You Can Run But You Can’t Hide! – God’s Remedy for Shame - Purity 790

 

You Can Run But You Can’t Hide! – God’s Remedy for Shame  - Purity 790

Purity 790 07/22/2022 Purity 790 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a magnificent sunflower sunset comes to us from a friend who shared this scene from near their home in Milton, Kentucky on social media back on July 17^th.

I don’t know all the details of this friend’s story but I know that their journey is similar to mine, involving the pain of divorce in spite of their faith and the joy of a new Christ centered marriage. They are enjoying the dawn of a new life where they have left behind the troubles of the past as they progressively sought to follow the Lord’s lead. When I see them share scenes from the latest chapters of their journey, I rejoice because each scene of the simple joys of their new life provide evidence that the Lord was faithful to provide a way to “the promised land” to one who was faithful to follow Him.

In this sense, their story is my story as I am thanking God that it is Friday because not only will today mark the end of another work week and the beginning of the weekend but today I will leave work, regardless of how my day goes, with the pure joy of anticipation of being in the loving arms of my wife again as our “two household lives” will converge and become one again as we are reunited at our countryside home in Easton NY.  

Reunited and it feels so good. So I am rejoicing over my friend’s new life, my life, my wife, and the transformation I am continuing to witness in the lives of the men that I meet with via Zoom as we review Freedom in Christ Ministries’ “The Grace Course”.  

The Grace Course material is great but our fellowship of mutual support, as we are open and honest about our walk of faith, is what really makes our two hour meetings seem to fly by as we seek to grow in our maturity and fight the good fight by applying the wisdom of God’s word to our daily lives.    Although none of us are perfect, we have all agreed that we have made significant progress on the “path of Christian Discipleship” and our meetings are a reminder of the victories we have won and an encouragement to keep “walking and talking with God.”

Last night’s session was on the topic of shame and how it can be brought into our lives through our family, work, or church dynamics where the “shoulds” and “ought to’s” standards that are established can make us feel that we don’t measure up. Shame can also come from the regrettable things we have done or even from the things that others have done to us.  Our sense of shame typically sends us running away from God and causes us to develop strategies for dealing with it that deny, cover, bury or seek to overcome our shame by our own efforts.

While our different strategies may work for a while, residual shame can remain despite our best efforts because whereas:

Guilt says: “I did something wrong. I made a mistake.” ,

Shame says “There is something wrong with me! I am the mistake”.      

So no matter what you do or where you go, there you are: unacceptable, sick, twisted, warped, wrong, degenerate, dirty, or “DIFFERENT”.  Shame says : “You can run but you can’t hide! Eventually, others will know who you really are and they will reject you!”   

So we run, we hide, or we work to overcome certain problem areas so we can feel acceptable… but even if we achieve a measure of success, shame says that there will still be something very very wrong about us, fundamentally on the inside.  

But God gives us a remedy for our brokenness. God gives us a way to take away our shame.

Romans 10:9-11 (NKJV) says
⁹  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
¹⁰  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
¹¹  For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

The remedy for our sense of disgrace is God’s grace!  Overcoming our sense of shame, is not about our efforts, it’s about His grace:

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV)
⁸  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹  not of works, lest anyone should boast.

It’s not about our making ourselves into a new person, it’s about realizing that through our faith in Christ we have already been made new and there is nothing to be ashamed about.

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

Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV) says
¹⁶  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
¹⁷  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

So through putting our faith Christ, and by living by faith – by living according to who we are in Christ and by the wisdom of the word of God,  we walk into the new life that God has for us, leaving our shame – our sense of unacceptableness – behind because we are accepted! Through God’s gift of grace we have been forgiven, made righteous, and given a new and eternal life. God has taken away our shame and He doesn’t want us carrying it or condemning ourselves anymore.

Romans 8:1 (NKJV)
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.

We tried to run. We tried to hide. We tried to be all that we could be, but it never solved anything. No matter where we went, there we were.

But God found us and He has pulled us out of the shadows of our former lives and invites us to walk with Him into the light of a new life. So keep your chin up, and know that you are accepted by the only One who really matters and He has agreed to never leave you or forsake you as you walk out your journey of faith, from here to eternity.  

He made you, He saved you and He has healed you by making you new. So keep walking and talking with God, and rejoice over the new dawn, the new day, and the new life that the Lord has made in you.

