“Do Well” - Purity 837

“Do Well” - Purity 837

Purity 837 09/15/2022  Purity 837 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo a of breath taking forest scene of a short shoreline path leading to the splendor of the heavens reflected in surface of Lewey Lake comes to us from a friend who is vacationing in the heart of the Adirondacks and shared this photo on social media on Monday.

Well it is Thursday again and our friends photo is so awesome I decided to use my imagination and see that narrow space between those rocks and the grass as a pathway that looks like it could somehow take us into heaven itself like some upside down portal to God’s kingdom.   

I look to share pathways on Thursdays as tradition now to encourage people to get on or stay on the path of Christian discipleship, which is my way of saying we should follow the call and example of Jesus with the way we live.    

Why? Do I have a church? Am I looking for donations? 

No, the reason why I encourage people to follow Christ is because for most of my life I didn’t and I suffered because I lived only to please and affirm myself.  It turns out my wisdom wasn’t very wise and my philosophy of life to “do whatever I want” and to “break rules but not get caught”  lead to a addiction, depression, anger, anxiety, and hopelessness.   My decision to build  my life around the things “I like” was doomed to failure in a world that constantly changes and where even the activities and things we love the most can lose their luster and ability to satisfy us over time, and especially when we live independently of God.     

The questions of “why am I here?” Or “what is the meaning of life?” are never satisfactorily answered when we fail to consider God, although people will try.  

“Life is about family”

“Life is about what you do, your work.”

“Life is about having enough to provide for security and fun.” 

“Life is about the people you love.”

While all of these statements have elements of truth and can be a part of a “happy” life on earth, they don’t address eternity and they don’t address the concept of “right and wrong”.

How are we to determine the answers to those questions. What happens after this life? How should I live my life?  

My silly self serving philosophies of life before coming to Christ were all based on things a I had seen others do in the world, either in person, on T.V. or in books.  Those are all worldly wisdom sources and like any good lie that would lead you astray they contain some truth. 

My exposure to religion in my youth introduced me to God and Christ but it seemed like a separate thing, that we visited once in a while, that had good ideas but that weren’t really practical in the “real world”. Christianity seemed just like another option of life that I could consider and choose to accept or reject and because it’s commandments seemed to limit my freedom from things “I wanted to do!”, I decided that it was better to believe it was not true rather than to consider the consequences of living outside of obedience to it’s “rules.” 

But as I stated turning away from God did nothing to give me peace, meaning, or purpose.   Without Him everything was debatable and with God nothing really mattered.   In the atheistic worldview that I held, there was no life after death. There were no rules other than those society instituted to control us and there was no “justice” because people literally would get away with murder and get rich from criminal means.   

Thankfully God revealed Himself to me, and to all of us with His word and in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  

When I heard the gospel message that saved my life, all those perplexing questions of life, meaning, purpose and debates about how to live were answered.  

Why are we here? God made the heavens and the earth and made man in His image to have dominion over it. 

What happens to us after death?  God is waiting in eternity to meet us and He will accept those who put their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior into His kingdom.

How should we live?  According to the word of God and the example of Christ.  

What’s right? What’s wrong?  God’s word teaches us that and when we fail to follow it we suffer the consequences.  

From these questions and answers, you could condemn yourself because you could see the implications that if you fail to make Christ your Lord and Savior and live according to God’s word that will be punished and you might not think that is fair, like I did, so you will make up your own rules and make your own “gospel” about what happens in eternity or adopted some worldly or other religion that is more palatable.   

But instead of being angry or afraid of God because of the possibility that we won’t believe or follow Him, I invite people to discover what happens when we do believe what the word of God says, when we do put our faith in Christ, and when we do try to live in God’s ways.   

I was so busy rebelling against God and any authority, really, that I never stopped to consider what would happen if I did believe, or I did obey.  

In Genesis 4:6-7 (NKJV) God said to Cain:
⁶  … "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
⁷  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."

 It took me most of my life and a radical encounter with the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I have come to know that I was busy “not doing well” and subsequently “sin” ruled over me.  Instead of turning from it, I turned to sin again and again and suffered greatly.  

But by the grace of God, the Lord showed me that if simply followed Him He would take away my guilt, my shame, my pain and in it’s place give me peace, love, and the joy that comes from knowing that this life has a meaning and a purpose that is defined and established by God and by choosing to live by it and for it.   

I’m still a work in progress because I am continuing to discover that the simple injunction to “do well” by God applies to every area of my life.   That could seem daunting but as I have walked with Him since 2010 I discovered that His all encompassing command to “do well” when obeyed results in blessings and peace.  

So keep walking and talking with God.  If you don’t have peace, consider surrendering your will for His. Consider making the daily decision to stop living according to your own philosophies and choose to “do well” by living with God and by living the way He would have you go.  

 

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Well once again I spent some time this morning preparing for tonight’s presentation for the Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Course I am doing on Zoom for the mt4Christ247 podcast and the MT4Christ247 YouTube channel and, so my time is limited again and we will skip the verse of the day for today but hope to share one  from  “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men” again tomorrow.

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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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

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.

Chapter Two

The Call to Discipleship

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him” (Mark 2:14).

The call goes out, and without any further ado the obedient deed of the one called follows. The disciple’s answer is not a spoken confession of faith in Jesus. Instead, it is the obedient deed. How is this direct relation between call and obedience possible? It is quite offensive to natural reason. Reason is impelled to reject the abruptness of the response. It seeks something to mediate it; it seeks an explanation. No matter what, some sort of mediation has to be found, psychological or historical. Some have asked the foolish question whether the tax collector had known Jesus previously and therefore was prepared to follow his call. But the text is stubbornly silent on this point; in it, everything depends on call and deed directly facing each other. The text is not interested in psychological explanations for the faithful decisions of a person. Why not? Because there is only one good reason for the proximity of call and deed: Jesus Christ himself. It is he who calls. That is why the tax collector follows. This encounter gives witness to Jesus’ unconditional, immediate, and inexplicable authority. Nothing precedes it, and nothing follows except the obedience of the called. Because Jesus is the Christ, he has authority to call and to demand obedience to his word. Jesus calls to discipleship, not as a teacher and a role model, but as the Christ, the Son of God. Thus, in this short text Jesus Christ and his claim on people are proclaimed, and nothing else. No praise falls on the disciple or on his espoused Christianity. Attention should not fall to him, but only to the one who calls, to his authority. Not even a path to faith, to discipleship, is aimed at; there is no other path to faith than obedience to Jesus’ call.

What is said about the content of discipleship? Follow me, walk behind me! That is all. Going after him is something without specific content. It is truly not a program for one’s life which would be sensible to implement. It is neither a goal nor an ideal to be sought. It is not even a matter for which, according to human inclination, it would be worth investing anything at all, much less oneself. And what happens? Those called leave everything they have, not in order to do something valuable. Instead, they do it simply for the sake of the call itself, because otherwise they could not walk behind Jesus. Nothing of importance is attached to this action in itself. It remains something completely insignificant, unworthy of notice. The bridges are torn down, and the followers simply move ahead. They are called away and are supposed to “step out” of their previous existence, they are supposed to “exist” in the strict sense of the word. Former things are left behind; they are completely given up. The disciple is thrown out of the relative security of life into complete insecurity (which in truth is absolute security and protection in community with Jesus); out of the foreseeable and calculable realm (which in truth is unreliable) into the completely unforeseeable, coincidental realm (which in truth is the only necessary and reliable one); out of the realm of limited possibilities (which in truth is that of unlimited possibilities) into the realm of unlimited possibilities (which in truth is the only liberating reality). Yet that is not a general law; it is, rather, the exact opposite of all legalism. Again, it is nothing other than being bound to Jesus Christ alone. This means completely breaking through anything preprogrammed, idealistic, or legalistic. No further content is possible because Jesus is the only content. There is no other content besides Jesus. He himself is it.

