MT4Christ.org

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Do you want to be made well? - Choosing to Believe the Truth - Purity 841

Do you want to be made well? - Choosing the Believe the Truth - Purity 841

Purity 841 09/20/2022 Purity 841 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a large heron standing in the surf of the Gulf of Mexico comes to us from the Church at the Well in Cullman Alabama who recently organized a Ladies Beach Trip and shared over 80 photos of their adventures to Orange Beach.

How do I know the Church at the Well in Cullman Alabama being a Yankee amongst the “frozen chosen” in upstate New York?

Well last fall I participated in a training conference that Freedom in Christ Ministries put on in Latham where the conference attendees were introduced to Pastor Mike and Chare’ Rester who gave their testimony of how Chare’ had suffered from bizarre medical symptoms and seizures that defied medical explanation and how she was healed after going through the Steps to Freedom in Christ.

I will always remember Pastor Mike’s emphatic and passionate plea to the conference attendees to complete their training as Community Freedom Ministry Associates and to help others to receive healing and resolution to spiritual conflicts and to let the world know of the reality of the spiritual forces of darkness that can oppress even those in the body of Christ. Pastor Mike had seen the enemy face to face and it was clear that he he would never forget how his family suffered because of a supernatural enemy that seeks to destroy us. His voice rang out through the conference room as he concluded his statements by saying: “There are demons and we have to fight the enemy!”

While I enjoy this morning’s photo I reminded that as beautiful as this world can be at times, there is an unseen enemy that seeks to deceive, tempt, condemn, and accuse us and to lead mankind away from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.

Tonight I host the third session of the Men’s Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course that I facilitate on Zoom for Freedom in Christ Ministries and I have already received reports from one of the group that he believes that he is under spiritual attack with negative thought and temptations that have been on the increase since he started the course.

Tonight’s lesson is on Choosing to believe the Truth and in my short stint in this latest ministry role I know this is the week that the enemy like to afflict people as my past two sessions had participants report difficulties in their spiritual walk or who ended up having to miss the session unexpectantly.

The enemy doesn’t want people to know who they are in Christ and that our freedom and victory as Christians is not the product of some magical blessing as much as it is driven by our choice to believe what God’s word says, to live according to it, and to continue to walk in faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Tonight’s lesson reveals that we have a role to play in our relationship with God and that the reception of our healing and victory comes from making the decision to believe and to follow the Lord.

Unfortunately, some Christians still believe the fallacy that faith is some magical characteristic that God imparts to some and not to others.

“I only wish I could have faith like “so & so”!”

You can! Choose to believe God’s word! Choose to apply His wisdom to your life by changing the way you live to match up with His ways! And keep choosing to do that!

If you don’t know what the Bible says: Read it. If you want a better prayer life, set time aside and pray.

Our part is to seek the Lord and keep on seeking Him. And when we do that our faith grows as our minds are renewed by His word and our lives are changed by the positive experiences we encounter when we start walking in God’s ways.

So if you are one of those Christians that are wishing for God to give you “great faith”, start walking towards Him by taking action to know what His word says and apply it to your life.

The spiritual forces of darkness will attempt to distract you with temptations in this world to stay away from the things of God and they will condemn you that you aren’t good enough to “have faith”. But the truth is that you can choose to have a deeper walk with God, you can overcome the things that keep you stuck, but you have to choose it.

John 5:6 (NKJV) tells us about the healing of a man that was unable to walk for 38 years. It says
⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

So do you want to be made well? Christ asked the question to make the man choose whether he would stay where he was or to rise up and walk into a whole new life.

It’s the same with us. Do you want to be well? If so, you have to choose to believe the truth and keep walking and talking with God until you see that the old has been made new and the further you go you’ll see and experience the fact that you have been set free the moment you said “Yes” to Christ and it was only a matter of choosing to get up and follow Him to know it.

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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Hosea 14:9 (NKJV)
⁹ Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.

Today’s Bible verse speaks of the fact the Lord’s ways are right and that the righteous walk in them because they are wise and prudent.

We all want to be wise right? And today’s verse indicates that it is wisdom to walk in the ways of the Lord. The verse assures us that God’s way is the right way and thus if we walk in them we will be righteous.

But transgressors, those who ignore God’s ways and choose their own wordly ways are guaranteed to stumble through life. I know I got tired of falling down and stumbling over the negative consequences of doing things my way. So the Lord shared His wisdom and understanding with me and I realized that His word was true and if I walked in His ways I wouldn’t stumble like I used to.

Today’s verse encourages us to follow the Lord’s ways and live a life that is right. And I encourage you to listen and follow the Lord’s lead into a righteous life that is wise and prudent.