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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:

Psalm 119:2 (NLT2)
²  Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.

Today’s verse describes the spiritual condition of one who obeys God’s laws and continues to search for Him with all of their heart.  The condition is joy!

In this one little verse lies the truth regarding walking in the Spirit. When we simply obey the Lord and continually seek Him and His will for our lives, we have joy.

Throughout scripture God directs us to obey Him, to turn to Him, and follow Him.

If we view God’s law as a set of rules, we will undoubtedly feel condemned because we can’t keep them or we will rebel and seek to beat God at His own game by breaking them and avoiding detection or any negative consequences.  Our pride doesn’t like being told what to do so we will challenge God’s law and the devil or our own imaginations will seek acceptable alternatives to obedience.

We look for short cuts. We look at what the world does and see that there are various different ways to live. So we trust in ourselves, what our families have taught us, or what see in the world and we disobey. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we suffer but regardless when we have to continue to work to create peaceful circumstances and environments, the inevitable will happen: we will fail and we will struggle and will lose our “happiness”. What we create is not joy. It’s happiness because “we made it happen”….  

But joy is different. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and it doesn’t depend on circumstances. Joy depends on our relationship with God and when we search for Him with all our hearts and live according to His ways by obeying His law, we are blessed with an abiding sense of joy that can endure through even the most tumultuous times in our lives.  

The wisdom in today’s verse is plain and simple.  But although it may be simple, it may not be easy because this joyful path is only discovered by surrendering our pride and agreeing to humble ourselves to trust and obey the Lord’s law, His instructions for living, rather than going our own way.   

This way to joy may not be easy but it is worth it.

Christ went to the cross because of the joy set before Him.  The joy was twofold. Jesus had joy over doing the Father’s will – thus proving today’s verse as true – Christ had joy because He obeyed.

But Jesus also had joy because His death on the cross meant that He was making a way for all of us to be forgiven and to experience the joy of our salvation.  

So be like Jesus, obey the Lord’s law and search for Him and His will for your life with all your heart and discover the joy that has been set before you.

______________________________________________________________________

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 Clinton E. Arnold’s “Powers of Darkness”

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

9  The Influence of the Powers on Believers

The painful influence of the evil one continues to be felt throughout the world. The horrors of war, poverty, financial exploitation and racial discrimination are evident worldwide. Christians do not appear to be immune to Satan’s solicitations to evil. Many succumb. Stories of adultery, financial improprieties, hypocrisy, division and the like are all too typical of the modern church. Many pastoral counselors are reporting numerous cases of Christians struggling with direct demonic involvement in their lives.

Satan As a Defeated but Active Enemy

Life experience amply demonstrates to us that Satan and his forces are still quite actively engaged in their malignant activity. Throughout his letters Paul assumed Satan’s continuing powerful opposition to God’s people, and he worked with his churches on how to respond to that evil. Yet, at the same time, Paul was convinced that Christ’s death and resurrection had defeated and disarmed the powers of darkness (Col 2:15). How are we to make sense of these two seemingly contradictory points of view?

First, Christ did win a decisive victory over the powers through the cross. Because of his death and resurrection, Christ broke their compelling grip on humanity, thereby enabling him to rescue people from Satan’s domain and install them as members into his own kingdom. Because those hostile forces have no power or authority over Christ, they consequently have no power or authority over members of his body. Believers acquiesce to the influence of evil powers only in so far as they do not depend on the resources available to them in Christ. Believers can resist Satan’s enticements to sin when they appropriate God’s power made available to them through their union with Christ.

Second, a decisive battle frequently determines the outcome of a war. Christ’s victory on the cross forever determined the outcome of Christ’s conflict with the powers of darkness. The war continues, but every battle is a relatively minor skirmish in comparison to the battle won through Christ’s death and resurrection. Oscar Cullmann has drawn a helpful analogy to Christ’s conflict with the powers by using the two major events of World War 2—D-Day and VE-Day. No one would doubt that the outcome of World War 2 was decided when the Allied forces landed at Normandy on June 6, 1944 (D-Day). Yet VE-Day, the day of final victory, did not arrive until May 8, 1945, almost a year later. Numerous battles were fought and many casualties were sustained, but the enemy’s failure to prevent the successful Allied invasion determined the war. Another scholar relates this to the conflict Christ and his church face with the powers:

D-Day was but the prelude to V-Day, the Day of Christ, the parousia, the day of the final victory of God in Christ. It is the conviction that though the campaign may drag on and V-Day, the day of final glory may still be out of sight, D-Day is over and the powers of evil have received a blow from which they can never recover.