So the call to discipleship is a commitment solely to the person of Jesus Christ, a breaking through of all legalisms by the grace of him who calls. It is a gracious call, a gracious commandment. It is beyond enmity between law and gospel. Christ calls; the disciple follows. That is grace and commandment in one. “I walk joyfully, for I seek your commands” (Ps. 119:45).

Discipleship is commitment to Christ. Because Christ exists, he must be followed. An idea about Christ, a doctrinal system, a general religious recognition of grace or forgiveness of sins does not require discipleship. In truth, it even excludes discipleship; it is inimical to it. One enters into a relationship with an idea by way of knowledge, enthusiasm, perhaps even by carrying it out, but never by personal obedient discipleship. Christianity without the living Jesus Christ remains necessarily a Christianity without discipleship; and a Christianity without discipleship is always a Christianity without Jesus Christ. It is an idea, a myth. A Christianity in which there is only God the Father, but not Christ as a living Son actually cancels discipleship. In that case there will be trust in God, but not discipleship. God’s Son became human, he is the mediator—that is why discipleship is the right relation to him. Discipleship is bound to the mediator, and wherever discipleship is rightly spoken of, there the mediator, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is intended. Only the mediator, the God-human, can call to discipleship.^[1]

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

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

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^[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 57–59.

The Deal with God - Purity 809

The Deal with God - Purity 809

Purity 809 08/13/2022  Purity 809 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the sun emerging on the horizon over an unnamed highway under a magnificent clouds and morning sky comes to us from a friend who captured this scene during their morning commute somewhere near Jacksonville Florida back on August 10^th. Their comment? “Coming in Hot! Let’s make a deal today 😊.”  While I am no longer do sales as part of my career, I can appreciate my friend’s enthusiasm for the start of a new day and in taking joy in his work.

Before becoming a field technician, I was on the phones as a customer service representative for my company and I know that there are definitely perks for your performance. In sales, your performance easy to gauge, you either made sales or you didn’t and the level of your sales was measured in dollars and cents. One year I had over a million dollars in sales for my company but the sales world is a fickle beast and when aspects of the game changed past performance didn’t matter and when my sales fell below a certain level I found myself targeted for termination and placed in probationary remedial sales jail where every word I spoke, or didn’t speak, was under scrutiny as I was literally given a script to follow.

This was before I came to Christ and I had lacked emotional maturity, patience, and self control so I knew that it was only a matter of time before my mouth or my silence would get me canned.  One of my friends in the office, who had also enjoyed a measure of success in sales and was a heck of a nice guy, had faced similar treatment and he was suspended and subsequently terminated for “not offering” all the products and service on all his calls.   So my fears weren’t groundless.

The business office environment was so bad that some of my co-workers would cry before coming into the office, with many a sick day being caused by stress.  Several of my co-workers were on depression or anti-anxiety medications and like me, a lot of them drank or took recreational drugs to help with the stresses of being monitored and judged.   It was tough trying to be perfect, when you are far from perfect.

But luckily for me the Lord provided a “way of escape”, my escape route was up a telephone pole! Climb and rise up to a new life or stay where you are and die, seemed to be the choice presented to me.  So I climbed, and was only successful after I said a prayer “to God, to Jesus” to help me.”  

As a practicing Buddhist, I was far from God at the time, but God was faithful and gave me a strength and confidence at the end of pole climbing school that I didn’t have before and overcame and climbed out of the business office the only way I could. 

Unfortunately, I chose to forget about my prayer and gloried over how “I did it!” but months later while being a field tech I heard the gospel radio message that would cause me to renounce Buddhism, the world, and my own self sufficiency and make Jesus Lord and Savior.  And I have been climbing ever higher, out of addiction, out of bad relationships, out of my worldly ways, and into His grace ever since.  

The tragedy of the business office was it didn’t have to be that way. For the most part office life wasn’t bad. It was the pressures of performance and the methods they used to force compliance that was Orwellian. Rather than encourage they sought to punish and operated by instilling fear, and that’s no way to live. 

But I know someone who doesn’t judge you by your performance, who doesn’t seek to punish you, and who takes away your fears.  His name is Jesus Christ and through faith in Him you find an acceptance, security, and significance that surpasses anything this world has to offer. 

So what’s the deal?  

The deal with Christ may be a little hard to understand in this rat race world, where we can glory in our own performance and be rewarded or judged by it. 

What must we do to be saved?

Unlike the world, we don’t  perform to be accepted by God.  We merely have to put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ, to agree to believe that Jesus was who He said He was and that what He did on the cross was meaningful, that He paid for the sins of the world and that when we put our faith in Him, we die to our old life and are raised to a new life with and in Him.  

It’s a deal that sounds too good to be true. 

Forgiveness of sins, life everlasting, a direct connection with God via the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and all the fruit of the Spirit are available if you act now! There are no payments to make or forms to sign!  All you have to do is put your faith in Jesus and follow Him!

It might sound too good to be true but it is true and only when you humble yourself and surrender yourself to the Lordship of Christ can you know that it is true. 

For those of us who have said “Yes” to Jesus, we know but sometimes we forget.  

John 15:1-8 (NKJV)
¹  "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
²  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
³  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
⁴  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
⁵  I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
⁶  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
⁷  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
⁸  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

There is a lot in that passage.  There is a warning about burning, okay. Read it again and ask God what He means by that.  

But there is also an encouragement to abide in Christ, to remain in Him, and to be fruitful. 

The fruit of the Spirit are peace, love, joy, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. These all describe character attributes that the Lord wants you to grow in your life and without Christ you can do nothing, but if you abide in Him you will produce these fruit and they will undoubtedly lead to the fruit of a changed life and acts of service and kindness to others.   

The deal, I am encouraging you to make, is to put your faith in Christ and abide in Him,

But let’s be clear here, we don’t have a “deal with God” or “deal with Jesus”. We have a relationship, a love relationship.  God loves us. He sent Christ to die for us and when we accept the free gift of God’s grace and make Jesus our Lord we don’t enter into a deal, we enter into a relationship, we enter into a kingdom, we enter into a family as adopted children of the God of all creation.   That’s more than a deal.

Making peace with God is not a business deal, making peace with God through faith in Christ is personal, it’s a relationship, it’s a whole new life.  

So as we blaze into Saturday and another weekend, let’s remember what “the deal” is with God and make the daily decision to walk and talk and abide in Him.  

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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:

Romans 15:5 (NLT2)
⁵  May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.

Today’s verse reminds us that God empowers us to through giving us patience and encouragement to live in complete harmony with one another. 

A parallel verse to today’s verse is

Romans 12:18 (NKJV)
¹⁸  If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

I share that one too because if we only look at isolated verses of the Bible and don’t examine the whole counsel of God we can easily be led to extremes will trying to obey the word of God.  

We could look at today’s verse and think: “I must live in complete harmony with everyone at church.” And then decide to let someone to be abusive, immature, or manipulative and compromise our principles all in the name of “maintaining complete harmony.”   

Unfortunately, there is an established history of abuses in churches so we have to be wise and discerning in how we live the Christian life and what we do to be at “complete harmony” with others.  

So yes we must be careful, but we should also seek to be at harmony in our churches by working together to make peace if it is possible. God encourages us to be people of peace and gives us the fruit of patience when we walk n the Spirit. So as much as it depends on us, we should look to be obedient to God’s word and work to establish harmony with our brothers and sisters in Christ and use the guidelines that Christ taught in Matthew for any squabbles that arise.  

We are people of the Word and the way we can find complete harmony is by living according to it with sincerity and wisdom.

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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 Clinton E. Arnold’s “Powers of Darkness”

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

Christ’s Final Subjection of the Powers

The evil principalities and powers, together with their leader Satan, face a definite point in history when their tyranny will be brought to an end. They now function like vicious dogs on a long leash. When Christ returns, he will tighten the leash to such an extent that they will not be able to cause any harm or instill any fear whatsoever. They will be completely pacified.

Paul saw the consummation of history in Christ’s act of handing over his kingdom to God the Father. Prior to this, Paul envisioned two major events: (1) the resurrection of the dead and (2) the “destruction” of Christ’s enemies. The first enemy to be vanquished is the host of spirit powers. Paul explains, “Then comes the end, when he [Christ] delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power” (1 Cor 15:24 RSV). Uppermost in Paul’s mind are all of the supernatural evil spirits and angels with whom the church has struggled throughout its existence. These are precisely the same terms that Paul used elsewhere for such powers (see Eph 1:21). They are the evil forces that have made their influence felt in every kind of human opposition to God and every form of structural evil.

Paul likely did not intend to convey the thought that these powers will be destroyed in the sense of being annihilated. Rather, what is probably meant by the term “destroy” (katargeō) is the thought of robbing them of their ability to work evil, that is, to pacify them. The death and resurrection of Christ marked the beginning of their demise, as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 2:6–8. This passage implies that Christ will accomplish this in one final act. They will forever be deprived of their ability to engage in hostile coercive activity against God and his people.

Death is then named as the final enemy who will be robbed of its ability to betray people of life. Death and the powers of darkness together constitute the enemies whom God will subject to Christ, that is, “put under his feet” in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 8:6. Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee for believers that they too will have life, even after experiencing physical death. Believers are so closely united with their risen Lord that they not only participate in a limited way in his resurrection life now, but they will be raised from the dead at his coming (parousia).

In Ephesians and Colossians Paul expressed the same promise of Christ’s ultimate subjugation of the powers of darkness in different terms. In Ephesians 1:10, Paul spoke of the consummation of the age in terms of bringing “all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” The comprehensive scope of Christ’s reign is strongly in view here; there is no part of the creation that will continue to work in open rebellion against Christ. His reign especially includes all of the principalities and powers.

In Colossians Paul described the end of the age as a universal reconciliation. He says, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:19–20). Certainly the powers of darkness will not be redeemed in the same sense as Christians and thus experience a reconciliation with God as friends. Paul made it clear later in the letter that the powers were defeated on the cross as enemies (Col 2:15). They are subjected against their will. The emphasis of this passage is on ultimate universal harmony and the absence of any personal or structural evil. As one commentator puts it, “the alternatives, whether these powers have been subjected or redeemed, are falsely put. It is decisive that the new world will be a world of peace and reconciliation and Christ will be its ruler.” Heaven and earth will no longer experience the jolting dislocations and degeneration brought about by evil. They will be brought back into their divinely created and determined order through the resurrection and exaltation of Christ.⁷ In this context Paul especially focused attention on the cross of Christ as God’s primary vehicle for insuring ultimate peace and harmony through all of creation.

The powers of darkness will finally have to admit that Jesus truly is the Lord, as Paul indicated to the Philippians: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10–11). Whatever kind of supernatural powers exist—astral spirits, terrestrial spirits, underworld spirits—all will be forced to recognize Christ’s sovereign lordship. Christ will end their hostility.

Although he did not elaborate on it, Paul indicated that believers will execute judgment with him over the world system and all of the evil angels at the end of the age (1 Cor 6:3). Other New Testament writers also pointed to this future judgment of the angels (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6). Non-Christians will face the same judgment and doom as the devil (1 Tim 3:6). The Revelation of John envisions the devil and his powers being thrown into a pool of fire, where they will be tormented throughout eternity (Rev 20:10, 14).

Paul’s first-century readers would surely have found such passages to be a great solace in light of their fears of the hostile powers and the invisible forces of fate. History is in the hands of a loving God, who purchased redemption with the blood of his only Son. We, too, have the confidence that whatever forces of evil are afflicting us have a limited number of days. Christ will soon reign supreme and restore the world to its created splendor.^[1]

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

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

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^[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 163–165.

Fields of Gold - The Art of Life and the Hope of Heaven - Purity 791

Fields of Gold  - The Art of Life and the Hope of Heaven - Purity 791

Purity 791 07/23/2022  Purity 791 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a painting of a child walking through almost colorless waves of grain while adoring the light of the heavens that illuminates just the tops of the wheat comes to us from Dave Baun Photography who captured this scene back on July 13^th while traveling through Kimba in South Australia. Dave shared this photo on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DaveBaunPhotography) with the following comments: “Today’s images are of the silo art at Kimba. We were rolling into town just before sunset so the golden hour light and the colour of the sky really made this one a keeper. I love how these little “blink and you’ll miss it” sort of towns have these beautiful paintings on the silos.”