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

Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

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

Chapter Two

The Call to Discipleship - Continued

At this point let us now take a look at Christian pastoral care. It is particularly important for pastors giving care to speak from knowledge of both of these statements. They need to know that sorrow over a lack of faith repeatedly comes from disobedience, which may be intentional or even no longer noticed, and that such sorrow all too often corresponds to the comfort of cheap grace. But the disobedience remains unbroken, and words of grace become a consolation which the disobedient grant to themselves and a forgiveness of sins they accord themselves. But for such people, the Christian message becomes empty; they no longer hear it. Even though they forgive themselves a thousand times over, they are incapable of believing in true forgiveness, because in truth, it has not been granted them. Unbelief feeds on cheap grace, because it clings to disobedience. This is a common situation in today’s pastoral care. What then happens is that people get so stubborn in their disobedience through their self-granted forgiveness that they claim they can no longer discern what is good and what is God’s command. They claim it is ambiguous and permits various interpretations. At first they know clearly that they were disobedient, but their knowledge is gradually dimmed until they become unapproachable. Then the disobedient have entangled themselves so badly that they simply are no longer able to hear the word. Then they can no longer have faith. Something like the following conversation will take place between the obstinate disbeliever and the pastor: “I can believe no longer.”—“Listen to the Word, it is being proclaimed to you!”—“I hear it, but it doesn’t say anything to me. It seems empty to me; it is beyond me.”—“You don’t want to hear.”—“Yes, I do.” With that, they reach the point where most pastoral conversations break off, because the pastors do not know what is going on. They only know the one statement: only the believer obeys. With this statement, they are no longer able to help the obstinate unbeliever, who does not and cannot have this kind of faith. Pastors think they are standing here before an ultimate puzzle, that God gives faith to some and denies it to others. With this one statement, they surrender their efforts. The obstinate persons remain alone and continue to bewail their predicament. But this is the turning point in the conversation. The change is a complete one. There is no longer any sense in arguing; the questions and worries of the other person are no longer taken so seriously. Instead the person hiding behind them is taken all the more seriously. The pastor breaks through the walls such a person has built with the statement, “Only the obedient have faith.” So the conversation is interrupted, and the pastor’s next sentence is, “You are disobedient; you refuse to obey Christ; you desire to keep a piece of autonomy for yourself. You cannot hear Christ, because you are disobedient; you cannot believe in grace, because you do not want to obey. You have hardened some corner of your heart against Christ’s call. Your trouble is your sin.” At this point Christ reappears on the scene; he attacks the devil in the other person, who until then had been hiding behind cheap grace. At that point everything depends on the pastor having both statements ready: only the obedient believe, and only the believer obeys. In the name of Jesus, the pastor must call the other to obedience, to a deed, to a first step. Leave what binds you and follow him! At that moment everything depends on that step. The position taken by the disobedient person must be broken through, for in it Christ can no longer be heard. Fugitives must leave the hiding places they built for themselves. Only when they get out of them can they again see, hear, and believe freely. Indeed, as far as Christ is concerned, doing the deed itself gains nothing; it remains a dead work. But in spite of that, Peter has to step out onto the rolling sea, so that he can believe.

In short, the situation is that people have poisoned themselves with cheap grace by the statement that only the believer obeys. They remain disobedient and console themselves with a forgiveness that they grant themselves, and in doing so, they close themselves off from the word of God. The fortress walls around them cannot be broken through, so long as all they hear is the statement they are hiding behind being repeated. A change has to come about by calling people to obedience: only the obedient have faith!

Will people thus be led down the fatal path of belief in their own works? No, they will learn instead that their faith is not faith; they will be liberated from their entanglement with themselves. They have to get out in the fresh air of a decision. In that way Jesus’ call to faith and discipleship is made audible anew.^{^[1]}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

^{^[1]} Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 67–69.

Monday, September 19, 2022

What do we “Get ‘er Done First?” - Purity 840

Purity 840 09/18/2022 Purity 840Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a magnificent sunset over Lake Ontario in Oswego, which I will take the liberty of calling “August Departs” comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography who captured this last sunset of the month and shared it on social media back on August 31^st.

Well It’s the 19^th of September and although its been a while since August departed it is still officially summer until Thursday but I won’t be looking for any last minute summer time fun as the next few days will be filled with work during the day and ministry opportunities at night and so now I am in the midst of the fine art of juggling and prioritizing my tasks in order to be fully prepared and effective to perform what’s expected of me in the days and nights ahead.

And so comes the question, what do we “get ‘er done, first?”

Yeah when we look at the calendar and look at all the things we have to do sometimes we can easily be overwhelmed and perplexed about how we are to accomplish what we need to without being a total wreck.