The church continues to live in this “mopping up” period. Final victory is assured, but it is still a dangerous time, and there are many battles to be fought. Satan and his powers continue to attack the church, hold unbelieving humanity in bondage and promote every kind of evil throughout the world. Believers will continue to suffer the painful effects of the large-scale evil spurred on by the powers of darkness—evils such as war, morally deplorable public policies, crime, gang violence and the like. But the powers can no longer take us captive, separate us from God and keep us in sin. We have freedom in Christ. We have a message of redemption and freedom to proclaim.^[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

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^[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 122–123.

Having Joy for Others – Purity 785

 

Having Joy for Others – Purity 785

Purity 785 7/16/2022  Purity 785 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the light of morning shining through fog somewhere near the train station in Adelaide, South Australia comes to us from Dave Baun Photography as our photographer friend had his trusty Olympus, his talented eye, and the presence of mind to capture this morning magic while he enjoyed a brisk and foggy walk on the way to work back on June 25^th.  

That day was a Saturday, I know that because it was my 50^th birthday and like Dave, or maybe unlike Dave, I had to work that day! And today is also Saturday and you may have guessed it, I have to work again!  

But guess what, that’s okay. Just because I have another pair of “one day weekends” this week it doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy them, and it doesn’t mean I can’t thank God, that for me, today is “Friday” which are always pretty cool – no work tomorrow! – And just because I have to work today it doesn’t mean that I can’t have some joy simply over the fact that today is Saturday and that most of my friends are awakening today with no work responsibilities and are free to choose what they will do and where they will go today.  It is my prayer that all my friends, whether they see or hear this message or not have a great day and a wonderful weekend.  

One indicator of our growth as an adult, or of our maturity as a Christian, is our ability to have joy for others and to celebrate with them when they are blessed with good things.   

I love to see on social media that my friends are traveling, are getting together with family, going to weddings, having parties, have moved into new homes or new careers, or have gotten automobiles or other new things.  Whether they are family, old friends of the past, or just acquaintance “friends”, I can honestly say that I have joy over the good things that my friends on social media are experiencing and sharing.    

Their sharing makes me feel good for them and they sometimes inspire me to try some of the things they are doing or to see the places they have gone. Their “views” into their lives opens up a window into their lives and the world at large that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and I am grateful for the extended vision and different perspectives I get from my friends.     

The ability to take joy in the experiences or accomplishments of others is a real sign of maturity and empathy but it is also something that the Lord would have us develop as part of our character as well.  Having joy in the good things that happen to others could be viewed as part of our obedience to obey the Lord’s commandments and can also be seen as a form of spiritual warfare.  

Let me explain.  

The last of the Ten Commandments that is often forgotten and may be difficult to understand demonstrates God’s concern for our relationships with others, and it shows he cares not only about how we behave in those relationships but also how we feel.  

The Tenth Commandment is:    

Exodus 20:17 (NKJV)
¹⁷  "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

The word “covet” is something we don’t hear every day and it’s basic definition – “to yearn to posses or have something” or “to wish for earnestly” may not even seem like there is anything wrong with it.  “It okay to want stuff!”  And wanting things for ourselves isn’t bad… but even in the most basic definitions of the word “covet” that I found online there was an indication that “covet” was different from wanting or desiring something in general and that the things yearned or wished for in the “covet” scenario belonged to somebody else!  The word itself is flavored undoubtedly by it’s use in Tenth Commandment.  

 

The trap the world, the flesh, and the devil sets for us to fall into is that of jealousy, envy, and coveting the things that are not ours.  

 

The tenth commandment indicates that to even have feeling that you want what belongs to someone else is a sin. Your desire for someone else’s thing are wrong. 

 

If we think about the things listed in the tenth commandment, we can see that even the desire to want the things of others can lead to other sins.   Coveting the neighbors wife could lead to adultery.  Coveting the neighbors things could lead to theft.   

 

But beyond these gross sins of commission, God establishes the tenth commandment to show us that He doesn’t what that desire and its negative mental and emotional effects in our lives.  

