Rest and Reflect. Are You Ready for a Reset? – Purity 1053
Purity 1053 05/26/2023 Purity 1053 Podcast
Purity 1053 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo
a roaring campfire in the foreground of a nighttime view of Indian Lake comes
to us from Katie Fisher MacVeigh as she captured this scene from a “perfect
midweek reset” on social media back on May 11th.
Well, It is
Friday, it really is, thank God and I am looking forward to the end of my shift
at work because I will be headed north tonight to be reunited with my wife at
our countryside home before we embark on our own wilderness Memorial Weekend “reset”. Apparently, I was really looking forward to today
because my wife informed me that I said it was Friday on the podcast
yesterday. So I apologize to anyone I
may have confused and fully realize, now, that yesterday was Thursday, and
today is Friday and it is my prayer that all my friends who read or hear this
message have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.
My wife and
I are hiking to a cabin in the Merck Forest and Farmland Center grounds in
Rupert Vermont where, as of this writing, we believe it will just be the two of
us for a weekend retreat – two nights of no electricity and just one another’s
company in a rustic cabin’s accommodations.
I have never gone backpacking before and my camping experience has been
limited to overnights in the backyards or at RV campgrounds during my childhood
and with my kids when they were growing up so although it is only a 2 ½ mile
hike to the cabin, this will be a first for me in many ways and while I am a
little weary of the lack of electricity and indoor plumbing, I am looking
forward to “getting away from it all” and the relative silence and solitude I
hope to find in the woods near Nenorod Cabin.
While I try
to find moments of peace every day during my times of prayer and Bible study, I
feel I really can use this rest. The
beginning of 2023 has been very eventful thus far as I have had to travel for
work, was trained in a new job function at work, got a new foreman, and have adapted
to what seems to be an ever changing schedule as I have just surrendered to the
fact that I don’t know what kind of work I will be doing from one day to the next.
And that’s just work.
2023 will
also be known as the year that I began, and prayerfully will finish the process
of becoming educated, trained, and certified in Deeper Walk Prayer Ministry. Thus
far I have found the program to be “as advertised” as it was described to be “an
intensive, interactive, hands-on, heart-focused discipleship training program
in practical ministry skills” where “you will gain the ministry tools needed to
help hurting people experience freedom, understand their identity in Christ,
walk in the Spirit, and live in heart-focused (hesed) community”. Last night was the final meeting of our cohort until August as we finished the
second module of four, on Spiritual Warfare and I can testify that the program is
“intensive” as the expectations is to not only learn the material that is
presented but to also put it into practice each week with our colleagues in “break
out rooms”. Although the course work
keeps you busy, the material is so rich and rewarding that I feel my decision
to get this education and certification was definitely “meant to be” as I have
already incorporated some of the things I have learned to me personally and to
the “recovery growth group” – Celebrate Freedom – that I am now leading at my
local church.
Yup, 2023
has had even more in store! That was
work and “school” but Let’s not forget about Ministry. As soon as I finished facilitating an 11 week
online Freedom in Christ Discipleship Men’s group in early April, where I led
six men through individual sessions of the Steps to Freedom in Christ, I was
approached by my pastor with the request to begin a “recovery growth group” and
on May 10th, we dusted off our old Celebrate Freedom Lessons and the
Lord blessed me with two dedicated and faithful volunteers to start the process
of forming a community where Christians could overcome their “hurts, habits,
and hang ups.” But even though I have
done “recovery ministry” before, this Celebrate Freedom is a NEW creation as I
am incorporating all that I have learned from my walk and my latest studies to
put the emphasis of this group on “building joy”, “walking in the Spirit” and
knowing who we are in Christ. And the
results of my attempts seem well received as one of the participants thanked me
this week for “my vision” and another shared on social media that this week’s
meeting was “amazing” but before I go patting myself on the back let me assure
you that I know that I am only sharing what others have taught me and that the “vision”
is how the Lord see us and the amazing things we are experiencing is only
because we are drawing close to Him.
So we have
been busy, but we have been blessed and although it may be challenging to keep “in
step with the Spirit” at times, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But with
that said, I am happy to have a “break” from school for a while, and that I get
to kick it off with what I hope to be a peaceful weekend in the woods and with
a few days off this week as I only have to work Wednesday, because although I
had the vacation this week, I have made plans to go to Deeper Walk
international’s 35th Anniversary conference in Indiana in October
and had to give up a day of what would have been a whole “week off”.
That’s right
as we draw into the 6 month of the year next week, we will rejoice this weekend
over where the Lord has brought us thus far, remember the servicemen who died
to keep our country free, rest, and reset for what should be an eventful 2nd
half of another year of walking in the Spirit.
So, as we gear up for the end
of the first half of 2023, it is my prayer that you take some time this weekend
to rest, “reset” and reflect on the freedom we have in Christ and the freedom
that we enjoy in this county because of the men and women in the armed forces
that paid the ultimate sacrifice for what they believed was worth protecting
and that they were willing to die to uphold.
God bless you all.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity
than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s
website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verses are:
Psalm 103:1-5 (NLT2)
1 Let all that I am praise
the LORD; with my whole heart, I
will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise
the LORD; may I never forget the
good things he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins and
heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death and
crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good
things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
Today’s verses show us what a man with a heart set on God does – he praises the Lord continually and he never forgets the good things that the Lord does for Him. He remembers that the Lord has forgiven him of all his sins and has brought him through all the illnesses and trials he has suffered in life. He remembers how the Lord has blessed him with His presence, love, and all the tender mercies he has received in life recognizing that they all came through a sovereign God who is always in control. He looks at the good things in his life and knows they come from God and his spirit is renewed because he praises the Lord.
So give thanks to God. Sing his praises with all your0020heart. And do this: EVERY. DAY. and you too will know what it is like to be continually renewed.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3)
A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit
4 - The Deities of the Holy Spirit
Concurrence
in the Trinity
The Holy Spirit is designated by a great many
names and titles in Scripture which clearly evince both His personality and
Deity. Some of these are peculiar to Himself, others He has in common with the
Father and the Son, in the undivided essence of the Divine nature. While in the
wondrous scheme of redemption the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are
revealed unto us under distinct
characters, by which we are taught to ascribe certain operations to one more
immediately than to another, yet the agency of each is not to be considered as
so detached but that They cooperate and
concur. For this reason the Third Person of the Trinity is called the
Spirit of the Father (John 14:26) and the Spirit of the Son (Gal. 4:6),
because, acting in conjunction with the Father and the Son, the operations of
the one are in effect the operations of the others—and altogether result from
the indivisible essence of the Godhead.
Titles Used in Scripture
First, He is designated “The Spirit,” which expresses
two things. First, His Divine nature, for “God is Spirit” (John 4:24); as the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Episcopal
Church well express it, “without body, parts, or passions.” He is essentially
pure, incorporeal Spirit, as distinct from any material or visible substance.
Second, it expresses His mode of operation on the hearts of the people of God,
which is compared in Scripture to a “breath,” or the movement of the
“wind”—both of which adumbrate Him in this lower world; suitably so, inasmuch
as they are invisible, and yet vitalizing elements. “Come from the four winds,
O Breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (Ezek. 37:9).
Therefore was it that in His public descent on the day of Pentecost, “suddenly
there came a sound from Heaven of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the
house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2).
Second, He is called
by way of eminency “The Holy Spirit” which is His most usual appellation in the
New Testament. Two things are included. First, respect is had unto His nature.
As Jehovah is distinguished from all false gods thus, “Who is like unto thee, O
LORD, among the gods; who is like thee, glorious in holiness” (Ex. 15:11); so
is the Spirit called Holy to denote the holiness of His nature. This appears plainly
in Mark 3:29, 30, “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never
forgiveness; because they said, he hath an unclean spirit”—thus opposition is
made between His immaculate nature and that of the unclean or unholy spirit.
Observe, too, how this verse also furnishes clear proof of His personality, for
the “unclean spirit” is a person, and if the Spirit were not a Person, no
comparative opposition could be made between them. So also we see here His
absolute Deity, for only God could be
“blasphemed!” Second, this title views His operations
and that in respect of all His works,
for every work of God is holy—in hardening and blinding, equally as in
regenerating and sanctifying.
Third, He is called
God’s “good Spirit” (Neh. 9:20). “Thy Spirit is good” (Ps. 143:10). He is so
designated principally from His nature, which is essentially good for “there is
none good but one, that is God” (Matthew 19:17); so also from His operations,
for “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth”
(Eph. 5:9).
Fourth, He is called
the “free Spirit” (Ps. 51:12), so designated because He is a most munificent
Giver, bestowing His favors severally as He pleases, literally, and upbraiding
not; also because it is His special work to deliver God’s elect from the
bondage of sin and Satan, and bring them into the glorious liberty of God’s
children.
Fifth, He is called
“the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9) because sent by Him (Acts 2:33), and as
furthering His cause on earth (John 16:14).
Sixth, He is called
“the Spirit of the Lord” (Acts 8:29) because He possesses Divine authority and
requires unhesitating submission from us.
Seventh, He is
called, “the Eternal Spirit” (Heb.
9:14). “Among the names and titles by which the Holy Spirit is known in
Scripture, that of ‘the eternal Spirit’ is His peculiar appellation—a name, which in the very first face of
things, accurately defines His nature, and carries with it the most convincing
proof of Godhead. None but ‘the High and Holy One, inhabiteth eternity,’ can be
called eternal. Of other beings, who
possess a derivative immortality, it may be said that as they are created for
eternity, they may enjoy, through the benignity of their Creator, a future
eternal duration. But this differs as widely as the east is from the west, when
applied to Him of whom we are speaking. He alone, who possesses an underived,
independent, and necessary self-existence, ‘who was, and is, and is to come,’
can be said, in exclusion of all other beings, to be eternal” (Robert Hawker).
Eighth, He is called
“the Paraclete” or “the Comforter” (John 14:16) than which no better
translation can be given, providing the English meaning of the word be kept in
mind. Comforter means more than Consoler. It is derived from two Latin words, com “along side of” and fortis “strength.” Thus a “comforter” is
one who stands alongside of one in need, to strengthen. When Christ said He
would ask the Father to give His people “another Comforter,” He signified that
the Spirit would take His own place, doing for the disciples, what He had done
for them while He was with them on earth. The Spirit strengthens in a variety
of ways: consoling when cast down[1]
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
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For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“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 Walkington Pink, The Holy Spirit
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, n.d.).
