will suffer and we won’t always know if we are doing everything right but as I have attempted to follow the Lord, I have discovered that when you walk in the Spirit, God will guide you and restore your strength. This path I have taken, I wouldn’t pursue if it wasn’t for the guidance and strength I receive from doing so. And trust me, I don’t just keep “plugging along” out of some sense of self-righteousness.  I humbly and continually go to the Lord in prayer to receive guidance and from the direction that my life has taken, I have to believe that I am following His path for me because my journey has progressively and increasingly led to good things and new opportunities to serve his kingdom: to help those in trouble.  

So be wise and discerning, seek His guidance and ask for His strength, because I know that when you are walking and talking with God you will be restored “like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.”

___________________________________________

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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’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 Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship

Chapter Eleven

The Visible Church-Community, continues

 

The word of the apostles’ preaching is the same Word which has borne in his body the sins of the whole world; it is Christ present in the Holy Spirit. Christ in his church-community is what sums up the “teaching of the apostles,” the apostolic preaching. This teaching never makes itself superfluous. Rather, it creates by itself a church-community which remains constantly faithful to this teaching, a community that has been accepted by the Word, and is confirmed in this faith daily. This teaching creates by itself a visible church-community. Moreover, the body of Christ takes on visible form not only in the preaching of the word but also in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both of which emanate from the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. In both, Christ encounters us bodily and makes us participants in the community of his body. Both sacraments must be accompanied by the proclamation of the Word. In baptism as well as in the Lord’s Supper the content of that proclamation is the death of Christ for us (Rom. 6:3ff.; 1 Cor. 11:26). The gift we receive in both sacraments is the body of Christ. In baptism we are made members of Christ’s body. In the Lord’s Supper we receive the gift of bodily community (κοινωνία) with the body of the Lord, and through it bodily community with the members of this body. In receiving the gifts of Christ’s body, we become, thereby, one body with him. Neither the gift of baptism nor the gift of the Lord’s Supper is fully understood if we interpret them only in terms of the forgiveness of sin. The gift of the body conferred in the sacraments presents us with the Lord in bodily form dwelling in his church-community.[14] Forgiveness of sin is indeed a part of this gift of the body of Christ as church-community. This explains why, in direct contrast to our contemporary practice, baptism and the Lord’s Supper were originally not tied to the office of apostolic preaching, but were instead administered by the church-community itself (1 Cor. 1:1 and 14ff.; 11:17ff.). Baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong solely to the community of the body of Christ. Whereas the word of proclamation is addressed to believers and unbelievers alike, the sacraments have been given solely to the church-community. The Christian community is thus essentially the community gathered to celebrate baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and only then is it the community gathered to hear the word proclaimed.

That the community of Jesus Christ claims a space in this world for its proclamation is now clear. The body of Christ becomes visible in the church-community that gathers around word and sacrament.

This community is a differentiated whole. The body of Christ as church-community includes both differentiation and a common order. These are characteristics essential to the body itself. A body lacking differentiation is in the process of decomposition. According to Paul’s teaching, the form of the living body of Christ is that of differentiated members (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12ff.). In this case it is impossible to make a distinction between content and form, essence and appearance. To make it would mean a denial of the body of Christ, that is, of the Christ who became flesh (1 John 4:3). Thus the body of Christ, in claiming a space for proclamation, at the same time claims a space for the order of the church-community.

The order of the church-community is of divine origin and character, though it is, of course, intended to serve and not to rule. The offices of the church-community are “ministries” (διακονίαι) (1 Cor. 12:4). They are appointed by God (1 Cor. 12:28), by Christ (Eph. 4:11), by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28) within but not by the church-community. Even where the church-community itself assigns offices, it does so in complete submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2 et passim). Both office and church-community have their origin in the triune God. The offices exist to serve the church-community; they can be justified spiritually only through this service. That is why different congregations require different offices or ministries. For example, the congregation in Jerusalem demanded different offices or ministries than those required in Paul’s mission churches. To be sure, the ordering as such is given by God, but its specific form is open to change, and to be determined only by the spiritual judgment of the church-community itself as it appoints its members for service. Even the charisms which the Holy Spirit confers upon individuals are in the same sense strictly subject to the discipline of serving the church-community, for God is not a God of disorder but of peace (1 Cor. 14:32f.). The Holy Spirit becomes visibly present (φανέρωσιζ, 1 Cor. 12:7) in the fact that everything is done for the benefit of the church-community. Apostles, prophets, teachers, overseers (bishops), deacons, elders, presiding officers, and leaders (1 Cor. 12:28ff.; Eph. 2:20 and 4:11) are all servants of the church-community, the body of Christ. Appointed to serve the church-community, their office is of divine origin and character. Only the church-community can release them from their service. Therefore, although the church-community is at liberty to modify the form of its order according to its needs, any tampering with the church’s order from the outside is an infringement on the visible form of Christ’s body itself.

Of special importance among the offices of the church-community in every age is the untainted administration of word and sacrament. Here the following must be considered. Proclamation will always vary and differ according to the commission and gifts of the preachers. However, whether it be the proclamation of Paul, or of Peter, or of Apollos, or of Christ, the one indivisible Christ must be recognized in them all (1 Cor. 1:11ff.). All are to work hand in hand (1 Cor. 3:6). The emergence of different schools of thought leads to divisive bickering, in which all involved promote their own self-interest (1 Tim. 6:5 and 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:16; 3:8; Titus 1:10). Here it is all too easy for ‘godliness’ to be mistaken for earthly gain, whether it be gain in honor, power, or wealth. The tendency to pose problems for the sake of posing problems also will blossom and divert people from the clear and simple truth (2 Tim. 3:7). It will lure into self-centered intransigence and disobedience toward God’s command. In contrast to this, genuine proclamation will always aim at a teaching which is sound and salutary (2 Tim. 4:3; 1 Tim. 1:10; 4:16; 6:1; Titus 1:9 and 1:13; 2:1; 3:8), and for safeguarding proper church order and unity.

It is not always easy to recognize where a legitimate theological interpretation ends and heresy begins. One congregation may still accept a particular teaching as legitimate, while another has already rejected it as heresy (Rev. 2:6 and 2:15ff.). However, once heresy has been identified, it must be rejected without compromise. The heretical teacher is cast out of the Christian community, and is excluded from any personal community with its members (Gal. 1:8; 1 Cor. 16:22; Titus 3:10; 2 John 10ff.). The word of authentic proclamation must therefore create both unity and separation in a visible way. It thus becomes clear that space for proclamation and for the order of the church-community are divinely ordained necessities.

We must now ask whether spaces of proclamation and order are already sufficient to describe the visible form of the community of the body of Christ, or whether this community claims yet another space in the world. The answer of the New Testament is unambiguous. It holds that the church-community claims a physical space here on earth not only for its worship and its order, but also for the daily life of its members. That is why we must now speak of the living space [Lebensraum] of the visible church-community.[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 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)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 228–232.


Thursday, November 3, 2022

That All You Got? Freedom from Unforgiveness - The Lord Has More for You - Purity 879

 

That All You Got?  Freedom from Unforgiveness - The Lord Has More for You - Purity 879

Purity 879 11/03/2022 Purity 879 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the of the clear still waters of Queechy lake comes to us from a friend or share this photo on social media from what they think may be their last paddle of the season on Saturday October 29th.  however in the comments of the photo’s post a friend playfully challenged our paddling enthusiast, asking the question “That all you got?”

Well is it?  knowing the weather in upstate New York, the challenger may have a point. While we are in November now and can reasonably expect anything from snow to near 70 degree temperatures, like today, we don't know always know what the future will hold and what we will be capable of unless we challenge ourselves to stretch and the see just what it is we can do. Rather than looking at the limitations on our lives we should ask the question can I do this?

well it's Thursday again and I share this photo of a kayak on a lake as another visual example of a pathway of sorts to encourage my friends to get on or keep walking on the path of Christian discipleship because while things may be impossible for man Christ said that all things are possible with God and while we think we might not be able to do something in our own strength, if it is in His will, God will help us to accomplish things we never dreamed of being possible.

Last night I led one of the men the from the Freedom in Christ course through the Steps to Freedom in Christ and while he admitted to having thoughts that denied that the process of going through the steps in repentance would be successful, a funny thing happened. After he forgave all the people in his life for all the offenses they have ever done to him, those condemning and doubting voices were silenced.

I have to admit that for a second there I thought I was going to have to square off against  manifestation of the enemy but together we prayed, stood in the authority that we had in Jesus Christ and after the step on forgiveness the rest of the process was relatively peaceful as this man confessed rebellion, pride, and all the known sins in his life, renounced and broke spiritual soul ties to people in his sexual past, and cancelled any generational sins of his ancestors.   The work of repentance of the Holy Spirit and this man's faith brought to the table was mighty to behold and at the end of the process when I asked him to listen in an extended moment of silence, he reported that things were quiet in his mind, and he had an abiding sense of peace.

Unforgiveness can be a real stronghold that can keep us in bondage to bitterness and to the literal spiritual forces of darkness.

So which was it? Was it demons, the hardness of this man's heart, or the baggage of a past filled with abuse that kept him from knowing peace?

The answer to that question might be only known by the Lord himself but the good news is that when we come before the Lord and forgive those who have offended us, the bondage of bitterness is broken. Something that many people would consider impossible: to forgive.

When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and to guide us in the way we should go. But the Lord is gracious and allows us to have free will, to freely choose what path will take in life. We can choose to live life like we've always had before coming to Christ, according to the worlds and our own wisdom, or we can listen to the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the word of God to know and experience the abundant life that Christ has for us.

This life of Christian discipleship is counterintuitive to how we've been conditioned to live without God, but it is possible. With God, we can turn from the world's ways, and we can be transformed. We can have peace, joy, love, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. The fruit of the spirit grows in our lives when we walk in the spirit and when we confess our sins and renounce the way we used to live we remove all the limits on what God can do for us.

So as we draw into the 4th day of the work week remember to ask yourself from time to time: that all you got?

The world, the flesh, and the devil will tell you that it's all over, that it's best to just pack it in and not try anything new, to just play it safe and stay safe in the shadows of what you're familiar with.

But Jesus Christ invites us to: “come and see”.

The Holy Spirit invites us to know what faith is and to experience his power to transform us and to give us a life of meaning and purpose that few in this world know of.

God the Father has made you for a purpose and He wants to have peace with you, through faith in Jesus Christ, and for you to be conformed in his image, to be the person that He created you to be.

So let go of the sins of the past, in Christ you're forgiven, and because you've received God's forgiveness, cast off the burden of bitterness that comes from holding on to offences against others by forgiving everyone for everything from the heart, as the Lord commands you.  

God doesn't want us to suffer anymore from the things that people have done against us. The solution to our problem of bitterness is forgiveness: to set the captive free and to realize it was you.

So keep walking and talking with God then follow the word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit, and you will discover that you have a lot more life to live, a lot more things to do, and a lot more hearts to touch then you thought you could.  with the Lord you'll discover they got a lot more of life left in store.

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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:

Romans 12:9 (NLT2)
9  Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.

Today's Bible verse encourages us to not be a pretender to really love others, to hate what is wrong, and to hold tightly to what is good.

One of the biggest drawbacks to pursuing a life of faith in Christendom is the perception that the people in the church are a bunch of phonies. Unfortunately, our experience may actually bear out that perception as our past relationships in the hallowed halls of the buildings called churches may have been plagued by hypocrisy and quite possibly abuse.

Some people say they don't want to be a part of a church because of the hypocrites in the church. Unfortunately, the truth is there's hypocrisy in everyone's lives. No one lives perfectly according to the standards that they would like to hold themselves to. No one. The only perfect person was Jesus Christ. And while we are called as Christians to follow Jesus the word of God clearly points out that we will not be able to perfectly live like Jesus did. That's why we need Jesus!

So what do we do with this hypocrisy? We won't be able to be perfect but today's verse I think is calling us to try to be genuine in our faith: to really love others, hate what is evil, and to hold on to what is good.

If you don't like the phonies in the church, don't be one by having the heartfelt intention to love our neighbors as ourselves and to love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

___________________________________________

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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’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 Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 6

On the Hidden Nature of the Christian Life

Hidden Righteousness continues

What does Jesus say about all that? He says: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them.” The call to be extraordinary is the great, inevitable danger of discipleship. Therefore, beware of this extraordinariness, of the way that discipleship becomes visible. Jesus calls a halt to our thoughtless, unbroken, simple joy in what is visible. He gives a sting to the extraordinary. Jesus calls us to reflection.

The disciples should have this extraordinariness only by way of reflection. They should heed it, watch out for it. The extraordinary is not supposed to happen in order to be seen. This means that the extraordinary deed should not be done for the sake of its being extraordinary. And it should not be seen just for the sake of being seen. The better righteousness of the disciples should not be an end in itself. Of course, what is extraordinary does have to become visible, it does have to happen, but—beware that you do not do it in order for it to become visible. Although the visibility of discipleship does have a necessary reason, which is the call of Jesus Christ, it is never a goal in itself. If it were, then the focus would no longer be on discipleship itself; then a moment of repose would occur, our following would be interrupted, and we would not be able to take it up again at the point where we had stopped to rest. We would immediately be sent back to begin all over again. We would have to take note that we are no longer disciples. So something has to become visible, but—paradoxically: beware that it does not happen for the sake of being seen by people. “Let your light shine before the people …” (5:16), but: pay attention to the hiddenness! Chapters 5 and 6 collide hard against each other. What is visible should be hidden at the same time; at the same time both visible and not to be seen. The reflection we have mentioned, thus, needs to be guided so that we do not stray into reflection about our extraordinariness. Our paying attention to our righteousness is supposed to support our not paying attention to our righteousness. Otherwise extraordinariness is no longer the extraordinariness of discipleship, but the extraordinariness of our own will and desire.

How are we to understand this contradiction? First, we ask: from whom should the visibility of discipleship be hidden? Not from the other people, for they are to see the light of Jesus’ disciples shining. Rather it should be hidden to those doing the visible deed of discipleship. They should keep on following Jesus, and should keep looking forward to him who is going before them, but not at themselves and what they are doing. The righteousness of the disciples is hidden from themselves. Of course, they, too, can see the extraordinariness, but not themselves in it; they remain hidden from themselves. They see the extraordinary only when they look at Jesus, and in him they do not see it as extraordinary, but as something obvious and normal. So what is visible really is hidden from them, in obedience to the word of Jesus. If the extraordinariness were important to them because it is extraordinary, then they would act like enthusiasts, out of their own power, out of the flesh. But because Jesus’ disciples act in simple obedience to their Lord, they view the extraordinary as only the normal act of obedience. According to Jesus’ word, the disciples can do nothing else but be the light that shines. They do not do anything to accomplish this; they are the light while following Christ, looking only to their Lord. Precisely because what is Christian is necessarily extraordinary, that is, in the indicative form [“you are”], it is at the same time normal and hidden. Otherwise it is not Christian, it is not obedience to the will of Jesus Christ.[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/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

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 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)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 148–150.