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Showing posts with label Restored. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restored. Show all posts

Friday, November 10, 2023

He Will Restore Your Soul – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement and Reminder - Purity 1195

 

He Will Restore Your Soul – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement and Reminder - Purity 1195

Purity 1195 11/10/2023 Purity 1195 Podcast

Purity 1195 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of a “Bridge over Tranquil Waters” comes to us from Fred Dimmick who shared this peaceful scene on social media this week captioning it as “Tranquility at the river”, 

Well, It’s Friday – and as we are observing Veteran’s Day tomorrow, with the day off today, I am at my wife, TammyLyn’s countryside estate for a three-day weekend where I fully expect to discover a measure of tranquility as we are scheduled to see a show tonight, Seussical the Musical, at the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls this evening for a little fun and I’m not sure what else for tomorrow. But I do know that a long weekend with my wife will give me a peaceful easy feeling just being in her presence.  

Last night after dinner, and before my online Zoom Cohort Meeting with Deeper Walk International’s School of Prayer Ministry, I had a half-hour window of “free time” to spend and instead of trying to get ahead on school or ministry work or do anything “productive”, I just asked TammyLyn if she would “lay with me”.  Now don’t get any funny ideas, while I am a virile sexy beast of a man when I want to be, I just wanted to rejoice in her presence by lying down and holding her in my arms, fully clothed.  I miss my wife during the week and while I only had half an hour to spend, I wanted to invest all of it in my love for her.  So we just held one another and rested in one another’s arms until my meeting began.  Simple times like that can build your relationship and give you rest, and I was reminded how blessed I was to have a wife who loved me and who could relax long enough to do that.

Of course, I didn’t always have TammyLyn. After my previous marriage was destroyed by divorce, I decided to follow the provisions for gentile Christians highlighted in Acts 15, and remained sexually pure and was fully prepared to remain that way for the rest of my life, with the hope that I wouldn’t have to of course, and thankfully the Lord brought TammyLyn into my life in 2021, and she became be my faithful Christian wife  on New Year’s Day 2022. So how did I cope between 2018 and 2021? Where did I find my rest? Where did I restore my soul?

Although I wasn’t dating, I wasn’t alone. I had friends in the body of Christ and family  in my life of course but the relationship that has persisted and carried me through some of the worst days of my life, was my relationship with the Lord. In his presence, I find strength, peace, love, and joy. He can restore our soul.  

So in the spirit of restoring our souls, I share Lauren Roskilly’s short encouragement based on Psalm 23:2-3, that sent out as this week’s Word for Wednesday from her ministry Mindful of Christ.net  You can subscribe to receive emails of Lauren’s Word for Wednesday for yourself to be encouraged weekly and be equipped by other Christian Resources by Lauren Roskilly by going to https://mindfulofchrist.net/. 

Psalm 23:2-3 (ESV)
2  He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3  He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Lauren writes:

 

He will restore your soul

 

We all have the ability and privilege of being able to spend time with Him in his presence. When you do, He will lead you by still waters and restore your soul!

 

By simply sitting in His presence you will also:

- Experience His peace, love & joy (fruits of the Spirit)

- Find calmness

- Hear His voice

 

So, stop, take time out and rest with the Lord. Whether you are 'busy', stressed' or simply trundling through life, we all need the Lord.

 

But, perhaps you need to be intentional about it. For instance; Make a post-it note, add it to the calendar, set reminders.

This week, challenge yourself to make time to sit still with Him.

 

So if you want to experience those green pastures, be led beside those still waters & be restored then make your time with Him your priority.”

Thanks for that simple advice and encouragement, Lauren! So as many of us have a three day weekend, let me encourage you to take my friend’s advice and make time with the Lord a priority because while we may be able to find a measure of rest and relaxation in the world, only a close personal relationship with God, through faith in Jesus Christ, and time spent in His presence can restore your soul.  

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.

( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Children.

2 Samuel 12:18-23 (ESV)
18  On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.”
19  But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”
20  Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.
21  Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”
22  He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’
23  But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”.

Today’s verses fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Children.