 

God doesn’t want us to be jealous, envious, or depressed because of what our neighbors have.  If we covet what they have, we might not like our neighbor so much.  Our coveting not only messes with our heads and hearts, it also can mess up our relationships with those around us because of it.  

 

Instead Christ commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves and if we endeavored to do that we would have joy for the good things that our neighbor has, because we certainly have joy over the good things that happen to us.  If we are going to love our neighbors as ourselves, and we have joy over the good things that happen to us, we should thus have joy over the good things that happen to them.  

 

So God’s tenth shows His great concern for our mental health and happiness, and his concern about our human relationships.  But God’s tenth commandment is a support from the first two commandments – to have no other gods before us and that we would have not make idols.  

 

When we covet, our earnest desires to obtain the things others have  can be seen as a failure to honor God, that we are in effect saying that God can’t comfort us or make us happy, but if we only had the things our neighbor has we could be fulfilled.  The objects of our desires become idols as we focus on them rather than our relationship with God and all that He provides us with.  

 

Our coveting also reveals our belief that we believe that we in effect don’t need God because we can make our own happiness by our own efforts by getting the things we covet!

 

So obviously, we have to keep a spiritual eye on the things that we want and ask ourselves: 

 

·       How does this “want” or desire make me feel about myself?

·       How do my desires make me feel about others? 

·       Is this desire good and pure? 

·       What does the word of God indicate about the things I want and how they make me feel? 

·       What if I did get those things?  Would they really satisfy me?

·       Have I wanted similar things like these desires in the past? What were the outcomes when I failed to get them or when I received them?

·       Am I so focused on the things I desire in this world that I have forgotten about who I am in Christ and about my relationship with God and all that He provides me with.  

 

When we suffer in life, generally we can trace the pain back to choices and decision that we made that were selfish or violated the principles that God establishes for us in His word that He would have us live by. 

 

In the examination of this one commandment, we can see God’s great concern for us, for our neighbors, and for our relationship with Him.  

 

Through scripture God indicates that when we follow His ways we will be blessed.

 

As we walk toward the Father, the truth is revealed and it can show us that we have been deceived into believing that the things of others or from the world would satisfy us. The truth is that our peace and fulfillment come from knowing the One who made us and who calls us to Him. 

 

So keep walking and talking with God.  Think about what you are thinking about. Examine your emotions and take a look at what you want out of life and why you want it. Through His word God directs us to put faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and to follow in His ways to discover the pathway to peace.  

 

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

Today’s Bible meditation verses are:  

Matthew 6:19-21 (NLT2)
¹⁹  “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.
²⁰  Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.
²¹  Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

In today’s verse, Jesus teaches us about the importance of having an eternal perspective and to value the things that time can not take away.   

Here Christs points to our earthly impermanence and the fact that although we could build quite a fortune throughout our lives, we can’t make it last forever and we can’t take it with us.  

So Christ subtly encourages us to invest in the things of God and the one thing that can’t be taken away from us our relationship with Him and to focus on accumulating the treasures that will be honored in heaven, like the good works we do in His name and the Christian character that we develop and take with us into eternity.   

We have to think about the things we treasure and ask if they will last and come with us into God’s kingdom.  

And here again, the Son points to the fact that we are to value our relationship with God above anything we see on earth.  God treasures us and showed it by sending Jesus to die for us and here His messenger and our Savior encourages us to treasure the Lord above all else.

God has such love for us that He doesn’t want us to waste any of our time on things that will fall apart or fade away. He wants us grounded in the things that are valuable and that will last forever.  So follow His advice and focus on Him and the things that will be of great value in eternity.

______________________________________________________________________

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 Clinton E. Arnold’s “Powers of Darkness”

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

8 A New Kingdom and Identity for Believers

A few years ago while driving on a freeway, i saw a bumper sticker on the car ahead of me that caught my attention. It read: “Christians Aren’t Perfect, Just Forgiven.” For a few years this epigram became rather popular among Christians. It seemed to provide an answer to the accusations of hypocrisy assailing the church from those outside (and perhaps soothing the conscience of the Christian breaking the speed limit!) while conveying a foundational doctrinal truth, the forgiveness of sins.

