Giving Credit Where Credit is Due – All the Glory to Him – Purity 763
Purity 763 06/21/2022 Purity 763 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of sunset shining
through the shadows of a tree on the shores of Lake Champlain comes to us from the
Adirondack Aerial & Ground Imagery Showcase Page on Facebook, who captured
this vision among others at the Crown Point State Historic Site in Crown Point
NY back on May 29th. I am
sharing a link to their page to give credit where credit is due and to give you
all the opportunity to follow them and see more of their spectacular work (https://www.facebook.com/stephen.j.lemieux)
.
Recently a friend of my friend had
“shared” a photo from that my friend and presented it in a way that could lead
their audience to believe they were the photographer, causing the my friend,
the original photographer, to wonder about their “friend’s” character and whether
they should confront them about, not only for not giving them credit for the
photo, but for being dishonest with their own friends by creating an image of themselves
doing something they didn’t do, or at least weren’t present on that particular
day and time to capture the identical moment that the original photographer
captured.
I am highly sensitive to this type
of thing as I have lost friends when I wasn’t explicit in naming names when
presenting their photos, or getting their express permission, yikes. In my defense, I never indicate that it was I
who captured the photos that I didn’t take and always state they came from
another source, specifically naming the professional photographers whose work I
share, but always, when I can recall it, save the photo files to my posts with
a description, a date, and the first initial and last name of the person from
whom I “borrowed” the photo. I do this for two reasons, to simultaneously provide
a photo credit if someone should choose to save the image from my blog and at
the same time to respect the fact that my friend may not share my religious
beliefs or agree with the sentiments expressed in my messages.
This issue of borrowing and not
acknowledging the original source of the material we share is plagiarism. Whether it’s a photo, a song, or a quote, we should
always share where the material came from. If we don’t, we could rightfully be
accused of “stealing” or being dishonest.
I have a friend who for a time was
sharing pithy sayings each day and I enjoyed their insights. But one day one of
“their little sayings” seemed awfully familiar and so googled the phrase and
discovered that it was a quote from a book.
Shocked at the discovery, I google more of my friend’s “pithy sayings”
and discovered everyone of them had an unnamed source. I actually confronted my friend and told them
that what they were doing was plagiarism. It was stealing and lying, and it was
wrong.
I am not sure if they were ashamed,
embarrassed, or just ignorant but they dismissed me with “whatever” and
continued sharing unnamed sources’ quotes.
I think I shared a link of the original quote in the comments of their
posts after that but let it go.
Whether from the storms of their
tumultuous personal life or from conviction, they seemed to discontinue the
practice. But I don’t think my
confrontation really did anything to change their disposition because, as Facebook
never forgets, I discovered this friend was sharing “their posts” from a year
ago, which somehow made their plagiarism worse in my book. Not only where they are
repeating their plagiarism, but now their original post being repeated a year
later could cause one to think that not only was the quote an original thought
of this person, but it was something that they came up with a year ago, lending
a sense of legitimacy through historical documentation.
As a teacher of Christian
Discipleship and Recovery, the first lesson I would teach to those pursuing a
new life of authenticity and peace was to “stop lying” – to be honest in all
things. When we start telling the truth,
admit to what we have done, and seek to make amends for our offenses, we can
have an enduring peace that doesn’t go away.
As Christians, we come to the Lord
humbly, confessing our sins, seeking His forgiveness through faith inJesus
Christ and seeking to turn to the Lord’s way for the rest of our lives.
We don’t try to portray a false
image anymore. We don’t seek to impress our fellow man by embellishing the
truth or by presenting someone else’s work as our own.
That includes the improvement that
has come into our lives since we have come to God. Although we have done work to change our situations
and solve problems in our lives, as Christian disciples we should never let
anyone believe that we are responsible for the positive changes in our
lives.
It is through God’s grace alone
that we were shown the truth of the gospel that saved us and that caused us to
turn to the Lord to be transformed. As
the author of life itself, God has given us literally everything. So as His
disciples, we should always seek to give Him the glory for any good that we may
perform.
Before coming to Christ, we think
of ourselves of ourselves as “self-made” men and women. But that’s a lie. We didn’t make ourselves. God did. Every good
thing we have ever experienced comes as a result of His creative work and providence.
Since coming to Christ, the
changes in my life could be described as miraculous. Most of my life was lived
in selfish and fleshly pursuits that led to disillusionment, bitterness,
addiction, and heart ache. I was trying to find meaning and purpose in the
things of this world independent of God and I felt the pain of the inadequacy of
myself and tof things of this world to satisfy.
The 90’s band Extreme’s song “Hole
Hearted” describes this phenomenon in its lyrics:
“There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do” (https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/extreme/holehearted.html
)
The song of course was point to a love
relationship but the greatest love of all is that which comes from God the
Father, and unless we have His love to complete us and give us an enduring
peace that last forever, we will always be looking in vain for something to
satisfy us.
So when we find that love, and that peace with
God, we have to give credit where credit is due and become people who represent
the Truth and the love of God in all the ways we live. We are to be open and honest with our lives
and always point people to the author of life and our Lord and Savior, as the
reason for our hope.
So what do you do with someone who “steals from
you”?
Jesus provides guidelines in Matthew 18:15-20 to
confront those who sinned against us, to convict them of their sin, and to seek
to restore them to God, utilizing the witness and assistance of others, if the
offender refuses your correction.
But these are instructions for those who are in
the church and seek to be obedient to God. Not everyone we encounter will agree with our
assessment and may refuse correction because they simply don’t see things our
way.
In that case the general principles from the
New Testament would guide us to forgive them, and everyone for their offenses
against us, because, in Christ, we have been forgiven much.
As much as it depends on us, we are to have
peace with all men, but we may have to seek the Lord’s guidance, strength, and
wisdom to maintain our peace when others despitefully use or abuse us. This life of Christian discipleship isn’t
always easy, but our peace doesn’t come from our interpersonal relationships
here on earth or from creating just the right circumstances, our peace comes
from God and when we keep walking and talking with Him, and continually give
Him credit through our thanks and praise, we can somehow find the peace that goes
beyond all understanding and somehow we can live it in.
______________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us
from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s
meditation verse is:
Psalm 103:8 (NLT2)
8 The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and
filled with unfailing love.
Today’s Bible verse reminds us of the Lord’s unfailing
love and how He is a God of compassion and mercy.
One of the biggest obstacles that man has to coming into a
relationship with their heavenly Father is the false image that is spread about
His nature. Many see God as angry and
vengeful and is just waiting to punish us if we step out of line.
While God is just and holy and will one day punish all who
refuse his offers of peace that comes through Jesus Christ, He is slow to anger
and filled with unfailing love.
God’s moral law reveals to us just how wicked and deficient
we are in our ability to be righteous. But God makes a way for us to have peace
with Him when there would be no other way. Through the gift of salvation that
comes through faith in Jesus Christ, God shows His unfailing love, compassion,
and mercy by giving us the means to not only avoid our just punishment but to receive
a blessing we simply don’t deserve,
Through faith in Christ, we can receive all of God’s
unfailing love by being forgiven and by being adopted as His children. So don’t fear God’s anger, find peace with
Him through Jesus and maintain the harmony of your relationship with Him by
following His word.
When we are saved and walking with God, we need never know
His anger but can abide in his mercy, compassion, and unfailing love forever
and ever.
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 Quest to Alter Fate
In
popular belief during the time of Paul, astrology was closer to religion than
to science, although people then would not have made such a distinction.
Astrology was closer to religion in the sense that people believed the heavenly
bodies were deities or disembodied spirits. The known planets were named after
deities. In fact, we still refer to the planets by their Roman names: Venus
(Aphrodite in Greek), Mars (Ares), Mercury (Hermes) and so on. The spirits of
heroes who had died on earth were also believed to continue existing in an
ether-form, populating the heavens and constituting what we know today as the
Milky Way. Because the planets and stars were seen as deities, they were
capable of being prayed to, invoked, propitiated and even manipulated. In contrast
to the Stoics who resigned themselves to the decrees of fate, the masses felt
that fate could conceivably be altered. Franz Cumont provides us with a clear
statement of this common belief:
[The
masses] looked at astrology far more from a religious than from a logical
standpoint. The planets and constellations were not only cosmic forces, whose
favorable or inauspicious action grew weaker or stronger according to the
turnings of a course established for eternity; they were deities who saw and
heard, who were glad or sad, who had a voice and sex, who were prolific or
sterile, gentle or savage, obsequious or arrogant. Their anger could therefore
be soothed and their favor obtained through rites and offerings; even the
adverse stars were not unrelenting and could be persuaded through sacrifices
and supplications.
Astrology
thus became closely connected with the other forms of popular devotion to the
gods—the mystery cults and magic. The presence of the zodiacal images on large
numbers of statues and monuments of pagan worship confirm this association with
the mystery religions. A beautiful marble cult statue of the Ephesian Artemis
dating back to the second century A.D., for example, depicts the female goddess
wearing the signs of the zodiac as a necklace. It is likely that this artistic
rendering was a method of portraying Artemis as having power and authority over
those astral signs. The goddess Artemis might therefore benevolently exercise
her control over those forces for the good of her devotees.
Magic could be used
with great success by manipulating and invoking the assistance of the astral
spirits. Magic thus was not only a mechanism for altering fate, but also a
means of tapping into the power of the astral spirits to carry out the varied
demands of the conjurer. Some papyri are full of examples of this kind of
magic. One text bases the effectiveness of all conjurations on the position of
the moon in the various houses of the zodiac:
Orbit
of the moon: Moon in Virgo: anything is rendered obtainable. In Libra:
necromancy. In Scorpio: anything inflicting evil. In Sagittarius: an invocation
or incantations to the sun and moon. In Capricorn: say whatever you wish for
best results. In Aquarius: for a love charm. Pisces: for foreknowledge. In
Aries: fire divination or love charm. In Taurus: incantation to a lamp. Gemini:
spell for winning favor. In Cancer: phylacteries. Leo: rings or binding spells.
Sometimes
a magical recipe might prescribe an offering directly to a star, as for
instance, to “the star of Aphrodite” (Venus). A heavenly sign might indicate
the completion of a task by a conjured deity. A love spell performed by the
goddess Kythere (perhaps Venus/Aphrodite), for example, instructs the suppliant
to watch the star of the goddess: “If you see the star shining steadily, it is
a sign that she [the victim] has been smitten, and if it is lengthened like the
flame of a lamp, she has already come.”9
Certain groupings of
stars, or constellations, were often identified with a figure, whom they were
thought to resemble. This association explains the origin of the zodiac with
its twelve signs, such as the crab, lion, scales and archer. In popular belief
they were identified as gods and could also be invoked for magical purposes. A
constellation that was not part of the zodiac, but was nevertheless well known
in popular belief, was the constellation of the bear (Arktos). The bear was
conjured frequently in the magical papyri. The following magical recipe
illustrates one formula in which the bear could be called upon to accomplish
anything the person might request:
Bear,
Bear, you who rule the heaven, the stars, and the whole world; you who make the
axis turn and control the whole cosmic system by force and compulsion; I appeal
to you, imploring and supplicating that you may do the [space for request]
thing, because I call upon you with your holy names at which your deity
rejoices, names which you are not able to ignore.
During
the time of the New Testament, some people resigned themselves to the unfolding
of fate; others tried to alter fate through the practice of magic or by
worshiping a cosmic deity. Whether through surrendering to fate or by trying to
change it, people gave full credence to the tenets of astrology.
Concern about fate and
the influence of the stars was probably a continuing issue for Paul’s converts.
In Ephesians 1, however, Paul’s eloquent and artistic testimony to God’s
electing and predestining activity would have provided soothing comfort to
those new Christians on the west coast of Asia Minor.[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 51–53.
