Purity 307: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 Purity 307 01/08/2021

Good morning!

Today’s photo comes from a friend in California, who captured this dusky sunset shot that displays the sky above and raging fire they built to thoroughly enjoy their evening.

I share it as a reminder that no matter how thick the darkness that surrounds us, the light of God above and the “fire” of the Holy Spirit inside everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ will never be extinguished.  

Be the light in these dark times by speaking of the goodness of God, at all times, and the hope that we have in Christ.    

Today I continue to share Dr. Neil Anderson’s “Twenty “Cans” of Success”, to encourage my friends that are fasting as well as those who aren’t.  

4.  Why should I lack faith to live for Christ when God has given me a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)?

 Our success comes from our faith in Christ.  

 Romans 12:3 tells us the God has given all of us a measure of faith. 

 So while you may think of yourself has having “small faith”, remember that even faith the size of a mustard seed can move “the mountains of problems” in our lives when you follow the Lord’s will for your life. 

 Also that “small mustard seed size-faith” can grow.    The more you seek the Lord and trust Him the greater your faith will become.     

 If you feel that God is distant, I assure you He is here. He is an inescapable ever- present reality in our lives.   We are not alone in this world. The Lord of all creation is sovereign over all and wants us to come to Him. 

So draw close to God and He will draw close to you.  Show Him you want Him in your life by talking to Him in prayer and listening to His voice by reading His word (New Testament first for those newly seeking – you have to know Jesus).  

(There is More at the restricted blog). Follow me on Twitter, MeWe, or Parler for easy access.  Blog M T 4 Christ dot org – This is where the Facebook post ends.)

This morning’s meditation verse was:

1 John 1:6 (NKJV)
⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Once again good old Frist John gives us some walking wisdom and the truth in this verse is huge. 

 When we come to Christ, we are usually steep in sin and short on righteousness. Unfortunately, many gospel presentations these days stress the forgiveness of sins with the guarantee of heaven without making it clear that we are making a commitment to be a part of God’s kingdom. 

 I know when I finally heard the gospel and understood that being saved wasn’t about my efforts and was about Christ “doing it” for me because of God’s mercy and grace, I thought it was a great deal! You forgive my sins, I get saved. Awesome!

 I thought I found a “get out of hell free card”!  And I did but the thing is that when we make Jesus our Lord and Savior, we become spiritually alive and the Holy Spirit indwells us. 

 When that happens our spirit is no longer at ease with the way we used to live in darkness. Sin isn’t what it used to be.  Trust me, I tried to ignore the conviction on my heart when I sinned and claimed Christ’s forgiveness to cover it but the longer I professed my relationship with Jesus Christ and the more of the Bible I read and understood the more I realized I was way off base and the suffering and torment that I experienced as a “carnal Christian” was because I had only claimed Jesus as Savior and was still trying to be the lord of my life. 

 The problem with that scenario is that we “have been bought for a price” (1 Cor 6:20), and when we make Christ our Lord and Savior, we belong to God and to live a life of darkness reveals a dysfunctional relationship with the Him.  We are still His, but we are denying it by the way we live when we live in sin. 

 So claim the amazing grace of God and rejoice at your salvation but remember the peace of God comes to us when we obey Him.

 Believe me when I tell you, obedience is possible and when you obey you understand that your really are His child and your heart will yearn to please the Father. 

 Your walk doesn’t have to be perfect. Our journey is one of progressive sanctification where are efforts are a co-operation with the Holy Spirit to give us the strength and guidance to slowly conform us to the image of Christ. 

 So pick a sin, any sin, and surrender it to the Lord and work with Him to remove it from your life.  When you do you will take another step into the light, leaving your darkness further and further behind.  

 

Today we continue chapter 9 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again, where the authors discuss God’s provision for us in suffering.

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

Only What You Can Bear

The full reasons for all our sufferings may never be fully known to us in this life. But be assured that God always has a limit on the suffering He allows for each of us. Just as He clearly set limits on the suffering Satan could bring on Job, so He does for each of us. Some, such as Job and Paul, obviously have broader shoulders upon which God allows more suffering to rest for righteousness' sake.

Suffering always comes with a temptation to respond in the sin of unbelief, either in despondency that says "God has forsaken me and there is no hope," or in the anger of rebellion—"I hate you, God, for letting this happen, so forget You. I'm going to go my own way from now on." Satan has scored another victory when the victim believes such a lie and walks away from his only source of hope.

Our heavenly Father assures us He will not allow any suffering that we cannot bear:

No temptation [testing or trial] has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear [or beyond your strength]. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can [or have the strength to] stand up under it (1 Cor. 10:13, NIV).

This promise assures us that God places a limit on our suffering that is not beyond what we can bear in each circumstance. He knows our strength and weakness in every area of our lives—physically, emotionally and spiritually—and says that, with His grace, He will not allow any suffering on any occasion that we cannot handle. The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not sustain you.

God's Provisions in Suffering

It is clear by the reference to standing up under suffering that the way out that God provides does not mean an immediate cessation of the sufferings. The promise of Scripture is not that God will keep us from all suffering or even remove it quickly, but that He will supply certain provisions so we can "stand up under it." Trusting in God's faithfulness and promise of a way out is what makes it possible to endure suffering.

Grace and Comfort

God promises to provide the grace and comfort necessary for us to faithfully endure suffering. The psalmist does not say, "Cast your cares on the Lord and go free from care," but rather, "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you" (Psalm 55:22, NIV, emphasis added). Similarly, we are not told that the causes of our anxieties will be removed, but that in their midst we can experience the peace of God (see Phil. 4:6, 7).

In the midst of his imprisonment and trial, Paul testifies that "the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me" (2 Tim. 4:17). Not only God's strength but His comfort is available in our sufferings. He is the "Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction" (2 Cor. 1:3, 4). The Greek word for "comfort" may also be translated "encouragement." It is used here in its basic sense of "standing beside a person to encourage him when he is undergoing severe testing."  The present tense of the verb tells us that our God comforts us at all times, constantly and unfailingly in all our sufferings.

Joy in Suffering

James says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials" (James 1:2). But the idea of joy as a result of trials and suffering is not unique to this verse. Paul says, "We also rejoice in our sufferings" (Romans 5:3, NIV). Similarly, Peter said: "Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed" (1 Peter 4:13, NIV). All these passages share something of Jesus' pronouncement, in the Sermon on the Mount, of a state of blessedness (being fortunate, happy or divinely privileged) on the poor, the mourning, the hungry and the persecuted (see Matthew 5:3, 4, 6, 10-12).

These references to joy or blessedness in trials and suffering are not for the suffering in itself, but for the outcomes that are associated with it. Joy in trials of suffering is possible because we know that "the testing of your faith produces endurance," and that we are to "let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect [or mature] and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:3, 4; see also Romans 5:3). In the word picture drawn by Peter, trials produce a genuine faith like gold from a refiner's fire that will result "in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6, 7).

For this joy to be present, there must be appreciation and even gratitude for what God is doing. "You must thank God in the midst of your pain. Tell Him you trust Him. Praise Him for what He can do, for what He is doing. As you do so pressures will lift. You will be given a garment of praise to replace a spirit of heaviness." 

Hope and Assurance

We cannot find joy in the midst of trials and suffering without hope. In the references cited, joy was present because of the anticipated future glory. The right attitude in suffering is therefore to focus on our hope.

Remember that biblical hope is not wishful thinking, but the present assurance of some future good. We do live in a vale of tears, but this is not the end. There is a new day coming for the Christian, a day that is described as fullness of joy where there will be "no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things [with its trials and suffering] has passed away" (Rev. 21:4, NIV).

The suffering itself helps to engender this perspective of hope that is so critical for overcoming depression. There is a grand circle in the thinking of Paul in Romans 5 in which hope stands at both ends, and tribulation in the middle. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (see Romans 5:2, NIV), and we glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering leads to a sanctifying process that terminates in hope—"suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope" (Romans 5:3, 4, NIV).

Hope not only undergirds our steadfastness in trials and enables joy, but it is also strengthened by such trials. As John Murray says, "We glory in tribulations because they have an eschatological orientation—they subserve the interests of hope."  We can accept the sufferings that come our way if we understand their purpose, and if we have the hope that God will make it right in the end. We can put up with any "how" if we know the "why." Sometimes, however, the "why" is elusive, which brings us to a topic that speaks to many people who are depressed because of suffering.

Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.

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

 

God bless you all!

Purity 306: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 Purity 306

Good morning!

Today’s photo of blue celestial skies was taken by yours truly in the beginning of December last year as I was working in unseasonably pleasant weather in Delanson NY.

I share it as a reminder that there are things larger than the things of this earth to consider and that the only peace man will ever find is by loving God with everything they have, which is only possible by being reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, and then loving their neighbor as themselves.

Today I continue to share Dr. Neil Anderson’s “Twenty “Cans” of Success”, to encourage my friends that are fasting as well as those who aren’t.  

3.  Why should I fear when the Bible says God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7)?

 

How can we claim success if we are overcome by fear?  We can’t.

 Our faith in Christ is the only true remedy to fear as it is only through Him that we have eternal security.  

 However, just because we are eternally secure doesn’t mean we don’t have to be wise in how we walk through this world.  The chaos that displays itself in society shows us that we have to discern the spirits that we are listening to and to be aware of our spiritual surroundings as the world is influenced by dark forces.

 The spirit of rebellion and lawlessness is Satan.  Regardless of the cause you think you support, when you give into these spirits, the cause you are serving are the enemy’s.  The enemy tempts us with offense, discontentment, dissatisfaction, and fear to deceive us and to influence our emotions and behavior to make us forget who we are and drive us into sin.

