Travel Days - Arrival, Revival, & Getting There ––
Purity 971
Purity 971 02/20/2023 Purity 971 Podcast
Purity 971 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun wearing a crown of cumulus clouds
while it shines over the bend in the road of Waite Road where my canine pal
Harley was allowed to run free while we were out for a morning stroll comes to
us from yours truly as I had the presence of mind to bring my phone and capture
this scene this past Saturday.
Well, It’s Monday and like many others with school
age children, I am on vacation this week and coming to you live from the
Embassy Suites in Colonial Williamsburg Virginia and after a long drive here I
have a couple of things to say about travel days and my previous pipe dream of
rerouting my return trek home through the revival that was happening at Asbury University
in Wilmore Kentucky.
I discovered this morning that Asbury President,
Kevin Brown, released a schedule, after my previous posting, on Saturday that
announced that the final public service for the event that will forever be known
as the Asbury Revival of 2023, was scheduled for last evening, at 7:30 pm. So, it’s over Johnny… it’s over.
Brown released the schedule that ended the revival
with the following statement:
“As we enter the third week of this renewal
movement, our desire is to be faithful to our mission as a student-centric
Christian University,”
“Further, we believe that the continued flourishing
of such a movement invites us to commission our Asbury community, visiting
students, and other campus guests from across the world to neighbor-serving,
God-honoring work.”
(Read more at: https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/jessamine-county/article272548958.html#storylink=cpy)
If I may paraphrase, the good university president:
“Alright, alright, Y’all got Jesus? Now why don’t you
take what you got here, and go out into all the world and make disciples or do
something good for the kingdom of God. After Sunday’s evening service, there’s
nothing to see here.”
Like a bartender at last call, Brown’s statement ended
the revival party essentially telling anyone who got blessed by the happenings
at Asbury over the last few weeks: “Y’all don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay
here!”
So the revival I and countless of others had prayed
for has come and is now over. So my toying
with the idea of going to Asbury from Myrtle Beach SC on Friday is now caput. And after yesterday’s 9 hour drive to Williamsburg,
Virginia, I’m okay with that!
If the revival at Asbury had continued, and if the
miracle of having both my wife and teenage step kids agree to go had happened,
and I felt called by the Lord to go, it would have been a 9 hour and 30 minute
drive to get there. And after actually
experiencing a 9 hour drive to Virginia yesterday, I’m glad that I won’t be
called to make that decision to go to Asbury.
Asbury University’s president did the right
thing. His job is to run a Christian
University and as awesome as it is to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
and to have an influx of people praising and worshiping the Lord, we as the
body of Christ are not called to just come together in continuous worship and
adoration, we are called to go out and make disciples, the mission that Christ gave
us and that the president’s statement alluded to.
The party has to end some time and the work of the
kingdom has to continue so even though I am on vacation this week, I am glad
that the president announced a return to normal with the release of the
schedule that ends the revival but invites the public back to the regularly
planned public worship – chapel services- that will resume on Wednesday at 2pm.
So let’s get back to the normal business
of “doing what we do” on the path of Christian Discipleship!
For any Asbury converts or revivalists that don’t
know what that is, I invite you to check out the discipleship teachings I provided
on the mt4christ247 podcast, and MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel, for Victory over
the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, because all though
you may have felt that you “have arrived” with your salvation or recommitment
to your faith, let me first congratulate you, but let me also encourage you
that there is much more that the Lord has planned for your life that will make
the last 3 weeks in the glory cloud at Asbury seem like small potatoes, or at
least a beautiful beginning to what could be an amazing adventure of a life in
Christ.
Although you have surely “arrived” and found your
place in the kingdom of God through your faith in Christ, we still have more
travelling to do on this path that Lord has called us to walk on. Our journey is launched when we are born again
in salvation and continues in progressive sanctification where we actually live
out our new lives of faith by learning God’s ways and following Christ’s
example as outlined in the Bible.
So although we have fully arrived in one sense , we
are “not there yet” in another. To
anyone new to the faith: welcome to your first Christian paradox!
