Today! – The Forward Direction of Our Faith – Purity 738
Purity 738 05/23/2022 Purity 738 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo on a golden sunset sky shining through between two
pine trees comes to us from a friend in Hudson NY who captured and share this view
on social media this past Saturday. They
experienced and shared a similar view yesterday, also shared on the blog today,
and noted that they only cropped their
photos “to take out the powerlines lines” that would have diminished the splendor
of what God wanted us to see.
Well, it’s Monday and my friend’s efforts at editing his photos
for maximum effect has me thinking about the wisdom of shifting our focus to
the things that are good in the here and now and looking ahead rather than getting
bogged down by the frustrations that are present and the things that are in the
past.
The best example from scripture that I can think of that could
teach us to keep moving forward ad not looking back is Lot’s wife.
Genesis 19:26 (NKJV) says
26 But his wife
looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Okay, while
that is unlikely to literally happen if we dwell on the things in our past.
Jesus told us to remember Lot’s wife and also recommended a forward looking
disposition as He called us to surrender ourselves to what the Lord would have
us do. In talking about the future “day
of the Lord”, Jesus said.
Luke
17:31-33 (NKJV)
31 In
that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let
him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field,
let him not turn back.
32 Remember
Lot's wife.
33 Whoever
seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve
it.
Here Jesus is putting the emphasis on our following where the Lord
would lead us rather than being concerned over material possessions or our
personal desires over the Lord’s will for our lives.
Christ reiterated the focus of moving forward and following
the Lord in
Luke 9:62
(NKJV) where He said to one who hesitated in following Him:
62 …, "No
one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom
of God."
Similarly the Apostle Paul encourages the forwarding looking disposition
in:
Philippians
3:13-14 (NKJV)
13 Brethren, I do not count
myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
This forward
thinking is supposed to be the general disposition of the Christian’s
walk. We don’t dwell on the things we
may have accomplished in the past but look forward to what we can do today, or
in the days ahead, for the kingdom of God.
We also don’t
dwell on the pain of the past.
The enemy would
encourage us to look to the past to either condemn us for our past sinful
lifestyles or to remind us of the injustices and sufferings we had to suffer through
to foster feelings of anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness.
But the
Christian should realize that the Lord was faithful to bring us through the
past sufferings and that we are not who we used to be. We are new creations in
Christ and, as Christians, we forgive from the heart and release the bitterness
of the pains we have suffered, trusting that God has forgiven us, healed, us
and that He will deal with all the injustices of the world when Christ
returns.
And if we are
going through some present sufferings, the Christian is to take care of what
they can do for today, keep moving forward, and keeping trusting that the Lord
will help us to endure until we overcome and walk out of this present
darkness.
This forward thinking
disposition of the Christian should also be applied to avoid the tendency to be
drawn into discontentment by falling into the error of dwelling on the mythic remembrance
of the “good old days”.
I just saw one of my contemporaries, share a post on social media where the source for this post was lamenting of how kids today would never know the joys of the 70’s and 80’s where kids used to go everywhere unattended on bicycles. You may have seen other posts like these where “hanging out down by the crick” or some other activity of baby boomers or gen x’ers” was romanticized and lamented over.
There are two problems with these types of posts. 1. They are not true. 2. They are pointless.
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and I can tell you, honestly, that they weren’t what they are cracked up to be. Frankly, they sucked. Technology was terrible. Bullying was common place. What we called entertainment and fashion was shallow and embarrassing. Materialism, Sexual harassment and hateful discrimination practices were the soup de jour. The “good old days” of the 70’s or 80’s or any time period in the past is a myth. It’s selective memory. It’s a lie.
And the lie of
nostalgia is propagated by the enemy and mankind to breed discontentment and division. When I moved into my new house the previous
owner had a Ronald Regan campaign ad in the basement. I am sharing a photo of a similar Regan ad on
the blog, if you want to see it.
Do you know what it said? That’s right, “Make America Great Again”
So our yesteryear, wasn’t so hot for that people back in the 80’s. They wanted to turn back the clock. The point is we have to find happiness now, and looking back isn’t the direction that we are going in. We have to do things today that will effect our tomorrows.
