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

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

A Real Pain in the Assumption – A Fall, Truth, and Consequences - Purity 574

A Real Pain in the Assumption – A Fall, Truth, and Consequences - Purity 574

Purity 574 11/12/2021 Purity 574 Podcast

Good morning

Today’s photo of sunrise, or is it sunset, at Sunny Isles Beach in Florida comes to us from a friend named Grace who enjoyed a “quick weekend” getaway there last weekend.

Unlike, my friend’s surname that describes God’s unmerited favor and his “quick weekend” vacation, I find myself on an extended weekend that has been “blessed” to me as part of a measure of discipline for failing to report an incident at work in a timely fashion. 

On October 1, 2021, I suffered a trip and fall at work because of my failure to stay aware of my surroundings. I had just gotten off the phone to report the damage on the scene of a pole break and was distracted when I tripped over a guy wire which was still attached to the downed telephone pole and drawn tight over a guardrail on the side of the road causing me to go “boom” on my bottom in a jarring fashion.  Although I fell hard, I sprang up immediately and hoped that I would “walk off the pain” which was significant. Because I was embarrassed by my clumsiness, had plans for the weekend, and didn’t want anything to keep me from them, I left work that day without telling anyone of the injury I had suffered in an official capacity, again, with the hopes that I would just “walk it off”. 

Weeks passed and the pain in my rear, hip, and knee, which occurs mostly while seated and particularly when driving,  hadn’t gone away and actually seemed to be getting worse. So fearing I may need surgery and wanting to be honest, I confessed to my employer about my on the job injury just in case my fall had unforeseen and far reaching effects on my health.  My report was received with compassion and understanding by my local manager but there was also concern over my failure to make the report in a timely fashion. 

Apparently, there was reason for the concern as our corporation has a safety compliance plan for its associates and there are negative consequences for failing to report an incident when it happens.  I found out Wednesday evening that I was being placed on the safety compliance plan for 6 months and was receiving a one day suspension from work without pay for not reporting the incident immediately.  

In the world we can assume that if we do the right thing eventually or tell someone we are sorry that all will be forgiven. But that is an assumption that assumes a measure of mercy and a suspension of justice on your behalf that might not be forthcoming.   

So while we may receive grace and mercy from God because of our faith in Jesus, the institutions to ensure justice on the earth may make you pay a cost for what you have done or failed to do.  

So the bottom line is that I am not going to work today and will miss a day’s pay for my sin of not telling the truth in a timely fashion.  

Although I have been forgiven of all my sins because I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ, I am still not free from the consequences of my sins and because I “withheld the truth of my fall from the local authorities” because of my pride and selfishness I will suffer financially and get a day off and 6 months on a safety compliance plan to think about what I have done and to endeavor to “be safe”.     

Although my local manager showed compassion and concern for my well-being, the corporate policies that govern this situation seems to put the emphasis on my irresponsibility, making me accountable for my failure to utilize my training that has taught me to perform a “pre-job survey” whenever I am in the field, to be diligent to be aware of the dangers of slips, trips, and falls”, and to report incidents immediately.  

As heartless as the consequence may seem to some, the corporate policies here actually point to the truth that “accidents don’t just happen”. Much of the pain and suffering that befall us here on earth is a direct result of our failure to utilize the gifts of perception and wisdom that God has given us. 

The basic tenants of “ always look where you are going” and “always tell the truth” were violated here and frankly I consider myself fortunate that I didn’t suffer a worse fate for my errors in judgement. 

However, as bad as I may feel in my rear and in my conscience for my failures, I also know that my failure doesn’t define who I am as a person and although I made some mistakes it doesn’t change who I am in Christ.  

I will suffer the consequences and will pay the cost for my mistakes here on earth, but I know that I am still loved and accepted by God and that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus meaning that while I should learn from my mistakes in this latest life lesson, I need not feel condemned by it. 

My mistakes can have some real life consequences to my body, wallet, and relationships here on earth, but they cannot and will not affect my self-worth, my identity in Christ, and my relationship with God.  

God doesn’t expect us to walk perfectly throughout this life. He knows we will make mistakes. He knows that our failures to walk in wisdom will cause ourselves and others to suffer negative consequences and pain. 

But God offers us forgiveness for all our errors in judgement, mistakes, and even our blatant violations to His principles of living, our sins,  when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross covers a multitude of sins and when we put our faith in Him we are not only forgiven but made righteous and accepted unconditionally into God’s kingdom for all of eternity.  

So if you fall into sin or make some mistakes, do the right thing, and confess them immediately so you can possibly receive mercy, pay the costs, and most importantly represent the kingdom of God by being honest, responsible, and accountable for what you have done. 

You may suffer negative consequences for “missing the mark” here on earth but because of your relationship with God through your faith in Jesus Christ, you never have to feel condemned for them after you have confessed and repented.

Our standing as sons and daughters of God are never in question with God after we put our faith in Jesus, but the harmony of our relationship to our heavenly Father does need to be maintained by confessing and repenting of our mistakes when we mess up. 