 6. David was comforted by the knowledge that his infant son went to heaven when he died and that he would see him there.

Today’s verses remind us that even in the deepest tragedy of death we can have hope because there is life after death and the faithful know that they will see their faithful loved ones again.  

Some may have thought David was a little cold in “getting over” his son’s death so soon but we all grieve differently and when you have a deep faith and knowledge that God has our loved ones in His hands, we can have a peace over our loved one’s departure.  

For the Christian, we don’t need to wonder where our departed loved ones go, or if their leaving us was “right”.  We know that God gives us life and He decides when to take it. We also know that He is good and that His ways are higher than our ways. So while we may not understand why our loved ones had to die when and how they did, we can trust that God either has them safe with in His kingdom or they have rightly been judged and sent where they chose to go.  If you choose to reject God’s presence in life, you can be assured you won’t be forced into after death.  We are all responsible for the consequences of our decisions and no one ends up where they didn’t choose in the end.  

David knew this and He knew God would lovingly welcome his son, an innocent baby, into His kingdom and because, David had a heart for God and a covenant relationship with Him, he knew he would see his son again.   

Our faith in and relationship with God is the most important thing about us. It holds the answer to life and death and determines where we go beyond this mortal coil.  Until Jesus returns death will come, but those in Christ will live and the only work we will have to do in grief is to adjust from the absence of our lost loved ones from our lives here on earth, because if they knew Jesus, we will see them again.   

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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 are sharing from A. W. Pink’s – The Arthur Pink Anthology  - a collection of A.W. Pink’s tracts brought together in one book and dispersed here on the blog for your encouragement.

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 free as a PDF at many sites, but printed copies of collections of A.W. Pink’s books are available for purchase wherever Christian books are sold. 

The Arthur Pink Anthology – 4

Bearing the Rod – Part 2 of 2

If the “trouble” through which we are passing at any period of our lives be a reproof from God because of our sins or unfaithfulness, and instead of suspecting that He is displeased with us and taking our place in the dust before Him, begging Him to put His finger on the festering sore in our hearts: if instead, we proudly imagine that there is nothing wrong in our lives, that we have given God no cause to smite us, and complacently assume that we are suffering only for “righteousness’ sake,” and draw comfort from such promises as Matthew 5:11, 12, we are deceived by Satan, and are but “forsaking our own mercy” (Jonah 2:8). It is written, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper” (Prov. 28:13). Thus, whenever “trouble” comes upon a Christian it is always the safest policy to come to the Lord and say, “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred” (Job 5:24).

From what has been said above, it will be seen that it often falls to the lot of God’s servants to perform a duty which is most unpleasant to the flesh. When they come into contact with a Brother or Sister who is passing through deep waters, their natural desire is to administer comfort, but in some instances (at least) to do so would be guilty of “healing also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly:” and how is this done? The same verse tells us, by “saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). That was what the ‘false prophets” had done to Israel, and that was the very thing which carnal Israel desired: their demand was, “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isa. 30:10); and human nature has not changed any since then!

It is a thankless task for any true servant of Christ today to be faithful to his Master, and faithful to the souls of those with whom he deals. Not that God requires him to think the worst of every case that comes to his notice, but that it is his burden duty to exhort each one to act on Job 10:2. But if he does do so, he may be assured at the beginning, that in the majority of cases he will be looked upon as harsh, hypercritical, unkind, like one of Job’s censorious comforters; for there are few indeed who have an honest heart, are ready to know the worst about themselves, and are willing to be cut by the knife of God’s Word. The great majority want only comfort, the “promises” of Scripture, the message of “Peace, peace.

But do not the Promises of God belong unto His children? Certainly they do: but here too “there is a season, and a time to every purpose” (Eccl. 3:1): there is a time when we may rightfully draw consolation and strength from the promises, and there is a time when we may not legitimately do so. When all is right between our souls and God, when every known sin has been confessed, and forsaken in sincere purpose of heart, then may we righteously draw milk from the breasts of Divine consolation. But just as there are times when it would be injurious for us to eat some of the things we do when we are well, so to take unto ourselves comfort from the Divine promises while sin is cherished in our hearts, is baneful and sinful.