I am including a link to an article from simply
bible dot com that breaks down how we “have been saved”, “are being saved”, and
“will be saved” on the blog today to give you an ideas of how our faith can
simultaneously be one reality in three tenses (https://www.simplybible.com/f066-sure-saved-in-three-tenses.htm).
This same yesterday, today, and tomorrow aspect of
our faith works for our sanctification too and can be demonstrated by how I was
“sanctified” – made holy - by receiving Christ’s righteousness on the day I put
my faith in Him, but then was further sanctified as I began to repent of the sin
in my life, and I will progressively “get there” in terms of sanctification
when I continue to align myself with the Lord with other areas of my life that
He will call me to repent of. And of
course, no matter what my progress is like here on earth I will be ultimately sanctified
when I enter into the Lords kingdom either at the hour of my death or when Christ
returns to rule and reign on earth.
So in terms of our salvation and sanctification, we
can all honestly say that “While I am not what I want to be, I’m not what I
used to be, and the Lord will help me continually, and ultimately, to be the
person that He made me to be!”
Knowing that our faith is progressive can give us
great hope because we can leave our darkness of our pre-Christ existence and
move deeper into the freedom and victory that the Lord has for us.
But let’s keep it real, the fact that we are “in
process” or in the midst of “Travel days” can be frustrating and disappointing.
We could feel that we have been cheated by the good
news because we haven’t instantly become the kind, caring, and clean super
saints that never say a harsh word or never make a mistake that we imagined we
could be if we “really were a Christian”.
Well, if that’s were you find yourself – condemning
yourself for not being “all that you could be”, let me remind you of Romans 8:1
Romans 8:1 (NKJV)
1 There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
So if you are in Christ Jesus – if you put your faith in Him as Lord and Savior – stop condemning yourself for not being perfect! There is no condemnation for you any longer, so stop it.
Also let’s realize that we need to “walk in the Spirit” – we aren’t “there yet” – we are in the midst of our traveling days towards our new life in Christ – okay we already have it but now we are walking further into it okay…
And the verse never says anything about stopping. We are to walk in the Spirit – THE END – just like the three tenses of our salvation and sanctification – we have walked in the Spirit – the day we said “Yes” to Jesus, we are walking in the Spirit – although it could look like a “stumble” or crawl in the Spirit depending on how you are following Him – and we “will walk in he Spirit – as in “10 feet off of Beal” literally – when we go far beyond “waling in Memphis” and go marching with Christ Himself into His kingdom!
So don’t get frustrated or disappointed
in your walk, although it can be a grind, every day we are making progress! If
nothing else, you are one step closer to eternity!
Yikes!
Anyway, believe me, just like yesterday’s 9 hour drive to Virginia wasn’t so great and yesterday’s “Travel day” may seem like a complete waste because all I did was spend the day driving and ending up exhausted, it was all for a purpose - To Get THERE!
I’m not sure what historical touristy delights I will experience today in Williamsburg but I never would have gotten the opportunity if I not only decided to “go there” but actually did the hard work of “getting there”. And whether or not I am thrilled or disappointed in what I see here in Williamsburg, I did the work to experience it. This is my life and this Williamsburg chapter is now forever a part of the narrative and no matter whether my experience is good, bad, or indifferent I will experience and learn something from going that I would never have known if I had decided to spend the week walking Harley up and down Waite Rd!
Already, I got to experience what a 9 hour drive is really like (I have had similar long drives in my distant pass but it feels like I never did) and have a better grasp on what it would be like to actually do it if another revival should spring up somewhere and I get the idea to go chase it.
As I stated on Saturday, I have experienced the Holy Spirit’s manifest presence more that once and now that I have a more recent experience with a long drive, I may not be so envious of revival revelers if the distance is too far!
Enjoy the Holy Spirit’s presence! He is awesome! I know Him! Tell Him I said “Hello, and I Love You” – Never mind, He’s right here – dwelling in me!” No need to drive there after all! No need to chase the revival!