 The world’s darkness is driven by these forces that would tell us that we lack.

 God says that He will supply all our needs and that He has given us power, love, and a sound mind.  If we are Christians, we need to believe that and act on it.  

We need to continually choose to believe God’s truth about who He says we are and to walk in wisdom and peace.     

This morning’s meditation verse was:

Romans 6:9 (NLT2)
⁹ We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.

The “this” that we are sure of in verse 9, according to the previous verses in Romans 6, is that through Christ we are free from sin and we will also live with Him.  The previous verses assure us that we have eternal life and the power to say no to sin for good.  Why is that, exactly?  What proof do we have that Jesus didn’t just speak some nice sayings but didn’t really give us anything? 

Verse 9 tells us that Jesus rose from the dead making Him different from any other earthly wiseman or teacher.  His power over death shows us that Jesus was God and that as God His words had the authority of the Creator of all things and were true.  

Our faith stands on His resurrection.  The evidence for the Resurrection is overwhelming and compelling when investigated with an open mind.  Our faith is both logical and supernatural.  That means not only should we have faith that the historicity of Christ’s death and resurrection is true, but it also means that because of that supernatural event all the things that Christ said He would do for us is true too.  We will live with Him and we are free from sin. 

Christ said to abide with Him, for without Him we can do nothing. 

When we continually seek Him through our thoughts and actions, we can live our lives with freedom from the fear of death and with progressive victory over sin that He has given us.   We must choose His truth over the world’s philosophies and put our faith in Him by living our lives according to His ways.  We have the power of God in us, but we must cooperate it by surrendering our old worldly ways and ideas to embrace the Higher truth and life that God has for us.    

 Today we begin chapter 9 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again, where the authors discuss the value of suffering.

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

The Value of Suffering

Physical pain is a necessary warning signal. As one physician states, "Pain is a sign that action should be taken; it implies that if action is not taken, the survival chances of the organism are going to decrease."  Even lack of proper bodily nourishment is felt as pain.

Suffering in the Christian life can be a sign of sickness, warning us that further deterioration in the condition is inevitable unless something is changed. Suffering may therefore be God's way of trying to motivate us to the necessity of change, as C. S. Lewis's well-known statement suggests: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains." 

Sometimes it takes great suffering to get our attention. As someone has said, "Small trials often make us beside ourselves, but great trials bring us again back to ourselves." Such was the case of the prodigal son. It was only after his food ran out and he said, "I am dying here with hunger" that he "came to his senses," repented and returned to his father (Luke 15:17-20).

For good or ill, suffering, grief and depression often bring us to the heart of life. The darkness of despair, "like Plato's cave, is the place where all men come to know themselves." 

Suffering Builds Character

The trials and tribulations of life do not break us; they only reveal who we are. The fact that suffering builds character is evident in Scripture. Even the suffering of Jesus produced something in His own life. He was made "perfect through suffering" (Hebrews 2:10, NIV); "He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8).

There is no suggestion in these statements of prior disobedience or sinful flaws in Christ. His suffering, rather, occurred through the Incarnation, when Jesus, who was fully God, became fully human. The development of His humanity from infant to adult gave us a model we ought to follow. His experience of suffering made Him a compassionate High Priest who could come to the aid of suffering people (see Hebrews 4:15, 16). It also taught Him the fullness of what it meant to obey and to determine to follow His Father's will no matter how high the cost.

In His developing humanity, Jesus learned the chain of moral values that come to us through adversity: "Knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope" (Romans 5:3, 4). If it was "fitting that God...should make the author of...[our] salvation perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10, NIV)," how much more that He should use the same process on us.

The hardship and pain of Christ is felt by every one of His true sons and daughters:

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:10, 11, NIV).

All godly character is summed up in love, according to the apostle's description in 1 Cor. 13. Godly love flows only from those who, because they have died to self-centeredness, can live for others. Putting to death that old self that wants its way inevitably involves pain. It does not die easily, and there is no painless way to die. Growth in true character that is the expression of love inevitably entails suffering. "To render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, wherever and however it is done, a grievous pain." 

Suffering Draws Us to God

Our love of God is often tainted with our love of the good things He gives us. Suffering strips away any pretense from our relationship with God. It weans us from all that is not God, that we might learn to love Him for who He is, rather than for what He gives. Augustine says, "God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there's nowhere for Him to put it." Suffering empties our hands so that God can give us Himself, the true treasure of life.

C. S. Lewis wrote:

Now God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as He leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call "our own life" remains agreeable, you will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do in our interests but make "our own life" less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?

Suffering Helps Us Understand God and His Work

We live in a world of moral conflict. Biblical history reveals a battle between good and evil that has brought much suffering. Even God shares in this suffering because of what sin has done to His creation. As the prophet reveals, God also suffers in the suffering of His people: "In all their affliction He was afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). This reality of evil and the true nature of God's love for us would not be known except through the experience of suffering: "The only way in which moral evil can enter into the consciousness of the morally good, is as suffering."  Lewis says, "A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not 'answer,' that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe." 

Your suffering in depression can be an opportunity to testify of God's sustaining grace to others, both believers and unbelievers, and thus be used to draw them to God. Doctors and nurses are far more impressed with godly patients who hold up well under suffering and face death without fear, than with begging, pleading Christians who have no sense of their immortality.

No matter what the source of our suffering, whether directly from God's discipline, from the hand of another person or simply from the natural evil that is part of the fallen world, it is all under the control of God. In His infinite wisdom and love He allows suffering to come our way for His ultimate glory, our growth in character and for our witness in this world. Peter Kreeft raises a question that is worth keeping in mind in the experience of all suffering.

Perhaps we suffer so inordinately because God loves us so inordinately and is taming us. Perhaps the reason why we are sharing in a suffering we do not understand is because we are the objects of a love we do not understand...perhaps we are even becoming more real by sharing in sufferings that are the sufferings of God, both on earth, as part of Christ's work of salvation, and in heaven, as part of the eternal life of the Trinity which is the ecstatic death to self that is the essence of both suffering and joy.

Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.

 

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

 

God bless you all!

Purity 305: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 Purity 305 01/06/2021 

Good morning!

Today’s sunset photo was taken by a friend who is living the “lake life” down in Florida.  I especially like the cloud formations captured here as the shapes are somewhat “angelic” which dispel any feelings of envy and instead turn my thoughts to the Lord and fills my heart with thankfulness for my friend and allows me to share in their joy.     

Today I continue to share Dr. Neil Anderson’s “Twenty “Cans” of Success”, to encourage my friends that are fasting as well as those who aren’t.  

2.  Why should I worry about my needs when I know that God will take care of all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19)?

 

One earmark of success is a lack of worry, which is made continually possible by trusting in the Lord.   

 The world system of competition and “one-ups-Manship” threatens to steal our peace at every moment. Social media can fill us with envy for the things that our friends post instead of sharing in their joy. 

Some of us are unwittingly in bondage to it as we still seek to accumulate wealth, “toys”, or experiences as evidence of a happy and successful life. Just like a child who has broken or discarded their Christmas toys that were so desperately wanted, we are meant to discover that things, relationships, or experiences do not ultimately satisfy us.   Only establishing peace and harmony with God can do that.    

When we let go of the world’s game of “keeping up with the Joneses” and also disregard the world’s ideas and remedies for happiness (a drink, an affair, a trip, a snack), we can come to understand that we have a lot less “needs” than we thought we had.  

When we look to the eventual end of our lives, we will realize that the people, places, and things will all go away and that the only need we really have is God.    But a relationship with God, through faith in Jesus Christ, is not only to be pursued to guarantee a spot in eternity, it is to be a strength and a comfort that we can experience here and now.  

So, don’t worry about your “needs”.  God will provide what you need, the greatest of which is His continual presence in your life.  Look at what you want, think about what you need, and follow where He leads.   

 

(There is More at the restricted blog). Follow me on Twitter, MeWe, or Parler for easy access.  Blog M T 4 Christ dot org – This is where the Facebook post ends.)

This morning’s meditation verse was:

Psalm 107:6 (NLT2)
⁶ “LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress.

 Not for nothing, but this is the second day in a row where the word “help” has made its way before us.  Does someone you know need help?  Is it you?  

 As this verse shows us, those who cry out for the Lord’s help are rescued from their distress.     

 But trust me when I tell you, before I surrendered my life to Christ. there were several times in my life where I cried out and I wasn’t rescued.  I had no relationship with the Lord at the time and frankly, should I have even expected rescue?  

 I had lived in rebellion to everything the Lord stood for and had lived my life my way.  I shouldn’t have been surprised that my ideas about how to live my life were short sighted and lacked wisdom.   So I suffered almost continuously in this viscous cycle of pleasure and pain and occasionally major disasters happened.   When everything went wrong, only then would I even think about praying for help.  Sometimes I actually did get help, but I would attribute my good fortune to luck or chance and immediately forgot about any thoughts of changing my dysfunctional ways.  

 But God is patient. After decades of living in darkness and suffering major losses, I heard a promise of new life and hope that was tied to faith in Jesus Christ.  I took Him up on it.  At first, I still tried to do things my way with His blood to cover me, only to discover that I was still subject to the consequences of my decisions and that my relationship with God wasn’t some “church game” of empty expressions and weekly observances.  My relationship with God was real and it only would improve if I followed Him into the light.  

 So I cried out for help and I actually listened to God and began to change my religious ideas to conform to what the word of God told me about who God is and who I am in Christ.  Our faith isn’t supposed to be a set of doctrinal beliefs of a God who is high above and distant as much as it is supposed to be heartfelt convictions of how we are to worship Him with our entire lives as His presence is close and never departs.   