I’m still a work in progress, as we all are and will be until Christ returns or welcomes us into His kingdom, but one of the things that I have learned on the path of Christian discipleship is that “perfection” and results is not a thing we have to worry about. But at the same time we don’t necessarily want to be accused of not putting forth our best efforts when we seek to represent the kingdom of God with the ways we live our lives.

So thus another set of paradoxes to life in the Spirit:

· We want to care about what we are doing but not care so much that we stress ourselves, and others, out to the point we lose our peace

· We want to press in to do a good job but we should realize that our work will never be perfect and we will have to be aware of our limitations and have peace with what we actually can do

· We may want to do many things and we may want to do things well but we may have to realize that if we agree to do too many, we won’t be able to do them all as well as we like.

· We may want to kick back and relax but it may be better to work, or We may want to work but won’t be effective in our work unless we get some rest.

Now these challenges of life and work are more or less universal but as Christians who want to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit – the way we “get ‘er done”, the ways we rest, the ways we get results, and the way we prioritize things matter.

While the world will justify their means by their ends and put the overall emphasis on the end results and possibly ride an emotional roller coaster ride to get there, our walk with Christ and the proof of our maturity as Christians will be demonstrated by our ability to maintain our peace and joy in the midst of the process of completing what we need to accomplish.

So we have to keep connected to the Lord and be wise and discerning in choosing our path and although we want to be disciplined in our lifestyles of faith we don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t think outside of the box and change the ways we normally do things when met with challenges that will require a little juggling or a reprioritizing of our goals.

This morning I had to make the decision to forgo my normal morning exercise routine because I didn’t make enough head way in a ministry project I was working on over the weekend and as I looked at the calendar I could see that time would be scarce over the next week and I had to “find the time” somewhere.

Yesterday afternoon I was faced with the fact that this ministry work hadn’t gotten done and I had a decision to make yesterday. Do I press in on Sunday afternoon to get it done or do I spend time with my wife. I chose my wife over the ministry work and I don’t regret it.

So yesterday I chose my wife over the ministry work and today I chose the work over the exercise. And the lesson I learned today is that in order to avoid having to compromise in my regular routine, I will have to “find the time” to accomplish these ministry work projects in a way that doesn’t interfere with the other things that matter to me. So in examining my time, I realize that there are places where I can make adjustments to put it all together in a way that runs smoothly by doing a little bit each day o rather than leaving things undone and scrambling at the last minute.

That was sort of the way I did things in the past. Work hard, play hard. Leave things undone to the last minute and then run around angry and stressed out to get things done at the last minute. The thing that was always the problem back then was selfishness. When I though about projects, I would think – “I don’t want to!” and would do what ever pleased me, all of which was not productive at all. It wasn’t like I shirked work responsibilities to do something else that was good, necessary, or productive. No I would watch TV, or drink, or eat, or play video games or all of the above….It was all about entertaining myself.

But since coming to Christ and attempting to live according to His ways, I realize how foolish I was and how my selfishness led to negative consequences personally and in all of my relationships. I spent most of my time doing what I wanted but some how I didn’t have any lasting sense or peace because I wasn’t wise to take be a good steward of the things that God had given me and eventually lost it all.

Ironically, I lost it all when I decided to follow the Lord. You would think I would have lost my former home, marriage, and most of my possessions because of my alcoholism and rollercoaster of emotions of depression, anger, and anxiety but I only lost all of those things when I finally saw the light and decided to stop being in bondage to my addictions and emotions by surrendering to the Lord. Unfortunately, the ex wasn’t with the program and even though I didn’t try to change her, she wasn’t content to be with the new me and demanded a divorce.

So in the process of building a new life I have learned when to work and when to rest and how to prioritize my life in a way where the Lord is at the center of it and even though there has been a lot of changes to my life in the past few years I would say that through it all I have had a peace that goes beyond all understanding because I was diligent to stay in the Lord’s presence, to let go and let God, and to do the best I could with my part of this relationship. And even though I might have to do some juggling at times to “get ‘er done”, somehow there is always a measure of peace and joy as I keep ”walking and talking with God.”

Well the clock tells me that my time management isn’t perfect yet and I will have to skip sharing that verse of the day for “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men” like I usually do but I’ll give you this one. It might be out of context from it’s part of the Bible’s narrative but it was on my heart as I was writing so here it is, Christ said in:

John 14:27 (NKJV)
²⁷ Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid..

Christ came to give us peace and I have found that when you follow Him you find it. So keep walling and talking with God. You don’t have to be troubled or afraid but the pathway to peace requires you follow the One who came to give it to you.

