Labels

Showing posts with label Resilient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resilient. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Do It Yourself Baptisms and Bringing it All Together - Purity 953


Do It Yourself Baptisms and Bringing it All Together - Purity 953

Purity 953 01/28/2023 Purity 953 Podcast

Purity 953 on YouTube:



Good morning,

Today’s photo of a red nosed kayak gliding along the surface of what I suspect to be Lake George comes to us from a FB friend who shared this scene from a paddling session on social media on August 20th 2020.    I have a few FB friends that paddle so the suspects are limited but as of this morning the photographer’s identity remains a mystery. So if this is your “memory” and want to be identified speak up and I will update the blog after the fact to give you the credit for sharing this tranquil scene that fills me with joy and keeps me looking ahead to the spring and summer.   

Well, it’s the last Saturday in January, rejoice, and I guess I have to admit it – I prefer the months of the year where winter is a distant memory. Whether it’s the first green of spring, the thriving life of summer, or even the fading colors of autumn, I prefer them all to the cold harsh barren landscapes of winter.  Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the beauty that can be seen after freshly fallen snow or the silent stillness that is unique to winter but during a morning meditation exercise where I was directed to think of “My Eden” visions of a winter landscape did not come to mind.  

The meditation exercise which is part of the “30 Days to Resilient” program on the One Minute App calls you to think of the places you like to go on vacation, the places in nature that you appreciate, indicating that the joy found from contemplating your favorite places resonates with us all as the desire for paradise lost. Our joy we experience whe n we contemplate the different places we enjoy on earth supposedly is deep in our souls because we are longing to be restored to Eden.  

During my meditation, I thought of various beaches in upstate NY, hiking trails, the beaches I knew as a child on Cape Cod, Pike’s Peak in Colorado, beaches and parks in Florida, and views from a trip to Big Island of Kona in Hawaii. But when the meditation directed me to ask Jesus to reveal – “the Eden He was making for me”  I was a little shocked to realize I was brought back to a memory from my past of my backyard when I lived on Oak Hill Road in Claverack, just a couple of miles outside of the village of Philmont, where my spiritual journey with the Lord had begun.  

My backyard on Oak Hill Road was a clear open space that featured an above ground swimming pool with a big clear view of the sky above with all the trees typical of upstate New York on the boarders of the property.  I spent many summers in that pool looking up to the sky with my children through the years there and when directed to be brought to “Eden” I was taken there.  

It was at Oak Hill Road that the biggest tragedy of my life happened. My son, Holden died there.  But because of that tragedy, my search for the meaning of life began there too.  In the wake of that loss in 2002, I was lost in a few years of depression and going through the motions of living when I eventually started asking the “big questions” or at least started looking to answer them.    I was too damaged from the trauma of the loss to turn back to Christianity and so started examining life on a base level of scientific speculation accompanied with the theories posited by Buddhism and so I really started looking at life with an inquiring mind.   Easernt mysticism just keeps you looking at what is and invites you to see the realities of impermanence and interconnectedness, to investigate the mysteries of creation – all the while never pondering the Creator.  I spent years rejoicing over of the mysteries of how things come into being and fall apart and how with focus attention you could find peace in the present moment.  Although I am sure I probably thought my contemplations of the universe and ‘how things really are” were deep the truth is when you only focus your attention of the universe and life on earth without including God, its like you are examining the bark on a tree and become very familiar with all the contours and grooves of the bark on the tree but you are failing to notice that you are standing in a forest of trees and there is a great big sky over head and the reaches of outer space and all the expanses of the galaxies and universe beyond.   Without including God, and the person of Jesus Christ in your contemplations, you can’t see the forest for the trees, your view of life is incomplete and you are lost in the woods.  

But hey man, I was digging the bark on the tree, I was just loving it and probably would have stayed lost in the forest of the contemplation of the universe, the passing of my breath, and my own “wisdom” forever because due to my pain, I didn’t want to think about God. I decided that there wasn’t a God, life was just a mystery and I was destined to die and become “One with the Universe” and possibly be “born again” through some magical reincarnation.   I decided that Christianity was just a myth created by men to control others. I decided it wasn’t real. I never counted on a personal God who would call me on it!  

But that is what happened, through a radio message in 2010 the Lord revealed the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and  having been shown the forest, the sky, and the Creator God above it all who loved us enough to come to earth and to die for us to save us, I put my faith in Jesus immediately.   And the journey of my life has been a wild one of progressive “goodness” ever since.  

So why did Jesus bring me back to Oak Hill Road during this morning’s meditation? Why would He bring me back to the place where I spent ends hours rejoicing over the universe and mystery of life irrespective of Him?   Why would He bring me back to the place of my largest loss?  

I think He brought me back there because it was while I was living Oak Hill Road that I surrendered my life to Him.  I was saved in a parking lot on Aviation Road Albany on a Friday in March but I eventually went home to Oak Hill Road with my “born again” faith in Jesus.  

Those were obviously confusing days back in 2010, having been a full fledged practicing Buddhist of the Kaygu Mahamudra Tibetan tradition for 5 years or so I had to figure out how to be a “born again” Christian! 

My last Christian experience was in an Episcopal Church but my congregation was ultra-liberal and I knew that rejoining my previous church that had homosexual reverends was not the way to go if I wanted to follow the Bible which I been reading in earnest.  Sorry, while we are all forgiven of our sins when we come to Christ – no matter what they are – we are also called to repent of them. I didn’t go to the church that featured reverends that were into adultery, murder, or theft either, no matter how nice that professed to be…

I eventually found a Bible believing church where I learned to be authentic in my Christian faith, to live according to the word of God, but in those early days of my “born again” Christianity I was just trying to figure it out.   

Having read the Bible, I knew that baptism was an important part of being a Christian and it was some time in the summer of 2010 that I decided to “baptize” myself! Taking the Book of Common Prayer, that I had from my Episcopal “classes” before my confirmation, one summer day I read the prayers for the rite of baptism and immersed myself in my swimming pool, baptizing myself before the Lord to demonstrate to God that I was serious about my new found faith.   

I sort of forgot about this little episode in my life.  I was actually later baptized by members of Hillsong Church while on a work assignment in in NYC during the spring of 2013 ,on the day of the Boston bombings, and point to that day as the day of “my baptism”.   I had more or less forgotten all about the “dunking” and baptizing myself back in 2010.   I guess I wasn’t sure that it counted.  

But God didn’t forget.  I think I was brought back to Oak Hill Road in this mornings meditation session because that impromptu self-baptism counted with God.  God took me back to a place where I enjoyed many summers in the splendor of His creation and it just happen to be the place where I did an outward expression of my inward faith even though there was no one there to see it.  Jesus brought me back to “My Eden” – the place where I did a simple act of faith, without witnesses, that told God I was His.   

So have you been baptized?  Have you chosen to die with Christ and to be raised to life again?   A lot of people who have been baptized as babies will tell that it doesn’t matter, but I believe it does. I believe that we can’t choose the new life that Christ has for us by proxy. I believe we all have to make a choice to die and live for Him.  

So I invite you to seek the Lord and to make sense of the mystery of life by contemplating it all and bringing all together – the wonders of the universe, the Creator God who made it, and the person of Jesus Christ who came into it to tell us all of God’s love and to make a way to have peace with Him.   Only when you knock down the four walls of the church and your limited understanding of life and the way things are and contemplate God and Jesus Christ, can you make sense of it all.  

SO keep walking and talking with God and invite Him to show you your “Eden” and to be restored to the life that He has for you.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 40:2 (NLT2)
2  He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.

Today’s Bible verse reminds us how the Lord will save us and pull us out of the dirt of our darkness and depths of despair to give us a new life to walk into.

Today’s verse should speak to all of us who have come to faith in Jesus, when we realize just how lost we really were and how our faith caused us to repent and walk away from the dark ways of our past.  

This is a rejoicing verse if there ever was one. So rejoice! God lifted us out of our muck and mire. He took us out of the pit of despair. And He has put us on the solid Rock of faith in Jesus and invites us to walk it out. So keep on walking and rejoicing over what God has done for you! 

___________________________________________

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. Pink’s “The Sovereignty of God.”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

By  ARTHUR W. PINK

CHAPTER FIVE

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN REPROBATION continues

 

Coming down to our own day, and to those in our own country—leaving out the almost unnumberable crowds of unevangelized heathen—is it not evident that there are many living in lands where the Gospel is preached, lands which are full of churches, who die strangers to God and His holiness? True, the means of grace were close to their hand, but many of them knew it not. Thousands are born into homes where they are taught from infancy to regard all Christians as hypocrites and preachers as arch-humbugs. Others, are instructed from the cradle in Roman Catholicism, and are trained to regard Evangelical Christianity as deadly heresy, and the Bible as a book highly dangerous for them to read. Others, reared in “Christian Science” families, know no more of the true Gospel of Christ than do the unevangelized heathen. The great majority of these die in utter ignorance of the Way of Peace. Now are we not obliged to conclude that it was not God’s will to communicate grace to them? Had His will been otherwise, would He not have actually communicated His grace to them? If, then, it was the will of God, in time, to refuse to them his grace, it must have been His will from all eternity, since His will is, as Himself, the same yesterday, and today and forever. Let it not be forgotten that God’s providences are but the manifestations of His decrees: what God does in time is only what He purposed in eternity—His own will being the alone cause of all His acts and works. Therefore from His actually leaving some men in final impenitency and unbelief we assuredly gather it was His everlasting determination so to do; and consequently that He reprobated some from before the foundation of the world.