The above (now slightly revised) recently sent by us in a letter to one passing through deep waters. It occurred to us that it might be a timely word for others. Many are now in the fiery furnace, and few indeed are there capable of speaking to them a word in season. It is not sufficient to bid them “Trust in God,” and assure them that brighter days are ahead. The conscience needs to be searched; the wound must be probed and cleansed, before it is ready for “the balm of Gilead;” we must humble ourselves “beneath the mighty hand of God” (1 Pet. 5:6), if we are to be exalted again by Him in “due time.” May the Lord be pleased to bless the above unto some of “His own.”[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 YouTube 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 Walkington Pink, The Arthur Pink Anthology (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005).


Tuesday, June 27, 2023

The Joy of Rejuvenation - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 23 – Purity 1079


The Joy of Rejuvenation - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 23 –  Purity 1079

Purity 1079 06/27/2023 Purity 1079 Podcast

Purity 1079 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of a heavenly sunrise scene over Queechy Lake in Canaan NY comes to us from Lori Weaver who shared this photo of “serenity” from her kayak on Saturday, June 24th.   

Well, it’s Tuesday and even though it is only the second day of the work week, I am feeling the “serenity” that comes from realizing that “I’m not sick anymore” as my sore throat seems to be a thing of the past – Thank You Lord for the healing! - and I am already looking forward to the “day trip” that my wife TammyLyn has planned for us this coming weekend.  Ever since our honeymoon, TammyLyn and I discovered that we both share a love of nature, travel, and adventure, to some extent, and while we can be completely content just “being together”, we both enjoy going out in the world from time to time to “do something!” or “see something”.  June is over come Saturday and while I don’t know where we will be going for our day trip, I have indicated my desire for the opportunity to swim to be included in our plans.     

One of the best ways I know of to be rejuvenated is with the rest and relaxation of a “beach day” or a “swimming excursion”.  As much as it may sound like TammyLyn and I like to scamper about, we also know the benefits of going somewhere to “do nothing” as some of our adventures involve traveling to a new destination where we can enjoy new sights from which to rest from.  Whether it’s most of the day or just a few hours, I love to be able to take in a water scene, relax, and take a dip every once in a while to beat the heat.   Relaxing and “going swimming” has been giving me joy since my childhood and I look forward to doing that at various locations this summer.  

And that brings us to our current series where I am walking through the 28 Day Joy Challenge, (https://4habits.org/) because we are encouraging ourselves and others, you, to “find peace” in our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation.

The 28 Day Joy challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner & Chris Coursey’s latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free, and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Coursey on topic of Joy, by going to https://4habits.org/.  

So let’s jump into Day 23, which will direct us to reflect on times where we felt rejuvenated or recharged that gave us joy.    

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Day 23 - Rest and Rejuvenation

 

Welcome to Day 23 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge!

Today’s Encouragement:

After yesterday’s high-energy exercise of joy memories, we are taking a day to stop and rest. As you continue to practice the art of slowing down, you will probably find these quieting moments to be some of your favorite times of the day. Enjoy!

Today’s Practice: Exercise 23

Today we are practicing quieting and noticing its effect on our bodies.

- How This Exercise Will Benefit You:

Researchers say that our ability to down-regulate and quiet ourselves is the top predictor for long-term mental health. Resting takes time and practice to feel restored. The more you practice, the better it feels, and the greater the effect on your health!

- Exercise Steps:

For this exercise, find a comfortable spot and rest for five minutes while you focus on favorite memories around times you felt rejuvenated and recharged. Notice how you feel after this exercise.

Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice!

As I sat down this morning and read the instruction to focus on a favorite memory around times that I felt rejuvenated and recharged, I laughed and thought that those memories were few and far between!  I had been under the weather for almost a week and have just felt wiped our physically lately and because of my unorthodox schedule I continually find that I need to play “catch up” on rest and relaxation but as I thought about the things that made me feel rejuvenated and recharged, I realized that I am a man who knows his limitations and plan for regular periods of rest and activities that rejuvenate my soul.  

Recharging your batteries is one thing, rejuvenating your soul is another so for today’s practice I thought about each.  