Anyway, my points are that while we should enjoy the Holy Spirit’s outpourings and corporate worship service, we also need to do the “regular business” of our faith – prayer, Bible study, evangelism, and service, good works, to others too.
Also, while we have arrived in God’s kingdom, we are also “not there yet” and while our “travel days” may be hard, we should remember that they are necessary because they will get us closer to where we want to go and we should rejoice because they are things we can learn from and enjoy.
So keep walking and talking with God no matter what today brings you to because every day spent with Him is worthwhile and it brings us ever closer to “getting there”.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Amos
5:14 (NLT2)
14 Do what is good and run
from evil so that you may live! Then the LORD
God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed.
Today’s Bible verses encourage us when
we choose to do what is good and run from evil, God will help us!
Hey, I don’t encourage people to
follow the Lord because it will always lead us to suffering. When we decided to
turn from our evil ways of doing things and when we place our faith in Christ, God
helps us in incalculable ways that go beyond giving us eternal life in His
kingdom.
Salvation is enough reason to surrender
to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, but God’s word encourages us that if we seek
the Lord with the way we live our life, by repenting, He will help us.
In this turning from evil, God helps
us by giving us strength, wisdom and guidance to accomplish success (when we
ask Him for it). We can overcome!
But God also helps us by giving us
the life we would have never known without Him.
I’m in Williamsburg Virginia because of the events of my life that all
fell into place when I decided to not only “believe in Jesus” but when I decided
to answer His call to follow Him in repentance.
Because of faith in Christ, I am
living out the consequences of the life of repentance and seeking to do God’s
will. Among many other wonderful things, through my faith I met my wife and she
suggested Williamsburg, so here we are.
This is just one small example of how
God will shape our lives when we follow Him.
Would you call that help?
The trip to Williamsburg
specifically, no. But I would call the
string of events that happens when we decided to follow the Lord as His
help. He helps us to understand who He
is and what the best way to live our lives is. He gives us wisdom in His word.
He gives us strength in our spirits. He gives us life in Christ. And He blesses
us with good things and with endurance when things are not so good. God helps
us.
But as today’s verse indicates, one
of the “keys” of experiencing God’s help is to run from evil and to do what is
good: to get in harmony with God by living a righteous life that cancels the
strongholds and footholds of the enemy.
So run from evil and run to the Lord
and He will help you!
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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 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 SEVEN
GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AND THE HUMAN WILL
1. The Nature of the Human Will
What is the Will? We answer, the will is the
faculty of choice, the immediate cause of all action. Choice necessarily
implies the refusal of one thing and the acceptance of another. The positive
and the negative must both be present to the mind before there can be any
choice. In every act of the will there is a preference—the desiring one one
thing rather than another. Where there is no preference, but complete
indifference, there is no volition. To will is to choose, and to choose is to
decide between two or more alternatives. But there is something which influences the choice; something which determines the decision. Hence the will
cannot be sovereign because it is the servant of that something. The will
cannot be both sovereign and servant. It cannot be both cause and effect. The
will is not causative, because, as we
have said, something causes it to choose,
therefore that something must be the causative agent. Choice itself is affected
by certain considerations, is determined by various influences brought to bear upon the individual himself, hence,
volition is the effect of these considerations and influences, and if the
effect, it must be their servant; and
if the will is their servant then it is not sovereign, and if the will is not sovereign, we certainly cannot
predicate absolute “freedom” of it. Acts of the will cannot come to pass of
themselves—to say they can, is to postulate an uncaused effect. Ex nihilo nihil fit—nothing cannot produce
something.
In all ages, however,
there have been those who contended for the absolute freedom or sovereignty of
the human will. Men will argue that the will possesses a self-determining power. They say, for example, I can turn my eyes
up or down, the mind is quite indifferent which I do, the will must decide. But
this is a contradiction in terms. This case supposes that I choose one thing in
preference to another while I am in a state of complete indifference.