I do not object to the message conveyed by the bumper sticker. I do disapprove of the simplistic attitude toward conversion that such a statement could engender. Christians truly are people who have been forgiven. But there is so much more that happens behind the scenes at conversion. One who becomes a Christian genuinely becomes a brand-new person and a member of a new kingdom with an all-powerful and all-loving Lord. The new believer is divinely rescued from slavery in a kingdom controlled by evil supernatural forces. And so much more. Far more than just a decision for Christ, becoming a Christian is a divinely powerful redemptive work of God.

Christians are given a new identity. Their new status becomes the basis for renewing their manner of life on earth. A prominent New Testament scholar once said that living the Christian life consists of “becoming what you are.” In one sense Christians truly are not perfect, but they are in progress. In another sense, in the presence of our justifying God, Christians are perfect.

As believers we need to know who we are now; that is, we need to know our new identity in relationship to Christ. Knowing this is the basis for our behavior and for resisting the supernatural powers of darkness.

Rescued from the Kingdom of Darkness

Just as God delivered Israel from their bondage in Egypt, Christ has rescued believers from Satan and his powers of evil. To the Colossians, Paul says, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13). Behind this statement lies the exodus event as the informing pattern of deliverance. Paul used the same word for “rescue/deliver” that occurs repeatedly throughout the Greek Old Testament to describe Israel’s rescue from their bondage in Egypt (see, for example, Ex 6:6; 14:30).

Deliverance from slavery in Satan’s kingdom is also at the heart of Paul’s concept of “redemption.” Again Paul used the same terminology found in the Exodus account to describe Israel’s redemption. Exodus 6:6 says, “I will free you from being slaves to them and will redeem you with an outstretched arm” (italics mine). Here the concept of redemption appears to bridge the gap between two results of Christ’s work on the cross—deliverance from Satan’s kingdom and forgiveness of sin. Paul’s concept of redemption, important to his understanding of Jesus’ death (see, for example, Rom 3:24 and 1 Tim 2:6), is broad enough to cover both concepts. Some segments of Judaism longed for the Messiah to bring redemption from the devil’s kingdom. For instance, a second-century B.C. Jewish document states: “He will liberate [or ‘redeem’] every captive of the sons of men from Beliar, and every spirit of error will be trampled down” (Testament of Zebulun 9:8). Christ is “our redemption” (1 Cor 1:30) by virtue of his work on the cross, where he not only paid the ransom for sin but also destroyed the power of the influence of the evil dominion (Col 2:14–15).

In this Colossians passage Satan is the one described as “the authority of darkness.” This expression highlights his rulership over a domain. The domain includes the various powers of darkness mentioned throughout the rest of Paul’s letter to the Colossians—powers, authorities, elemental spirits, thrones and so on. It also includes his captives—every person who is not a member of Christ’s kingdom.

Darkness and light are the contrasting metaphors Paul chose to describe the nature of the two opposing kingdoms. Paul used this imagery elsewhere to describe the two conflicting kingdoms. In 2 Corinthians, he says, “What fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?” (2 Cor 6:14–15). Here the respective leaders of each dominion are distinguished.

Believers have been uprooted from one domain and transplanted into another. When Paul says God “brought us into” the kingdom of the Son he loves, he used terminology that may have reminded his Jewish readers of political deportation and colonization. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Antiochus “transferred” several thousand Jews to Asia Minor in the second century B.C.

Followers of Christ truly have a new citizenship. We have been rescued from the clutches of the powers of darkness. This “behind the scenes” action happens at conversion and is symbolized by the rite of baptism. Turning to Christ involves a powerful work of God on our behalf. Conversion for some may only “feel” like a personal decision, but an invisible rescue occurs in the unseen world.

We should not be tempted to think only those people who are involved in occultic activity and Satan worship are slaves to “the dominiion of darkness.” Paul made it clear that all who are not believers (that is, not in the kingdom of Christ) are in bondage to the hostile powers. This concept is especially difficult for Westerners to grasp, but nevertheless it is true. Even those who are moral, who obey the laws of the land and appear to be productive members of society, are captive in Satan’s domain if they are not believers.

In a number of ways Paul explained the new identity of people who have been made members of Christ’s kingdom. An understanding of this new status is essential for resisting the ongoing hostile influence of the powers of the old dominion and living according to the new ethical standards of God’s kingdom. We will look at a few of Paul’s concepts of the meaning of new life in Christ that are especially relevant for gaining the right perspective on the Christian life in light of the opposition we face from the powers of darkness.^[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

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^[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 110–112.