In the Westminster Confession it is said, “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably foreordain whatsoever comes to pass.” The late Mr. F. W. Grant—a most careful and cautious student and writer—commenting on these words said: “It is perfectly, divinely true, that God hath ordained for His own glory whatsoever comes to pass.” Now if these statements are true, is not the doctrine of Reprobation established by them? What, in human history, is the one thing which does come to pass every day? What, but that men and women die, pass out of this world into a hopeless eternity, an eternity of suffering and woe. If then God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass then He must have decreed that vast numbers of human beings should pass out of this world unsaved to suffer eternally in the Lake of Fire. Admitting the general premise, is not the specific conclusion inevitable?

In reply to the preceding paragraphs the reader may say, All this is simply reasoning, logical no doubt, but yet mere inferences. Very well, we will now point out that in addition to the above conclusions there are many passages in Holy Writ which are most clear and definite in their teaching on this solemn subject; passages which are too plain to be misunderstood and too strong to be evaded. The marvel is that so many good men have denied their undeniable affirmations.

“Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that He might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses” (Josh. 11:18–20). What could be plainer than this? Here was a large number of Canaanites whose hearts the Lord hardened, whom He had purposed to utterly destroy, to whom He showed “no favour.” Granted that they were wicked, immoral, idolatrous; were they any worse than the immoral, idolatrous cannibals of the South Sea Islands (and many other places), to whom God gave the Gospel through John G. Paton! Assuredly not. Then why did not Jehovah command Israel to teach the Canaanites His laws and instruct them concerning sacrifices to the true God? Plainly, because He had marked them out for destruction, and if so, that from all eternity.

“The Lord hath made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Prov. 16:4). That the Lord made all, perhaps every reader of this book will allow: that He made all for Himself is not so widely believed. That God made us, not for our own sakes, but for Himself; not for our own happines, but for His glory, is, nevertheless, repeatedly affirmed in Scripture—Rev. 4:11. But Prov. 16:4 goes even farther: it expressly declares that the Lord made the wicked for the Day of Evil: that was His design in giving them being. But why? Does not Rom. 9:17 tell us, “For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth!” God has made the wicked that, at the end, He may demonstrate “His power”—demonstrate it by showing what an easy matter it is for Him to subdue the stoutest rebel and to overthrow His mightiest enemy.

“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:23). In the previous chapter it has been shown that the words “know” and “foreknowledge” when applied to God in the Scriptures, have reference not simply to His prescience (i.e. His bare knowledge beforehand), but to His knowledge of approbation. When God said to Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2), it is evident that He meant, “You only had I any favorable regard to.” When we read in Rom. 11:2 “God hath not cast away His people (Israel) whom He foreknew,” it is obvious that what was signified is, “God has not finally rejected that people whom He has chosen as the objects of His love—cf. Deut. 7:8. In the same way (and it is the only possible way) are we to understand Matt. 7:23. In the Day of Judgment the Lord will say unto many, “I never knew you.” Note, it is more than simply “I know you not.” His solemn declaration will be, “I never knew you”—you were never the objects of My approbation. Contrast this with “I know (love) My sheep, and am known (loved) of Mine” (John 10:14). The “sheep,” His elect, the “few” He does “know”; but the reprobate, the non-elect, the “many” He knows not—no, not even before the foundation of the world did He know them—He “NEVER” knew them![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/@MT4Christ247

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 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)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 

 



[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 89–92.

Friday, January 27, 2023

A 5 Minute Quieting Break & Praying for My Quantum Leap Blessing! - Purity 952

A 5 Minute Quieting Break & Praying for My Quantum Leap Blessing! - Purity 952

Purity 952 01/27/2023 Purity 952 Podcast

Purity 952 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of an August sunset falling into the horizon from the shore of an undisclosed location comes to us from a friend who shared this scene on social media back on August 23, 2020.  I’m cleaning out my phone’s photo archive “closet” so I don’t know the location or the friend who shared this back in the year of Covid-19, so if it you, let me know and I will update the blog to give credit where cred)it is due.  

Well, it’s Friday again, so let’s all give credit where credit is due by thanking God for delivering us to what is, for most of us, the end of another work week.  I of course had Wednesday off and have to work tomorrow but I am thankful all the same as it will only be one more day until I am reunited with my wife at our countryside home and I am looking forward to attending  Deeper Walk International’s Free Resilience Conference later this evening (https://deeperwalkinternational.org/product/free-resilience-online-conference/ )  , The event will be featuring Christian Counselor and Author, John Eldredge who will be discussing practices to strengthen our emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience. It is also free! So if you’d like to attend just follow the link that I am sharing on the blog today.   

The global pandemic has had far reaching effects and many people are still dealing with the effects of the trauma that happened when the world changed in 2020. Eldredge and the people at Deeper Walk International  have recognized that we can benefit greatly from “taking a break” from time to time to recharge our batteries with practices that are proven to assist in building emotional resilience.   

One such practice, highlighted in Marcus Warner &  Stephanie Hinman’s book “Building Bounce” is the “five minute quieting break” which utilizes “box breathing” (https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-box-breathing) – or breathing in a square, and other practices designed to help us to “return to joy” – to relax.   

I am currently enrolled in deeper walk International School of prayer ministry and the cohort that I am in meets on Thursday evenings. last night as part of our meeting we did the five minute quieting break. I found to be quite relaxing and so I'm including the instructions on the blog today. The instructions read:

Take a 5 minute quieting break.

1.    Breathe in a square. Inhale deeply as you count to four in your head. Hold your breath for a count of four. Slowly exhale as you count to four again. Hold your breath for a four count before going around “the square” two more times.   

2.    Bounce. Do jumping jacks, deep knee bends, or a little jig, whatever gets your body moving. Count to 10 while you do this, then pause and do it again.

3.    Sing. “Joy to the world” or “happy birthday”. singing helps activate both sides of your brain, and happy or silly songs can make you smile.

4.    Rub your arms while breathing deeply. Place your hands on your shoulders and run them down to your elbows 10 times while inhaling and exhaling deeply.

5.    Breathe in a square. Repeat step one.

6.    Sit quietly and think about something you enjoy. Think of a memory that makes you happy. Here are some questions that may help you in engage with the memory. Where were you? What was the weather like? What do you remember about the way you felt? What sensations did you feel in your body? Who else was there? What happened? How does it feel to go back and relive the experience?”

(Warner & Hinman, 2020 - Building Bounce Pages 41, 27)

In our modern lives, we don’t often take a moment to take a break as our lives are filled with activity of work and family life and even in our quiet moments we tend to busy ourselves with social media, email, or texting.  So I invite you to give the “five minute quieting break a try” and to consider doing it regularly to help build your emotional resilience.

As much as I love to ask God, “What’s next?” as I try to abide in His presence and walk in the Spirit,  that question can be a source of stress if we are asking the world to answer it. So seek to find some quiet in this noisy world and to take the Lord with you as you go through the day to day and into the weekend beyond.  

Jesus said in

John 14:27 (NKJV)
27  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

So it is my prayer that you will continue to seek the Lord and His peace and that you find it.   

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Jeremiah 17:7 (NLT2)
7  “But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.

Today’s Bible verse reminds us that we are blessed when we put our hope and confidence in the Lord.  

I have a confession to make. Recently, I was inundated with some “quantum leap” wishful thinking that something good was coming my way that while possible was rather irrational and improbable.  As I anticipated this “good thing” that “just might happen”, I prayed for it to magically come to pass with the hopes that the Lord would be working behind the scenes in the spirit realm to influence and change the hearts and minds of people who could bless me.   Theoretically it was possible. God can “call us to do stuff” so why not call some people who are able to “bless me”?  

I have to shamefully admit that I have been a “hoping and a praying” for “God to move” in the hearts of minds of other people in the past too! When I was single, I set my eyes and heart at a woman at my local church and thought, hoped, and prayed that we would come together and become a “Christian power” couple in our local church. I imagined getting married to her and doing ministry with her and obsessively hoped and prayed that it would happen.   But my “aim” was off… I was to receive all I hoped for in my wife TammyLyn, but I had to wait for God to bring her into my life.  

So I was hoping and a Praying, for the wrong woman! It’ wasn’tGod’s – or this woman’s – will that we would be a couple.  So all those thoughts and prayers and dreams, while in the realm of possibility – turned out to be misplaced, and admittedly a little irrational and obsessive.  

So you would think, I would understand about not putting my hopes in some other thing, person, or situation  that while possible – was also irrational and improbable.  You would think that I wouldn’t try to use my prayers to push God’s hand to “bless me”, but I did.    

Because I could imagine a blessing – I took any and all signs that my “blessing” “could happen” as a sign that my blessing “would happen”.    Needless to say, the very good possible unlikely thing, didn’t happen.  In essence, the very good thing was the spiritual equivalent of “winning the lottery”.

 For example, my YouTube Channel and podcast could go viral and I get rich as an international ministry just blossoms overnight! Or someone in ministry invites me to become a part of their lucrative and successful ministry providing me with a purpose and the funding to not only to do the Lord’s work but to consolidate my wife and I into one household almost overnight!      

While we can pray for things like these to happen, we can run into trouble when we trust in these dreams rather than trusting in the Lord, when we put our hope and confidence in these “quantum leap super blessing miracles” rather than having a living hope and confidence in God alone through our relationship with Him.

So when the “impossible dream” didn’t materialize earlier this week, I was humbled. I would say I was a little disappointed but the because “the dream” so irrational it’s hard to stay upset when it doesn’t come to pass.  It’s like finding out you didn’t win the lottery. The odds were stacked against us. It wasn’t likely we would win and I shouldn’t have put my hope in “winning”.  I should put my hope in God.  

So just like today’s verse tells us, we are “blessed” when we trust in God and put our hope and confidence in Him alone.  

In Christ, we have the hope and confidence of eternal life with God and we shouldn’t put our focus on material or situational blessings to the point we will become discontented with what the Lord has provided us with and to the point we forget about the abundant life we have with God. 

So, pray for good things, but try to keep grounded in reality by remembering that you are already “blessed” because of who you are in Christ and that although God is moving all things together for the good of those that love Him, we don’t know what those things are.  So keep walking and talking with God and put your hope and confidence in Him.       

___________________________________________

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. Pink’s “The Sovereignty of God.”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

By  ARTHUR W. PINK

CHAPTER FIVE

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN REPROBATION

“Behold therefore the goodness and the severity of God” (Rom. 11:22).

In the last chapter when treating of the Sovereignty of God the Father in Salvation, we examined seven passages which represent Him as making a choice from among the children of men, and predestinating certain ones to be conformed to the image of His Son. The thoughtful reader will naturally ask, And what of those who were not “ordained to eternal life?” The answer which is usually returned to this question, even by those who profess to believe what the Scriptures teach concerning God’s sovereignty, is, that God passes by the non-elect, leaves them alone to go their own way, and in the end casts them into the Lake of Fire because they refused His way, and rejected the Saviour of His providing. But this is only a part of the truth; the other part—that which is most offensive to the carnal mind—is either ignored or denied.

In view of the awful solemnity of the subject here before us, in view of the fact that today almost all—even those who profess to be Calvinists—reject and repudiate this doctrine, and in view of the fact that this is one of the points in our book which is likely to raise the most controversy, we feel that an extended inquiry into this aspect of God’s Truth is demanded. That this branch of the subject of God’s sovereignty is profoundly mysterious we freely allow, yet, that is no reason why we should reject it. The trouble is that, nowadays, there are so many who receive the testimony of God only so far as they can satisfactorily account for all the reasons and grounds of His conduct, which means they will accept nothing but that which can be measured in the petty scales of their own limited capacities.

Stating it in its baldest form the point now to be considered is, Has God foreordained certain ones to damnation? That many will be eternally damned is clear from Scripture, that each one will be judged according to his works and reap as he has sown, and that in consequence his “damnation is just” (Rom. 3:8), is equally sure, and that God decreed that the non-elect should choose the course they follow we now undertake to prove.

From what has been before us in the previous chapter concerning the election of some to salvation, it would unavoidably follow, even if Scripture had been silent upon it, that there must be a rejection of others. Every choice evidently and necessarily implies a refusal, for where there is no leaving out there can be no choice. If there be some whom God has elected unto salvation (2 Thess. 2:13), there must be others who are not elected unto salvation. If there are some that the Father gave to Christ (John 6:37), there must be others whom He did not give unto Christ. If there be some whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 21:27), there must be others whose names are not written there. That this is the case we shall fully prove below.

Now all will acknowledge that from the foundation of the world God certainly foreknew and foresaw who would and who would not receive Christ as their Saviour, therefore in giving being and birth to those He knew would reject Christ, He necessarily created them unto damnation. All that can be said in reply to this is, No, while God did foreknow these would reject Christ, yet He did not decree that they should. But this is a begging of the real question at issue. God had a definite reason why He created men, a specific purpose why He created this and that individual, and in view of the eternal destination of His creatures, He purposed either that this one should spend eternity in Heaven or that this one should spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. If then He foresaw that in creating a certain person that that person would despise and reject the Saviour, yet knowing this beforehand He, nevertheless, brought that person into existence, then it is clear He designed and ordained that that person should be eternally lost. Again; faith is God’s gift, and the purpose to give it only to some, involves the purpose not to give it to others. Without faith there is no salvation—“He that believeth not shall be damned”—hence if there were some of Adam’s descendants to whom He purposed not to give faith, it must be because He ordained that they should be damned.

Not only is there no escape from these conclusions, but history confirms them. Before the Divine Incarnation, for almost two thousand years, the vast majority of mankind were left destitute of even the external means of grace, being favored with no preaching of God’s Word and with no written revelation of His will. For many long centuries Israel was the only nation to whom the Deity vouchsafed any special discovery of Himself—“Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16)—“You only (Israel) have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). Consequently, as all other nations were deprived of the preaching of God’s Word, they were strangers to the faith that cometh thereby (Rom. 10:17). These nations were not only ignorant of God Himself, but of the way to please Him, of the true manner of acceptance with Him, and the means of arriving at the everlasting enjoyment of Himself.

Now if God had willed their salvation, would He not have vouchsafed them the means of salvation? Would He not have given them all things necessary to that end? But it is an undeniable matter of fact that He did not. If, then, Deity can, consistently, with His justice, mercy, and benevolence, deny to some the means of grace, and shut them up in gross darkness and unbelief (because of the sins of their forefathers, generations before), why should it be deemed incompatible with His perfections to exclude some persons, many, from grace itself, and from that eternal life which is connected with it? seeing that He is Lord and sovereign Disposer both of the end to which the means lead, and the means which lead to that end?[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/@MT4Christ247

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 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)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 87–89.

 

Monday, January 9, 2023

Showing Up and Seeing The Impossible Dream Come True - Purity 936


Showing Up and Seeing The Impossible Dream Come True -   Purity 936

Purity 936 01/09/2023  Purity 936 Podcast

Purity 936 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of the view from my driveway “down by The River” comes to us from yours truly as my arrival there yesterday seemed to be a divine appointment as the twilight time colors in the sky and reflected on the Schodack creek and Hudson River seemed to cry out to give God glory.  I’ve told the tale of God bringing me to 1788 State Route 9J many times and will gladly tell it to anyone who would want to listen but no matter where your relationship with God may be, with a view like this, you may have to allow for my enthusiastic declaration that “God brought ne to this place!”

River House, as my wife calls it, was something that I worked hard to get but as much as I was giving it my all by working two jobs from October of 2019 to September of 2020, before and during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I know that God was moving in my life continuously during those times to help me to obtain, what to me seemed to me to be “the impossible dream”.   

Well, it’s Monday, and in spite of my electronic personal assistant being unplugged, causing me to over sleep and thus making me deviate a little from my normal morning practices,  I still made “first things first” by making the quick executive decision to skip my physical exercise and immediately jumped to my morning prayers where I let go of the frustration of running late and just gave “everyone and everything” to God in the practice of “benevolent detachment” – a form of prayer that the “One Minute Pause App” has been leading me through as I decided last week to give more space in my life to God by doing the app’s “30 Days to Resilient” program for morning and evening sessions of prayer and meditation and have used the individual sessions the app provides for “pauses” at work.   The app’s “Pauses” last 10 minutes and are perfectly sized for the 15 minute breaks I am allowed at work so I am using that time and time in the morning and evenings to draw closer to God and to receive His resilience in prayer.  

One of the things that Christians on the path of Christian Discipleship that leads to sanctification come to understand as we seek to surrender our lives to God is that, even though our participation in the process is necessary, God is the One who transforms us. God is the One who gives us wisdom. God is the One who makes our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. God is the One who will prune us and guide us to maturity and the purpose that He has for us.  

Besides documenting God’s continuous work in my life, the reason I blog is to encourage other Christians to follow the Lord with the way they live their lives because I have discovered this truth of “impartation”. God imparts the Holy Spirit to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and when we live by faith God works in and through us to do what we would have thought to be “impossible things”.  

Now before you run over to the nearest mountain and try to literally pick it up and hurl it into the sea or skip down to the nearest mulberry tree and try to uproot it and toss that into the ocean, remember that Jesus taught in parables and  that the heavy “mountains” in and well established “mulberry trees” in our lives may represent the burdens we choose to carry or patterns of behavior or thinking that are deeply rooted in our lives that the Lord wants us to be free of.   

Instead of thinking of being free of our mountains and mulberry trees as being a process of having to “work hard” physically, although that may be required, we may have to “let go and let God” do work in us and allow Him to renew our minds to think His thoughts and to open our blind eyes to see His way.   Reading the Bible and “talking and LISTENING to God” in our spirit through prayer and meeting Him with an attitude of surrender and a willingness to do His will is the Christian Disciple’s stance and can be used by the Lord to direct us up and over, or possibly straight through those “mountains” and  “mulberry trees”.     

As I have stated in previous blogs, in our walk with the Lord, He will present us with opportunities, invitations, to walk by faith and it is up to us to decide whether or not we will walk into where He is leading us. 

Tonight and each day this week, my local church is partnering with 3 other churches in the area to come together to pray together. Our pastor and the other churches’ pastors are inviting their congregations to come together for unity and prayer.  So here’s an opportunity, and invitation, to see what the Lord may have for me.  The Lord may use these evenings of prayer to use me for His kingdom purposes, may want to “give me something” or may just want me to be one of the many Christians who will come together and encourage one another through their participation and presence.  I could meet new friends, other brothers and sisters from the body of Christ, who I don’t know yet.  I could be blessed by something I hear or see at these corporate prayer gatherings at one of these other churches.  Or I could just grow from the experience of these prayer sessions.   There’s no telling what I may “get” or “give” in these prayer sessions.  But I will never know them if I stay home.  

So I’m going! I’m going to step out in faith to receive what the Lord has for me or to give what I have to give. What that will be I don’t know, but even if nothing mighty and miraculous happens I know that going to these prayer meetings will bless me because I will be in the fellowship of the saints and coming to our heavenly Father to ask, seek, and listen for His will for our lives.   If you are local to the capital district I am sharing the link to this week’s “Pray Together prayer event. ( https://starpoint.church/events/?fbclid=IwAR2Bi4rGW8KfvIZKXwIe8njRlmmYvMb8MRTESB5b2WDLvRdCytqKB9_oQ-g?sapurl=LytlMzE4L2xiL2V2Lyt3MzNoM3ljP2JyYW5kaW5nPXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZSZyZWNlbnRSb3V0ZT1hcHAud2ViLWFwcC5saWJyYXJ5LmNhbGVuZGFyJnJlY2VudFJvdXRlU2x1Zz0lMkI5emdrZ3I1) Consider it my invitation to you to “Come and See” what the Lord may do in this event.

In the wake of Christ’s crucifixion and death, the Apostles and other disciples met together for prayer and I’m sure that there probably wasn’t as many “followers” of Christ in attendance as there could have been. Surely, after Christ’s death some disciples were heartbroken  and discouraged and failed to “keep the faith” and walked away and decided to go back to their normal lives. So they weren’t present on the Day of Pentecost, they didn’t go to the prayer meeting.  And because they didn’t go they didn’t witness or receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  

God may have many things which He wants to impart to the faithful few that choose to follow Him. Some times our faith is just about showing up. So as someone who has dreamed the impossible dream and who has seen God do the impossible in my life, let me encourage you to keep showing up, to take those invitations, and to keep on walking and talking with God.  

 

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

This morning’s meditation verses are:

James 4:4-6 (NLT2)
4  You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
5  What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy?
6  But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”

Today’s verses remind us that giving our allegiance to worldly things makes us an enemy of God and that God calls us to resist Worldly – He says evil – desires and to humbly follow Him.  

God is jealous for us. He loves us and wants our hearts to follow Him, not the world. He asks that we see the truth of His sovereignty and to reject any feelings of pride and to humbly acknowledge His preeminence in all things.   Thus we out our thoughts on God and things above not earthly things because He is the One who is eternal and has given us literally everything.


___________________________________________

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. Pink’s “The Sovereignty of God”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

By  ARTHUR W. PINK

CHAPTER THREE

SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN ADMINISTRATION

“The Lord hath prepared His Throne in the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all” (Psa. 103:19).

First, a word concerning the need for God to govern the material world. Suppose the opposite for a moment. For the sake of argument, let us say that God created the world, designed and fixed certain laws (which men term “the laws of Nature”), and that He then withdrew, leaving the world to its fortune and the out-working of these laws. In such a case, we should have a world over which there was no intelligent, presiding Governor, a world controlled by nothing more than impersonal laws—a concept worthy of gross Materialism and blank Atheism. But, I say, suppose it for a moment; and in the light of such a supposition weigh well the following question: What guaranty have we that some day ere long the world will not be destroyed? A very superficial observation of ‘the laws of Nature’ reveals the fact that they are not uniform in their working. The proof of this is seen in the fact that no two seasons are alike. If then Nature’s laws are irregular in their operations, what guaranty have we against some dreadful catastrophe striking our earth? “The wind bloweth where it listeth” (pleaseth), which means that man can neither harness nor hinder it. Sometimes the wind blows with great fury, and it might be that it should suddenly gather in volume and velocity until it became a hurricane earth-wide in its range. If there is nothing more than the laws of Nature regulating the wind, then, perhaps tomorrow, there may come a terrific tornado and sweep everything from the surface of the earth! What assurance have we against such a calamity? Again; of late years we have heard and read much about clouds bursting and flooding whole districts, working fearful havoc in the destruction of both property and life. Man is helpless before them, for science can devise no means to prevent clouds bursting. Then how do we know that these bursting-clouds will not be multiplied indefinitely and the whole earth be deluged by their downpour? This would be nothing new: why should not the Flood of Noah’s day be repeated? And what of earthquakes? Every few years some island or some great city is swept out of existence by one of them—and what can man do? Where is the guaranty that ere long a mammoth earthquake will not destroy the whole world. Science tells us of great subterranean fires burning beneath the comparatively thin crust of our earth. How do we know but what these fires will not suddenly burst forth and consume our entire globe? Surely every reader now sees the point we are seeking to make: Deny that God is governing matter, deny that He is “upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3), and all sense of security is gone!

Let us pursue a similar course of reasoning in connection with the human race. Is God governing this world of ours? Is He shaping the destinies of nations, controlling the course of empires, determining the limits of dynasties? Has He prescribed the limits of evil-doers, saying, Thus far shalt thou go and no further? Let us suppose the opposite for a moment. Let us assume that God has delivered over the helm into the hand of His creatures and see where such a supposition leads us. For the sake of argument we will say that every man enters this world endowed with a will that is absolutely free, and that it is impossible to compel or even coerce him without destroying his freedom. Let us say that every man possesses a knowledge of right and wrong, that he has the power to choose between them, and that he is left entirely free to make his own choice and go his own way. Then what? Then it follows that man is sovereign, for he does as he pleases and is the architect of his own fortune. But in such a case we can have no assurance that ere long every man will reject the good and choose the evil. In such a case we have no guaranty against the entire human race committing moral suicide. Let all Divine restraints be removed and man be left absolutely free, and all ethical distinctions would immediately disappear, the spirit of barbarism would prevail universally, and pandemonium would reign supreme. Why not? If one nation deposes its rulers and repudiates its constitution, what is there to prevent all nations from doing the same? If little more than a century ago the streets of Paris ran with the blood of rioters, what assurance have we that before the present century closes every city throughout the world will not witness a similar sight? What is there to hinder earthwide lawlessness and universal anarchy? Thus we have sought to show the need, the imperative need, for God to occupy the Throne, take the government upon His shoulder, and control the activities and destinies of His creatures.

But has the man of faith any difficulty in perceiving the government of God over this world? Does not the anointed eye discern, even amid much seeming confusion and chaos, the hand of the Most High controlling and shaping the affairs of men, even in the common concerns of every day life? Take for example farmers and their crops. Suppose God left them to themselves: what would then prevent them, one and all, from grassing their arable lands and devoting themselves exclusively to rearing of cattle and dairying? In such a case there would be a world-famine of wheat and corn! Take the work of the post office. Suppose that everybody decided to write letters on Mondays only, could the authorities cope with the mail on Tuesdays? and how would they occupy their time the balance of the week? So again with storekeepers. What would happen if every housewife did her shopping on Wednesday, and stayed at home the rest of the week? But instead of such things happening, farmers in different countries both raise sufficient cattle and grow enough grain of various kinds to supply the almost incalculable needs of the human race; the mails are almost evenly distributed over the six days of the week; and some women shop on Monday, some on Tuesday, and so on. Do not these things clearly evidence the overruling and controlling hand of God!

Having shown, in brief, the imperative need for God to reign over our world, let us now observe still further the fact that God does rule, actually rule, and that His government extends to and is exercised over all things and all creatures.[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/@MT4Christ247

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)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 



[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 39–41.