Ready to Wave the White Flag? - Purity 1172
Purity 1172 10/14/2023 Purity 1172 Podcast
Purity 1172 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a beautiful fall sunset over the
shores of Lake Ontario in Oswego NY comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography
as Rocco Saya shared this masterpiece on social media back on October 6th.
Well, it’s Saturday, and as we move into the last
lap of the second week of October, I want to encourage all my friends to enjoy
the weekend and to get some rest so you can be restored and ready to face the
challenges of another week come Monday. The Lord thought getting rest was so important
that He instituted the observance of the Sabbath as a holy day of rest in the
Ten Commandments. The Lord knew that we would
face challenges in a world broken by sin and tried to encourage our worship and
rest to give us the motivation and energy to keep going in life.
The idea of rest is especially precious to me this
morning as I was up a little later than usual last night and my shifted work
schedule is making a traditional – Saturday - Sabbath rest - not an option. I have to work today but look forward to the day’s
end as I will be reunited with my beloved wife and observe a holy day of rest
on Sunday, the New Testament – or Christian Sabbath – as we follow the Apostle’s
lead who worshipped on Sunday – the day Jesus was resurrected – the first day
of the week (Acts 20:7) but have the freedom, really to make any day our “Sabbath”
as the Apostle Paul laid out in
Romans 14:4-5 (NLT2) where He wrote to
the church…
4 Who are you to condemn
someone else’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him judge
whether they are right or wrong. And with the Lord’s help, they will do what is
right and will receive his approval.
5 In the same way, some think
one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike.
You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable.
So whether you choose to rest and worship on Sunday, Saturday or any other day of the week – as long as you are fully convinced and resting and keeping the day holy it is acceptable. So whatever day you want to worship the Lord and rest in honor of His commandment of a Sabbath is fine, I guess. How about that freedom in Christ!
However, most Christians gather as a corporate body to worship on Sunday and as we are called not to forsake the assembly of ourselves as Christians in Hebrews 10:25, it would probably best to make Sunday your “Sabbath” and the day you can meet with the body of Christ to meet both of these provisions at once.
It is good to come together as the body of Christ and the reason I am tired this morning is because I attended a gathering of Christian men at Starpoint Church’s Man Up event last night where we were entertained by some NASCAR themed activities and encouraged by NorthStar Church Pastor Mike Linch who came all the way from the Atlanta Georgia to deliver a message on never giving up.
Utilizing the faithful example of Nehemiah, Pastor Linch’s message encouraged the men last night to keep building “their wall” – to continue to work on their personal calling and purpose in life – and to not wave the “white flag” – to quit or give up. Linch shared how troubles in his congregation back in 2012 had brought him to the brink of waving the white flag on his work as a pastor. But through the Lord’s help. who used faithful men and women to encourage Linch through the “desert season from 2012-2014, he endured and experienced a wealth of personal and spiritual blessings since then that he would have never known had he “waved the white flag” and walked away from ministry.
After Linch’s message, the men were directed to share “the white flag” moments they had walked through during their lives in small groups, to encourage one another that they too had endured, or if they were currently going a “white flag” season, they could receive the encouragement and strength from one another and from the Lord as we were directed to pray for one another.
We don’t forsake the assembling of the saints because we are stronger together than we are by ourselves. The only “white flag of surrender” we should wave is to mark our decision to surrender to the Lord’s will and ways for our lives because only God can provide us with the strength, guidance, and wisdom that will help us to navigate through life and to persevere in the work of “building our walls”, whatever projects the Lord is calling us to work on.
So if you are blessed with a full weekend off – I encourage you to make Saturday or Sunday – or both days – your “Sabbath” rest or “if you have work to do on your “wall” – just pick one and use the other to “get ‘er done”.
I know too well what “white flag seasons” and work mean and let me encourage you that when you go through them with the Lord, you can somehow make it and accomplish far more than you ever thought you could when you keep walking and talking with God!
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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 Bitterness, Resentment,
& Hate.
Ephesians 4:31-32 (NIV2011)
31 Get rid of all bitterness,
rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
32 Be kind and compassionate
to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Today’s
verses fall under the first point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Bitterness,
Resentment, & Hate.
1. In the power of the Holy Spirit every Christian can and must get rid of bitterness and hatred and become a kind, compassionate, forgiving person.
Today’s verse commands us to give what we have received – forgiveness – as a remedy to overcome “all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and every form of malice”. As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus and to be kind, compassionate, and forgiving people to be more like Him.
But as today’s verses indicate, the key to becoming kind and compassionate is to forgive from the heart. Recognizing all that we have been forgiven of, we should be humbled to forgive other their offenses against us and thus diffuse and remove any bitterness or anger from us.
So practice forgiveness, and do away with the anger, bitterness, and hate that represents the world, and follow the example of our kind and compassionate Lord and Savior instead.
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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
30 - The Spirit Fructifying
Cultivating
Christlikeness
The Holy Spirit not only imparts life and holiness, but He sustains the same in the soul; He not only communicates heavenly
graces, but He cultivates and develops them. “That they might be called Trees
of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified … For as
the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are
sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to spring forth before all the nations” (Isa. 61:3, 11). Yes, the same One who
“planted” those “trees of righteousness” must also “cause them” to “spring forth” to grow and bear fruit. While the
tendency of the new nature is ever Godwards, yet it has no power of its own,
being entirely dependent upon its Creator and Giver. Hence, that fruit which is
borne by the believer is expressly called “the fruit of the Spirit” so that the honor and glory may be ascribed alone
unto Him. “From Me is thy fruit
found” (Hosea 14:8).
“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and
floods upon the dry ground: I will pour
My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring: and they
shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses” (Isa.
44:3, 4). Just as surely as a drought brings famine, so the absence of the
Spirit’s working leaves all in a state of spiritual death; but just as heavy
rains renew a parched vegetation, so an outpouring of the Spirit brings new
life. Then shall it indeed be said, “The wilderness and the solitary place
shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose”
(Isa. 35:1), which is expressly interpreted for us by the Spirit in, “For the
LORD shall comfort Zion: He will
comfort all her waste places; and He
will make her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of the
LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of
melody” (Isa. 51:3). We have purposely added Scripture to Scripture because the
spiritual meaning of these passages is commonly unperceived today, when carnal
dispensationalists insist on the ignoring of all figures, and the interpreting
of everything “literally.”
“My little children,
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal.
4:19)—that which the Apostle did ministerially, the Spirit does efficiently. This is how the Spirit makes the
Christian fruitful, or rather, it is how He first fits him to be fruitful: by
forming Christ in him! The metaphor
is taken from the shaping of the child in its mother’s womb, so that as its
natural parents communicated the matter of its body, it is then framed and
shaped into their likeness, limb for limb, answering to themselves. In like
manner, the Spirit communicates to the heart an incorruptible “seed” (1 John
3:9) or spiritual nature, and then conforms the soul unto Christ’s image: first
to His graces, and then to His example: “That ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you” (1 Pet.
2:9)—which we could not do unless we had first received them. Ah, my reader, this is a solemn thing: we pass among
men for genuine Christians, but the only coins which will pass the eye of God
are those which bear stamped upon them the image of His Son.
In other words, then,
the Spirit’s fructifying of the believer is the conforming of him unto Christ, first in his heart, and
then in his life. By nature we are totally unlike
Christ, being born in the image of Adam and dominated by Satan; or, to revert
to the figure in the opening paragraph, so far from resembling a beautiful and
well-kept garden, we are like a barren desert, where nothing but useless shrubs
and poisonous weeds are found. “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the
vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with
thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof
was broken down” (Prov. 24:30, 31). That
is how we appeared unto the holy eye of God in our unregenerate state! It is
only when a miracle of grace has been wrought in our hearts that Christ begins
to be formed in us, and that we (in our measure) reproduce His graces; and this
is due solely to the sovereign and effectual operations of the Holy Spirit.[1]
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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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Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
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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)
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