When it comes to resting – or recharging my batteries, nothing quite compares to time alone in my room. If I really want to rest, that usually means lying down, resting, and sleeping quite frankly.   Every Sunday, even though it’s the weekend and some people plan activities or events that go well into the evening, I don’t. I know myself and I know I need the afternoon and evening hours to rest.  It may be a waste of my time off, I suppose, but after a long week of work and a weekend traveling to my countryside home in Easton, I know that I need to get back to River house in Stuyvesant to unwind before doing it all over again.   I don’t focus on work, or ministry, or really anything and just lie down or kick back and relax.  

On occasion, my shifted work tour will cause me to work a Saturday and keep me at River house on an odd day – and I will just spend the day relaxing in my room, occasionally doing a “mini-retreat” where I rest, pray, reflect, and study some Christian resource.  Not too long ago, I took one of these “end days” ( I don’t know if it’s N-days – or what it’s supposed to mean other than I work Saturday and get some odd weekday off “N”stead?) and listened to John Eldredge’s Resilient – and it was great way to recharge and be rejuvenated.  

However, not all of my rest and rejuvenation is found in solitary pursuits. 

As I stated above, my travels, adventures, and times with TammyLyn also restore my soul.  There is no place like home and even though I can get hours of sleep at River House by myself, the sense of peace and rest that I get when I am reunited with my wife cannot compare. No rest session at River house solo compares with just embracing my wife for recharging and rejuvenating my soul.  Just “being” with TammyLyn gives me unparalleled amounts of peace. All is well when I am with her and we both long for the day when we will be living under one roof.

But since it’s summer, I have to admit that I also long for a “beach day” – which could even be just an hour long on occasion – it’s not necessarily quantity of time as it is quality.  I just need to be able to sit, see the water, rest, go in the water and repeat a couple of times to get all I need.  The freedom of movement in water is liberating and I love how swimming rejuvenates and paradoxically tires me out like no other activity.   So I look forward to finding that experience soon.  

Anyway, what about you? What rejuvenates you? What recharges your batteries?  What memories do you have that highlight the joy of rejuvenation?   Well, I hope you find some joy in recalling whatever it is, but I hope it also reminds you to make a plan to experience something like that again, soon.   

There may be a lot to do in our lives, but those things can wear you down and so we must be wise and make being “rejuvenated” and experiencing joy a regular habit.

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.

( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Adultery:

Matthew 15:19 (ESV)
19  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Today’s verse is used to support the premise that “Adultery is out of the heart”, along with all these other expressions of sin.  Showing us that out of our hearts, our selfish desires – or “want” – we can be driven to do all kinds of evil.  

So as disciples of Jesus Christ, we seek to examine the desires of our hearts, seek to align them with what God’s word says about righteous living, and renounce selfish or sinful desires that would cause us to “covet” and sin.

As new creations in Christ, we have been given a new life, but we must renew our minds with the word of God, take every thought captive to the obedient of Christ and thus change the desires of our hearts from what was selfish, fleshly, or evil to what is pure, good, and holy.  

As Christians, our hearts are not desperately wicked anymore, but we need to repent of our old ways and be trained to overcome the old desires that captivated our hearts in the past to see our new hearts of flesh come to life.

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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

10 - The Holy Spirit Regenerating

Summary

“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him” (1 Thess. 5:9, 10). Yet, the Father’s appointment and the Son’s redemption, with all the unspeakable blessings thereof, remained for a season quite unknown to us. In their fallen, sinful, and guilty state, Christians lay “dead in trespasses and sins,” without hope. To bring them out of this state, and raise them from a death of sin into a life of righteousness is the great and grand work reserved for the Holy Spirit, in order to display and make manifest thereby His love for them.

