Brothers from Another Mother – Fellowship of the
Saints - Purity 598
Purity 598 12/10/2021 Purity 598 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s original drawing of a tree reflected in water, underneath a pink
early morning or sunset sky comes to us from our brother in Christ across the
pond, Philip Hand. For anyone who thinks that Philip might have a psychedelic
bent, they should know that his drawing is merely his artistic attempt to
reproduce a photo of one of God’s creative masterpieces that he saw online.
As awesome as Philip’s poems and drawings are, he uses his talents not
to impress his fellow man but continually uses his work to point to God and
encourages others to find the healing and hope of a new that His Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ provides to all who place their faith in Him. I have taken the liberty of calling this
original piece of Mr. Hand’s as “The Tree of Life” because of the subject
matter, the Biblical tie in that spans from Genesis to Revelation, and the
faith that resides within the artist.
It's Friday and if you can’t think of anything else to be thankful for
this morning, you can thank God for that! But then you should probably think
again and remember your salvation and all the blessings that you have enjoyed
in this life and thank God for those too.
As part of my daily spiritual practice of gratitude, I begin my daily
prayers by thanking the Lord for another day in His kingdom and then go from
there listing my thanks for my body, my mind, my health, my home, my children, my
love, my family, my job, my car, my cat, etc.
Today I was particularly thankful for my brothers in Christ and the
fellowship of the saints.
Just a heads up to my brethren who are so grateful for the Lord’s
forgiveness of their sins, that they humbly identify themselves as a “sinner
saved by grace”. You were a sinner that
was saved by grace but after you were saved you became a saint.
Please don’t get it twisted. I understand that our salvation is a past,
present, and future process and until we are glorified we will not be perfect
like Jesus and will sin, either by doing what we shouldn’t or not doing what we
should as Christians. So there you go “Romans
7 guys” I admitted sin is still an issue but if you are identifying as a sinner more than a
saint, you need to turn the page to Romans 8 and own the empowered promise of God’s word that
continually reminds us of the gift of our freedom in Christ to be progressively
to sanctified.
As the Apostles epistles indicate, a “saint” is a common term for a
follower of Jesus Christ and need not be
thought of as some spiritual super star who has special access to God as some
denominations have corrupted the idea of what a saint is, creating a system of
merits that simply not Biblical and antithetical to the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Sorry, brothers I certainly didn’t mean disrupt our unity, I just wanted
to say that Christ has made you a saint by faith and He has made you free and
you can enjoy it by faith as well.
Anyway, I had a bear of a day at work yesterday where I encountered one
perplexing issue after another and scrambled to find solutions and was feeling
highly condemned by my lack of skills and proficiency in my current job
function and was on the verge of having a “terrible, horrible, no good, very
bad day” when I finally made a call to a fellow Community Freedom Ministry
Associate who had reached out to connect and possibly build a relationship
where I could assist the people of his congregation to go through the Steps to
Freedom in Christ.
As the senior pastor of his church, this fellow member of the CFM network
of Freedom in Christ Ministries, wanted to be professional in ministering to
his flock and realized that he should utilize the resources at his disposal and
enlist the help of others in administering the Steps to Freedom in Christ.
As a pastor, or a counselor, it is highly advisable at times to refer
those who are seeking help to others for various reasons. Rather than muddying
the waters of relationship dynamics or advising someone in an area where we don’t
feel comfortable, we should develop a network of associates that we can refer
people to find the help they need and not be afraid to make a referral when we
need to.
So my “bad day” was transformed as I enjoyed talking to another kindred
spirit whose purpose in life was to not only help people to find their salvation
by placing their faith in Christ but who also understood and wanted to share how
our lives can be transformed by realizing and living out our freedom in
Christ. I didn’t know this man from Adam
but after a few moments of conversation I knew we had mutual friend in Jesus and
a mutual purpose in helping the body of Christ to overcome their personal and
spiritual conflicts through their faith and with the help of the framework of
prayer that is laid out in the Steps to Freedom in Christ.
While I am not sure of what will result of our new association, I know
that I have a new friend, ally, and brother in Christ.
This simple conversation took me out of the funk caused by the
circumstantial chaos of my day by reminding me of my identity and purpose in Christ
and it encouraged me that there were more men of faith like me out there who
cared and were doing the same work to share the hope and freedom of Christ.
A life of walking in the Spirit is never boring. That conversation with my
newfound friend would have been enough to make my day but after work I had the
pleasure of going to a Christian Men’s Christmas party of sorts at Starpoint
Church in Clifton Park.
There was 25 of us in attendance for the annual Christmas “Men's Sock
Exchange”. The event was themed as a tongue in cheek nod to the fact that men
are often given socks as gifts at Christmas so the people at Starpoint decided
to do a “white elephant” gift exchange with socks as the gift. The socks ranged in style from the highly
practical and useful to absolutely bizarre and hilarious. I myself ended up with a pair of Rudolph the
Red Nosed Reindeer socks that I immediately regifted to my daughter Haley who’s
into crazy socks upon returning home.
Other than exchanging socks, the men got to enjoy some food and fellowship. As an icebreaker we all introduced ourselves
and share a story or a few words about our “favorite Christmas memory” which
ranged from tales of receiving coveted childhood treasures, to spending special
times with family in years gone by, to a testimony of a special Christmas in a
foreign land “far from home”.
While any group of men could have had a similar event, the thing that
brought us together and that allowed us to be vulnerable and to share insights
from our lives was our common bond of our faith in Jesus Christ. While
we had different ages, occupations, and experiences, we had all chosen to come
together and to enjoy each other’s company as a band of brothers in
Christ.