Manifestly, both cannot be true. But it may be replied, The mind was quite
indifferent until it came to have a preference. Exactly; and at that time the
will was quiescent too! But the moment indifference vanished, choice was made,
and the fact that indifference gave place to preference, overthrows the
argument that the will is capable of choosing between two equal things. As we
have said, choice implies the acceptance of one alternative and the rejection
of the other or others.
That which determines
the will is that which causes it to choose. If the will is determined then
there must be a determiner. What is it
that determines the will? We reply, The strongest motive power which is brought
to bear upon it. What this motive power is varies in different cases. With one
it may be the logic of reason, with another the voice of conscience, with
another the impulse of the emotions, with another the whisper of the Tempter,
with another the power of the Holy Spirit; whichever of these presents the strongest motive power and exerts the greatest influence upon the individual
himself is that which impels the will to act. In other words, the action of
the will is determined by that condition of mind (which in turn is influenced
by the world, the flesh, and the Devil, as well as by God) which has the
greatest degree of tendency to excite volition. To illustrate what we have just
said let us analyze a simple example—
On a certain Lord’s
day afternoon a friend of ours was suffering from a severe headache. He was
anxious to visit the sick but feared that if he did so his own condition would
grow worse, and as a consequence, be unable to attend the preaching of the
Gospel that evening. Two alternatives confronted him: to visit the sick that
afternoon and risk being sick himself, or, to take a rest that afternoon (and
visit the sick the next day) and probably arise refreshed and fit for the
evening service. Now what was it that decided our friend in choosing between
these two alternatives? The will? Not
at all. True, that in the end, the will made a choice, but the will itself was moved to make the choice. In the above
case certain considerations presented strong motives for selecting either
alternative; these motives were balanced the one against the other by the individual himself, i.e., his
heart and mind, and the one alternative being supported by stronger motives
than the other, decision was formed accordingly, and then the will acted. On the one side, our friend felt impelled
by a sense of duty to visit the sick; he was moved with compassion to do so,
and thus a strong motive was presented to his mind. On the other hand, his
judgment reminded him that he was feeling far from well himself, that he badly
needed a rest, that if he visited the sick his own condition would probably be
made worse, and is such case he would be prevented from attending the preaching
of the Gospel that night; furthermore, he knew that on the morrow, the Lord
willing, he could visit the sick, and this being so, he concluded he ought to
rest that afternoon. Here then were two sets of alternatives presented to our
Christian brother: on the one side was a sense of duty plus his own sympathy,
on the other side was a sense of his own need plus a real concern for God’s
glory, for he felt that he ought to
attend the preaching of the Gospel that night. The latter prevailed. Spiritual
considerations outweighed his sense of duty. Having formed his decision the
will acted accordingly and he retired to rest. An analysis of the above case shows
that the mind or reasoning faculty was directed by spiritual considerations,
and the mind regulated and controlled the will. Hence we say that, if the will
is controlled, it is neither
sovereign nor free, but is the servant of the mind.
It is only as we see
the real nature of freedom and mark that the will is subject to the motives
brought to bear upon it that we are able to discern there is no conflict
between two statements of Holy Writ which concern our blessed Lord. In Matt.
4:1 we read, “Then was Jesus led up
of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil;” but in Mark
1:12, 13 we are told, “And immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness
forty days, tempted of Satan.” It is utterly impossible to harmonize these two
statements by the Arminian conception of the will. But really there is no
difficulty. That Christ was “driven” implies it was by a forcible motive or
powerful impulse, such as was not to be resisted or refused; that He was “led”
denotes His freedom in going. Putting the two together we learn that He was driven, with a voluntary condescension
thereto. So, there is the liberty of man’s will and the victorious efficacy
of God’s grace united together: a sinner may be “drawn” and yet “come” to
Christ—the “drawing” presenting to him the irresistible motive, the “coming”
signifying the response of his will—as Christ was “driven” and “led” by the
Spirit into the wilderness.[1]
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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
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These teachings are also available on the
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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)
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