Peace, Joy, and Bad Medicine? – A Fine Line Between Healing and Heresy - Purity 725

Peace, Joy, and Bad Medicine? – A Fine Line Between Healing and Heresy - Purity 725

Purity 725 05/06/2022  Purity 725 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a silhouette of children frolicking on the shores of Point Dume Beach under the glory of a California sun comes to us from my sister-in-law Megan who captured this magnificent shot while visiting friends in Malibu.

Well, It’s Saturday and it is my prayer that all my friends find some “fun in the sun” this weekend if the circumstances allow it but I would also like to assure you that no matter what the weather is like where you are, you can find peace and joy when you walk in the Spirit. Peace and joy are two of the fruit of the Spirit and although my assurance may sound rather “Pollyanna-ish” or too good to be true, the words of Jesus Christ and the Apostles in the Bible indicate that when we have faith in Christ, and therefore receive the Holy Spirit, and we make the daily decision to abide in Christ and obediently follow His wisdom for living, we can have peace and joy.  Jesus said in:    

John 14:26-27 (NKJV)
²⁶  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
²⁷  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Jesus also said in

John 15:9-11 (NKJV)
⁹  "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
¹⁰  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
¹¹  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

And finally, Jesus assured us in

John 16:33 (NKJV) by saying:
³³  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Now, those statements of Jesus that indicate we can have peace and joy are conditional statements.  The Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives requires the condition of faith in Jesus. God the Father will send Him in Jesus’ name after all.

And the peace we have in Christ is “not as the world gives” peace.  The world’s peace is circumstantial and fleeting but somehow in Christ, even if we suffer and go through tribulation, we can still be of good cheer and have peace because Christ overcame the world.  

Jesus also advised us to abide in His love and to keep His commandments so His joy would remain in us. His joy can remain and fill us with joy but His words indicate that we are to abide in His presence and maintain a harmonious relationship with God by agreeing with Him in the way we behave by keeping His commandments.   

In a recent class I attended on Christian doctrine, the presenter stated that there was a difference between “knowing the truth of our faith” and “practicing our faith.  Just knowing the basic facts of the gospel of Jesus Christ or the principles of Christian living is one thing but applying that knowledge to our lives personally, in faith, and in practice is quite another and the difference can be experienced. 

I “knew” the basic facts of Christianity for most of my life but it was only after I put my faith in Christ, made Him my Lord and Savior, and decided to follow Him by actually living according to His wisdom and ways that I was able to experience the peace and joy that go beyond all understanding. 

And trust me, I experienced quite a bit of suffering and tribulations in the twelve years since I said the prayer that surrendered my life to the Lordship of Christ.  Frankly, I have had a lot to learn, and continue to learn, about living by my Christian faith. But as I have continued to stay true to my commitment to follow the Lord’s call on my life by trying to abide in the Lord’s presence and be obedient to His commandments, I have learned that the peace and joy that come from the Lord can be experienced even during the toughest times of our lives.

The peace and joy of the Lord aren’t affected by the changing circumstances of the world around us but require us to stay with Him and to follow Him.  Our walk doesn’t have to be perfect it just has to be continuous, go in the direction the Lord would lead us in, and remain in His presence.  

As I sat down to write this message this morning there was a burden on my heart as I considered some of the differences that can exist in what we believe as Christians across the wide spectrum of Christianity. I originally sat down with the intention to share my two cents about some teaching regarding “receiving your healing” I recently came across that deeply disturbs me.  

But I have decided to “chill-lax”, a bit anyway , I might decide to grind that axe some day but I have decided to lay it down today because I haven’t developed my thoughts on the matter fully and I thought that my words of criticism could cause division in the body of Christ.  

I may disagree with a certain author’s theories on healing, and I mean really disagree, but I know that the Lord, as our sovereign God and Creator is the author of all healing and continues to confound our understanding of why or how things happen in this world and in the area of healing.  The author’s basic intention was to encourage Christians to pray to God for healing and in that I can not disagree.  

While only the Lord’s plan will be done in matters of how prayers are answered, we still have to ask and trust that the Lord will do what is right even if we can’t understand how or why things work out the way we do.  

