Getting Lost - Self-Deception Series 22 – Purity 1111
Purity 1111 08/03/2023 Purity 1111 Podcast
Purity 1111 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the Bluffs Edge Trail, winding
through the wilderness along the coast of Lake Erie comes to us from yours
truly as I captured this wooded scene on the return trek to our automobile during
yesterday’s visit to Erie Bluffs State Park.
Well, It’s Thursday and I am happy to report that we
did make it out of Erie Bluffs State Park, no thanks to myself, because I became
so focused on the twists and turns of the map that I had captured to my phone
that I didn’t realize that I wasn’t where I thought I was and ignored the
obvious signs that told us which way to go.
I began to take a left turn based on my “supposing” when my wife pointed
out that “our car is over there!” on a path straight ahead. I was in utter disbelief at the time because
the twists in turns of the path seemed to match up with the map which “told me”
that we had to bear left otherwise we would be taking a long walk to the other
end of the park. In my defense, and
after a further review of the map, two factors came into play that led me
astray:
1. The map didn’t accurately reflect reality. There were mown paths and little foot trails
at the park that were not on the map!
2. At a critical point on the walk out of the woods, we
came to a 3 way unmarked intersection, at which we chose a path that was in the
right direction, but I assumed we were at a point that was further west than we
were.
So, I assumed that we on the westward leg of Transition
Trail, when we were on the Southern leg, and when our winding progress seemed
to match up with the map, I took an unmarked mowed path to the left to be the “Black
Oak Savana Trail” when in fact it wasn’t.
Luckily, TammyLyn was looking at where she was going rather than blindly
following me and pointed out the shapes of automobiles in the distance that signaled
“this is the way”.
I really was sure I knew where I was going and even
after seeing the vehicles I wasn’t convinced as I experienced the cognitive dissonance
of my imagination and expectations being confronted with the contradictory
information of reality, but I begrudgingly trusted my wife and followed her
until it was clear that “that parking lot was “THE parking lot” and I humbly
admitted I had been lost and didn’t know it.
I had believed things that were not true and
continued believing them until it was painfully obvious that I had been
deceived by faulty information and false expectations created by my imaginative
assumptions. Just because you think something
is true doesn’t mean that it is, and just because you are sincere in believing
your false beliefs doesn’t mean they will take you where you want to go. To know the truth, we have to accurately look
at all the evidence and admit when we have made a mistake in judgement when
reality reveals the error of our ways.
And that
brings us to our current series on Self- Deception, where we have decided to investigate
some of the ways we deceive ourselves by walking through Step 2, Deception Vs.
Truth, of the Steps to Freedom in Christ to see what ways we may have been deceived
by “the world” and ourselves and in what ways we have wrongly defended
ourselves.
So we present the sixth of the “Ways to Deceive Yourself”:
6 . Thinking that God is the source of my problems.
The scripture reference for this point is:
Lamentations 3:1-24 (NLT2)
1 I am the one who has seen
the afflictions that come from the rod of the LORD’s
anger.
2 He has led me into
darkness, shutting out all light.
3 He has turned his hand
against me again and again, all day long.
4 He has made my skin and
flesh grow old. He has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and
surrounded me with anguish and distress.
6 He has buried me in a dark
place, like those long dead.
7 He has walled me in, and I
cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains.
8 And though I cry and shout,
he has shut out my prayers.
9 He has blocked my way with
a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked.
10 He has hidden like a bear
or a lion, waiting to attack me.
11 He has dragged me off the
path and torn me in pieces, leaving me helpless and devastated.
12 He has drawn his bow and
made me the target for his arrows.
13 He shot his arrows deep
into my heart.
14 My own people laugh at me.
All day long they sing their mocking songs.
15 He has filled me with
bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.
16 He has made me chew on
gravel. He has rolled me in the dust.
17 Peace has been stripped
away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 I cry out, “My splendor is
gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD
is lost!”
19 The thought of my
suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.
20 I will never forget this
awful time, as I grieve over my loss.
21 Yet I still dare to
hope when I remember this:
22 The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never
cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I
will hope in him!”
After a long journey into despair based on the facts of his suffering, Jeremiah made a mistake in concluding that God was out to get him. He looked at His situation and God’s sovereignty and more or less assumed “God hates me” and was the source of all of his problems.
This is a classic trap of the enemy and self-deception – where we take things that are “facts” – things that are true – and draw conclusions that are false from them. Some examples of this are:
· They didn’t answer my call, they must
not like me or care about me.