So in this world that has increasing caused us to be separated from one
another, where the number of people who live alone has gone from 1 in 20 in
1960, to 1 in 3 in 2021, 25 men came
together to have some fun and to encourage one another that they were not alone
in their faith.
So as we draw closer to Christmas, let us draw closer to alone another
and be thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ. As saints, we will spend eternity together so
why not get to know each other now and encourage each other as we all follow
the call and purpose the Lord has for us.
Today’s Bible verse is
drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verses are:
Psalm 127:3 (NLT2)
3 Children are a gift from
the LORD; they are a reward from
him.
Today’s verse reminds us of where our good gifts come from
and that what can be seen as a responsibility, or a burden, should be embraced
as a gift.
If you have been blessed with children, you know what a
responsibility and burden on your life that can be. As a parent we are called to lead by example
and to provide for our family’s needs.
Parenting can be a thankless job of toil and, let’s face it, it isn’t
for everybody. As parents, we will be
called at all hours to do things that we would have thought as simply unimaginable
in our single days.
So why would we choose to do it?
Even though the Lord calls us to be fruitful and multiply, we
could surmise that there are plenty of people in the world now and decide that
being a parent isn’t necessary or the call on our lives. So mere obligation to
that divine directive isn’t a great reason to have children.
The best reason to have kids is to build a family where the
love of God that flows through husband and wife can be passed on to the next
generation and to be passed on further into the world. It is for love that we
should make the decision to try to have kids.
It’s only the love of parent that will cause you to stay and do the things
you need to do for your kids.
However, today’s verse reminds us that children are a gift
from God. Some people can’t have kids naturally. So we should remember that God
really has blessed you with not only the physical ability to reproduce but has
also filled your heart to be a parent for the right reason: love.
Being a parent gives us a small idea of the love that God
has for us, as we play a part in the creation of new life and how we are
naturally bonded to our offspring and committed to their wellbeing.
For those of us who have lost children, we also know that sending
Christ to die for us wasn’t an easy thing for God the Father to do. But as a
Father to us all, the Lord put His redemptive plan into action because of His
love for us and to bring His wayward children home.
So this Christmas remember the immense gift that has been
given to you if you have children, or the sacrifices your parents or others
have made for you if you don’t. These
relationships give us a small idea of the love that God has for us and that the
purpose of Christmas was to remind us of all of the love that the Father had
for us by sending His Son to be born in a manger, suffer, and die for us.
The Lord has the gift of eternal life for those who accept
Jesus as Lord and Savior. And if you
know Him, we should share the gift others.
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 A.W. Tozer’s Advent
Devotional – From Heaven, for Day 14, as
this current resource series will lead us to Christmas Eve.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase A.W. Tozer’s books for your own private study and
to support his work.
DAY 14
LET US PREPARE NOW
Therefore keep watch, because you do
not know the day or the hour.
MATTHEW 25:13
It was John Milton who said that
hope springs eternal in the human breast. Indeed hope is such a vital thing
that were it to die out of the heart of mankind, the burden of life could not
long be sustained.
But precious as this hope may be, it
is yet, when it is ill-founded, a dangerous thing. The hope, for instance,
which almost all people feel, of long life here on earth, can be for many a
deadly snare, a fatal delusion. The average man, when he thinks of his future,
suspends reason, falls back on unreasoning hope, and creates for himself an
expectation of peaceful and unnumbered days yet to come. This blind optimism
works all right till the last day, that inevitable last day that comes to all;
then it betrays its victim into the pit from which there is no escape.
The perils of groundless hope
threaten the Christian too. James sharply rebuked the believers of his day for
presumptuously assuming an earthly future they had no real assurance would be
theirs:
Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow
we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and
get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your
life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this,
or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
JAMES 4:13–16
Would it not be good for us to put
away the vain dream of countless earthly days and face up to the blunt fact
that our days on earth may actually not be many?
For the true church, there is always
the possibility that Christ may return. Some good and serious souls hold this
to be more than a possibility, for it seems to them as it seems to this writer
that “the earth is grown old and the judgment is near,” and the voices of the
holy prophets are sounding in our ears.
And when He comes, there will not be
a moment’s notice, not an added day or hour in which to make frantic
last-minute preparations.
And take heed to yourselves, lest at
any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares
of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it
come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore,
and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things
that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
LUKE 21:34–36
Altogether apart from the prophetic
expectations of devout men, there is the familiar fact of death itself. Of
those Christians who had died, Paul said simply, “Some are fallen asleep” (1
Corinthians 15:6). What a vast and goodly company they make, those sleeping
saints, and how their number will be increased this year. And which ones among
us can give assurance that he may not join them before all the days of the year
have run their course?
Since we know not what a day may
bring forth, does it not appear to be the part of wisdom to live each day as if
it were to be the last? Any preparation we will wish we had made, let us make
it now. Anything we will wish we had done, let us do it today. Any gift we will
wish we had made, let us make it while time is on our side.
At the great unveiling, there will
be other emotions beside joy. There will be grief and shock and self-reproach
and disillusionment. But it need not be so for you and me if we will but use
the information we have at hand, if we will but take advantage of the
opportunities that lie beside our pathway and the promises that just like uncut
diamonds from the sacred Scripture. Yesterday may have been marked by shameful
failure, prayerlessness, backsliding. Today all that can be changed and
tomorrow—if there is for us an earthly tomorrow—can be filled with purity and
power and radiant, fruitful service. The big thing is to be sure we are not
lulled to sleep by a false hope, that we do not waste our time dreaming about
days that are not to be ours. The main thing is to make today serve us by
getting ready for any possible tomorrow. Then whether we live or die, whether
we toil on in the shadow or rise to meet the returning Christ, all will be
well.
Tozer, A. W. (2016). From heaven: a
28-day advent devotional. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
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