Me too, Dave. I love the fact that someone had the vision and artistic ability to transform what could have just been something common, ignored, and missed while driving through a small town and made it a thing of beauty that speaks of the simple beauty of life in their rural community.

I spend my weekends at my countryside home in rural Easton NY and I although I was born in raised in a small city-town, I am continually surprised how I have found peace with “Country living”. I thoroughly enjoy my short walks with the dog where I can enjoy the beauty of the fields, the quiet,  and the big sky that covers it all. I love it.

I also love how that through social media I can have friends that I have never met in person from all around the world and how they expand my vision to see things I simply would never see. Although one would think that these Facebook friends are more like acquaintances, I know that they are actually my brothers and sisters in Christ and that although we are separated by vast distances we have been introduced to one another because we all have the love of art, nature, and the Lord Jesus in common.  

Just yesterday my friend in the UK, Philip Hand spontaneously shared the following Bible verse and original poem with me, and so I share it with you:  

Matthew 5:4 (KJV)
⁴  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

“Tender”

“When the touch of love’s sweet tender hand gently slips away.

When the bittersweetness in my heart is pulled apart again.

The wonder of you as I remember helps me face another day.

The tender kiss of time will wash away the pain.

 

Till heaven gently beckons and angels call my name.

I know the touch of love’s sweet tender hand will gently guide me home.

Cherishing the tender memories.

I will dance and sing in love forever more before God’s throne…”

-Philip Hand

 

Philip is mourning the loss of his beloved grandad who after 93 years on this earth “went to heaven to be with his wife”. Philip’s grandparents had been married nearly 70 years when his grandmother passed in September of 2020 and now Philip’s grandfather has joined her, having gone into eternity earlier this month.  Philip is assured of their destination and reunion in eternity because they were “the most amazing beautiful Christian people” Philip has ever known and have been a blessing to Philip his whole life.   So while Philip is still feeling the pain of the loss, he is comforted because of the memories of the love he experienced from his grandparents and because he knows that his loved ones have eternal life because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

As I considered, Dave’s photography and Philip’s testimony and poem, I thought of Sting’s song: Fields of Gold and the sweeping beauty of the images and feelings that the lyrics “paint” of a couple’s love for one another among the fields of gold and how it endured through the years. The song concludes, saying: 

“Many years have passed since those summer days

Among the fields of barley

See the children run as the sun goes down

Among the fields of gold

 

You'll remember me when the west wind moves

Upon the fields of barley

You can tell the sun in his jealous sky

When we walked in fields of gold

When we walked in fields of gold

When we walked in fields of gold…” (https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sting/fieldsofgold.html) )

 

I am sharing a link of the song on YouTube if you want to check it out (https://youtu.be/-jMAIuqnFEI)

I always thought that song was beautiful but how it was also sort of winsome and sad, because it was incomplete.  It tells a beautiful story of love between a man and a woman “among the fields of barley” that endured through the years but it sort of indicates that the lovers who “walked in fields of gold” have been separated as the “west wind moves”, leaving one alone to “remember” the other and the days when they walked through fields of gold.   

But as Philip’s testimony indicates, the love story doesn’t have to end.  When we put our faith in Jesus Christ we have eternal life and although death may temporary separate us  we can rejoice as we walk on streets of gold in God’s future kingdom, as Revelation 21:21 assures us.  

But you have to follow the One who will bring you there. You have to follow Him alone. You have to follow Jesus Christ, the One who said: 

Matthew 13:44 (NKJV)
⁴⁴  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Jesus came to earth to show us that He was the only way to God the Father. He is the only way to have peace with God and to be adopted into His eternal kingdom. 

As we walk through the fields of gold on this earth, the seasons change, we age, and one day our life will be called into eternity and only the ones who have found Christ will have life with God for all eternity. 