· My wife left me, so I must be
unlovable.
· My parents ignored me, I must be worthless.
· I was picked last on the team, so I must be useless.
Just like an illusionist uses misdirection to grab our focus to keep us from seeing the truth, we can focus on the facts of our situations, ignoring other things that disagree with what we believe is true, to the point that we draw a false conclusion – “We must turn left here!” for instance.
But luckily, in the above passage, Jeremiah looks pasts the facts of his suffering and remembers the truth about God. God isn’t hateful, He’s loving. God isn’t mean and abusive, God is merciful. When Jerimiah remembers the truth about God, he leaves his despair behind and is filled with a hope that is based on the truth of God’s faithfulness.
And just like Jeremiah, we have to remember
God’s faithfulness when we start to slip into hopelessness or
condemnation. God is not the source of
our problems. Yes, the facts may reflect that we are suffering or people have
rejected us but the higher truth of God’s love, acceptance, care, and provision
remains true and when the going gets tough we accept the reality of our
situations but we also put our hope in God and trust that He will be with us
and will help us with His strength, comfort, and wisdom until the “facts” are
seen according to God’s truth and perspective. When we spend our lives walking
and talking with God and following where He leads, we are never lost for too
long and even in the darkest valley we can have peace and joy because He is
with us.
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For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Affliction, Discipline,
Chastisement, & Trials.
Deuteronomy 8:2-5
(NIV2011)
2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the
wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was
in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
3 He humbled you, causing you
to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors
had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word
that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
4 Your clothes did not wear
out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
5 Know then in your heart
that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD
your God disciplines you.
Today’s
verses fall under the eighth point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, & Trials
8. “God disciplined and tried His people on
their journey to the promised land to teach them important lessons”.
Today’s verses remind us that the Lord tests His people, but they also remind us that although He may humble us, the Lord does it as a loving Father who seeks to teach his children the proper way to go and to best represent His kingdom.
Jesus quoted verse 3 from this passage when He was tempted in the wilderness by Satan: telling the evil one that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
We are supposed to live on the Lord’s instructions for
us and we are to keep His commands. And
so the Lord will test us with the purpose that we will learn to depend on His
wisdom and strength as we go through life.
So when we run into trials we can comfort ourselves by remembering that
God has always tested His people and that the difficulty we face proves that
God cares about us and seeks to refine our faith and cause us to agree with and
follow Him.
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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 The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3)
A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit
17 - The Spirit Uniting in Christ
Spiritual
Union
Spiritual union with Christ, then, is
effected both by the external
preaching of the Gospel and the internal
“drawing” of the Father. Let us now take note of the bands by which Christ and the believer are knit together. These
bands are two in number, being the Holy Spirit on Christ’s part, and faith on
our part. The Spirit on Christ’s part is His quickening us with spiritual life,
whereby Christ first takes hold of us. Faith on our part, when thus quickened,
is that whereby we take hold of Christ. We must first be “apprehended” (laid
hold of) by Christ, before we can apprehend Him:
Philippians 3:12. No
vital act of faith can be exercised until a vital principle is first
communicated to us. Thus, Christ is in the believer by His Spirit; the believer
is in Christ by faith. Christ is in the believer by inhabitation; the believer
is in Christ by implantation (Rom. 6:3–5). Christ is in the believer as the
head is in the body; we are in Christ as the members are in the head.
“He that is joined
unto the Lord is one spirit” with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). The same Spirit which is
in the Head is in the members of His mystical body, a vital union being
effected between them. Christ is in Heaven, we upon earth, but the Spirit being
omnipresent is the connecting link. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into
one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles” (1 Cor. 12:13)—what could be plainer
than that? “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath
given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13). Thus, Christ is unto His people a Head
not only of government, but also of influence.
Though the ties which connect the Redeemer and the redeemed are spiritual and
invisible, yet are they so real and intimate that He lives in them and they
live in Him, for “the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
“But if the Spirit of
Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth
in you” (Rom. 8:11), and this, because the Spirit is the bond of union between
us and Christ. Because there is the same Spirit in the Head and in His members,
He will therefore work the same effects in Him and in us. If the Head rise, the
members will follow after, for they are appointed to be conformed unto Him
(Rom. 8:29)—in obedience and suffering now, in happiness and glory hereafter.
Christ was raised by the Spirit of holiness (Rom. 1:4), and so shall we be—the
earnest of which we have already received when brought from death unto life.[1]
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tomorrow------------------------
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
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For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
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