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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 18:28 (NLT2)
²⁸ You light a lamp for me. The LORD, my God, lights up my darkness.

Today’s Bible verse speaks of the illuminating power of God.

______________________________________________________________________

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

Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

Chapter Two

The Call to Discipleship - Continued

The concept of a situation in which faith is possible is only a description of the reality contained in the following two statements, both of which are equally true: only the believers obey, and only the obedient believe.

It is really unfaithfulness to the Bible to have the first statement without the second. Only the believer obeys—we think we can understand that. Of course, obedience follows faith, the way good fruit comes from a good tree, we say. First there is faith, then obedience. If this meant only that faith alone justifies us and not deeds of obedience, then it is a firm and necessary precondition for everything else. But if it meant a chronological sequence, that faith would have to come first, to be later followed by obedience, then faith and obedience are torn apart, and the very practical question remains open: when does obedience start? Obedience remains separated from faith. Because we are justified by faith, faith and obedience have to be distinguished. But their division must never destroy their unity, which lies in the reality that faith exists only in obedience, is never without obedience. Faith is only faith in deeds of obedience.

Because talk about obedience as a consequence of faith is unseemly, due to the indissoluble unity between faith and obedience, the statement “only the believers obey” has to be paired with the other one, “only the obedient believe.” In the first, faith is the precondition of obedience; in the second, obedience is the precondition of faith. In exactly the same way that obedience is called a consequence of faith, it is also called a prerequisite of faith.

Only the obedient believe. A concrete commandment has to be obeyed, in order to come to believe. A first step of obedience has to be taken, so that faith does not become pious self-deception, cheap grace. The first step is crucial. It is qualitatively different from all others that follow. The first step of obedience has to lead Peter away from his nets and out of the boat; it has to lead the young man away from his wealth. Faith is possible only in this new state of existence created by obedience.

This first step should, to begin with, be viewed as an external deed which exchanges one mode of existence for another. Anyone can take that step. People are free to do that. It is a deed within the iustitia civilis [civil justice], within which people are free. Peter cannot convert himself, but he can leave his nets. In the Gospels that first step consists of a deed which affects all of one’s life. The Roman church required such a step only for the exceptional alternative of monasticism. For the other faithful it was enough to be willing to subject themselves unconditionally to the church and its commands. In the Lutheran confessions the importance of a first step is recognized in a significant way: after they thoroughly removed the danger of a synergistic misunderstanding, space could be kept and had to be kept for that first external deed required to enable faith—the step, in this case, to the church, where the word of salvation is preached. This step can be taken in full freedom. Come to the church! You can do that on the strength of your human freedom. You can leave your house on Sunday and go to hear the preaching. If you do not do it, then you willfully exclude yourself from the place where faith is possible. In this the Lutheran confessions show that they know there is a situation which enables faith and one in which faith is not possible. To be sure, this knowledge is very hidden here, almost as if they were ashamed of it, but it is present as one and the same knowledge of the significance of the first step as an external deed.

Once this knowledge is ascertained, then something else must be acknowledged, namely, that this first step as an external deed is and remains a dead work of the law, which can by itself never lead to Christ. As an external deed, the new existence just remains the old existence. At best, a new law of life, a new lifestyle, is reached, which has nothing to do with the new life in Christ. The alcoholic who gives up alcohol or the rich man who gives away his money are truly freed from alcohol and money, but not from themselves. They remain as their old selves, maybe even more so than before. Subject to the demand for works, they remain in the death of their old lives. The works do have to be done, but by themselves they do not lead out of death, disobedience, and godlessness. If we ourselves understand our first step as a precondition for grace, for faith, then we are judged by our works and completely cut off from grace. Everything we call convictions or good intentions is included in those external deeds, everything which the Roman church calls facere quod in se est [to do what is in oneself, i.e., to act according to one’s own abilities]. If we take the first step with the intention of putting ourselves into the situation of being able to believe, then even this ability to believe is itself nothing but works. It is but a new possibility for living within our old existence and thereby a complete misunderstanding. We remain in unbelief.

But the external works have to take place; we have to get into the situation of being able to believe. We have to take the step. What does that mean? It means that we take this step in the right way only when we do not look to the necessity of our works, but solely with a view to the word of Jesus Christ, which calls us to take the step. Peter knows that he cannot climb out of the boat by his own power. His first step would already be his downfall, so he calls, “Command me to come to you on the water.” Christ answers, “Come.” Christ has to have called; the step can be taken only at his word. This call is his grace, which calls us out of death into the new life of obedience. But now that Christ has called, Peter has to get out of the boat to come to Christ. So it is, indeed, the case that the first step of obedience is itself an act of faith in Christ’s word. But it would completely misrepresent the essence of faith to conclude that that step is no longer necessary, because in that step there had already been faith. To the contrary, we must venture to state that the step of obedience must be done first, before there can be faith. The disobedient cannot have faith.