And while this unnamed author’s use of scripture seemed misguided and out of context, his methodology was questionable, his theories seemed positively inane, and his claims of being able to control the reception of healing was over the top and quite frankly, what I considered to be blasphemous and heretical by subscribing to the “word of Faith” heresy that treats God like a divine slot machine that just needs to be properly manipulated in order to get what you want,  I can’t say that you shouldn’t pray for healing.

I know too many people who have prayed and who have been healed, including myself.  But when we think that we just have to follow a certain prayer recipe to make the Lord to do our will on earth, we cross the line from asking for healing to speaking heresy.  We don’t “pull healing” or “transfer healing” “out of our spirits” through an act of our will as this author stated we did  If we believe that, we will have a hard time having peace or joy when our faith isn’t strong enough to give us our miracle.

No like Christ’s prayer, in

Luke 22:42 (NKJV) where He said:
⁴²  … "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."

God’s will is what will come to pass, not ours. We will not get everything we want in life. We don’t know what cup of suffering we may have to drink. And we really don’t know if our healing is the Lord’s will or not.   We should ask for it, we should pray to God for it.   But like Jesus, we must accept the cup that the Father gives us to drink.

In our efforts to push our desires or personal agendas, we may be going against God’s will for our lives and although we can boldly fight against what we don’t want, we may find ourselves being rebuked by the Lord.

John 18:11 (NKJV) says
¹¹  So Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?"

 

Peter tried to “resist” and “fight the power” and as noble as his cause seemed, it was misguided.  

 

So trust in the Lord, find the peace and the joy that He has for you by abiding in His presence, walking in the Spirit, obeying His commandments, and accepting the cup that He has given you to drink. 

 

If our peace and joy depend on good health, prosperity, and positive earthly circumstances, we will be sorely disappointed in the times of suffering and tribulations. But when we accept who we are in Christ, accept what the Lord has for us,  and keep walking and talking with God, we can find peace in the storm and joy in the morning of after the dark night of the soul.  

 

God is good, all the time. And all the time God is good.  So find peace and joy, regardless of your circumstances, in Him today.

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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:

Ephesians 3:20 (NLT2)
²⁰  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Today’s Bible verse gives us great hope because it speaks of the power God has given us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  

As Christians, the power in us is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and even though it might not be a miraculous gift of physical healing that will work though us, the Lord blesses us in our walks of faith to accomplish infinitely more that we might have thought possible.  

Through the practice of our faith, the fruits of patience and self-control grow. Through the strength we receive from the Holy Spirit, we can persevere and change how we respond to life’s problems.

The fact that we are progressing in living a righteous life through the application of Biblical wisdom is more than we could ever hope to accomplish before we put our faith in Christ.  

While seeing signs, wonders and miracles might not be in the offering every day, because let’s face it even in scripture they were rare, the fact that we are following the Lord and doing good works to share His love and to share the gospel, is much more than we could think we would do before coming to Christ.  

So as much as we want miracles, let’s remember the miraculous work that the Lord has done in us ny bringing us from death to life and let’s give glory to God by representing Him on the earth by faithfully conforming ourselves to the image of Christ and by accomplishing things that will advance His kingdom cause.

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

Today we continue sharing from John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life”.  

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

All You Need to Do His Will and Be Happy Forever

What, then, does Jesus mean, “All these things—all your food and clothing—will be added to you when you seek the kingdom of God first”? He means the same thing he meant when he said, “Some of you they will put to death.… But not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21:16–18). He meant that you will have everything you need to do his will and be eternally and supremely happy in him.

How much food and clothing are necessary? Necessary for what? we must ask. Necessary to be comfortable? No, Jesus did not promise comfort. Necessary to avoid shame? No, Jesus called us to bear shame for his name with joy. Necessary to stay alive? No, he did not promise to spare us death—of any kind. Persecution and plague consume the saints. Christians die on the scaffold, and Christians die of disease. That’s why Paul wrote, “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).

What Jesus meant was that our Father in heaven would never let us be tested beyond what we are able (1 Corinthians 10:13). If there is one scrap of bread that you need, as God’s child, in order to keep your faith in the dungeon of starvation, you will have it. God does not promise enough food for comfort or life—he promises enough so that you can trust him and do his will.

I Can Do All Things Through Christ, Even Starve

When Paul promised, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” he had just said, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12–13, 19). “All things” means “I can suffer hunger through him who strengthens me. I can be destitute of food and clothing through him who strengthens me.” That is what Jesus promises. He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). If we starve, he will be our everlasting, life-giving bread. If we are shamed with nakedness, he will be our perfect, all-righteous apparel. If we are tortured and made to scream in our dying pain, he will keep us from cursing his name and will restore our beaten body to everlasting beauty.