Christ has shown us that He is the treasure hidden in a field. It is only Christ that can give us an abiding peace on earth and an entrance in the kingdom of heaven.

The question: is will you surrender everything you have to the Lordship of Jesus Christ to experience it?

Through the word of God, my life experiences on this path of Christian Discipleship with the manifest presence of the Lord, and from the testimony of other Christians through out the ages and who are still alive today, I know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that truth has set me free and given me the assurance of my place in eternity with God. 

So enjoy your walk through the fields of gold and all the beauty that surrounds us on this earth, but put your faith in Christ, and in Him alone, to have the assurance that your journey through life will have a meaning, a purpose, and a glorious final destination.  

So start, or keep walking and talking with God, study His word and pray to get to know Him more and to be transformed into a person of peace that has the hope of heaven and the words that lead to eternal life in your mind, heart, and soul that will point others to the treasure that is Christ alone.

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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:

John 14:15-16 (NLT2)
¹⁵  “If you love me, obey my commandments.
¹⁶  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.

Today’s verses are Christ’s instructions to His apostles and His promise of the Holy Spirit to all who submit to His Lordship and obey.

The Advocate spoken about here, of course, is the Holy Spirit. Although the third person of the godhead -the trinity – and who thus has the attribute of God’s omnipresence, The Holy Spirit is somehow present everywhere but somehow also takes up residence in everyone who makes Jesus their Lord and Savior!    

Before the work of Christ on the cross, the Holy Spirit only came upon select individuals to empower them for God’s special purposes. But after the power of sin and death was broken by Christ’s perfect sacrifice on the cross, and after He took His seat at the right hand of the Father in heaven, The Holy Spirit has been given to empower every person who obeys God’s call to repent and to put their faith in Christ.

Jesus’s instructions are clear “If you love me, obey my commandments”: Not anybody else’s commandments or philosophies of life, His commandments, His way.

As the only person who ever lived who never sinned, Christ is our example. He was encouraging His disciples to live the way He lived.

That may seem to be a tall order…

But the fantastic news is that, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we have all been empowered to be able to follow Christ’s example.  When we “abide in Christ” through continuous communication, worship, and service to the kingdom of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we can walk the walk as well as talk the talk and live the Christian life.  

So show your love for Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to obey His commandments. Christ’s burden is light and because the Holy Spirit is with us forever it is a burden we can bear.    

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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 Clinton E. Arnold’s “Powers of Darkness”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Clinton Arnold’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 Threefold Nature of Evil Influence

In this book the focus on the theme of principalities and powers could lead one to believe Paul gave a demonological root to all evil. That is not the case. Paul’s view of the nature of evil influence on people is very balanced.

In Ephesians 2:1–3, Paul describes sinful behavior as stemming from three compelling influences—to be seen as three strands combining to make one sturdy cable. This cable tightly binds unbelievers, keeping them in slavery to the kingdom of darkness. It may be helpful to depict these three sources of evil influence graphically:

1. The World:	“the ways of this world”
2. The Devil:	“the ruler of the kingdom of the air” “the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient”
3. The Flesh:	“the cravings of our sinful nature … its desires and thoughts”

In simplest terms we might categorize these influences as “the world, the devil and the flesh.” We need, however, to take a closer look at what Paul specifically said.

In this passage Paul was disclosing the nature of his readers’ lives before they turned to Christ. Here a set of overriding principles help us to understand how Paul perceived evil as influencing the lives of people in general, Christians or non-Christians. Christians will still need to contend with the same sources of evil influence, but Christians have a new means of overcoming these influences through the power of Christ. Those who are not believers, being apart from Christ, are enslaved to these influences, not having the power or ability to escape.