You complain that you cannot believe? No one should be surprised that they cannot come to believe so long as, in deliberate disobedience, they flee or reject some aspect of Jesus’ commandment. You do not want to subject some sinful passion, an enmity, a hope, your life plans, or your reason to Jesus’ commandment? Do not be surprised that you do not receive the Holy Spirit, that you cannot pray, that your prayer for faith remains empty! Instead, go and be reconciled with your sister or brother; let go of the sin which keeps you captive; and you will be able to believe again! If you reject God’s commanding word, you will not receive God’s gracious word. How would you expect to find community while you intentionally withdraw from it at some point? The disobedient cannot believe; only the obedient believe.

Here the gracious call of Jesus Christ to discipleship becomes a strict law: Do this! Stop that! Come out of the boat to Jesus! Jesus says to anyone who uses their faith or lack of faith to excuse their acts of disobedience to his call: First obey, do the external works, let go of what binds you, give up what is separating you from God’s will! Do not say, I do not have the faith for that. You will not have it so long as you remain disobedient, so long as you will not take that first step. Do not say, I have faith, so I do not have to take the first step. You do not have faith, because and so long as you will not take that first step. Instead, you have hardened yourself in disbelief under the appearance of humble faith. It is an evil excuse to point from inadequate obedience to inadequate faith, and from inadequate faith to inadequate obedience. It is the disobedience of the “faithful” if they confess their unbelief where their obedience is required and if they play games with that confession (Mark 9:24). You believe—so take the first step! It leads to Jesus Christ. You do not believe—take the same step; it is commanded of you! The question of your belief or unbelief is not yours to ask. The works of obedience are required and must be done immediately. The situation is given in which faith becomes possible and really exists.

Actually, it is not the works which create faith. Instead, you are given a situation in which you can have faith. The point is to get into such a situation, so that faith is true faith and not self-deception. Because the only goal is to have true faith in Jesus Christ, because faith alone is and remains the goal (“out of faith into faith,” Rom. 1:17), this is an indispensable situation. Anyone who protests too quickly and in too Protestant a manner should be asked whether or not they are defending cheap grace. In fact the two statements, if they remain juxtaposed, will not offend true faith, but if each is taken alone it would cause serious offense. Only the believers obey—that is said to the obedient person inside the believer. Only the obedient believe—that is said to believers in their obeying. If the first statement remains alone, the believer is prey to cheap grace, that is, damnation. If the second statement remains alone, the believers are prey to their works, that is, damnation.^{^[1]}

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

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

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

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

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

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

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

^{^[1]} Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 63–67.

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - Biblical Finances - 09/18/2022

Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 09/18/2022

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: Biblical Finances Podcast

Or watch the Video Zoom Session of our Study on YouTube: Biblical Finances on YouTube

Biblical Finances

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jn. 10:10

The abuse of money, or what the Bible calls “increase” (which can be translated revenue) has caused untold havoc in our fallen world. Empires, nations, communities, families, and individual lives suffer under the weight of ignorance and disobedience.

Money and finances is the number one topic of the Biblical narrative. There are 500 verses on prayer, fewer than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,300 verses on money and possessions, Fifteen percent of everything Jesus said had to do with it.

It is important to begin by saying that God is indifferent regarding money. Some of His greatest agents, like Abraham, Job and Solomon had great wealth, while others like Gideon, Amos, and John the Baptist seemed to have meager means. Jesus Himself had, “no place to lay His head” Mt. 8:20. The condition of the heart, and the approach to gain is far more important in God’s economy.

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” I Tim. 6:10

Tithe is a good place to start!

At Rock Solid Church we have always taught that tithing is to demonstrate our victory over greed. It’s more for us than it is for God. He owns everything. Essentially it means a tenth. It is the OT principle that acknowledges God supplies our needs. See Deu. 26

Saturday, September 17, 2022

MT4Christ.org New Logo Image & Subtitle

New Logo Podcast

I just thought I would create a post to announce that I created a new *childlike" logo image and subtitle for https://www.mt4christ.org blog.

The former subtitle: "Personal Testimony of a Former Catholic, Atheist, Episcopalian, Buddhist, Drug Addict: Now Clean, Sober, and Living For Jesus Christ on the Path of Christian Discipleship" was a little "wordy" and quite frankly I encourage people to seek the Lord and experience their freedom in Christ and to not identify themselves by their former brokenness or their past… The subtitlee would have been even longer if I wanted to do that, lol!

But seriously, I used my limited artistic abilities to create the new logo and I hope you enjoy it.

The name and mission remain the same: MT4Christ.org, and to encourage others to put their faith in and to follow Jesus Christ with the way they live their lives.

The heart symbolizes the love of God and the Christian disciple’s need for heart focused community and a lifestyle of compassionate service to others.

The brown borders behind the heart is supposed to be a cross, which obviously symbolizes the sacrifice that Christ made so that we could live and it symbolizes the call the He made to His disciples in

Matthew 16:24 (NKJV) where He said
²⁴ "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

The simple yellow background behind the cross is sort of a play on words, without words, and could be seen as the light of the sun, but it is intended to symbolize The Light of the World, The Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The red text in word “Christ” in “MT4Christ.org” symbolizes the Blood of Christ that was shed for all of us that heals us and washes our sin, shame, and pain away.

The light blue border that surrounds MT4Christ.org symbolizes the Holy Spirit (Living Waters), who indwells us the moment we place our faith in Christ, and The Waters of Baptism through which we die to our old life and are raised to life with Christ. I intentionally put this around the name of the blog because it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that I am able to live by faith, to know who I am in Christ, and to experience my freedom and victory in Christ.

The white text used for the subtitle: “Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship with M.T. Clark” symbolizes purity and light and is meant to serve as an encouragement that, through Jesus Christ,we are washed clean and can live a sanctified life of purity and righteousness.

While I have done away with the old subtitle “"Personal Testimony of a Former Catholic, Atheist, Episcopalian, Buddhist, Drug Addict: Now Clean, Sober, and Living For Jesus Christ on the Path of Christian Discipleship", I am not trying to hide who I was and will speak candidly about the darkness of my past if it is appropriate and would help someone to understand the extent of the freedom that they can have if they put their faith in Christ and surrender to His Lordship.

I accept what was and will share that testimony but instead of revealing the dark details of my past I would much rather speak about the goodness of God, the new life in Christ and the power that the Holy Spirit provides us with when we surrender to God’s will for our lives and repent.

So that was a lot for such a childish drawing, huh?

I was even thinking of saying that the black text of MT in MT4Christ.org represented my former sins… but thought better of it because they have been washed away by my Lord and Savior and there is NO Condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

M.T. Clark

Summer Ends Sunday - Suicidal Idols - Purity 839

Purity 839 09/17/2022 Purity 839 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the countryside illuminated by the light of the setting sun just off of Waite Rd in Easton comes to us from yours truly as I took some quick picks to capture the splendor of September as I took my canine companion, Harley, for a late afternoon walk yesterday.

Well, we are past the ides of September and it is my prayer that all my friends enjoy the last weekend of summer as the season officially will end with the Autumnal Equinox on Thursday the 22^nd. Even though the Autumnal Equinox is used to mark the season, the weather and return to school usually give us a Fall Feeling before it arrives. This year we had an abrupt shift in the weather on Labor Day weekend in the capital district of upstate New York as we experienced sunshine and a high of 81 degrees on Sunday only to crash into Labor day Monday with heavy rains and a drop to 66 degrees.

I remember thinking on Labor Day, “Wow, there goes summer!” and then I remembered that the previous day, while out walking under the heat of the sun, I had a real sense of the urgency that summer was slipping away and I had a decision to make in terms of what to do with the rest of the day.

I decided to spend the day with my wife indoors and have no regrets about it but after Labor Day’s storms and relative chill, I remembered that feeling during that Sunday walk that “this was it” and I poetically thought about this “prophetic” intuition with the phrase “Summer Ends Sunday”.

And when I came up with that, I thought that the phrase “Summer Ends Sunday” would be an awesome name for an alternative band.

We are “Summer Ends Sunday! Good Night!”

And all of this comes flooding back into my recollections this morning because as I finished up my Bible Study and emailed myself the photo of the day from my phone I fell victim to some “click bait” on Yahoo that teased “Rocker’s wife states husband had delirium before suicide” or something like that and so I wondered who it was referring to and discovered it led to a story about a recent interview of the Vicky Cornell, the widow of the former front man of Soundgarden and Audioslave, Chris Cornell who took his life in 2017 (https://www.aol.com/chris-cornells-wife-vicky-says-201233639.html). So it was recent interview, but not exactly recent news, on the rocker’s death.

You can research the details on Cornell’s death if you like, but the recent interview by his widow and her comments about his “delirium” before his death coupled with the fact that he had a history of substance abuse, and was on some prescription medications ( which the family had alleged were over prescribed and caused Cornell to act erratically before his suicide) and one could easily speculate and make the case for demonic influence as a contributing factor to his death as well.