The Holy Spirit is fully acquainted with the present and everlasting virtue and efficacy of the Person and work of Immanuel, and what His heart was set upon when He made His soul an offering for sin, and how infinitely and eternally well pleased was Jehovah the Father with it, who has it in perpetual remembrance. The Father and the Son having committed the revelation and application of this great salvation unto the persons of all the elect to the Holy Spirit, He is pleased therefore, out of the riches of His own free and sovereign grace, to work in due season in all the heirs of glory. And as Christ died but once—His death being all-sufficient to answer every design to be effected by it—so the Holy Spirit by one act works effectually in the soul, producing a spiritual birth and changing the state of its partaker once and for all, so that the regenerated are brought out of and delivered from the power of death and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Without this spiritual birth we cannot see spiritual objects and heavenly blessings in their true worth and excellence.

The effect of the new birth is that the man born again loves spiritual things as spiritual and values spiritual blessings on account of their being purely spiritual. The spring of life from Christ enters into him, and is the spring of all his spiritual life, the root of all his graces, the perpetual source of every Divine principle within him. So says Christ: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). This regeneration introduces the elect into a capacity for the enjoyments which are peculiar to the spiritual world, and makes the one alteration in their state before God which lasts forever. All our meetness for the heavenly state is wrought at our regeneration (Col. 1:12, 13). Regeneration is one and the same in all saints. It admits of no increase or diminution. All grace and holiness are then imparted by the Spirit: His subsequent work is but to draw it forth into exercise and act.[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)

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.).

Monday, February 14, 2022

Sinner – Saint Paradox - I Can’t Dance…Do You Love Me? – Purity 654


Sinner – Saint Paradox  - I Can’t Dance…Do You Love Me? –  Purity 654

Purity 654 02/14/2022  Purity 654 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a glimmering sunrise at Hillsboro Beach, Florida comes to us from my personal photo archives and was taken 10 days after Valentine’s Day in 2015.   A lot has changed in my life since that time and I share it today because I find myself in a very reflective mood as I had a pretty eventful weekend and luckily decided last week to take today off from work.  

Last Monday I decided to take off today because I realized that it was not only going to be “Super Bowl Monday” but it was also going to be the first Valentine’s Day that my wife TammyLyn and I would celebrate as a couple!  

In case you are wondering, enjoying Valentine’s Day in my wife’s company and the love we share is the focus today.  While I did stay up to see the game last night and 10pm is late for me, Super Bowl Monday will not be the recuperative holiday for me as it was in the past. 

I don’t drink anymore so it will not be a day of hangovers, or continued day drinking, as it had been in my past when I was in bondage to my many addictions.  But I have to admit that the end of the NFL football season is still somewhat of an event and a milestone each year for me as I see it as somewhat of a seasonal marker for our nearing “mid-winter”, as President’s Day is next week and after that our hopes for spring arriving are not so distant, or unrealistic, anymore!   As we go through what can be challenging winters in upstate NY, every milestone we can reach that brings us closer to the season of green is to be considered a victory and should be celebrated!

But today, beyond seasonal milestones, I am thanking God in heaven above for the gift of His love that has not only empowered me to leave the darkness of my past behind but for staying with me and guiding me to help me to find the love of my life here on earth in my wife, TammyLyn!

My wife and I were brought together through our seeking to serve and know God more and I know that God brought TammyLyn into my life as a partner for life and as an expression of His love for both of us.  Valentine’s Day is the holiday where we remember the love in our life and I am filled with joy at the prospect of just spending the day with TammyLyn in each other’s presence. 

And of course if we are to celebrate love today, we have to remember that God is love and how He showed His love for all of us in Jesus Christ.  

1 John 4:7-11 (NKJV)
7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Yeah, God showed His love for us all by sending Jesus to pay for our sins and by giving eternal life to those who put their faith in Him.  And Jesus’s simple commandments tell us that we are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.  

God wants us to have a love relationship with Him and share the love He pours into us with the people in our lives.    

The problem with this possible “love connection” with God, isn’t God. It’s us.  Like Peter in Luke 5, when he got the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, we think we are not worthy because we are sinful men and when we think about the holiness of God we wonder if there is any way that God could possibly love us.  

My mind goes to strange places sometimes and this morning I thought about that Contour’s R&B Hit “Do you love me..(Now that I can Dance).  

When we think of God, we think we have to earn His love by being good or holy. We wrongly get the idea that our performance will be the only thing that will make us right with Him and that we have to make Him love us. 