When he spoke of “the ways of this world,” Paul was thinking of the powerful influence of societal attitudes, habits and preferences that are at odds with God’s standard of holiness. Literally, the text indicts the character of “the age of this world.” There is a stark contrast between the character of “this age” and “the age to come.” John R. W. Stott aptly describes the character of “the age of this world”:

Both words “age” and “world” express a whole social value-system which is alien to God. It permeates, indeed dominates, non-Christian society and holds people in captivity. Wherever human beings are being dehumanized—by political oppression or bureaucratic tyranny, by an outlook that is secular (repudiating God), amoral (repudiating absolutes) or materialistic (glorifying the consumer market), by poverty, hunger or unemployment, by racial discrimination, or by any form of injustice—there we can detect the subhuman values of “this age” and “this world.”

This influence begins at birth with values that are passed on from the parents and extended family. It is reinforced all throughout life, both formally and informally, through the educational system and the media as well as through peer pressure. It continues to be transmitted through patterns of thinking, traditions, customs and even institutions. This is not to say everything in society is evil. But there is much in society that leads away from God.

“The ruler of the kingdom of the air,” the second evil influence Paul delineated, is a powerful supernatural being in charge of a whole host of evil spirits often thought by the ancients to reside in the air. This ruler is more precisely a “spirit,” and Paul portrayed his method as very immediate and direct: “He is now at work in [or among] those who are disobedient.” It would be inaccurate to say all who disobey God are “possessed” by an evil spirit. Yet Paul was clear that this evil agent and his emissaries exert a very close and personal kind of influence over individuals. This spirit exerts a powerful, compelling influence, although many English translations miss this description. When Paul said the ruler is “at work in,” he used a word that was part of his vocabulary of power and could be translated, “The spirit who is now powerfully at work in …” The GNB translates the phrase, “the spirit who now controls the people.” Notice that Paul emphasizes here the work of the evil spirit in people as opposed to institutions.

The final evil influence that Paul drew attention to is what he termed “the flesh.” This is Paul’s favorite expression to convey the inner drive of people to act in ways deviant to the standard of God’s righteousness. It points not only to the inner motivating force behind actions that are associated with the body, such as sexual sin, but also to aspects of the thought life as well, such as envy and anger. This inner impulse to do evil is set in contrast to the new impulse to live with moral integrity provided by God’s gift of the Holy Spirit (see Gal 5:19–23).

Paul, therefore, presented the true character of evil influence in all three of its manifestations. The source of evil tendencies is both internal and external to people as well as supernatural. Individuals possess an internal inclination toward evil, and their environment (peers, media, societal norms, and so forth) also strongly influences them. Such a perspective linking the categories of “the world, the flesh and the devil” was also integral to the thought of James (see Jas 3:15) and John (1 Jn 2:15–17; 3:7–10) and, presumably, common in the early church.

Paul’s teaching suggests that the explanation for our behavior is not to be found exclusively in human nature or in terms of the world’s influence. Similarly, an exclusively demonic explanation for deviant behavior is unduly myopic. Rather, we should explain behavior on the basis of human nature, environment and the demonic—all three simultaneously. One part may play a leading role, but all three parts need to be considered. Paul’s theology at this point has significant implications for those involved in counseling ministries. Yet we also need to see it as extremely relevant for our church life.

The demonic side receives the strongest emphasis in Ephesians and Colossians, while the flesh is more prominent in Romans and Galatians. The general situations of the readers of each book may have something to do with their particular emphases. If the readers of Ephesians and Colossians tended to need help in dealing with their past involvement in occultic practices, this fact would explain why the demonic side is stressed more strongly in those two letters.

In the final analysis, however, Paul regarded Satan as the chief opponent of Christ and his kingdom. The demonic explanation for evil behavior needs to be seen as the thread that ties together all the evil influences. In practice Satan exploits the depraved tendencies of the flesh and exercises a measure of control over all levels of a social order.

Through the cross of Christ Christians gain their freedom from these compelling and enslaving influences. His death and resurrection resulted in the “age to come,” breaking into the present age. Believers now share already in many of the blessings and resources of the age to come. Through the cross of Christ our flesh was crucified, and we can live under the guiding and enabling impulses of the Holy Spirit. Finally the cross of Christ marked a decisive victory by God over the powers of evil. Through union with Christ believers can resist Satan and be victorious over his kingdom.^[1]

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

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

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^[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 123–126.