Christ tells us in that the enemy want to kill us in:

John 10:10 (NKJV)
¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. …

As Christ well knew from Satan’s temptation in the wilderness.

Matthew 4:5-6 (NKJV) tells us
⁵ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
⁶ and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' "

So the devil takes Jesus to a high place and tells Him to jump, to tempt God with His safety, and potentially kill Himself.

The enemy’s mission to kill and destroy us includes tempting us to suicide.

From my volunteer work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and from listening to the testimonies of survivors of suicide attempts, and the families of people who died to suicide, I know that Cornell’s widows claims of “delirium”, and surrounding factors of Cornell’s death are not unique and because of my biblical worldview, education in Christian Counseling, my training as an CFMA for Freedom in Christ Ministries, and my experience personally with addiction, depression, condemning thoughts, and thoughts of suicide, I would state that spiritual forces of darkness or the spiritual conditions in someone’s life play a part in every suicide.

Either through direct demonic influence or simply from a worldview of hopelessness that is born out of an atheistic worldview, people suffer and will continue to die from suicide.

This is obviously not a popular theory to bring to the discussion of suicide prevention. Our Western Post Christian Society denies the involvement of the spirit realm in our day to day lives and seeks to silence the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the confusion of “coexistence” and the proliferation of the idea that all roads lead to God. And we suffer for it.

The issues of mental health and suicide will continue to plague our world as we are enmeshed in a culture that refuses to offend anyone with the Biblical standards of morality, with a standard of truth that is based on the Bible, or the solutions for negative mind states that are available through the application of Biblical wisdom to the way we live our lives.

To state that someone is living in sin, or even to suggest that someone turn from drugs, alcohol, and sex that is outside of the bonds of marriage between a man and a woman, and to instead turn to the Lord and live according to His ways is almost laughable to our secular society or is met with stern opposition and fierce hatred that would condemn Christians as judgmental, hateful, bigots.

The world laments over it’s problems, seeks the cold comforts of better life through chemistry, and wonders why things seem to be getting worse because it refuses to accept the answer that God sent to save us all: Jesus Christ.

So society through its rejection or separation from God, or nominal lip service to Him that says “I believe” but refuses follow Him in any discernable way is plague with the subject to the temptations and the oppression of the spiritual forces of darkness.

Ephesians 4:26-27 (NKJV) says
²⁶ "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
²⁷ nor give place to the devil.

Our sin, and everyone sins to some extent, makes us vulnerable to the devil.

However, Christians have ben set free

Romans 8:2 (NKJV)
² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Faith in Christ not only gives us power over death with our eternal life in the kingdom of God guaranteed. It also gives us the power to say no to sin.

We won’t be perfect but we can progress in our freedom and victory to the sins that beset us and if we stumble on the road to sanctification, because of our life giving relationship with God through our faith in Christ, we have a way to reestablish our harmony with Him.

1 John 1:9 (NKJV) tells us
⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so in Christ we have an advocate and a constant source of power and peace to guide us in the way we should go and comfort us and remind us of why we need a Savior when we stray from His path.

Our American dream culture whose philosophy is centered around circumstantial happiness fails to satisfy and provide meaning and purpose to life. The enemy uses sins and disappointments to drive to confusion and despair and to destroy ourselves.

As I did some research about Christ Cornell, I decided to google “grunge artists that killed themselves” and discovered that the search showed that 13 musicians from the “grunge era” of the mid 1990’s to the early 2000’s, had either died of suicide or overdoses to drugs.

The grunge movement was passionate about living life to the fullest and loving others deeply but without God to give peace the fruits it produced proved to be rotten and it’s idols proved to be suicidal.

As I was in college from 1990 to 1994, I knew most of the names and were fans of quite a few of the lost and it just reminded me that I was extremely blessed to have survived because I had been well versed in the spirit of rebellion and licentious living that surrounded the alternative music genre and the utter hopelessness that results from a lifestyle that has nothing to do and nothing to believe in other than seeking to please and affirm itself. Grunge defied and distained tradition and polite society and rejected God and biblical values and the results are talented individuals lost to drug overdoses and suicide.

And those trends are still happening, and are on the increase in our post-Covid, increasingly confused society today.

So let me encourage myself and others out there who know the Truth that has set them free, that have been saved because of their faith in Jesus: we have the answer in Christ.

My relationship with God through faith in Jesus took me out of the darkness of depression, suicidal thoughts, and addiction and I know I am not special. Similar testimonies to mine are spoken of throughout the history of Christianity. So we have to let others know the way out of the darkness and into a life of peace with God that begins here on earth and follows us into eternity.

This world broken by sin can break your heart but in speaking of God,

Psalm 147:3 (NKJV) says
³ He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV)
¹⁰ Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'

Psalm 55:22 (NKJV)
²² Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

God is close to us and when we turn to Him, He heals us and sustains us.

So keep walking and talking with God and when you encounter someone who has no hope let them know that the Lord loves them but the way out of the darkness requires that they make peace with Him by making Jesus their Lord and Savior and it also requires that they abide in Him by staying in His presence and casting out the spiritual forces of darkness by confessing any sin and living a righteous life based on the word of God.

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

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 18:28 (NLT2)
²⁸ You light a lamp for me. The LORD, my God, lights up my darkness.

Today’s Bible verse speaks of the illuminating power of God.

God is a lamp for all of us. He lights up our darkness by showing us His love that was displayed and embodied in Jesus Christ and when we put our faith in Him, we benefit and share in the Light of the world.

But as I have stated above, we have to let His light shine by living like Him. We can’t live in the darkness of sin if we are to claim to be a part of His kingdom.

The enemy tempts us and seeks to destroy us subtly by forgetting about God’s perfect light and creating footholds in our lives though our sin or disbelief.

So let the light of God shine in your life, Let Him light up your darkness to show you the abundant life that Christ came to give you.

______________________________________________________________________

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

Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

Chapter Two

The Call to Discipleship - Continued

Following Christ means taking certain steps. The first step, which responds to the call, separates the followers from their previous existence. A call to discipleship thus immediately creates a new situation. Staying in the old situation and following Christ mutually exclude each other. At first, that was quite visibly the case. The tax collector had to leave his booth and Peter his nets to follow Jesus. According to our understanding, even back then things could have been quite different. Jesus could have given the tax collector new knowledge of God and left him in his old situation. If Jesus had not been God’s Son become human, then that would have been possible. But because Jesus is the Christ, it has to be made clear from the beginning that his word is not a doctrine. Instead, it creates existence anew. The point was to really walk with Jesus. It was made clear to those he called that they only had one possibility of believing in Jesus, that of leaving everything and going with the incarnate Son of God.

The first step puts the follower into the situation of being able to believe. If people do not follow, they remain behind, then they do not learn to believe. Those called must get out of their situations, in which they cannot believe, into a situation in which faith can begin. This step has no intrinsic worth of its own; it is justified only by the community with Jesus Christ that is attained. As long as Levi sits in the tax collector’s booth and Peter at his nets, they would do their work honestly and loyally, they would have old or new knowledge about God. But if they want to learn to believe in God, they have to follow the Son of God incarnate and walk with him.

Things used to be different. Then they could live quietly in the country, unnoticed in their work, keep the law, and wait for the Messiah. But now he was there; now his call came. Now faith no longer meant keeping quiet and waiting, but going in discipleship with him. Now his call to discipleship dissolved all ties for the sake of the unique commitment to Jesus Christ. Now all bridges had to be burned and the step taken to enter into endless insecurity, in order to know what Jesus demands and what Jesus gives. Levi at his taxes could have had Jesus as a helper for all kinds of needs, but he would not have recognized him as the one Lord, into whose hand he should entrust his whole life. He would not have learned to have faith. The situation has to be initiated which will enable faith in Jesus, the incarnate God. This is the impossible situation, in which everything is based on only one thing, the word of Jesus. Peter has to get out of the boat into the waves, in order to experience his own powerlessness and the almighty power of his Lord. If he had not gotten out, he would not have learned to believe. His situation on the tempestuous sea is completely impossible and, ethically, simply irresponsible, but it has to happen for him to believe. The road to faith passes through obedience to Christ’s call. The step is required; otherwise Jesus’ call dissipates into nothing. Any intended discipleship without this step to which Jesus calls becomes deceptive enthusiasts’ illusion.

There is a great danger in telling the difference between a situation where faith is possible and where it is not. It is clear that there is nothing in the situation as such to indicate which kind it is. Only the call of Jesus Christ qualifies it as a situation where faith is possible. Second, a situation where faith is possible is never made by humans. Discipleship is not a human offer. The call alone creates the situation. Third, the value of the situation is never in itself. The call alone justifies it. Finally and most of all, the situation which enables faith can itself happen only in faith.^{^[1]}

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

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

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

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

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

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

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

^{^[1]} Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 61–63.

Labels

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Do you want to be made well? - Choosing to Believe the Truth - Purity 841

Monday, September 19, 2022

What do we “Get ‘er Done First?” - Purity 840

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - Biblical Finances - 09/18/2022

Saturday, September 17, 2022

MT4Christ.org New Logo Image & Subtitle

Summer Ends Sunday - Suicidal Idols - Purity 839