I Know Who You Really Are – Lies of the Enemy #21– Purity 1033

I Know Who You Really Are – Lies of the Enemy #21– Purity 1033

Purity 1033 05/03/2023 Purity 1033 Podcast

Purity 1033 on YouTube: 

   

Hump day peaksbecome Pac Man on You Tube...

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a tree, blue skies, and the sun’s light shining just below peak of my place “down by the River” comes to us today from yours truly as I paused to look up and decided to capture this scene back on April 25^th after another day at work.  

Well It’s Wednesday, and I thought that this photo of the “twin peaks” of my home’s roof was a good way to visually represent our arrival at the midpoint of another work week, although for me its just the beginning as my shifted schedule has me reporting to work for the next five days. But that’s no reason for me to have “a case of the Mondays”, as I intentionally begin each day with the practice of gratitude, prayer and Bible study to “get first things first” and to remind me of all the things I have been blessed with rather than focusing on the things I don’t have or would rather not do.   

Although Christians have more than just the hope of heaven, I fear that for many they view their faith as something that won’t have any value until the hour of their death and they are welcomed into heaven (they hope) and thus their faith sits on a shelf unutilized and underdeveloped as they go about their business in the “real world”.  These malnourished and weak Christians thus become consumed with managing the circumstances of the world in the pursuit of happiness and often have little or no patience for “spiritual things”. They have their “ticket to heaven” but in the meantime they have work to do building a circumstantial heaven on earth that they have to build with their own hands and have little patience with their “heavenly minded” brethren who seem to indicate they can have some sort of “relationship with God.”  

They had a one time experience of the joy of their salvation and consider themselves lucky, but don’t want to press their luck by pursuing God too closely. They are just a “sinner saved by grace” after all and they don’t want to have God change His mind, because they know who they “really are” and are thankful just to be in God’s kingdom. So they will sit in the back of the church and not speak too much about their faith, because they don’t know much and because they are not a “saint” like other more mature Christians.  

While I would encourage that we should “keep it real” as Christians by addressing the real life problems and responsibilities before us and by not have an attitude of being “holier than thou” as we walk through the world,  I would insist that we should get to know God better than when we first believed and to get to know ourselves better as “new creations in Christ.”   But the world, the flesh, and the enemy don’t want us to know God or what He has done for us.

And this brings us to our current series, the Lies of the Enemy, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into our minds as “first person” statements, that the enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives.  

Today’s big lie is:

Lie #21:  I Know Who You Really Are!   

Now this statement that is whispered or shouted in the confines of our minds, is also an accusation – a true red flag that the thought is demonic – Satan is the accuser of the brethren after all.  But this accusation is also a lie, or at least Satan is try to lead you away from the truth, in that Satan is trying to convince you that no matter what “prayer” you have said or what declaration of faith that you have made, you are still a no good low down sinner who will probably will be tossed out of God’s kingdom by the slightest provocation or if they discover what a mistake was made in “saving you”.

Satan tells this lie to accuse you of being a no good sinner who can’t serve the Lord, seek the Lord, or represent the Lord by sharing your faith.   Satan wants to keep you humble and silent and to be of no effect for the kingdom of God.  

I share this lie because I’ve heard it before.  I had a very sinful and selfish life before putting my faith in Jesus and the enemy loved to condemn me for my past attitudes and actions. As I decided to follow Jesus as authentically as I could, the enemy was there continually to remind me of my checkered past and to discourage me from trying to learn about my faith or to apply it to my life.  The implication of this lie – that Satan or others in the world know who I “really” am because of my past – is that I am not a Christian, I am not saved, or I haven’t changed.   

But it’s a lie.  Although Satan may know who we REALLY are in Christ, He seeks to deceive us by telling us that we are the same old sinner on the highway to hell as we always were and any behavioral or attitudinal bumps on the path of Christian Discipleship that we make proves it!      

Unfortunately, some pastors unwittingly support the enemy’s smear campaign by often quoting

Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) that says
⁹  "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

As former sinners we know our hearts could be lustful, proud, or hateful at times and on occasion we will have bad thoughts that remind us of those days before we were saved so we think nothing has changed.  

However, something did change since the time Jerimiah said these words. – His name is Jesus Christ – he came to pay for our sins, to give us new life, and to fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy in

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NKJV) where He speaking for the Lord said:
²⁶  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
²⁷  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

 A new spirit in you? As in the Holy Spirit! And a new heart, guys! That old stone cold heart has been transplanted with a beating heart of flesh, and if we will walk with the Lord and “keep His judgements (know His word) and do them – we will know that we are no longer who we used to be and we are now, REALLY, children of God.   

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) tells us
¹⁷  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

John 3:16 (NKJV) assures us
¹⁶  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) proclaims
²⁰  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Romans 8:1 (NKJV) encourages us
¹  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV) directs us
¹⁰  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So don’t listen to the enemy’s lie that He knows who you really are – because you really are a born again child of the King, who has been given a new and eternal life that is rich in meaning and purpose.  

So rather than listening to the condemnation of the enemy, tell him and anyone else, that you are not who you used to be, you are now alive in Christ and have been washed clean of your former darkness and will never walk in those shadows again!  

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

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

This morning’s meditation verses are :

Romans 12:1-2 (NLT2)
¹  And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
²  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Today’s verses go hand in hand with the new life in Christ. We fully experience the reality of our new life in Christ when we surrender our bodies and minds to the Lord’s will for our lives.  We are new creations and thus we are to reject  the world’s ways and wisdom for the wisdom that comes from God and we decide to live our new lives in Christ by renewing our minds with it and living according to it.   

 

We were saved and made new the instant we put our faith in Christ, but we have to repent – to change our minds and behaviors to reflect the new life that we have been given.  Otherwise we will be unstable in all our ways, double minded believing we are part Christian but mostly sinner when the truth is we have been made brand new and can demonstrate it on earth long before heaven by living according to our new nature as saints.

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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  “Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister Reality” By June Hunt.

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private study and to support her work.  This resource is available online for $7.99 (https://june-hunt.myshopify.com/collections/keys-for-living/products/keys-for-living-on-satan-demons-satanism_ ).

Satan, Demons & Satanism

A Sinister Reality

by June Hunt

D.  What Are Satanic Rituals?

A ritual is a prescribed form of religious ceremony that can be either traditional or self-styled. Although the Black Mass, based on the Roman Catholic Mass, does not represent the teachings of The Satanic Bible, many satanic groups consider it to be the ultimate allegiance to Satan. Almost all satanic rituals involve sex and sacrifice.

•     Black Magic

—   The use of objects and sayings in an attempt to control natural forces for evil purposes

—   “The most violent and cruel of all pagan practices”

—   The root of today’s satanism

•     The Black Mass

—   A point-by-point perversion of Catholic practices

—   Begun in the eighth century

—   The sacrifice of a baby is often required

“The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”

(1 Corinthians 10:20–21)^[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

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^[1] June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister Reality (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 5–6.

Calling Others Back from the Path of Sin - Lent with Bonhoeffer Day 36– Purity 1008

Calling Others Back from the Path of Sin - Lent with Bonhoeffer Day 36– Purity 1008

Purity 1008 04/04/2023 Purity 1008 Podcast

Purity 1008 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of athe silhouette of a tree set against a back drop of a blue and purple sky comes to us from Dave Baun Photography (https://www.facebook.com/DaveBaunPhotography) who shared this scene last week on social media indicating that it was an “oldie” that Dave had captured in Louise Moore Park, in Easton PA.

Well, It might be an “oldie” but it is a “goodie” for sure and I’m glad our photographer friend “Down Under” shared this memory from when He was still states side demonstrating to us that beauty is where you find it and that its okay to look back to remember where you came from.  

Well, it is Tuesday and I am rejoicing in the wake of last night’s successful freedom appointment in which I was able to witness a member of the Freedom in Christ course look back into his past with the Holy Spirit and resolve his personal and spiritual conflicts.  Even though a lot of pain, shame, guilt, and bitterness was released the story that unfolded was a thing of beauty because it testified of God’s abiding presence and relentless love that followed this man all the days of his life.  

No two lives are the same and I now understand that applies to freedom appointments too as the Holy Spirit used the “simple steps” concerning rebellion and pride to give this man a major revelation about his past and a new hope for his future.   While those steps seemed to pass without incident and I was prepared to move on, the Holy Spirit stopped the process as this man received key insights into the “insanity” of doing the same things over and over expecting different results and exposing the lie that this man was somehow “unworthy” or incapable of being used by the Lord.   Apparently, the Holy Spirit wasn’t having it anymore and slammed on the brakes of the process to shift this man’s paradigms and change his view of himself and his direction for the future in a moment.  

While I have seen serious confessions, formidable forgiveness, and major break throughs in my experiences leading others through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, having it happen where it happened last night was a first.  And that reminds me that, the Lord will do what the Lord will do and He chooses when that will happen. When we walk with the Lord we shouldn’t be surprised when something new happens and even though we should realize that much of our faith walk will be a steady progression down a sure path , we should be prepared to change directions when the Lord shows us something new.  

So, let’s see if the Lord has anything new for us today by continuing our current series, the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer with Day 36. 

We have also arrived at Holy Tuesday – when Christ delivered the Olivet Discourse among other things. It was a busy day for Jesus and I am sharing a link on the blog for those who are curious about what He said and did  on Holy Tuesday (https://www.gotquestions.org/Holy-Tuesday.html).

It’s just another way to know the Lord which is our intentionf with the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

As a reminder, and as we will say each day of this journey, we take 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 take this journey of repentance seriously, we will not only see the days and seasons change, the Lord will use it to change us too. 

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 36

Bonhoeffer writes:

“When another Christian falls into obvious sin, an admonition is imperative, because God’s Word demands it.

The practice of discipline in the community of faith begins with friends who are close to one another.

Words of admonition and reproach must be risked when a lapse from God’s Word in doctrine or life endangers a community that lives together, and with it the whole community of faith.

Nothing can be more cruel than that leniency which abandons others to their sin.

Nothing can be more compassionate than that severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.

When we allow nothing but God’s Word to stand between us, judging and helping, it is a service of mercy, an ultimate offer of genuine community.

Then it is not we who are judging; God alone judges, and God’s judgment is helpful and healing.”

Biblical Wisdom

My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Galatians 6:1

Questions to Ponder

• Is sin taken seriously in today’s church and by today’s Christians? How is it, or how is it not?

M.T. Clark: OOF, I got saved with a hyper sense of God’s grace. When I was new in the faith, I was still locked in addiction and habitual sin. SO the emphasis for me was God’s forgiveness and understanding. Thank God He saved me because I am a mess and I can not change! Thank You, Jesus.   But as I followed the Lord the Holy Spirit using the word of God and the example of repentant Christians convicted me to repent and turn from the darkness I was in. 

I fear that in some circles sin isn’t taken seriously and grace is dispensed liberally and repentance is never mentioned.  Some churches welcome and accept people who are living a lifestyle of sin with no call to repent. That’s not how it should be.  While my former church taught mightily about God’s grace and love, it also taught that sin was sin and that Christians are supposed to repent and allow the Lord to help them to stop sinning.  So it question of whether sin is taken seriously or not, unfortunately, has a lot to do with where you go to church.

• Why might it be “cruel” not to admonish someone whose behavior is obviously sinful? What are the dangers in admonishing someone?

M.T. Clark: It is cruel to not admonish someone whose behavior is obviously sinful because it could result in false conversions or at the very least allow a brother or sister in Christ to suffer the condemnation, guilt, shame and other negative consequences that sin brings to one’s life.   One saying is “choose to sin, choose to suffer” and we really should not remain silent or affirm someone else when they are living in obvious sin. The dangerous of

• How might the church and individual Christians avoid being hypocritical and judgmental when admonishing a Christian brother or sister?

M.T. Clark: The only way we can avoid being hypocritical or judgmental when admonishing a Christian brother or sister is by:

·       being compassionate and loving

·       offering our help and support to those in need

·       and not singling out one form of sin to the exclusion of others.

We have to be balanced and compassionate in our attempts to convict others to repent.

Psalm Fragment

Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
   and put away your indignation toward us. Psalm 85:4

Journal Reflections

• Have you ever been admonished by another Christian? If so, write about the experience. How was it done? How did it feel? What were the results?

M.T. Clark:  Admonish means to “warn or reprimand someone firmly” and I would have to say I have been admonished by another Christian for things I have written in this blog.  It was a cutting rebuke born from their concern for others and I can understand why they did what they did. Quite frankly, their “admonition” made me angry and simultaneously ashamed.  I thought it was heavy handed and didn’t acknowledge what I was trying to convey. Their rebuke while done in the name of concern for others also seemed to be in the name of hiding ugly truths from “the innocents” and I couldn’t really follow how my comments that could cause undo harm to people who would in all likely hood never see my comments and who had much more exposure to the hard facts of the situation than I did. With that said, I was affected by it and it has caused me to better consider who could be affected by the things I write about.  Although, I also let what I wrote stand and didn’t edit anything or print a retraction. Other than this person’s admonition, I have received no negative feedback for the things I had written in that instance to this day.

• Have you ever offered a word of admonition to another person? If so, write about the experience. How did it feel? What were the results?

M.T. Clark: The only people I have ever “admonished” would be my children. Firm warnings and reprimands by me have only been reserved for the people I was responsible to teach right and wrong to, my kids.  Over all, I would say that I have no regrets for the things I taught my kids and the firm warnings and reprimands I have made.  They are both in their 20’s and have chosen to continue to live with me so it couldn’t have been too bad.  I always felt bad for coming down on them in the few instances where I had to but it led to good results. While my kids may not be perfect, they have not walked in my footsteps in the regards to the amount of trouble I got into growing up. However, my zeal for the Lord has not transferred and actively pray for the Lord to lead them into a life of Christian discipleship.    

• If you answered no to the above two questions, spend some time in writing reflecting upon the idea of taking sin seriously enough to admonish another and receive admonition from another.

M.T. Clark: While I haven’t “admonished” any Christians with a “firm warning or reprimand. I “encourage” Christians to repent of their sins by following the path of Christian discipleship as part of this continual ministry.  But I know from experience that the Lord, the Holy Spirit, is the One who brings people to repentance, so I don’t admonish, I encourage.  However, if someone close to me was living in obvious sin, I may be more vocal and intense in my “encouragements”.  

Prayer for Today

Lord, open my ears that I may hear from your Word whatever words of admonition I need to hear that I might grow in love and faithfulness.

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.*** 

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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 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.

4. It is deeply humbling to the creature

This doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God is a great battering-ram against human pride, and in this it is in sharp contrast from the “doctrines of men.” The spirit of our age is essentially that of boasting and glorying in the flesh. The achievements of man, his development and progress, his greatness and self-sufficiency, are the shrine at which the world worships today. But the truth of God’s sovereignty, with all its corollaries, removes every ground for human boasting and instills the spirit of humility in its stead. It declares that salvation is of the Lord—of the Lord in its origination, in its operation, and in its consummation. It insists that the Lord has to apply as well as supply, that He has to complete as well as begin His saving work in our souls, that He has not only to reclaim but to maintain and sustain us to the end. It teaches that salvation is by grace through faith, and that all our works (before conversion), good as well as evil, count for nothing toward salvation. It tells us we are “born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). And all this is most humbling to the heart of man who wants to contribute something to the price of his redemption and do that which will afford ground for boasting and self-satisfaction.

But if this doctrine humbles us it results in praise to God. If, in the light of God’s sovereignty, we have seen our own worthlessness and helplessness we shall indeed cry with the Psalmist “All my springs are in Thee” (Psa. 87:7). If by nature we were “children of wrath,” and by practice rebels against the Divine government and justly exposed to the “curse” of the Law, and if God was under no obligation to rescue us from the fiery indignation and yet, notwithstanding, He delivered up His well-beloved Son for us all; then how such grace and love will melt our hearts, how the apprehension of it will cause us to say in adoring gratitude “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake” (Psa. 115:1). How readily shall each of us acknowledge “By the grace of God I am what I am”! With what wondering praise shall we exclaim—

“Why was I made to hear His voice,

And enter while there’s room,

When thousands make a wretched choice,

And rather starve than come?

’Twas the same love that spread the feast,

That sweetly forced us in;

Else we had still refused to taste

And perished in our sin.”^[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

 

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^[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 229–230.

The Path of Reconciliation - Lent with Bonhoeffer Day 35– Purity 1007

 

The Path of Reconciliation - Lent with Bonhoeffer Day 35– Purity 1007

Purity 1007 04/03/2023 Purity 1007 Podcast

Purity 1007 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a sunlight pathway on pouring through brick windows over hardwood floors comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene while visiting the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams on Saturday.  I was moved to take this photo because I was happy to see something pure that the Lord decided to put on display after being somewhat disillusioned and disturbed by what man would call art.  Some of the displays were man’s best attempts to create beauty out of things that had been broken and discarded and some of the themes revealed that the artists may have felt that way about themselves. Other displays were a distortion of things God created and others wittingly or unwittingly paid homage to “gods that were not God” or to Satan himself.  While I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from paying a visit to the very impressive venue of Mass MoCa, I would suggest keeping your spiritual eyes open and see the subtle but inherent dangers that come from man forcing their vision and definition of beauty on the world and in the ways the enemy spurs on that prideful self-expression of rebellion and how he can tempt these “artists” to give him glory to him by including symbols and images that represent him in their work.

I guess that’s what happens when the Lord calls you to follow Him and to pick up the mantle of a spiritual warfare ministry: you can’t help but see the subtle and not so subtle ways the enemy attacks us and actively seeks to steal, kill, and destroy the things God has created. I was moved and impressed by many of the exhibits at Mass MoCa but I also said a prayer of repentance this morning to cleanse myself of any demonic permissions or assignments that may have tried to attach themselves to me through the more sinister elements on exhibit at the museum.

Well, It’s Monday again and while I have to prepare for another week of work at my day job at a telecommunications company, I had to pray that prayer of repentance to prepare myself for a possible confrontation with the spiritual forces of darkness this evening as I will be leading another man from the Freedom in Christ course through the Steps to Freedom in Christ this evening.  And considering this man was oppressed with nightmares that involved bears, imprisonment, chaos, and sexual temptations the evening after he submitted his paperwork for his freedom appointment, the enemy may not be happy with this man’s decision to repent and could attempt to resist our efforts this evening.  

If we had to face off against the enemy in our own strength I would have serious concerns but because we are relying on the power and authority given to us by God because of our faith in Jesus Christ, I am relieved and confident that no demon could stop us from performing what God wants us to accomplish.  So we will trust in the Lord and the power of His might and follow where He leads us.  

Well, after Palm Sunday yesterday, we are in the midst of Holy Week and I looking forward to Resurrection Sunday this weekend but we have to take this journey through Lent one day at a time.  So let’s continue by taking one more step into the 35^th day of Lent, and into Day 35 of our current series, the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

As a reminder, and as we will say each day of this journey, we take 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 take this journey of repentance seriously, we will not only see the days and seasons change, the Lord will use it to change us too. 

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 35

Bonhoeffer writes:

“Thus there remains only one path for those who in following Jesus want to truly serve God in worship, and that is the path of reconciliation with their sisters and brothers.

Anyone who comes to the word and sacrament with an unreconciled heart stands judged by doing so.

Such a person is a murderer in God’s sight.

That is why you must “first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

It is a difficult path Jesus imposes on his disciples.

It includes much humiliation and dishonor for the disciples themselves.

But it is the path to him, our crucified brother, and thus, it is a path full of grace.

In Jesus, service to the least brother or sister and service to God became one.

He went and was reconciled to his human kindred, and then he came and offered himself, the one true sacrifice, to his Father.”

Biblical Wisdom

“So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother and sister, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24

Questions to Ponder

• Bonhoeffer states that: “It is a difficult path Jesus imposes on his disciples.” What makes it difficult?

M.T. Clark: The path of reconciliation that Jesus imposes on us is difficult because it requires our complete surrender to His Lordship which in turns requires our humility, our profession of faith publicly, and our sincere efforts to be “peacemakers” in a world that is hostile to God.  Just yesterday, I was accused of being either an “idiot or a liar” for sharing the belief that the Bible is the word of God.  Our natural inclination as men is to fight fire with fire but because of my skeptical and atheistic past, I know that the  criticism that would call me dishonest or ignorant is coming from a place of ignorance and dishonesty (they either “don’t know” God’s word or are stating that they “know” for certain it isn’t His word – which I would think they couldn’t honestly say). While I don’t think I will be reconciled to this person, I still felt moved to respond, thanking them for their honest feedback, and tried to encourage them to seek out the veracity of the claims regarding God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ for themselves by asking the question: Could the One who created the universe be unable to share His story and reveal His will to those He created? Obviously, I had to humble myself to respond to someone who laid such obvious criticism at my feet.  And even though this is extremely mild treatment on the persecution scale, it demonstrates in a small way the difficult path that Jesus imposes on his disciples to be reconciled to our brothers and to make peace where and if it is up to us.        

• He also states that, “it is a path full of grace.” Where is the grace?

M.T. Clark: This path is full of grace because it is established by the grace of God.  God’s grace saved us, giving us mercy and favor, and it is only though God’s grace are we able to forgive and offer mercy and favor to others.  The grace is in me as I seek to be reconciled to others, but it comes from God, and if God moves within the situation, it can be received by the other as well. 

• How did Jesus model the truth that, “service to the least brother or sister and service to God became one”?

M.T. Clark: Jesus’s earthly ministry of proclaiming the forgiveness of sins through faith in Him, His miracles, His acts of service, and His death on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins all model the truth that He is servicing the least brother or sister and simultaneously performing the service that God called Him to do.   All the things Jesus did was in service and obedience to God the Father’s commands, but they also serviced to men’s physical and spiritual needs.  Thus we can service God and man by answering the call to do good works in the name of God here on earth.

Psalm Fragment

O guard my life, and deliver me;
   do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
   for I wait for you. Psalm 25:20-21

Journal Reflections

• Is there someone with whom you need to be reconciled? Write about the circumstances that led to alienation from this person.

M.T. Clark: Need to be reconciled?  Yeah, I would have to say because I still have unfinished business regarding the terms and conditions of my divorce, I need to be reconciled to my ex. While our marriage covenant has been broken and legally severed, our marriage home needs to be sold in order for the terms of our divorce agreement to be fulfilled and to be able to move forward with our lives independently of one another.  I have taken what legal action I can to move things to completion but am waiting for this matter to be resolved. It’s a difficult situation and I await the day we can be reconciled in this matter because I know that even though it may be difficult to get there, both parties will be better off when it is finished.

• What step(s) might you take to begin the process of reconciliation?

M.T. Clark: I don’t taken the right steps with legal action but I know that I wasn’t getting anywhere without it.  I could try to extend an olive branch of peace but the other party has made it clear that they don’t wish to speak to me and I fear that further actions on my part to be reconciled in this matter would only make this matter worse.  So we wait.  It is difficult path, right?  

Prayer for Today

Gracious God, thank you for reconciling me to yourself; now make me a reconciler.

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.*** 

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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 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.

3. It repudiates the heresy of salvation by works

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). The way which “seemeth right” and which ends in “death,” death eternal, is salvation by human effort and merit. The belief in salvation by works is one that is common to human nature. It may not always assume the grosser form of Popish penaces, or even of Protestant “repentance,” i.e., sorrowing for sin, which is never the meaning of repentance in Scripture; anything which gives man a place at all is but a variety of the same evil genus. To say, as alas! many preachers, are saying, God is willing to do His part if you will do yours, is a wretched and excuseless denial of the Gospel of His grace. To declare that God helps those who help themselves is to repudiate one of the most precious truths taught in the Bible, and in the Bible alone; namely, that God helps those who are unable to help themselves, who have tried again and again only to fail. To say that the sinner’s salvation turns upon the action of his own will is another form of the God-dishonoring dogma of salvation by human efforts. In the final analysis, any movement of the will is a work: it is something from me, something which I do. But the doctrine of God’s sovereignty lays the axe at the root of this evil by declaring “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:16). Does some one say, Such a doctrine will drive sinners to despair. The reply is, Be it so; it is just such despair the writer longs to see prevail. It is not until the sinner despairs of any help from himself that he will ever fall into the arms of sovereign mercy; but if once the Holy Spirit convicts him that there is no help in himself then he will recognize that he is lost, and will cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and such a cry will be heard. If the author may be allowed to bear personal witness, he has found during the course of his ministry that the sermons he has preached on human depravity, the sinner’s helplessness to do anything himself, and the salvation of the soul turning upon the sovereign mercy of God, have been those most owned and blessed in the salvation of the lost. We repeat, then, a sense of utter helplessness is the first prerequisite to any sound conversion. There is no salvation for any soul until it looks away from itself, looks to something, yea, to Somone, outside of itself.^[1]

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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

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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

 

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^[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 227–228.