But the thing is that we don’t have to “really move”, or “really groove”, we don’t have to “mash potatoes” (whatever that is), or “do the twist” to make God love us. 

Our confusion about the whole “sinner/saint paradox” can drive us away from God when we think we have to earn His love. But God is love, He loves sinners like you and me, and wants us to know His love and the new eternal life He offers us in Christ.   

And I know, you may be saying did: “M.T. Clark, a vocal advocate for knowing that we are saints and for experiencing our freedom in Christ just call himself, and me, a sinner?  

Yes, we are saints who sin.  We sinned before Christ and because we are not perfect like Christ, we will sin after we make Him our Lord and Savior, after He gives us a new and everlasting spiritual life and our new identity as saints.   

This saint/sinner paradox reminds me of the scene in the film, “Chinatown” where Jack Nicholson slaps Faye Dunaway repeatedly demanding the truth until she shamefully has to admit that due to an incestuous encounter with her father, “her sister” was in fact “her daughter”!, proving that two seemingly contradictory things can be simultaneously true. 

And that’s what a paradox is – a situation like our Christian identity where we are truly born again adopted children of God,  saints, who unfortunately will sin by either the things we do or the things we fail to do.  Unfortunately this paradox can really confuse us.

Our guilt, shame, and the devil is there to slap us around with his temptations, accusations, and condemnations that tell us we are a sinner and God can’t love us.  

But Christ is there to tell us, like the woman caught in adultery, that we are truly are forgiven, we are not condemned, we are new creations, and He encourages us to experience the peace and joy of being a saint by “sinning no more”.  

This sinner/saint paradox can drive us absolutely batty and may make us want to smack ourselves!

But we don’t have to slap ourselves or dance to earn God’s love, and as James 1 indicates, we shouldn’t doubt the love of God, and the forgiveness and sainthood we receive when we put our faith in Jesus, because if we do doubt we will tend to be double minded and be unstable in all our ways.   

Christ wants us to know the love of God and to give us rest.      

In 2015 when I took today’s photo, I was a Christian but man did I have a lot of the sinful habits in my life that made me feel unworthy. But even though I was living in sinful patterns; I knew that God’s word was true and told me that I was forgiven and was a new creation.   Because of my continual failures and dark ways, I rejoiced over my salvation because I knew I “couldn’t dance” and earn my place in God’s kingdom.      

But I didn’t need to dance. I just needed to abide in Christ to know His presence and love and to walk with Him.   So I walked.  I rejoiced that I was “just a sinner saved by grace” all through the wild days of my mad existence as a double minded unstable carnal Christian.  

At the time I took today’s photo, I had been living this tumultuous life of a Christian living in the condemnation of a life of the flesh for about 5 years. But I kept walking and talking with God and about a month after I took this photo,  I walked into a Christian recovery program and put down the booze and the condemnation that came with it for good.  

God gives us His love and encourages us to walk toward Him. Our relationship with Him isn’t based on our performance, but God does encourage us to walk like His Son Jesus Christ walked, because He knows of the peace, love, and joy that we can experience when we walk in the Spirit.  

I used to identify myself as a sinner saved by grace (and I am one) but when I did that, I made the mistake of identifying with my sin more than with the new creation that God made me to be, a saint, when I put my faith in Christ.  

And when I realized that my identity as a saint, who admittedly sins, was not just a theological concept but was a spiritual and existential reality that I could live in, I decided to believe it and live it out.   

And I can tell you that, when I started identifying myself with who I am in Christ, the chains of “the sinner” were loosened and I was able to break free and walk away from them.  

I am still far from being perfect, but I am experiencing a victorious life of freedom from many of my past sins and habits because I have drawn closer to the One who is perfect and identify with God more than the things that would separate me from Him.

So as we celebrate the love we have today on Valentine’s Day, remember that God is love and that His love for you and the gift of salvation and a new life in Christ are free.  He loves you just the way you are, but He would encourage you to stop slapping yourself around and instead agree to embrace the new life He has for you.   

The greatest love of all can be happening to you.  When you accept God’s love, you can learn to love yourself and then take the love God has given you to love the other people in your life.