 So if you or someone you know needs help, know that God may bless those who are running amok on occasion, but the real help and rescue only comes when you abide in His truth and presence by following Him.  

 Today we begin chapter 9 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again, where the authors begin their examination of suffering.

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

Suffering for Righteousness' Sake

I think we've lost the knowledge that happiness is overrated, that in a way, life is overrated. We've lost somehow, a sense of mystery about us, about our purpose, our meaning, and our role. Our ancestors believed in two worlds and understood this world to be the solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short one. We are the first generation of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth and our search for it has caused such unhappiness. The reason? If you do not believe in another, higher world, if you believe in only the flat, material world around you, if you believe that this is your only chance for happiness, if that is what you believe, then you are not disappointed when the world does not give you a good measure of its riches—you are despairing.

Peggy Noonan

Speech writer for Presidents Reagan and Bush

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

1 Peter 4:12-14

We live in a fallen world, and life on this planet isn't always fair. We want things to go our way, but they often don't. We want justice to prevail, but that will not perfectly happen in this lifetime. God will make it right in the end, but until then we will have to live with many injustices. Many Christians struggle with depression because they have never understood the role that suffering has in our sanctification, and that suffering is an inevitable consequence of living in a fallen world.

We are tempted to think that Christians shouldn't have to suffer if they live a righteous life. Early Christians, however, suffered greatly at the hands of the religious establishment. After being beaten for sharing what they believed, "They went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41). "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim. 3:12).

Furthermore, persecution is not just a thing of the past. More Christians were martyred for their faith in 1997 than in any other year in Church history.

Scripture uses many terms to describe suffering, including affliction, anguish, distress, grief, misery, pain, tribulation and chastisement. In addition, various metaphors also depict suffering—e.g., refining fire (see Isaiah 48:10; 1 Peter 1:6, 7), overflowing waters (see Isaiah 43:2) and birth pangs (see John 16:20-22; Romans 8:18-22).

J. I. Packer defines this anguish as "getting what you do not want while wanting what you do not get." Such is the lot of everyone, and it plays a significant role in the understanding and treatment of depression.

Although most of us would rather not face it, suffering and anguish are a part of the process of conforming to the image of God. Many Christians are depressed because they believe they shouldn't have to suffer—which isn't true. Suffering plays a critical role in our sanctification.

Why Do We Suffer?

First, Christians will suffer for the sake of righteousness. We will share in the glory of Christ only if we "share in his sufferings" (Romans 8:17, NIV). "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Tim. 2:12). "For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ" (2 Cor. 1:5). Much of the suffering of the believer is in relation to living for Christ in a hostile world. "Trials" are destined to come "in spreading the gospel of Christ" (1 Thes. 3:2, NIV). "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22, NIV).

Second, suffering will also come as the consequence of our own sin and as the chastisement of our heavenly Father. David felt the heavy hand of God in the form of physical and mental suffering as a result of his sin (see Psalm 32:3-5). Even apart from sin, our heavenly Father will discipline us in order to share in His holiness. "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11). Even the sinless Christ was perfected through suffering (see Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 5:8).

Finally, suffering comes simply from our human frailty as part of a fallen world. The decaying of the "outer man" and the accompanying afflictions are part of our normal existence in the present life which is "subject to a thousand troubles and under sentence of death."  The bonds of intimacy, if not broken through sin, are surely broken through death—resulting in a profound suffering of love lost in a fallen world.

Along with all of creation, "we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23, NIV). Despite our natural aversion to pain and suffering, Scripture tells us that they are hard realities and even a necessity in the life of the believer. In Packer's words, "suffering Christianly is an integral aspect of biblical holiness, and a regular part of business as usual for the believer." 

Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.

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

 

God bless you all!

Purity 304: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 Purity 304 01/05/2021 

Good morning!

Today’s photo was taken by a friend on vacation in Hilton Head Island in South Carolina last week.  They titled it “sea foam morning” as they didn’t just capture the magnificence of the blue skies in the heavenlies but also the waters below.  

I share it because its an awesome shot and it demonstrates that sometimes the turbulent forces in our lives can result in something beautiful that wouldn’t have been possible with out the “pounding of the waves” of tribulation. 

If we walk with God, we come out of every season stronger than we were before going into it and its not necessarily because we figured everything out or did everything right. While God uses our efforts that align with His will, sometimes we grow stronger by just becoming more dependent upon Him. 

At my local church, the congregation has entered into a season of fasting where men and women will seek the Lord’s presence and guidance in their lives by taking the time that is normally used to ingest food and will instead use it to draw closer to God in prayer, Bible study, and contemplation.   

Yesterday was the first day of the 21 day fast, so with 20 days remaining, I’ve decided to share one of Dr. Neil Anderson’s “Twenty “Cans” of Success” each day for the next 20 days as an encouragement to those who will be fasting, as well as those who won’t be.   