That brings up my second, point – nostalgia is pointless because we can’t turn back the clock to “the good old days”. Instead of lamenting about what we had and lost, we should be thankful for what we have now, and rejoice, and move into days ahead by looking forward and not being turned “salty” by looking back.
So if you are facing challenges today, look at them accurately for what they are today and for how they will affect the future and while we should learn from the pain and mistakes of the past, we shouldn’t allow them to add to what is happening today to steal our present day peace.
Likewise, instead of dwelling on the “good old days” of the past, we should look to the follow the Lord and thank Him for the good things we have in the here and now.
So keep moving forward! And keep walking and talking with God. Thank Him for a new day in which to live and to rejoice that He has made you, has saved you, and has more in store you.
We might be burdened with a lot on our plates this Monday but there is nothing we can can’t walk through when we are walking with the Lord and the things of the past usually trip us up, so step beyond the past by stepping forward into today and what lies ahead where the Lord is leading us.
Time only goes one way, forward. So no matter where you are going geographically today, know that time will advance and the only thing we can be sure of regarding our futures is the fact that Lord will be there. So walk with Him today and everyday, to experience the peace of His presence and to benefit from the gifts of His wisdom and strength that we receive when we follow His lead.
______________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
James 5:16 (NLT2)
16 Confess your sins to each
other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of
a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
Today’s Bible verse reminds us to find healing through confession and
to always pray.
We confess to one another not to be forgiven. When we put our faith in Christ we were
forgiven of all our sins: past, present, and future.
So why confess our sins to one another?
We confess to one another to receive support and assistance in our
efforts to repent and stop sinning. This
verse is describing an accountability relationship where someone attempts to
turn from a sinful habit by bringing their struggle out into the light, in
front of their brothers and sisters in Christ to receive their love and support
until they achieve victory over their besetting sin.
When we stop our besetting sins, we are healed of them!
And that is where the power and wonderful results come from: our
prayers to be a righteous person. The wonderful results in this section of
scripture is our sanctification!
So while these verses are often used by Christians who are seeking a
miraculous healing, the context shows us that they are actually in reference to
the “miracle of sanctification” that the Lord wants us to experience.
We have been freedom from sin and death. But to overcome our sinful habits of the past,
we will need to pray and we very well may need the support of our brothers and
sisters in Christ. Our healing as Christian
encompasses far more than our physical bodies.
When we turn from our pasts to reflect the image of Christ in the way we
live our lives, we show the truth of our healing as we demonstrate that we
really have been made new creations in Christ.
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.
Partnership
of Ox and People
Not everyone should be a
missionary or a pastor. There is to be a partnership between goers and senders.
Concerning pastors in the church Paul says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it
treads out the grain” (1 Timothy 5:18), meaning: pay your pastor. But that
implies that some folks must be earning grain to put under the poor ox’s nose.
This is also the pattern for missionaries in the New Testament. “Do your best
to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing”
(Titus 3:13). In other words, Not everybody should go to minister with Paul;
some should stay behind, work, and supply the ones who go. Similarly Paul
planned for the Roman church to be his supply base as he headed for Spain: “I
hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey
there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while” (Romans 15:24).
He
assumed they would be gainfully employed so they could give. That’s why he said
to the Thessalonian believers, “Work with your hands … so that you may … be
dependent on no one” (1 Thessalonians 4:11–12). In fact, Paul was so provoked
by the idle busybodies in Thessalonica that he wrote in a second letter:
We
were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without
paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might
not be a burden to any of you.… If anyone is not willing to work, let him not
eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but
busybodies. (2 Thessalonians 3:7–11)
Similarly,
he said to the Ephesians, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him
labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to
share with anyone in need” (Ephesians 4:28).
Stay in Your Job “with God”
The call to be a Christian
was not a call to leave your secular vocation. That’s the clear point of 1
Corinthians 7:17–24. Paul sums up his teaching there with these words: “So,
brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God”
(verse 24). Paul had a high view of the providence of God—that God had
sovereignly “assigned” or “called” unbelievers to positions in life where their
conversion would have significant impact for his glory. “Only let each person
lead the life that the Lord has assigned
to him, and to which God has called
him” (verse 17). Paul does not mean that changing jobs is wrong in the
Christian life—otherwise no one could become a vocational pastor or missionary
except very young people (unlike Jesus who changed from carpentry to full-time
ministry when he was thirty, Luke 3:23). What Paul does mean is that when we
are converted we should not jump to the conclusion, my job must change. Rather
our thought should be, God has put me here, and I should now display his worth
in this job. As verse 24 says, “there let him remain with God.”
Therefore,
the burning question for most Christians should be: How can my life count for
the glory of God in my secular vocation? I am assuming from all that has been
said in this book so far that the aim of life is the same, whether in a secular
vocation or in a church or mission vocation. Our aim is to joyfully magnify
Christ—to make him look great by all we do. Boasting only in the cross, our aim
is to enjoy making much of him by the way we work. The question is, How? The
Bible points to at least six answers.
1.
We can make much of God in our secular job through the fellowship that we enjoy
with him throughout the day in all our work.
In
other words, we enjoy God’s being there for us as we listen to his voice, and
talk to him, and cast all our burdens on him, and experience his guidance and
care. The biblical pointer to this truth is 1 Corinthians 7:24. When you are
converted, stay in your job and enjoy God’s presence. “In whatever condition
each was called, there let him remain with
God.” These last two words are important. Christians do not just go to
work. They go to work “with God.” They do not just do a job. They do their job
“with God.” God is with them.
A
More Personal Promise
This is not the same as
the general promises made to the church as a whole. God promises to the church
corporately, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I
will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16). The promise
for you in your secular job is different. When the saints are at work in their
secular employment, they are scattered. They are not together in church. So the
command to “remain there with God” is a promise that you may know God’s
fellowship personally and individually on the job.
Breathing
out Continual Thanks to God for All Things
One way to enjoy God’s
presence and fellowship is through thankful awareness that your ability to do
any work at all, including this work, is owing to his grace. “He himself gives
to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). All your faculties
of sight and hearing and touch, all your motor skills with hands and legs, all
your mental acts of observing and organizing and assessing, all your skills
that make you good at this particular job—all these things are God’s gifts. To
know this can fill you with a sense of continual thankfulness offered up to God
in prayer. “I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I
will glorify your name forever” (Psalm 86:12). Sometimes the wonder of who God
is will rise up in us while we work, and we will whisper his praise: “Bless the
Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great!” (Psalm
104:1).
When
you add to this the awareness that you depend on God for every future minute of life and for all the
help you need, your thankfulness flows over into faith for each upcoming moment
and for the remainder of the day and week and month and year and decade. This
is faith in future grace. It can be expressed in prayer to God with biblical
words like, “I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, ‘You are my God’ ” (Psalm 31:14). Or you can say, “Your steadfast
love never ceases; your mercies never come to an end; they are new every
morning (and every afternoon!); great is your faithfulness!” (paraphrase of
Lamentations 3:22–23).
Taking
the Promises to Work
Supporting this
thankfulness and praise and trust are the promises of God that you can take to
work every day—written in your Bible or memorized in your head. This is the way
God speaks to you through the day. He encourages you, “Fear not, for I am with
you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help
you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). He reminds
you that the challenges of the afternoon are not too hard for him to manage:
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of
all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). He tells you not to
be anxious, but to ask him for whatever you need (Philippians 4:6), and says,
“Cast all your anxieties on me, for I care for you” (paraphrase of 1 Peter
5:7). And he promises to guide you through the day: “I will instruct you and
teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you”
(Psalm 32:8).
In
this way we fellowship with God, listening to him through his Word and thanking
him and praising him and calling on him for all we need. It is an honor to God
if you stay in your secular job “with God” in this way. This is not a wasted
life. God delights in being trusted and enjoyed. It shows his value. And when
we remind ourselves that none of these undeserved blessings could be ours apart
from the death of Christ in our place, every heartbeat of joy in God becomes a
boasting in the cross.[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