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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 38:9 (NLT2)
9  You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh.

Today’s Bible verses tells us that God knows what we long for and that He hears us as we lament and walk through life.     

Part of the problem we can have with our experiencing the love of God is that we may have idea that God is somehow distant or uncaring.

But the truth is that God is all knowing and that He is love.  God’s love is demonstrated through the advent of Christ on the earth to reconcile us to Him.  

As our Creator, God made us. He knows us inside and out!  His omniscience is testified about in His word and today’s verse indicates that He knows the desire of our hearts!  

He knows us! He loves us! And as today’s verse tells us He even hears our every sigh!

So as today is Valentine’s and the enemy may seek to torment those of us who don’t have a perfect romantic love relationship in our lives, let me remind you and encourage you that God’s love is the greatest love of all and that you can receive comfort from it always and have the assurance that, no matter what, God will never leave you or forsake you.  

God’s love has carried me through the toughest trials of my life, and I know that in the darkest days of my soul that He heard my every sigh, wiped away every one of my tears, and gave me hope.

So whether you are actively enjoying the benefits of loving relationships in your life or not, remember that God loves for you is real and powerful and when you abide in it you can feel it and the peace and joy of having Him forever 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 to share from Dr. Neil Anderson’s . “Restored: Experience Life with Jesus”. Today, we conclude sharing from Chapter 8.   

 As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Neil Anderson’s books for your own private study and to support his work.


Paul prays in Ephesians 1:18, “I pray the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Jesus has met your needs for acceptance, security, and significance. Read the following list aloud, morning and evening, for the next few weeks. Think about what you are reading and let the truth of who you are in Christ renew your mind. This is your inheritance in Christ.

IN CHRIST

I renounce the lie that I am rejected, unloved, or shameful.

In Christ I am accepted.

God says:

·       I am God’s child. (John 1:12)

·       I am Christ’s friend. (John 15:5)

·       I have been justified. (Romans 5:1)

·       I am united with the Lord and I am one spirit with Him. (1 Corinthians 6:17)

·       I have been bought with a price: I belong to God. (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20)

·       I am a member of Christ’s body. (1 Corinthians 12:27)

·       I am a saint, a holy one. (Ephesians 1:1)

·       I have been adopted as God’s child. (Ephesians 1:5)

·       I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 2:18)

·       I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. (Colossians 1:14)

·       I am complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10)

·       I renounce the lie that I am guilty, unprotected, alone, or abandoned.

In Christ I am secure.

God says:

·       I am free from condemnation. (Romans 8:1, 2)

·       I am assured that all things work together for good. (Romans 8:28)

·       I am free from any condemning charges against me. (Romans 8:31-34)

·       I cannot be separated from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)

·       I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God. (2 Corinthians 1:21, 22)

·       I am confident that the good work God has begun in me will be perfected. (Philippians 1:6)

·       I am a citizen of heaven. (Philippians 3:20)

·       I am hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)

·       I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

·       I can find grace and mercy to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

·       I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me. (1 John 5:18)

I renounce the lie that I am worthless, inadequate, helpless, or hopeless.

In Christ I am significant.

God says:

·       I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world. (Matthew 5:13, 14)

·       I am a branch of the true vine, Jesus, a channel of His life. (John 15:1,5)

·       I have been chosen and appointed by God to bear fruit. (John 15:16)

·       I am a personal, Spirit-empowered witness of Christ’s. (Acts 1:8)

·       I am a temple of God. (1 Corinthians 3:16)

·       I am a minister of reconciliation for God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

·       I am God’s coworker. (2 Corinthians 6:1)

·       I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. (Ephesians 2:6)

·       I am God’s workmanship, created for good works. (Ephesians 2:10)

·       I may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:12)

·       I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! (Philippians 4:13)

I am not the great “I Am,” but by the grace of God I am what I am.

(See Exodus 3:14; John 8:24, 28, 58; 1 Corinthians 15:10.)

CHAPTER EIGHT:

OVERCOMING ANCESTRAL SINS

148. Luke 6:40

149. Exodus 20:4-6157


 ---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship