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Showing posts with label Psalm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2022

The Simple Yet Glorious Way – Purity 750


The Simple Yet Glorious Way – Purity 750

Purity 750 06/05/2022 Purity 750 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a roadside tree underneath a clear blue sky comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene when I decide to go an extra half mile while taking my canine friend, Harley, out for a walk back on the afternoon of May 29th.  

I share today’s simple photo because with it being Monday again, we are “on the road again” and headed into the familiar territory of another work week where we hope that we have “been there and done that”, that our journey this week won’t take us anywhere we don’t want to go.  

As much as we can claim to be bored by the status quo of our lives at times, when we encounter sudden changes that we didn’t expect or welcome, we may find ourselves longing for just a “regular week” of the same old, same old.  But the “status quo” is somewhat of an illusion of course because no matter how steady our pace through life can be, change is happening all around us. 

As hectic as our lives can be, if we look to our friends, families, and neighbors, we realize that they are on their own journeys with their own twist and turns of the “days of their lives” and it can make you wonder how we all can endure the constant shifts of circumstances in our lives.  

From my vantage point, in the last few weeks, I have seen friends and family, experience accidents, proms, graduations, marriages, illnesses, surgeries, births, and death! So what may be status quo for you at the moment is always in the context of sweeping changes as we move forward through life.  With so much going on, it is hard to keep track of it all, but amazingly, if you are going through this journey of life with the Lord, somehow you can have peace.  

After coming to put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, my relationship with God has taught me that He is always present and aware of all the things that are happening in the world and that He is always available to us to offer His strength, guidance, and love as we walk through this world.   

Quite frankly, the trials and tragedies that I have walked through personally, and the ones that I have seen others go through, have taught me that almost anything can happen in our lives and that as long as we are alive we will be subject to changes, and not all of them will be good.  

The trap that the enemy and the world systems set for us is to seek to find a sense of security and happiness through our own efforts.  In learning to deal with the possible calamities in this world, man can fool themselves into believing that if they “do everything right” or “are smart”, they will be able to protect themselves from anything bad happening in their lives.  

The truth is that being prepared, working to create safe environments, and taking steps to establish good health can protect us to some extent and this fact drives us to try to be self-sufficient all the more.  We can see what happens to others who live foolishly or who weren’t “smart like us”, and we can vow that those things will never happen to us!

But the truth is, that we can’t control everything and that we are only secure if we have a relationship with God that will keep us safe for eternity.  

Living in the lap of luxury within the safety of a bunker of our own design with all our physical needs being met could give us a measure of peace and security but no matter how pampered and secure we can make ourselves in this world, there is no peace if it doesn’t include peace with God.   

Christ, the Prince of Peace, through His death and resurrection, made a way for us to have peace with God.  We simply have to put our faith in Him.  It’s a simple step of faith that reconciles us to the Lord and gives us eternal security, acceptance, and significance. 

And when you have that, you can live in peace in this constantly changing world, because you know the One who controls it all and the One who loved you enough to show you that your efforts didn’t hold the key to your security, God did.  

So as much as I hope that this week is free of trouble and drama, I know that no matter what comes my way, I, with the Lord’s help, will be able to handle it.  There’s nothing that the Lord and I can’t face. 

By keeping in constant contact with the Lord through reaching out to Him in prayer, reading His word, and through just talking to Him, I know He is with me and will give me all I need to deal with the situations, yet unknown, that I will face.    

So, saddle up, we got another work week and some of us have some daunting things to face today and in the week ahead, but let me assure you that when you keep walking and talking with God, you can walk through whatever will come your way with peace.

Our task, no matter what they may include, is a simple one: keep going forward, keep going forward with the Lord.    

______________________________________________________________

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 73:24 (NLT2)
24  You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.

Today’s Bible verse assures us that God will guide us with His counsel and will lead us into our glorious destiny.  

Okay, I recently heard a message that was sincere but that may have been a little over the top depending on how you receive it and what you think you could accomplish because of it.  The speaker was preaching on the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how His presence gives us power and wisdom to be more than “mere men”.   

The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives can indeed cause us to do what we would have thought of as impossible before coming to Christ but His presence in us does not make us “supermen” and we shouldn’t just expect that the Holy Spirit will give us divine wisdom and insights to guide us or miraculous powers to effect changes in our lives.   

The speaker’s enthusiasm that “we can do the same things that Jesus could do” wasn’t qualified, because after all, “all things are possible with God”, and they are, but in order to have a balanced walk of faith that won’t lead us into error, we should understand that the Lord has provided His word to guide us in wisdom and that He can give us strength when we ask for it in prayer to do things we wouldn’t normally do.  

I fear that sometimes the emphasis on “having faith” in some messages is viewed as a magical power and that if we are close to God in our relationship with Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts and we will just receive divine wisdom and be able to perform miraculous things.  

The problem is that scripture, history, and reality doesn’t really bear that out.  Believe me, I have laid hands on people with “great faith” and prayed for healing only to see them go on to get worse and die!  So, trust me when I say that there are somethings that Jesus could do that, we may not be able to accomplish.   

Through my maturation as a disciple of Jesus Christ and as a student of the word of God, I have discovered that those who make bold claims of having “little god” like abilities of creative power through their speaking the word or by being “more than human” in some way, could be said to have taken verses out of context or have read meaning into Bible passages rather than having accurately drawn the meaning out of the scriptures. 

Every saint, that has gone before us in church history, has shown there ‘mere humanity” because they failed to perform miracles like Jesus did and have died.   

So if God hasn’t “spoken to you” in an audible voice or given you the power to perform the miracles that Jesus was able to do, you shouldn’t necessarily lose your faith. 

These over the top messages that sort of indicate you should, I believe are well intentioned but could be a little reckless, and could do more harm than good if an immature believer should lose faith when they don’t “claim what they name”.  

Today’s verse for instance could be “misused” to indicate that the Lord will guide you through life like the disembodied voice of Obie Won Kenobi, ( “Run, Luke Run!”) on the way to a life filled with abundance and prosperity. 

But although the Holy Spirit may give us intuitions to act on faith at different times in our faith walk,  the word of God is the primary source that you want to consult for His counsel.  The Word is filled with advice on godly living that we should apply to our lives. His word will guide us. So read it, know it, and apply it to your life situations.   

As for the glorious destiny? Eternity spent in the Lord’s presence will be pretty glorious and given the fact that Christ said that we could expect to be persecuted for our faith, we shouldn’t necessarily expect a suffering free existence here on earth.  

So seek the Lord’s counsel in His word, and through prayer, and rejoice that your destiny is guaranteed to be glorious when you go to be with God or when Christ returns to rule and reign on the earth.

We can do a lot of what Christ did while He was on the earth: like live a holy life, love those who hate us, and serve others. 

As for miracles, we can ask, but the Lord’s will will be done on earth. and we are called to follow Christ regardless of whether we can call on signs and wonders to happen in our midst.

The sign and wonder that will amaze everyone is our faithfulness. So go out there and amaze the masses by faithfully living as a disciple of Jesus Christ with a life that will demonstrate that the fruit of the Spirit are growing in your life.

 

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.

What Is Our Situation in the World Today?

The challenges of world evangelization are still very great. We are in a better position to know the scope and nature of the task than ever before. Patrick Johnstone writes, “For the first time in history we have a reasonably complete listing of the world’s peoples and the extent to which they have been evangelized.” There are various groups that do research to help the church know what people groups around the world have been embraced by a Christian church or mission agency.24 Johnstone’s book gives a good summary of the situation at the turn of our century.

One way to describe the situation is to say that about 1.2–1.4 billion people have never had a chance to hear the Gospel; that is, they live in cultures where the preaching of the Gospel in understandable ways is not accessible. Other analysts estimate the number of unevangelized somewhat higher. For example, the “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission 2002” by David Barrett and Todd Johnson reports that there are 1,645,685,000 unevangelized people in the world. That means 26.5 percent of the world’s population live in people groups that do not have indigenous evangelizing churches.27 About 95 percent of these live in what has been called the 10/40 window (between latitudes 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator and between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans). This is the great challenge of our day.

Johnstone puts it in hopeful historical perspective:

Stepping back we see a remarkable pattern emerging of the 200 years growth [of the church] as it gathered momentum—1700s the North Atlantic, 1800s the Pacific, 1960s Africa, 1970s Latin America, 1980s East Asia, 1990s Eurasia. This one and a half times encirclement of the globe now leaves us with the challenge of the 10/40 Window area. Central and South Asia and the Middle East are the remaining major areas of challenge. Where will the breakthroughs of the … first decade of the … [new] millennium come? Will it be among Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists? These are the final unpenetrated bastions of the enemy’s hold on the souls of men. The rising tide of the gospel is lapping ever higher round this area, and we are even having foretastes of what that breakthrough might mean. Would that I had the space and the freedom to tell of amazing things going on in these seemingly impenetrable ideological fortresses.

God Issues a Call to This Generation: Listen!

There is a call on this generation to obey the risen Christ and make disciples of all the unreached peoples of the world. I am praying that God will raise up hundreds of thousands of young people and “finishers” (people finishing one career and ready to pursue a second in Christian ministry). I pray that this divine call will rise in your heart with joy and not guilt. I pray that it will be confirmed with the necessary gifts, and a compelling desire, and the confirmation of your church, and the tokens of providence. Fan into flame every flicker of desire by reading biographies, and meditating on Scripture, and studying the unreached peoples, and praying for passion, and conversing with mission veterans. Don’t run from the call. Pursue it.

Let your mind dwell on the lostness of perishing individuals, but also on whole people groups that do not have any access to the Gospel. This was Paul’s great ambition: “to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named” (Romans 15:20). There will always be unconverted people to win where the church is already established. That is not the unique task of frontier missions. Frontier missions does what Paul aimed to do: Plant the church where there is now no possibility of ministry. This is the great need of the hour, not only for missionaries who go to serve the established church in other countries (which is a great need, especially in leadership development), but also for missionaries who go to peoples and places where there is no church to serve.

The Day of Missions Is Not Over

Don’t think the days of foreign missionaries are over, as if nationals can finish the work. There are hundreds of peoples and millions of people where there are no Christian nationals to do same-culture evangelism. A culture must be crossed. To be sure, it may be crossed by a non-Westerner, since God is growing his church faster in the non-Western world. That would be wonderful. I have no desire to limit the joy of love. Besides, it may be that highly trained but tentative Western specialists will not be as fruitful as simpler, bold missionaries. Regarding missions to Muslims Patrick Johnstone says, “Often the best missionaries are the ones who have studied little more than the basics of Islamics but have a passion for sharing Christ. In their boldness for Jesus, they plunge into witnessing to Muslims, where an Islamist would fear to go.”30 But make no mistake. A culture will have to be crossed, and that’s what missions is. Missions, not same-culture evangelism by nationals, will finish the Great Commission.

So “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38), and ask him if you should be one. Expect this prayer to change you. When Jesus told his disciples to pray it, the next thing that happened was that he appointed twelve to be his apostles and sent them out. Pray for harvesters, and you may become one. God often wakens desire, and gives gifts, and opens doors when we are praying and pondering real possibilities and real needs. Get a copy of the amazing world prayer guide called Operation World, and pray and read and ponder your way through the nations day by day. Think about the people in places like

Libya with its six million people and perhaps ten indigenous believers.

Bhutan, a hermit Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas, cut off from Christian witness for millennia with only a handful of indigenous believers among its two and a half million people.

The Maldives, off the southwest coast of India, and one of the most closed countries on earth.

North Korea, “a pariah nation gradually starving to death under its crazed Communist leadership,” with no open witness or church life for fifty years.

Saudi Arabia, the headquarters of Islam where Saudi believers, if found, are executed.

India, perhaps the greatest challenge of all, with its vast Ganges plains that contain “the greatest concentration of unevangelized people in the world. For instance, the number of people in Uttar Pradesh in North India is about 180,000,000 and the Christian percentage is 0.1% and falling.”

Turkey, the secular, mainly Muslim state with an ongoing Christian witness in only fifteen of its 100 provinces.[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



[1] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), 173–176.

Friday, June 3, 2022

The Gateway to Freedom and Peace – Forgiveness – Purity 748


 
The Gateway to Freedom and Peace – Forgiveness – Purity 748

Purity 748 06/03/2022 Purity 748 podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a sunset over Lake Ontario captured in the entrance way of a trellis gate comes to us from a friend who visited the lighthouse near Sodus Point back on May 30th.  

Well, it is Friday again and I thought this photo was a good one to represent the day that is the “gateway to the weekend” and it is my prayer that my friends will enjoy the journey of today that will deliver us into the wonderful weekend that lies just beyond our scheduled workday.  Sometimes we can just enjoy that transition on a Friday even when we don’t have any big plans for the weekend.  So today I hope you progressively rejoice and give thanks for this day that the Lord has made as the day runs its course and our work responsibilities are accomplished or put to rest until we pick them up again on Monday.   

Speaking of taking responsibility and putting things to rest, last night I had the pleasure of leading a Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course meeting on zoom where we discussed one of the most essential keys in experiencing our freedom in Christ: forgiveness.   

Our responsibility as Christians is to show that we understand and appreciate the forgiveness God has given us through faith in Jesus Christ by forgiving others.  Right after Jesus taught his original disciples to pray what we know as the “our Father”, or the Lord’s prayer,  He showed the fundamental place that forgiveness is to hold in our lives as Christians by telling us, in

Matthew 6:14-15 (NKJV)
14  "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Here Christ makes our responsibility to forgive others “their trespasses” clear.  If we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us.  

While I know that God’s grace is amazing and He will determine who is saved according to their faith in Christ, it appears that those who come to faith in His Son should appreciated the free gift of their forgiveness and salvation to the point that they will be transformed by it and will forgive others for the things done to them. 

Forgiveness is always a tough lesson and that is why Christ and the Apostles taught so much about it. 

Acceptance of our forgiveness for the all the things we have done is hard enough in a world that loves to condemn and label people according to their mistakes.  Satan loves to condemn us for the wrong we have done and likes to keep us from the freedom that comes from knowing that God has forgiven our sins when we place our faith in Jesus.  

Instead of walking in the peace that comes from our being forgiven, saved, and given a new life, Satan likes to keep us believing the lie that we are no good rotten sinners with no hope.  He wants to keep us in chains of guilt to keep us from sharing the good news of forgiveness and salvation through faith alone and to make it easier to drive us into despair and back into those vicious cycles of sin, guilt, condemnation, and temptation that lead us right back to sin.  

The worldly false doctrine of “everyone is basically a good person” or “there is no such thing as sin” are other ways that the world system and the forces of darkness will keep us from the freedom God wants us to enjoy.  

Instead of repenting of the wrong we have done and receiving forgiveness, the world and the enemy tell us to not listen to our God given consciences that tell our hearts what is right and wrong and tells us to make up our own morality, with such pithy lies as “if it feels good, how can it be wrong?”.  Deceived, the worldly encourage one another in their sins and encourage each other to deny God and His righteous standards all together.   

Romans 1:28-32 (NKJV) says that those who deny God will be abandoned to their sins: saying:
28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29  being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30  backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31  undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32  who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Once you deny God and His standards of morality, anything goes and you “approve of others to do the same things. And one of those things, if you noticed is to be “unforgiving”.   

Listed right along with all the other deeds of the wicked, being unforgiving is not something that God wants us to be.  

The phrase “unforgiving Christian” is an oxymoron. Those words like “Jumbo Shrimp”, seem to contradict one another and the word of God indicates that unforgiveness and being a Christian don’t go together.    

When we come to faith in Christ, we are forgiven of everything we ever done, or will do, and having received such a great gift of total forgiveness, we are to accept it and no longer condemn ourselves for the mistakes we have made or will make.

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.

When we come to faith in Christ and walk in the Spirit, the accusations and condemnations for the world and the devil no longer apply to us.  

Repeat after me:, through faith in Christ, I have been forgiven! 

Therefore, I am in Christ and none of the world’s criticisms for my past, or for the mistakes I will make in the future, are no longer valid as I am have been forgiven by the highest authority in the universe and have been made a new creation by Him.

And as His word says, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.  

So accept your new life by accepting your forgiveness, turning away from those sinful behaviors of the past, and living according to the way of the Lord that leads to a life is defined by the fruit of the Spirit: peace, love, joy, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, patience and self-control. 

When we walk in the Spirit those fruit grow in our lives, and they help us to forgive the wrongs done against us and to let go of the bitterness that comes from holding grudges against others for things they have done.  

God promises in Roman 12:19 that He will repay all the injustices of world with His righteous vengeance, or He bring people to repentance through His Son. 

So surrender those who have hurt and offended you to God by forgiving them of their trespasses against you.  Forgiving others of their trespasses releases the pain and bitterness and allows you to walk in the freedom that the Lord wants you to know.  

So forgive all who hurt, offended, and wronged you in the past. And keep walking and talking with God so you can also forgive those who may trespass against you today.  

______________________________________________________________

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 25:8-10 (NLT2)
8  The LORD is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray.
9  He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.
10  The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.

Today’s Bible verses assures us that the Lord is good and does what is right, and He show us the way in which we should go, that He leads all of those who follow Him with unfailing love and faithfulness.  

In Christ, God made a new covenant.  If we place our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become part of that new covenant: the covenant that forgives us of our sins and welcomes us into the family of God through adoption.   If we sincerely put our faith in Christ, we will be forever changed in an instant. We are given a new and eternal life and if our profession of faith is true, we receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who will convict us to turn from our sins and start following the ways of the Lord in how we live our lives.  

These verses are Old Testament verses, where people had to have faith in a coming Messiah. But even without knowing who the Messiah would be or when He would come, God’s faithfulness is testified by the psalmist who is assured that God is good and will do what is right and they describe how He leads the humble into doing what is right and to live according to His way with unfailing love and faithfulness.  

God has always been faithful and encouraged people to be right with Him by obeying His commands and walking in His ways.

That didn’t change with the coming of Christ.  If anything we have benefited greatly as this one piece of the mystery of life and eternity has been solved.  We know to put our faith in Christ specifically.  In Him we have the assurance of our salvation, but a relationship with God also includes being adopted into His family and following His ways.  

So rejoice over the free gift of your salvation, but humble yourself, it was a free gift after all, and let the Lord lead you in doing what is right by reading His word and applying His wisdom to your life.  

 

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.

The Roots of the Student Volunteer Movement

The joyful partnership between ministering laypeople at home and missionaries abroad has happened before, and it can happen again. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the Student Volunteer Movement exploded on the American scene with immense missionary impact. It was remarkable for the number of missionaries sent and for the depth and breadth of the laymen who supported it. It was a magnificent partnership.

The roots of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) went back as far as the famous Haystack Prayer Meeting in 1806 in Massachusetts. A spiritual awakening stirred the students of Williams College and prompted a small band of young men to devote themselves to prayer twice a week by the Hoosack River. They focused on the spiritual welfare of the other students. In August 1806, they were caught in a thunderstorm on their way home and took refuge under the edges of a chewed-out haystack. They used the time to continue praying. This time they pleaded for the awakening of foreign missionary interest among the students.

One of them, Samuel Mills, urged the little group to consider their own willingness to be missionaries. To feel the weight of this moment, we have to remember that at this time in American history not one foreign missionary had left the shores of America. There were no missionary societies. Churches, by and large, had no vision for the unreached peoples across the dangerous oceans. There was, as many say today, plenty to do at home. Which was true! But this little band of praying students could no longer be content with an American church whose heart did not burn with love for unreached peoples and with zeal for the glory of God among the nations. They could no longer be satisfied with a church that sent no foreign missionaries. Against all this spiritual, historical, and structural inertia, God enabled them to break through.

“The Brethren” Were Born

Praying under the haystack they dedicated themselves to missionary service. “It was from this haystack meeting that the foreign missionary movement of the churches of the United States had an initial impulse.” That September, the group formed the “Society of the Brethren” to strengthen their resolve to give themselves to missionary service. Samuel Mills spread “The Brethren” vision as he studied at Yale and then at Andover Seminary. He had transferred to Andover to be a part of what God was doing there under the student leadership of Adoniram Judson. This group of “Brethren” at Andover gave the impetus to the first American mission agency (the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions); and from this group were sent the first overseas American missionaries in 1812.

The Student Volunteer Movement Is Born

In 1846, Royal Wilder went to India under this first American Board of Commissioners. He returned in 1877 for health reasons and settled in Princeton. There his son, Robert, formed the “Princeton Foreign Missionary Society.” The prayers of this group gave rise to a crucial gathering called by D. L. Moody at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1886. Two hundred and fifty-one students gathered for a month-long Bible conference. After a compelling address by pastor A. T. Pierson on behalf of world missions, a hundred of these students volunteered for overseas service. The spirit of this event gripped the student world. During the school year 1886–1887, Robert Wilder and John Forman traveled to 167 campuses to spread the vision. The formal organization of the Student Volunteer Movement happened two years later with John R. Mott as its chairman.

The purpose, as Mott expressed it, had five parts:

The fivefold purpose of the Student Volunteer Movement is to lead students to a thorough consideration of the claims of foreign missions upon them personally as a lifework; to foster this purpose by guiding students who become volunteers in their study and activity for missions until they come under the immediate direction of the Mission Boards; to unite all volunteers in a common, organized, aggressive movement; to secure a sufficient number of well-qualified volunteers to meet the demands of the various Mission Boards; and to create and maintain an intelligent, sympathetic and active interest in foreign missions on the part of students who are to remain at home in order to ensure the strong backing of the missionary enterprise by their advocacy, their gifts and their prayers.

“The growth of the SVM in the following three decades was nothing short of phenomenal.” The rallying cry was, “Evangelization of the world in this generation.” By 1891 there were 6,200 student volunteers who had signed a statement that read, “It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary.” Of these, 321 had already sailed for overseas service. The peak year of the SVM was 1920, when 2,738 students signed the pledge card and 6,890 attended the quadrennial convention. “By 1945, at the most conservative estimate, 20,500 students … who had signed the declaration, reached the field.”13

The Student Flame Ignited Businesses and Churches

Many things are remarkable about this movement, and full of instruction and inspiration for our generation a hundred years later. For example, the Student Volunteer Movement ignited not just students but the laymen of the churches. J. Campbell White, the first secretary of the Layman’s Missionary Movement, wrote in 1909, “During the last twenty years the missionary spirit has had a marvelous development among the colleges of the United States and Canada … leading thousands of strong men and women to live with a dominating missionary life purpose.” Attracted by this zeal, a young businessman attended the 1906 SVM convention in Nashville. He thought to himself, If the laymen of North America could see the world as these students are seeing it, they would rise up in their strength and provide all the funds needed for the enterprise. At a prayer meeting of businessmen on November 15, 1906, in New York, the Layman’s Missionary Movement was born.

Its stated aim was “investigation, agitation and organization; the investigation by laymen of missionary conditions, the agitation of laymen of an adequate missionary policy, and the organization of laymen to co-operate with the ministers and Missionary Boards in enlisting the whole Church in its supreme work of saving the world.”[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



[1] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), 166–170.

Monday, May 30, 2022

You are Not Alone - Remembering the Dead, Caring for the Living - Purity 744

 


You Are Not Alone - Remembering the Dead, Caring for the Living – Purity 744

Purity 744 05/30/2022    Purity 744 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a solitary figure standing next to a lighthouse on the shores of Lake Ontario at dusk comes to us from a friend who took an unexpected turn after a late day hike at Beechwood State Park yesterday and found themselves visiting nearby Sodus Point where they captured this scene.  

Well, It’s Monday again, but unlike most Mondays, today most of us will not be heading into work this morning because today is Memorial Day, where our country will honor those who not only served in the armed forces for our country but who paid the ultimate sacrifice by dying while serving.  

To make clear the purpose of this holiday, it should be stated that in a sense it is not a holiday for the living, it is for the dead.

As much as we respect and admire those who are actively serving, like my step-daughter Rachel in the Marine Corp, or those who have served previously and who are still alive, like my Father, Matt, my brother, Michael, and my brother in law, Steven, or who have gone now on to eternity, like both of my wife’s grandfathers, Memorial day is “a day to honor those who were killed in or as a result of participating in battle.”   

That’s pretty specific so I am sharing the link to article on History.com on the blog today (https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-veterans-day-differences-quotes) that makes that distinction and shares some historical facts of why we have the day off today.  

So even though we may enjoy the day off by having a barbecue or doing other fun activities, and we should because I believe the Lord gave us life to enjoy it and live it “more abundantly”, the reason for the today’s holiday is a solemn one.

We are to remember that people have died in the service of our country and that our freedom in America has wasn’t a free gift. Our freedom in America was obtained and is maintained because there were those who were willing to fight and die for it.   

So although we could and should thank those who are actively serving or who once served and are now veterans, or want to fondly remember those who once served, but survived, and since have died, that is not what today’s holiday is for.

If they understand the meaning of the holiday, active service personnel and veterans are not expecting your thanks today, although I am sure they would appreciate them. 

No today’s holiday’s specific purpose is to remember the horrors of war and the lives that were lost in them.  We are to remember the dead, to try imagine the cold hard reality of what it must have been like to die in a war, and to deeply appreciate the lives that were sacrificed for our nation and the lives we enjoy in freedom because of them today.  

While this day casts our imaginations back to previous wars and conflicts where American lives were lost, it also comes with the hope that such horrors of the past are not repeated but paradoxically the holiday is celebrated with the certainty that as long as there is evil in the world the sacrifices of lives in the support of freedom will continue.  

So today, my family and I will take some time to honor the lives that have been given but will do so as part of an organization that seeks to support the men and women who could possibly be remembered next Memorial Day.  

My Father In Law, Cliff Seguin, is retired but dedicates his time serving as the Chairman of Operation Adopt a Soldier (https://www.operationadoptasoldier.org/) which is a non-profit organization that he founded in 2003 that provides support to U.S. Soldiers stationed worldwide by sending care packages through the generous assistance of volunteers from the Saratoga, Albany, Queensbury, and Clifton Park, NY areas.    

I am proud to be marching in the Glen Falls Memorial Day Parade todayto remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice as part of an organization that supports U.S. service men and women who are actively serving our country.

While remembering the dead by placing flags on fallen service member's graves at Saratoga National Cemetery yesterday, Operation Adopt a Soldier also serves the living.

Operation Adopt a Soldier sends care packages to men and women who are actively serving and also work with returning members and their families during deployments and after the service members return.

The very real problem of feelings of isolation while serving and the difficulty in adapting to life after military service is reflected by the fact that military suicide rates are at an all time high. (https://www.uso.org/stories/2664-military-suicide-rates-are-at-an-all-time-high-heres-how-were-trying-to-help) I am sharing links on the blog today for the USO that documents how they are trying to help and from veteran’s crisis line that veteran’s in crisis can use to get support. (https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/get-help-now/military-crisis-line/) because even though today’s holiday is meant to remember the dead, we should always be obedient to Christ’s call to love our neighbors as our selves  and care for the living.

 Years ago, I visited the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco where I visited a memorial near the bridge that honored all four branches of our armed services. A tour guide or something at the memorial explained that for many the Golden Gate Bridge was the last thing in America that many service men saw before being shipped out overseas and how many of them would never return.  At the time, the thought of it gave me chills as I realized how exciting, scary, and lonely you could have felt when being shipped out never knowing if you would come home again.  

I shared today’s lighthouse photo because I want everyone to know, whether you are serving, have served, or have never served, that our lives are precious and that there is a God that loves and cares for each and every one of us and that no matter what situations you may be going through or how you may feel this Memorial Day, you are never alone and no matter where your travels take you, you always have a home in God’s kingdom.   

While we could be distant from friends and family at various times in our lives, God is always with us and available to give us strength, guidance, and love. For anyone serving in the military or who is dealing with their own personal battles in life, God word tells us in:

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NKJV)
6  Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."

In this passage of scripture, Moses who couldn’t go with them, was encouraging the nation of Israel, that the God who led them through 40 years in the wilderness would continue to be with them as they entered the promise land. Even though the prospect of going into unknown territory without knowing if they would live was scary, the Lord spoke through Moses to tell the Israelites, and us, to not be afraid and to always trust God’s presence in His people’s lives.  

Our God is faithful and ever present and when we accept the new life that He has available through faith in Jesus Christ, we become his people and we can realize just how faithful and present He is.  

So if you haven’t already, make the ultimate sacrifice with your life by placing your faith in Jesus Christ and making the daily decision to trust in and follow the Lord for the rest of your days.  

Our lives are precious, and God doesn’t want us to lose them. Through faith in Christ, He made a way to live with Him forever. 

In Matthew 16:24-25 (NKJV) Christ said:
24  … "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
25  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  

We find life eternal in Christ alone. So on this day that is dedicated to those who have died in battle, let’s honor their memory but let’s learn the lesson of the brevity of this life and make sure that we are fighting for the new life and ultimate freedom that is found in Christ alone by showing the love of God by serving the living and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ while we are here on earth.

 ______________________________________________________________

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 58:11 (NLT2)
11  Then at last everyone will say, “There truly is a reward for those who live for God; surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.”

Today’s Bible verse reminds us that God is a just judge and those who live for Him are rewarded.     

As awesome as that Bible verse is, I would remind everyone who seeks the wisdom of the word of God to always check the context of scripture before you draw conclusions from it or share it with others.

Those so inclined could see the mention of “reward” in this verse and decide to boldly “stand on the word” “to name and claim” their “reward” and try to force the Lord’s hand to bless them or to  “speak into being” the object or circumstances of their desire.      

To avoid the “prosperity gospel/ word of faith” heresy, I just like to remind people that God is in charge and that while He may choose to bless our prayers with fulfillment, we, while made in God’s image, are not “little gods” and we do not “speak things into existence” and that we should not take Bible verses and try to twist them to do our bidding.   

Today’s verse is a perfect example of the importance of knowing the context of scripture.   Psalm 58 is a short psalm that speaks of man’s wickedness and the psalmist’s desire for the Lord to avenge them by severely punishing their enemies!  

The preceding verses give us an idea of the theme:   

Psalm 58:9-10 (NLT2)
9  God will sweep them away, both young and old, faster than a pot heats over burning thorns.
10  The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged. They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.

Whoa?!? Rejoice as both the young and old are swept away! Let’s wash our feet in the blood of the wicked!  

Yikes! So be careful in cherry picking verses that speak of rewards. We have to know what the word says and use it appropriately, and not think too highly of our selves to think we can have the Lord do our bidding by saying the “right words”.

But today’s verse and psalm 58, does give us hope, that evil will be punished and the righteous, those who are made righteous because of their faith in Jesus Christ, the only way we can be righteous, will be rewarded.  This can happen circumstantial through God’s providence as he influences world history to move men to stop wicked men and governments on the earth, but it is also promised when Christ returns to rule and reign.  

When love comes to town, there will be hell to pay. For when the God who judges justly sends Christ back to earth, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the Jesus Christ is Lord. 

For the wicked, those who reject Jesus, they will confess that He is Lord in defeat and bitterness as they will be separated from God for all eternity in a place that is described as outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

But those who have put their faith in Him, they will declare Jesus Christ as Lord triumphantly and rejoice. When that day comes, the saints will echo the sentiments of today’s verse in the NKJV that says:

Psalm 58:11 (NKJV)
11  … "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely He is God who judges in the earth."

 

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.

Alive to Christ and Dead to America

Judson’s conversion was not immediate. But now it was sure. God was on his trail, like the apostle Paul on the Damascus road, and there was no escape. There were months of struggle. He entered Andover Seminary in October 1808 and in December made solemn dedication of himself to God. On June 28, 1809, Judson presented himself to the Congregationalists for missionary service in the East.

He met Ann that same day and fell in love. After knowing Ann Hasseltine for one month he declared his intention to become a suitor. He knew that the life he was about to embrace would not only be dangerous and dirty, but also distant. He never expected to return to America. He did only once, thirty-three years later, then never again. Ann went with him and died in Burma. Here is the letter Judson wrote to her father asking for her partnership in missions:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

Her father let her decide. She said yes.

God does not call us to ease, but to faithful joy. He is closing in on some of you, smiling and with tears in his eyes, knowing how much of himself he is going to show you—and how much it will cost. As I write, I pray that you will not turn away.

Pity for People and a Passion for Christ Are One

If you have pity for perishing people and a passion for the reputation of Christ, you must care about world missions. One of the burdens of this book is to show what life looks like when you believe that you dare not choose between the motives to love people and glorify Christ. They are not separate motives. Acting on one includes acting on the other. Thus, if your aim is to love people, you will lay down your life to make them eternally glad in God. And if your aim is to glorify Christ, who is God incarnate, you will also lay down your life to make people eternally happy in God.

The reason for this is that any good-hearted goal, without the desire to give people eternal joy in God, is condemnation with a kind face. Love always wants what is best for the needy, and what’s best is enjoying God fully and forever. Similarly, any effort to honor Christ that does not aim to make him the all-satisfying Treasure of God’s treasonous subjects is complicity in the revolt. God is only praised where he is prized. We pay our tribute to him when he is a Treasure to us. You cannot love man or honor God without doing both. This single passion—to see that Christ be glorified as perishing people become eternally satisfied in him—drives the great global enterprise we call world missions.[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



[1] John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), 157–159.