1.    Why should I say I can't when the Bible says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Phil. 4:13)?

Success is built on believing we can accomplish what we pursue and with God all things are possible.

However, I’d like to clarify that the “all things” that we can do are the things that align with God’s way for our lives.  That means we can make a change to God’s way and undo the years of darkness that we may have lived in by simply choosing to believe God’s truth and acting upon it. 

A great deal of discernment is often required to figure out whether what we “want” is not just our selfish ambition or desires covered in a thin veil of Christianity. 

I know that there have been times in my journey where I was pushing my own agenda, or I was simply asking God for things that went against His character or were things that I was supposed to work for with Him rather than have just have magically materialize.

But that is the joy of our journey: seeing what God has for us next and surrendering to His way rather than doing things the way the world has taught us.  When you follow Him, you increasingly understand that there really is only one way to do things and that way just happens to be the way of the Creator of all things.  

So keep walking and talking to God.  Go after the things you want but be sure to keep asking yourself if what “you want” will bring you closer to the Lord’s will for your life or take you down the same dead-end alleys that you have been down a thousand times before.     

 

(There is More at the restricted blog). Follow me on Twitter, MeWe, or Parler for easy access.  Blog M T 4 Christ dot org – This is where the Facebook post ends.)

This morning’s meditation verse was:

Psalm 109:26 (NLT2)
²⁶ Help me, O LORD my God! Save me because of your unfailing love.

 

Never in our Christian walk should we come to dull to the desire to ask the Lord for help. 

If we understand our lives in the light of the truth of God’s presence, we will realize that God has been helping us all along.  The Holy Spirit revealed to us the truth of the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ alone and when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our eyes became open, our spiritual life was made new, and our relationship with God was reconciled.   Before that moment and we were in opposition to God, rejecting him and doing things our own way. 

He saved us because of His unfailing love, and He wants to continually help us.  

The way we appropriate the Lord’s help is to listen to Him and to do what He says.  When we fail to follow His word and will for our lives, we turn our backs on Him and become subject to the consequences of our poor decisions. If we do this, we will end up suffering and then asking God for help. 

The good news is that He is always helping us but if we are going against His will and ways for our lives, He may allow us to walk out the consequences of our poor decisions until we are broken and tired enough to surrender to His mercy and grace. 

So if you are suffering, cry out to the Lord for help, but when you do make sure you change your direction and start walking with Him because whether or not He takes you out of the mess you find yourself in, His presence is the only thing that will give you peace.

Today we conclude chapter 8 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again, where the authors encourage us to evaluate what we have and who we are.

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

Evaluate What You Have and Who You Are

We are all in this boat together, and none of us will make the journey without facing many trials and tribulations. Even if you lived a perfect life, you would still experience considerable loss. But never forget: What you have to gain in Christ is far greater than any loss you will be called to endure. We don't bargain with God. We humbly submit to Him. And we pray the serenity prayer:

God, grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Recovery from any crisis is going to precipitate a deeper evaluation of who we really are. We may have placed too much of our identity in the things we do and not enough in who we are in Christ. The wife who found her identity in marriage and motherhood will experience far greater loss when her husband leaves her than the woman who already deeply understood what it means to be a child of God. The man who finds his identity in his job will suffer great loss when he loses it.

Neil received the following letter from a pastor:

I have been reading your two books, Victory over the Darkness, and The Bondage Breaker. I wanted to thank you for giving me two tools that I really needed. I'm the founding pastor of this church, having begun 15 years ago. I am in the first steps of recovering from a church split. I have never known pain like this before, but I am finding it to be a tremendous time of learning and growth in the Lord. Your "Victory" book has been especially helpful in that [it helped me to realize that] I have tried to find too much of my identity in what I do as a pastor and not enough in who I am as a saint.

Such crises not only help us clarify who we are and why we are here, but they also precipitate the need for new relationships and the need to construct a new scenario for our lives. These changes were probably necessary for our growth in the Lord, but we would never have made those changes if we had not been forced to do so.

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, said, "My depression forced me, at the age of 41, to stop and, for the first time, examine my life." 

We can easily get stuck in the same old ruts until God brings a truck along and we have to move. That is just God's way of disciplining us for our good. Listen to the words of Hebrews 12:7-11:

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (NIV).

God wants us to share in His holiness. The purpose of His discipline is to produce godly character. In addition, we will all be victimized as the inevitable consequence of living in a fallen world. Whether we remain victims is our choice. We have the potential to come through every crisis a better person than we were before. Our resultant lifestyle will be higher and more godly than it was.

So in the winter of your discouragement, lift up your eyes to heaven. Recall that your hope is in God, and that you will again experience the warmth of summer and the harvest of fall.

Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.

 

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

 

God bless you all!

Purity 303: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 Purity 303 01/04/2021 

Good morning!

Today’s photo was taken by yours truly just a few days before the new year, and the latest light snowfalls, from the familiar vantage point of my kitchen window during last week’s “stay-cation”.  

Sometimes there is no place like home for the holidays and I was happy to celebrate the six-month anniversary of moving into my home “down by The River” on Christmas day and to be able to rest and recharge as that calendar flipped to 2021. 

But that was last week, and now it’s back to reality and the new opportunities that are waiting for all of us to enter into this year.  

As I have announced on my blog and in a FB post last night, my request to alter the vision and mission of Celebrate Freedom has been approved by the church leadership of Rock Solid Church.

Starting February 4^th, Celebrate Freedom will no longer be a recovery ministry as our focus has widened to bring the message of freedom to all who seek to mature in their faith and wish to help others to experience freedom as well. 

Our ministry will teach from Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory over Darkness and The Bondage Breaker to teach the principles of discipleship and discipleship counseling. 

My path to freedom has been “the disciple’s path” and has been enriched by Anderson’s work and I am excited to become associated to his Freedom in Christ’s ministry by beginning a “Community Freedom Ministry” with the anticipation of completing my training as a Community Freedom Ministry Associate in the fall of 2021 and thus officially becoming a part of Freedom in Christ Ministries’ national “CFM Network”.  

In the meantime, we will be teaching from Anderson’s books with the anticipated pace of one chapter per week to lay a solid foundation for discipleship and the community freedom ministry to grow upon.

I appreciate you sharing the word about this new endeavor with those in our community that have a passion for their faith in Christ and for helping others.

 I also would appreciate your prayers for the success of this new venture. 

It’s a new year and I believe we are meant to do new things.  I encourage you to celebrate the freedom that you have by making this a year of hope and growth.

(There is More at the restricted blog). Follow me on Twitter, MeWe, or Parler for easy access.  Blog M T 4 Christ dot org – This is where the Facebook post ends.)

This morning’s meditation verse was:

Psalm 108:3 (NLT2)
³ I will thank you, LORD, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations.

 

Sometimes when we get a break from our normal routine, we discover a lot about our lives that aren’t always clear otherwise. 

My “stay-cation” revealed to me that I take a great deal of comfort from encouraging others to pursue their faith and build their relationship with God.  I forced myself to take a break from the blog last week and from posting on FB and I was at first relieved by the rest but quickly discovered that I missed this aspect of my relationship with God and all who read these words.  

This blog has become a continuous way for me to thank the Lord “among all the people” to sing His praises “among the nations.”   It serves as an encouragement to those who read it, I hope, but it also serves to build up my own faith.  At the same time, it gives glory to God for who He is and for what He has done, continues to do, and will do in the future.  

As I recently told a friend, “when I encourage you, I too am encouraged” by reminding myself of how good God is.

The principle here reminds me of Revelation 12:11 that states that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.  We have to keep giving that testimony of how God has moved in our lives and how it just simply does not end!!

So keep walking and talking with God, but when you do make sure you tell somebody about how it’s going! Your testimony will encourage them, yourself, and give glory to Him!

Today we continue where we left off in chapter 8 of Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope Again, where the authors discuss “getting out of the rut”.  A new year is a great place to start doing that!

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

Getting Out of the Rut

It's my fault that our company didn't get the contract (personalization). Now I'll never get the promotion I wanted (permanence). I'm a total failure in life (pervasiveness)! The constructs of personalization, permanence and pervasiveness dominate the way depressed people think. How can we change these "grids" that distort our perception of reality?

If you experience loss in one area, don't generalize it into a total life crisis. Keep it specific. If you experience a crisis today, don't allow it to affect you tomorrow. Keep short accounts. If the world is disintegrating around you, don't accept the blame when it's not appropriate!

If you are suffering the consequences of a bad decision, then change what you can, minimize your losses and move on. If you have committed a willful act of sin, then own up to it. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

Depression is an intertwining of body, soul and spirit, all of which are regulated by what we believe. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Choosing to believe the truth and living by faith is the essential prerequisite for living an emotionally healthy and productive life.

The converse is also true. Believing a lie and thinking unwholesome thoughts will fuel depression and lead to bondage. You can change what you believe and how you think, and that must happen if you are going to be free from depression.

Changing Wrong Beliefs

The story is told of a frog who was hopping around a pasture. It had rained the day before, and the soil was very damp. A truck had driven through the pasture and cut deep ruts in the ground. Unintentionally, the frog bounced into one of those ruts and got stuck. It made a halfhearted attempt to hop out, but didn't make it. The rut was too deep.

The next day a few of the frog's friends came looking for it, and they found it stuck in a rut. They encouraged it to try again to jump out, but the frog said it was hopeless. It was permanently stuck in a rut, it thought, and now wasn't good for anything. The frog further thought, It was probably my fault that it rained the other day. That was just God's way of getting even with me for not being a better frog. For five straight days the other frogs came by to encourage the stuck frog, but it remained stuck in its rut.

But on the sixth day, the frog's friends were surprised to see the frog hopping around the field. They ask how it managed to get unstuck. "Oh," it said, "a big truck came along and I had to get out of there!"

Fortunately, we don't have to stay in the rut of accepting fatalistically any of the three preceding "explanatory styles." We can change these grids:

From:	To:
Personal: "I'm the problem"	Impersonal: "It's a problem"
Pervasive: "In everything"	Specific: "In this one thing"
Permanent: "Forever"	Temporary: "For a season"

How do we get unstuck? The first step is to define the crisis and then put it into perspective. We can never change if we deny the crisis.

Is the Loss Real or Imaginary?

Analyzing the crisis helps to determine if the perceived loss is real or only imagined. Many people have gone all the way to the bottom of the crisis cycle only to find out that what they had believed or heard wasn't true. This can easily happen in early stages of diagnosing physical illnesses. One lady was so sure that her husband was going to die from cancer that she was already bargaining with God to save his life when she found out it wasn't cancer at all.

It is possible to go through all the stages of anger, bargaining and depression when the crisis is only a feared or potential loss. Suppose a man is very concerned about his job. His company just laid off a few good men, and now he is wondering if he is next. Then one day he just "knows" that it's going to happen. He begins to think, That isn't fair! I'm a good employee. How could they do that to me?

For the next several days he is angry about being fired. Then he starts to think, Maybe if I volunteer for overtime they won't fire me. So he begins to do just a little more than the others, hoping the boss will notice his efforts. But nobody seems to notice that he is making the extra effort. After a while he starts to get depressed about work. Now he is thinking, It doesn't make any difference how I work, they are going to lay me off anyway.

We can choose to mentally dwell upon facts or assumptions. The soul does not need facts to turn speculation into worry, worry into fear, and fear into despair. The emotional result is the same whether it is real or imagined.

Every real loss that is acknowledged will result in some degree of mourning. Denying the loss only robs us of the comfort we need. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). Christians are real people who bleed when they are cut and cry when they are hurt. It takes time to adjust to the loss.

Beware of Excessive Attachment

Excessive grief about any loss can turn into a depression. It may indicate that too much value was placed on one or more attachments. This requires an honest evaluation of the loss in light of eternity, and a decision to let go of the past and grab hold of God—as Paul exhorts us:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained (Phil. 3:12-16, NIV).

Avoid Blame and Guilt

Casting blame or feeling guilty are inappropriate responses to loss, and will only prolong the grieving period. We must accept the cards that have been dealt to us, realizing that God "causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45).

Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.

 

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

 

God bless you all!

Community Freedom Ministry

 With a new year, we have a new vision and mission for Celebrate Freedom,  I just updated Celebrate Freedom's blog to announce the changes, check it out at: http://info.celebratefreedomrocksolidchurch.org/2021/01/celebrate-freedom-announces-new-vision.html

Our program has always been Christ centered and since taking the lead of the ministry last spring, I have increasingly stressed that the prescription for recovery and for transformed living that I was presenting as "the disciple's path", a Christian lifestyle of walking in the Spirit that consisted of embracing one's identity in Christ and applying it to all aspects of one's life.  

While I was teaching primarily from John Baker's Celebrate Recovery Step Study, I increasingly added material to my presentations that included concepts from Dr. Neil Anderson's work.  Going forward I will discontinue the use of Celebrate Recovery as we transition to serve a wider spectrum as a discipleship ministry.

After completing my Master's Thesis in Christian Counseling on October 30th, I enrolled in Dr. Anderson's Freedom In Christ Ministry's CFM University to receive education and training to become a Community Freedom Ministry Associate, someone trained to develop and lead a Community Freedom Ministry.   

A Community Freedom Ministry (CFM) is started by an individual, couple or group of individuals who desire to create a “freedom presence” in their home church or hometown.  

This “freedom presence” is an environment of grace and truth, under church authority where three things typically occur.  

First, there is teaching of the message of freedom, as explained in the best-selling books by Dr. Neil Andeson, Victory Over the Darkness and The Bondage Breaker.  

Second, the CFM is involved in taking people through the helpful, transferrable ministry tool, The Steps to Freedom in Christ.  

And third, the CFM provides training for individuals desiring to become better equipped at helping people discover spiritual freedom through using The Steps to Freedom in Christ.

Being very familiar with Dr. Anderson's work and having personally completed The Steps to Freedom in Christ , I know the legitimacy of his teachings and the power of his discipleship counseling method to resolve personal and spiritual conflicts.   

So, it is my intention to widen the spectrum of Celebrate Freedom to teach the foundations of discipleship and discipleship counseling to foster an environment in which participants can not only develop a greater maturity in their faith and experience a lifestyle of freedom but also learn to minister to others.   

I'm excited for this new opportunity and ask for your continued support, participation and prayers for its success.