When Your Help and Relationships Must End - Isaiah 9 -
Purity 866
Purity 866 10/19/2022 Purity 867 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of sunset from the vantage point of
snooks Bayside restaurant in grand tiki bar in Key Largo FL comes to us from a
friend who's on vacation and kicking back but took time to share this view for
all his friends on social media two days ago.
Well it's Thursday again and I've decided the break
tradition and not share a typical pathway photo as it has been my habit to share
a pathway photo as a visual encouragement to others to get on or stay on the
path of Christian discipleship. Although I guess technically the water here
could be considered a water pathway of sorts, we just need a boat, right? Anyway,
I’m a little hard pressed for time as I got distracted because I wanted to send
a Christmas card and gift to my World Vision Sponsored child because I received
a prompting in the mail a couple of days ago and although I finally found the envelope
and materials to send it out the card, I discovered that I have a new child!
Apparently, my donations to my previous child that I
have been sponsoring since 2011 have been switched to a little girl in Colombia
because the girl I was sponsoring in Haiti, goal has been met! And upon further
review, Sergeline, my sponsored child in Haiti is a child no longer as she is
17 years old! Even my sponsored children have grown up in the blink of an
eye!
I’m not sure how to feel about this. So the
Christmas card that I am going to put in the mail will be the last thing that
Sergeline receives from me. While I am happy to help my new child, Elis Tatiana
in Ciudad Pensada con la Niñez, Colombia, say that three times fast…., I am
saddened that Sergeline is all grown up and my sponsorship relationship with
her has come to an end.
Sergeline has grown into a young woman and the help
I gave apparently is no longer needed as her “goal has been met” and her community
has become “self-reliant.” Individually,
each year I would send a monthly donation but at Christmas I would send the
maximum individual gift to Sergeline to benefit her and her family. My gifts
provided Sergeline with things she needed but they also bought goats and other
livestock that benefited the whole family. So I am happy I was able to help
Sergeline and her community and realize that my sponsorship can now help a new
girl and her family and community. I
guess my help couldn’t continue forever, nor do I think it should have.
While we can help others in need, at some point
people should be encouraged to provide for themselves. It’s a hard fact of life that we all have to grow
up and become adults and support ourselves.
So even though I’m a little sad that Sergeline’s sponsorship has ended,
I hope that she would understand and encourage me to help another child in need.
I started sponsoring Sergeline after going to a Joel
Osteen event in Albany where I got to meet the megachurch pastor in person, so
although many can criticize Joel and his lavish lifestyle and his rather “prosperity
gospel” – Your best life now- messages, he did some good for World Vision and
for a little girl in Haiti because it was through his event that I felt
convicted to help and now that help will reach a little girl in Colombia.
In considering all this, I just have to say that I
am just a Christian trying to follow the Lord with the way I live my life, and
although I suppose some could judge me harshly for allowing my sponsorship and
relationship with Sergeline to come to an end according to World Vision’s
direction and for not go above and beyond by continuing to send help to her
directly, I have peace with the help I provided and with allowing it to end. I’m not perfect but I did this small thing
for a girl in Haiti. But just anyone else that I try to encourage to live a
life of Christian Discipleship, I have to let them to choose to walk on their
own eventually.
Before I knew that the Christmas Card that I was
signing would be the last thing I was going to send Sergeline, I filled it out
and I pray that the message I sent will be taken as encouragement and a fond
farewell.
Without knowing it would be good bye, I wrote: “
“Read the Bible, Follow the Holy Spirit, and Keep
walking and talking with God with the way you live your life.”
And I drew a little heart, signed it “M.T. Clark”.
I sealed the envelope before I found out that my sponsorship
ended, so I’m pretty sure that’s what I wrote.
But I also included, almost as an afterthought, my
blog’s web address: mt4Christ.org.
So if she needs encouragement or wants to know more
about the man that has been sponsoring her since 2011, Sergeline can read all
about me and be continually encouraged to follow the Lord on my blog or via the
podcast or the YouTube Channel.
Every relationship we have on this earth will come
to an end, unless Jesus comes back first, but I have peace about it because I
know that while I know the people I know I will be encouraging them to get
right with God by putting their faith in Jesus and by telling them to seek the
Lord’s will for their life and if the Holy Spirit decides to use my words, I
will see them again when we go into God’s eternal kingdom.
I don’t have time to share the NLT Bible Promise
Book for Men’s verse of the day today. But as Lord would have it, with
Christmas on my mind, my Bible study this morning just happened to be Isaiah 9.
So I will share some of that because it speaks of the advent of Christ and the
culmination of His kingdom that is yet to come.
Isaiah 9:1-7 (NLT2)
1 Nevertheless, that time of
darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali
will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the
Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea,
will be filled with glory.
2 The people who walk in
darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.
3 You will enlarge the nation
of Israel, and its people will rejoice. They will rejoice before you as people
rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder.
4 For you will break the yoke
of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders. You will break
the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.
5 The boots of the warrior and
the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the
fire.
6 For a child is born to us, a
son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be
called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His government and its
peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of
his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will make this
happen!
So, we can rest knowing that while we can’t help everyone forever and always, the Lord has a plan to fix what was broken and to reclaim what was Lost. Christ will return and He will be our Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace forever, and ever, Amen.
___________________________________________
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.
Chapter Six
The
Sermon on the Mount
Matthew
5
On
the “Extraordinary”
of Christian Life
The Righteousness of Christ
“Do
not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not
to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass
away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until
all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these
commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the
kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great
in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds
that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”
(Matt. 5:17–20).
It is not surprising
that the disciples supposed that the end of the law was coming with such
promises they received from their Lord, in which everything was devalued which
had value in the eyes of the people, and everything was called blessed which
had no value. They were, indeed, addressed and set apart as people to whom
simply everything had been given by God’s free grace, as the certain heirs of
the kingdom of heaven,[68] as those who now possessed everything.
They had full and personal communion with Christ, who made everything new. They
were the salt, the light, the city on the hill. Thus everything old had passed
away and been replaced. It was too easy to assume that Jesus would draw a line
of final separation between himself and what went before, that he would declare
the law of the Old Covenant to be repealed and declare his independence from it
in his freedom as the Son, that he would abolish it for his community. After
everything that had been said before, the disciples could easily think like
Marcion, who, complaining of Judaizing forgery, undertook the following text
revision: “Do you think I came to fulfill the law or the prophets? I came to
abolish them, and not to fulfill them.”[70] Countless others since
Marcion have read and interpreted Jesus’ words in that way. But Jesus says, “Do
not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets …” Christ puts
the law of the Old Covenant into force.
How are we to
understand that? We know that the disciples are addressed, they who are bound
to Jesus Christ alone. No law was allowed to hinder the communion between Jesus
and his disciples. That became clear in the commentary on Luke 9:57ff.
Discipleship is allegiance to Jesus Christ alone and is unmediated.
Nevertheless, now an entirely unexpected step follows: the disciples are bound
to the Old Testament law. In doing so, Jesus says two things to his disciples:
allegiance to the law by itself is not yet discipleship; nor may allegiance to
this person of Jesus Christ without the law be called discipleship. He refers
those to whom he had just given his full promise and complete communion back to
the law. Because it is he whom the disciples are following who does it, the law
remains binding for them. The question must then arise, What is valid, Christ
or the law? To which do I owe allegiance? To him alone, or back to the law?
Christ had said that no law must come between him and his disciples. Now he
says that abolishing the law would mean separation from him. What does that
mean?
The law is the law of
the Old Covenant, not a new law, but the one old law, to which the rich young
man and the tempting scribe were referred as the revealed will of God. It
becomes a new commandment only because Christ binds his disciples to the law.
His concern is not for a “better law” than that of the Pharisees. It is one and
the same, it is the law which must remain and be carried out in every letter until
the end of the world, which must be fulfilled to the letter. His concern really
is for a “better righteousness.” Those who do not have this better
righteousness will not enter the kingdom of heaven. This will be because they
have dispensed themselves from following Jesus, who referred them back to the
law. But no one is able to achieve this better righteousness except those
addressed here, those called by Christ. Christ’s call, Christ himself, is
required for that better righteousness.
Thus, it makes sense
that at this point in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ speaks of himself for the
first time. He himself stands between better righteousness and the disciples,
from whom he demands that better righteousness. He has come to fulfill the law
of the Old Covenant. That is the presupposition of everything else. Jesus shows
his complete unity with God’s will in the Old Testament, in the law and the
prophets. Indeed, he has nothing to add to the commandments of God. He keeps
them—that is the only thing he adds. He fulfills the law; that is what he says
about himself. Therefore it is true. He fulfills it to the last letter. By his
fulfilling it, “everything is done” which is needed for the fulfillment of the
law. Jesus will do what the law requires; therefore, he will have to suffer
death. For he alone understands the law as God’s law. That means that the law
itself is not God; nor is God the law, as if the law had replaced God. That is
how Israel misunderstood the law. Idolizing the law and legalizing God were Israel’s
sins. Inverted, removing divinity from the law, and separating God from God’s
law would be the sinful misunderstanding of the disciples. In both cases, God
and the law would be separated from each other, or identified with each other,
which is basically the same thing. When the Jews equated God and the law, they
did it in order to get God into their power with the law. God was dissolved
into the law and was no longer Lord over the law. If the disciples supposed
they might separate God from the law, they did it in order to get God into
their power in the salvation they possessed. Both times the gift and the giver
were switched; God was denied either by way of the law or by way of the promise
of salvation.
Against both
misunderstandings, Jesus validates anew the law as God’s law. God is the giver
and Lord of the law, and it is fulfilled only in personal communion with God.
There is no fulfillment of the law without communion with God; there is also no
communion with God without fulfillment of the law. The first refers to the
Jews; the second refers to the misunderstanding that threatened the disciples.[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), 115–117.