The Far Side of Every Risk, Triumphant Love

The bottom-line comfort and assurance in all our risk-taking for Christ is that nothing will ever separate us from the love of Christ. Paul asks, “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). His answer is, NO! In other words, no misery that a true Christian ever experiences is evidence that he has been cut off from the love of Christ. The love of Christ triumphs over all misery. Romans 8:38–39 makes this crystal-clear: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

On the far side of every risk—even if it results in death—the love of God triumphs. This is the faith that frees us to risk for the cause of God. It is not heroism, or lust for adventure, or courageous self-reliance, or efforts to earn God’s favor. It is childlike faith in the triumph of God’s love—that on the other side of all our risks, for the sake of righteousness, God will still be holding us. We will be eternally satisfied in him. Nothing will have been wasted.

How Can It Get Better Than Being Conquerors?

But there is even more to the promise that sustains us in times of risk for Christ’s sake. Paul asks “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). The answer he intends us to give is, Nobody. It’s the same as saying, “If God is for us, no one can be against us.” That seems naïve. It’s like saying when your head is cut off, “Not a hair of my head has perished.” These excessive statements, it seems, are meant to say more than we have said so far. They intend to say something more than that dying saints won’t be separated from Christ. 

This “something more” comes out in the words, “more than conquerors.” “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). What does “more than conquerors” mean? How can you be more than a conqueror when you risk for the cause of God and get hurt for it?

If you venture some act of obedience that magnifies the supreme value of Jesus Christ and get attacked by one of the enemies mentioned in verse 35, say, famine or sword, what must happen for you to be called simply “a conqueror”? Answer: You must not be separated from the love of Jesus Christ. The aim of the attacker is to destroy you, and cut you off from Christ, and bring you to final ruin without God. You are a conqueror if you defeat this aim and remain in the love of Christ. God has promised that this will happen. Trusting this, we risk.

But what must happen in this conflict with famine and sword if you are to be called more than a conqueror? One biblical answer is that a conqueror defeats his enemy, but one who is more than a conqueror subjugates his enemy. A conqueror nullifies the purpose of his enemy; one who is more than a conqueror makes the enemy serve his own purposes. A conqueror strikes down his foe; one who is more than a conqueror makes his foe his slave.

Practically what does this mean? Let’s use Paul’s own words in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “This slight momentary affliction is preparing [effecting, or working, or bringing about] for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Here we could say that “affliction” is one of the attacking enemies. What has happened in Paul’s conflict with it? It has certainly not separated him from the love of Christ. But even more, it has been taken captive, so to speak. It has been enslaved and made to serve Paul’s everlasting joy. “Affliction,” the former enemy, is now working for Paul. It is preparing for Paul “an eternal weight of glory.” His enemy is now his slave. He has not only conquered his enemy. He has more than conquered him.

Affliction raised his sword to cut off the head of Paul’s faith. But instead the hand of faith snatched the arm of affliction and forced it to cut off part of Paul’s worldliness. Affliction is made the servant of godliness and humility and love. Satan meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. The enemy became Paul’s slave and worked for him an even greater weight of glory than he would have ever had without the fight. In that way Paul—and every follower of Christ—is more than a conqueror.

The Only Road That Leads to Lasting Joy

This is the promise that empowers us to take risks for the sake of Christ. It is not the impulse of heroism, or the lust for adventure, or the courage of self-reliance, or the need to earn God’s favor. It is simple trust in Christ—that in him God will do everything necessary so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. Every good poised to bless us, and every evil arrayed against us, will in the end help us boast only in the cross, magnify Christ, and glorify our Creator. Faith in these promises frees us to risk and to find in our own experience that it is better to lose our life than to waste it.

Therefore, it is right to risk for the cause of Christ. It is right to engage the enemy and say, “May the Lord do what seems good to him.” It is right to serve the people of God, and say, “If I perish, I perish!” It is right to stand before the fiery furnace of affliction and refuse to bow down to the gods of this world. This is the road that leads to fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. At the end of every other road—secure and risk-free—we will put our face in our hands and say, “I’ve wasted it!”^[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

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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

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^[1] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), 94–98.