After we confess and repent, our harmony with God reestablished and although we may face the condemnation of our fellow man and the authorities on the earth, we can have peace in our hearts because we are assured of our forgiveness and relationship with God.    

So even though I am out of a day’s pay, I will enjoy the consequence of a long weekend by not dwelling on my mistake or fall but focusing on the God who loves me and accepts me with open arms when I confess and turn from my errors and endeavor to walk with Him.

Thank God it is Friday and Thank God for His Love, Mercy and Grace that saved a wretch like me and who continues to encourages us to pick ourselves up and walk with Him even after we fall.

Today’s Bible verse is drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.  

This morning’s meditation verse is :

Philippians 1:6 (NLT2)
⁶  And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Today’s verse assures us that we are a work in progress and that the Lord will see to it that we will be “finally finished” someday.  

If you are anything like me, you were far from perfect on the day that the Lord revealed the truth of the gospel to you, and you made Jesus your Lord and Savior. 

After 38 years of doing things my way, I had made a lot of decisions and lifestyle choices that disregarded many tenants of common sense and especially biblical morality. 

But God showed me His grace and accepted me for who I was, warts and all by welcoming me into His kingdom on a spring day back in March of 2010 when I placed my faith in Jesus Christ.  

However, just because God found me in a sinful lifestyle, didn’t mean He wanted me to stay there. The word of God tells us that His will for our lives is our sanctification. We are to be holy as God is holy, but God understands that although we are made spiritually alive and given the victory over sin and death the moment we are saved, it will take some time for us to show the fruits of our repentance with tangible signs of our sanctification. 

And ultimately the work of our glorification, in which we will receive glorified, perfect bodies and souls, that are sinless and Christlike, is a work that won’t be finished until Christ returns.  

So today’s verse encourages us to keep walking and talking with God because the good work the Lord has begun in us can continue and is guaranteed to be completed when Jesus comes back. 

When we understand this plan for our lives, we can have relief and hope. We can simultaneously take hope and relief in the fact that we don’t have to stay in the loathsome state that the Lord found us in at salvation and that we are not expected to become perfect by our own efforts.  

We can make progress in our sanctification by turning from our sinful ways and adopting the Lord’s wisdom to our lives, but we can also rest in the fact that we are never expected to be perfect, because that is a work that Christ must complete in us. 

So we can enjoy the fruits of the Spirit that come with our efforts at progressive sanctification but also rest assured that we can always rely on the Lord’s forgiveness and grace when we stumble and that He will never leave us or forsake us and will eventually transform us into glorified saints when He ushers in the new heaven and new earth at the end of this age.  

So enjoy the journey of washing off the muck and mire of your former life through your cooperative efforts of sanctification with God where every day becomes another day where we draw closer to Him but at the same time we can have peace in knowing He will do the final work of making us perfect as He is perfect, making us glorified to give Him glory.

When we keep walking and talking with God we become all the more certain that the good work He has begun in us will be completed by Him.   

 

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we continue sharing from June Hunt’s “Evil and Suffering… Why? Is God Fair?

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private study and to support her work.

E. What Is the Problem of Evil?

The very presence of evil in our world presents a major problem to many people who acknowledge God and His involvement in the world ... people who know the claims about God—that He is morally perfect, all-powerful, and all-knowing. The premise is that evil cannot coexist alongside a good, all-powerful, and all-knowing God because they are mutually exclusive of one another. Therefore, skeptics conclude that the presence of evil in the world negates the presence of a good, all-powerful, and all-knowing God. The problem involves 3 components and 3 assumptions:

If God is all-good and all-powerful, why does He allow evil?

• There are 3 components contained in answering this classic question.
• #1 God is all-good.
• #2 God is all-powerful.
• #3 Evil is present in the world.
• The 3 assumptions are...
• #1 If God is all-good—He would want to prevent evil.
• #2 If God is all-powerful—He could prevent evil.
• #3 If God is all-knowing—He could anticipate evil and therefore stop it!
• If any one component is missing, then you don't have a problem.
• #1 If God is not all-good, the problem vanishes. God is a "cosmic demon" who causes evil.
• #2 If God is not all-powerful, the problem disappears. God is too weak and powerless to stop evil.
• #3 If no evil is present in the world, the problem evaporates. Evil (sin and suffering) is mere illusion.
• However, all 3 components are true, based on the Bible...
• #1 God is good... and He gave people free will, which is good.
      "The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him." (Psalm 92:15)
• #2 God is all-powerful... and He can do anything that is logical, but it is illogical for Him to both grant free will and constrain it.
      "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do." (Isaiah 46:10-11)
• #3 Evil and its effects (sin and suffering) are present in the world... because people chose to exert their God-given free will and disobey God.
      "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

Biblical Counseling Keys - Biblical Counseling Keys – Biblical Counseling Keys: Evil and Suffering... Why?: Why God? Why?.

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

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” 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. 

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

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship